Coaches strive to understand their athletes. They aim to understand how they learn and how they think in order to motivate and mold them into the athletes they want them to become. While coaches often act with the athlete’s best interest in mind by training and conditioning them physically for competition, coaches often miss crucial pieces of an athlete’s psychological experience. The psychological needs of an athlete can stem from performance situations, such as motivation or difficulty focusing during competition, or clinical situations, such as anxiety or depression.

Understanding and talking about the athlete’s psychological needs might help coaches understand what truly motivates each athlete and how they can better overcome the non-physical challenges they face throughout a season. No matter the number of hours spent training and conditioning, pre-competition anxiety can overwhelm even the most talented athlete. An athlete can diligently practice a new play, but the presence of an opponent or the pressure of the game may alter their ability to execute what they have practiced. Pressure situations can crack even the most prepared athletes who struggle with performance anxiety. By implementing psychological training components (i.e. sport psychology) coaches can assist athletes and teams in their quest to get better.

Why Sport Psychology Works
Sport psychology is the connection between the mind and the body and how the mind and body impact performance. Think of a race car. No matter how fast or powerful the car is, if the driver does not have the knowledge and control to operate the vehicle, the specifically built race car is no better than any other vehicle. Through the use of sport psychology concepts, the coach can aim to train athletes’ minds to effectively run their “race car,” through pressure and regular performances. Sport psychology concepts include topics like goal setting and self-talk to more complex theories of imagery and relaxation. Using these different sport psychology concepts, coaches can help athletes gain awareness of how their mind and body react during practice and competition, to better optimize performance. Having this awareness allows athletes and coaches to practice overcoming the innate internal obstacles that arise while they aim to achieve peak performance.

(This four-part article describes the legacy of the Snow Valley Basketball School on coach development and the game of basketball)

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Herb Livsey has a lot to be proud of when it comes to Snow Valley.  Herb was responsible for establishing a tradition of teaching excellence at the basketball school: A way of teaching that would forever change the way basketball is taught. “We would not go against the basic fundamentals.  You would never hear that at Snow Valley we taught something outlandish or different,” said Livsey. “We would teach fundamental basketball.  The skills have never changed. To this day, you still have to be able to pass, dribble, shoot, defend, understand team defense and rebound the ball.”

Herb Livsey (yellow shirt).  Photo credit: Steve Middleton

(This four-part article describes the legacy of the Snow Valley Basketball School on coach development and the game of basketball)

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In a hurry, Herb Livsey drove towards Rancho Santa Fe, California. The opportunity to secure a well-known teacher of basketball within his grasp. Pete Newell’s grandson had just enrolled in the Snow Valley Basketball School.  Enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Coach Newell is one of only three coaches to win the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), a NCAA championship, and an Olympic Gold Medal (The Naismith Memorial…, 2018).  In 1987, The Atlanta Tip Off club awarded him the Naismith Outstanding Contributor to Men’s Basketball Award (Citizen Naismith Trophy, 2018).

Livsey had known Coach Newell for a number of years. “One of my goals was to get Pete Newell to come and teach defense at Snow Valley,” recalls Livsey,  “… because he (Newell) is a defensive guru.” Livsey seized the moment. He arrived at Pete Newell’s house and recalls the following exchange.

(This four-part article describes the legacy of the Snow Valley Basketball School on coach development and the game of basketball)

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If the Coach is Learning the Athletes are Improving
Charlie Sands fled to a corner of the gym, trapped as the pressure of over 300 young athletes pushed against him.  The hall of fame coach from West Los Angeles College had ignited the group during a final warm-up session.  His spirited approach was creating a frenzied atmosphere.  A fitness fanatic, Coach Sands became a legend at Snow Valley for his ability to motivate and inspire young people to come together as a group. This particular warm-up session was an accumulation of all the activities he’d led during the past week.

(This four-part article describes the legacy of the Snow Valley Basketball School on coach development and the game of basketball)

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A Passion for Teaching Fundamentals
Herb Livsey still operates in the shadows of basketball legends, canvassing the globe for basketball talent.  For 21 years, Livsey has served as a scout in the National Basketball Association (NBA), a role often filled by the keenest of basketball lifers and hidden from the fast-paced, social media driven limelight of NBA culture.  But, out of the public eye the 83-year old basketball savant has been shining a fatherly glow on the game of basketball and basketball coaches for more than 60 years.

As director of the famed Snow Valley Basketball School in California from 1961 to 2001, Coach Livsey advanced the basketball skills of thousands of young people in the United States and overseas.  He connected with and nurtured the talents of hundreds of basketball coaches.  Livsey’s contributions changed how the game of basketball is taught, perhaps making him the greatest developer of coaches in the history of the sport.