What are coaches first impressions of me?
It’s strange, all through my basketball career I have had to deal with coaches having poor first impressions of me. Is it my height? I’m not the only 5’9″ basketball player around? Is it because I ethnically look like I shouldn’t be playing basketball? I am of Sri Lankan decent but I have been told I look Arab. Is race an issue? I though basketball was multicultural? Do I not dress the part? To tryouts I always wear basketball gear. So what’s the deal?
To be honest after close to 19 years of basketball (domestic, rep and semi pro) I can’t figure it out. It’s really bizzar. I have asked my friends and trainers to shed some light but they all tell me that as soon as they saw me they knew I was an athlete, but wasn’t sure about the sport. When I’m in Europe everyone seems to think I am a rugby player.
Most recent coaches first impressions
What has prompted me to write this article is due to what happened when I attended a training session a couple of days ago for a London Metro League 1 team.
When I came into the sports hall I immediately introduced myself to the players on the side and asked them to identify the coach. He was a player coach on the court already playing some pick up ball. When his game finished I walked over and introduced myself to him.
After catching his breath he proceeded to talk to me, all the time giving me the elevator. You know what the elevator is right? When someone looks at you from top to bottom and back up again. Like an elevator going up and down. This is a common thing with women at the door of a night club. They will give you the elevator to see if you are meeting the dress code.
After a few concerned looks at my shoes I then comforted him by saying “oh coach don’t worry these are my walking shoes. My basketball shoes are in the bag” (I was wearing canvas low cut shoes) a look of relief was replaced on his face and I went to my bag to change.
In this situation I can see that it is easy to assume that I wasn’t dressed appropriately for a basketball training session. So the coaches impressions of me was justified. But then I got the feeling that the rest of the basket ball players didn’t feel that I was good enough to play with them.
The training session begins, time to break bad coaches first impressions
Here in UK, from my experience summer training sessions are usually scratch matches. 5 on 5 games for 2 hours is not an uncommon thing. So soon as the game began I made sure I marked the best guard on the opposing team. What better way to break down any poor first impressions by locking up on of the teams best payers.
Even though I only landed 3 days prior my skills were fairly sharp and I was able to create my shot and make it at a high percent. Instantly when the players and coach saw that I had some skills the ball started to come my way more and by that I guess I was welcomed into their inner circle.
It’s funny, soon as coaches and players see that you are a legit basketball player it is so much easier to talk to them. At the beginning all the players didn’t really want to converse much but by the end of the session I was getting high 5’s and even had the coach tell me what a great job I did and it would be great if I attended next weeks session.
My tryout training session with Guildford Heat
Even though this happened in 2009 I remember like it was yesterday. To me this session was one of the highlights in my basketball life.
In 2009 I was travelling Europe for the first time. I took a massive 9 months off after resigning from my job. After a month and a half of travel and staying in London for two weeks I had enough. I hated UK, I wanted to go home. Because I was feeling so home sick I decided to try out for a basketball team. I saw that Guildford at the time was the closest team in the British Basketball League so I decided to try out and see where it takes me.
I found out the tryout times and made my way to Guildford from London. Once I got to the venue I walked over to the coaching staff and introduced myself and declared my interest in trying out for the team. I was once again in my basketball career struck with the negative coaches impressions. The head coach said “You know this is training for the national league team?” My response was “Yes, that’s why I came. I think I should be ok training with the guys”. Proudly I can tell you that I was good enough to train with the team. So much so I was taken aside in the first 15 minutes by the coaching staff for a chat.
It was a pretty good training session for me because by the time I got to London and checked my email and to my surprise there was an email from the Guildford Heat team manager that I had made the team.
Even though I have had so many bad first impressions in my basketball career I actually enjoy the challenge of proving the people whom harbour these views wrong. Having had to work really hard in the early days and getting treated like crap really has made me into a more resilient basketball player.
I guess coaches impressions can go two ways. They can either let you train with the team and give you a chance to prove yourself or they can blatantly say NO. I am very lucky in my career to have had a few coaches with open minds that have allowed me to prove them wrong.
It is unfortunate in the great game of basketball there are coaches with poor attitudes. I mean the ones that pre judge and say no. That’s always going to be the case! But I really respect those coaches with the absolute passions for the game that give people a chance and in some cases go the extra mile.
Here’s to the coaches that do this for the love of the game! Much respect to you all.
What have your experiences been with coaches when you were trying out? Any horror stories you’d like to share? Please use the comments section below.
