Coffee with KBJ Season 5

Are you enjoying cooler weather and pumpkin flavored....everything? 

We sure are....but there is one more reason why we love fall! Season 5 of Coffee with KBJ premiers tonight at 7:30 pm CST on Facebook live and Spreaker.com!!

Can't make it at 7:30??? Find us on iTunes, iheart radio, Google Play and Spotify and enjoy the motivational podcast anytime!

Listen to "Coffee with KBJ Season 5" on Spreaker.

Trust

Building a team of any capacity requires for people to trust.  There are several levels of trust that must be developed in order for the team to reach optimal success.  Here are some areas of focus on building that leaders can evaluate:

1. In order to be successful, there must be a level of trust in the leader.  People who do not believe in their leader will not execute effectively and will not invest all they have.  These are identifiable by teams who have coaches screaming to the top of their lungs and players have no emotional response.  When you see players not respond (be it good or bad) there is a lack of trust in the leader's direction.  This could be because the leader at some point contradicted themselves, could be because the player feels some level of favoritism, or it could be their own personal resistance to the leader from a personal experience they have not let go.  Either way, these indicators are a sign that the leader has got to take time to develop a relationship and a level of trust with the player.  Take them to lunch, ask them to help you with an app on your phone or take a moment to just visit with them in some down time to reach them and ask them to help you understand their hesitation.  This is the beginning of developing trust in a leader.

2. Another key area to be aware of is the level of trust in each other.  These are the most common areas of vulnerability because you have different people coming from different backgrounds, beliefs, systems, lifestyles etc. trying to figure out their role within a team.  This can especially be difficult because last year their role may have been different from what it currently is.  So transitioning to a new role can cause jealousy, friction, confusion and a lack of trust among team members.  This can be alleviated through diversity training, role definition and meetings that empower each person to own their place within the team understanding that one person is not more important than another and that each person is valuable.  Once this is understood, you can give them tools, training and encouragement to own their role and add value to the team.  This happens not just with time but with strategic personal development to the people that make up the team not only from the leaders or coaches but should also be a daily goal for each team member.  A great measuring tool to ask daily and ensure trust is being developed is for everyone to ask "How can I add value to my team?"  Instead of what can my team do for me.  This will cause the focus to shift towards the Team.

3. The last area that I want to bring to light is trust in the process.  What is your process as a manager, leader or coach?  Have you clearly defined the process from beginning to end?  Is your process comprehensive to others?  Have you taken time to break the process down into seasons or like in the business world - 4 quarters of the fiscal year.  Have you studied the trends of the different seasons that your program goes through and are you able to identify the highs and lows so that you can successfully lead your team through your process?  Have you developed steps to regain momentum when you do experience a low or is your response to blame somebody?  I can say this from experience playing on several teams, coaching several teams and also running businesses managing million dollar budgets --- if your response to failure is blaming someone else and that's it, you won't have a lot of trust in your process.  People want to know that they can be safe to make mistakes in your organization and not be ostracized because of it.  Now can you effectively correct and criticize people who make mistakes....absolutely!  Do not get it confused, you can and should always correct mistakes made, but the process that you develop as a leader must give room for mistakes and have prepared steps to recover.  For example, practicing what to do if your basketball team turns the ball over.  Have built in drills in practice that allow players to condition and prepare for mistakes so that their response is moving on to the next play and stopping the ball so the other team doesn't go on a run from one mistake.  It should be apart of your process as a coach.  When you have a realistic process that gives room not just for when we have momentum, but includes when we have lost it, players will commit to the process more because they can give it all they have and know what to do when they make a mistake.


Consider trust to be one of those intangibles that can not be as easily calculated as points on a scoreboard but can be just as critical to the success of any team.  Take a moment to evaluate your team's trust in you, each other and in the process.

We would love to hear back from you about what you think about our blog.  Leave us a review, rate us and don't forget to share this with someone you know.

Kevin & Brenita Jackson

Giving Back

We believe in giving back at KBJ Academy and we wanted to celebrate 4 years in business by honoring our supporters. We cannot say thank you enough to every person who bought a ticket to our conference or if you made a donation in the past year.  Thank you.

KBJ Academy is a consulting business founded by Kevin and Brenita Jackson in August 2014 with just a blog to offer basketball coaches insight from our experience of changing losing cultures to winning cultures.  After the blog, we began to offer individual skills training, camps, clinics and hosting various tournaments. 

As the business progressed, services expanded to offer team building retreats, business coaching and a podcast called "Coffee with KBJ" which is available on itunes, iheart radio, google play, spotify and spreaker.com.  Kevin and Brenita spend most of their time traveling to pour encouragement and motivation into each person that they cross paths with including starting a mentoring program in 2017.  This mentor program has grown since its inception and includes boys and girls ages 5 and older all over the Dallas Ft. Worth metroplex. 

TRSS Mentoring Program 2018 Members

TRSS Mentoring Program 2018 Scholarship Recipients

Check us out on Facebook for the whole album: https://www.facebook.com/KBJAcademy/

If you or someone you know would like information on our mentoring program, you can email us at trssmentor@gmail.com or visit us online at http://www.trssmentor.com/ to donate or sign up!

TEAM Building

What is a TEAM to you?  A group of individuals who come together for a common goal.

Would you consider that you are apart of a team in your family, on your job and even in your neighborhood?  It's true!  Though not in the traditional sense of how we probably limit the concept of team building to sports environments, we can use the same concepts to build stronger relationships in ALL areas of our lives.  Watch this video by KBJ Academy owners Kevin and Brenita Jackson to dive deeper into how we should look at our TEAM!

After deciding that you want to build a SUCCESSFUL team, have you had an opportunity to dive into the various areas that could affect your team?  Take some time to consider the people around you and the relationships you have.  Do they work with you or against you?

Consider your adversity and hurdles that would come your way and how would you work to grow through those challenges.  Are you surrounded by a team of people that will work with you to achieve your goals.  

How are you building your team?  

Screens

Its one of the most utilized offensive fundamentals of the game.  Whether you are playing 3 on 3 or a full on 5 on 5 real game competition, screens are a great tools that should be practiced daily.  What is  screen?

Screen - When a player uses his/her body to block a defender to get their teammate open for a shot.  One of the most historical teams of all time UCLA won 10 national championships with great offensive techniques which included spacing, ball movement, players moving with out the ball, timing and screens!  To this day, the UCLA screen is still being used throughout the country because of the tremendous success this screen opens up when used correctly.  Even as I watched the women's final four this past March I noticed great screen setting and use in order to create quality shots especially from Notre Dame.  Love watching them play, very fundamental and very high IQs.

The current trend that most teams use in today's game on the men's and women's game is the ball screen which forces the defender to have to choose how they will guard the ball.  With the ball screen, defenses may switch, hedge, trap or even go under the ball screen which is primarily based on the kind of offensive threats they are up against.  If the guard is a good shooter, then usually a hedge, trap or switch works best.  If the guard is more effective getting to the rim, then going under the screen is best to cut them off before they turn the corner.

Another factor to consider is the players setting the screen. The person setting the screen is typically the person who gets open because their man has to communicate that a screen is coming their teammate, they have to help and recover.  These factors give the screener seconds to roll, pop or even slip based on how they are being guarded.

Screens in the game of basketball are an act of selflessness.  A player who is committed to the team's success and focused on getting someone else open will always set a good screen.  This is a great motivator for players who don't see their purpose within a play - If you set a great screen, You will get open.  Its that simple.

KBJ's 4 Tips to using screens:

1. TIMING: Wait until the screen is set before you move, if you are moving at the same time as the screener that's an unforced turnover (moving screen)
2. SPACING: make sure you have adequate space to set/use the screen
3. RUB: Rub off screener shoulder to shoulder, foot to foot so the defense can not slide through
4. AWARENESS: Take what the defense gives you. Check to see if the screener's man helped over - then the screener is open, or if helpside came over, then their man is open  

Whatever level you coach, whatever style of play you coach, screening is a huge part of the offensive fundamentals that all players must develop.  I encourage you to work on setting, using and defending screens daily.  Go through various types of screens so that your players are familiar with them all: UCLA screens, ball screens, flex screens, flare screens, pin screens, down screens, back screens, cross screens and stagger screens.  Great floor spacing and solid screen setting will yield great open shots for any team.  Check out kbjacademy.com for more blogs related to this article.

Mental Toughness

I can recall as an athlete being told to have mental toughness and even coaching players saying the same thing.  What is mental toughness?

How can one have mental toughness without first being taught how to do so?

Here are a few quick tips on mental toughness that can apply to athletes, coaches, employees, managers, leaders or even children:

1. Define your Identity: Know who you are.  Know who you are capable of.  Know what your strengths are.  Know what your weaknesses are.  Write these things down and be confident in them.
2. Repetition is the pre-requisite to Confidence.  You will be confident in something you do repeatedly (even if it is the wrong thing).  I have seen players take bad shots and they are confident in those shots, because its what they have always done.  I have seen children not get their way and throw a tantrum because it has worked in the past to get there way, so they keep doing it.  So when you see these bad habits - redirect them to what is appropriate.  Then repeat this and have them repeat the correct habits.  This could take weeks, months or even a few years before you see a change.  You will know that their confidence has shifted when you no longer have to redirect, that they are self led.
3. Confidence in your own identity and gifts will be huge keys in this next one which is Cooperate with others.  Collaboration or better known as Team Work in today's world, because we cannot expect to have success in life - alone.  How can a team be successful if the people within are jealous and manipulative and trying to tear one another down.  The ability to work with others, be confident in your own identity and appreciate other's strengths - is pivotal in our life.  We must be ok with others having success.  We must also be empathetic when others have pain and do what we can to help them keep moving forward.

These three steps will position anybody for mental toughness.  Like I tell each player I have ever coached - anybody can be mentally tough during good times or when you are up by 20 points in a game.  The true test of your mental toughness will be when adversity comes and everything looks like it will fall apart.  Will you know who you are in that moment?  Will you have confidence in what you have been doing and practicing?  Will you work with others to make sure you overcome this?

Mental toughness is not developed overnight.  Nor is is practiced enough in our world today and when we experience hard times, we begin to question who we are?  Why are we even doing this?  DO NOT BECOME A VICTIM TO THIS WAY OF THINKING. 

Take intentional steps today by being transformed in your mind and renewing the way you think!

#BeBlessed

KBJ