Discipline is Doing

What has to be done. Doing it as well as it can be done.

Doing it that way every time. (Bob Knight)

Ok. If you're going to wear these shorts, get off the floor!

Discipline is not, or at least should not be, about punishment. It should be about correction. It is not about what you are doing to the individual but about what you are doing for the individual.

I was never big on having a list of rules. I adopted something I heard years ago from Coach K. Our rule was any conduct that is detrimental to you is detrimental to the team and will be addressed. For example, if the locker room wasn't being kept clean. The whole team might be held accountable in some way. If a player was late to practice and did not have a good reason for it, the whole team might run sprints. We wanted the offending player to know he was letting his team mates down. Fortunately, we seldom had to suspend a player. I would rather keep them (the suspended player) after practice and run them or run them through some drills rather than deny them playing time that might hurt the team. There is a problem with having too many rules. Those rules can result in you being forced to discipline a player in such a way that it ends up hurting the team!

I liked have one fairly broad rule to go by because I was not "painting" myself into a corner. I believe it was John Wooden who said he did not believe in treating everyone the same because the players are all different. I would much rather make a player get up early and workout by themself rather than suspend them and take the chance of disrupting the entire team.

Now one of my exceptions to this rule, was when a player was assessed a technical foul. Almost always, that player was removed and did not return to the floor during that game. If we lost the game because of that player's absence, it was a great learning experience. Teachable moments are abundant when dealing with discipline issues. I believe a key point to remember is player's tend to be more willing to accept discipline from you if they know you are upset with their actions/behavior and not with them personally. I tried to NEVER embarrass an individual player in public. I did once in a while "get on" an individual in our locker room in front of the team if I felt it was important and others might benefit from it .... but it was rare. If there was an issue, such as a player getting a technical foul, I might not say anything to the player who received the technical until the next day. I found, in some cases, the offending player was more concerned by my silence than they would have been had I read them the riot act. Waiting seemed to be more impactful. Some of your players are used to being yelled at when they screw up and they will emotionally shut down if you become too emotional with them. You want to correct the behavior and yet hold them accountable for their actions. Try to convey the message to the offender that you CARE too much about them to allow them to act in an undisciplined manner. Try to keep your anger out of the interaction with your player. In my opinion, one of the worst things you can do when disciplining a player is to embarrass them in front of others. I have found players react far better to discipline if they know you are disappointed with their actions rather than you are angry with them personally.

If a player was late to practice, I might take the whole team and run them. If a player failed to block out, we might line the whole team up and have them do sprints. We liked to, whenever possible, make the point that when an individual "screwed up" he was hurting the team. We wanted to promote a team concept over a me concept.

I heard a rather unique approach to discipline that a coach used. If a player on the team was late for practice, the offending player was given a cold soft drink and sat in a chair and watched while the rest of the squad ran

because of his tardiness. The theory is the offending player would hopefully realize his behavior was selfish and he did not want his team mates to be disciplined because of his behavior. I also think the coach knew the offending player's team mates would communicate very clearly to the offending player that they did NOT appreciate being disciplined because of

his irresponsibility. I must confess. I never used this approach. I guess I was

afraid the offending player would not take the actions in the way I desired

he would.

It's a simple concept (disciplining) but not easy to apply. Discipline should be about correction and instruction and not about punishing.