PART XXV - The Secret of Longevity - Candles.

How many years of coaching do I have left? Ten, fifteen... if I am lucky twenty years? I've been coaching high school basketball for thirty years and club basketball for twenty-eight. It really doesn't seem like it, but time has flown by.

These days I have made it a point to place more of an emphasis on sharing as much knowledge and experience as I can with anyone I cross paths with in the basketball world. I feel like I have a responsibility to do so.

I treat at everyone in my basketball world like they are a candle.

I feel like the drama, the silliness, the chaos that surrounds sports at all levels is waste of time, a waste of energy and a waste of talent. It takes a lot to bring or create negative energy and it, in my opinion, is not a great use of growing the game.

I had so many people help me out from the time I was young kid playing ball. I was placed in leadership positions early on and I look at those moments as my coaches back then sharing their "light" from their candles to mine in a hope that maybe I could someday share that same "light" with others.

I think as a coach we can either create an atmosphere full of light, of hope, of inspiration, of discipline, of goal-setting, of positivity or you can create an environment of discord, of jealousy, of back-biting, of disrespect.

NONE OF US ARE GOING TO COACH FOREVER... USE THE TIME YOU HAVE WISELY.

I go back to the opening question of this article... how many years do I have left? It is something that I clearly understand. The amount of time left to share with others on a personal or a coaching basis, whether I like it or not, is on the back end. Why not try to give as much as I can to as many as I can while I can.

I hear it every single day... I don't know how you keep everything you do together. My answer is "It's what I do". I don't see how lawyers do what they do, how doctors do what they do or construction folks do what they do, but the great ones do it and do it well.

I do as much as I can because I really do love working with young people and I love coaching basketball. When you look at things that way, it isn't work, it never is; I look at every single day as a privilege to work with parent's kids. Being a dad, I understand the importance of the folks teaching my child. I hope that parents feel the same about me.

Thus... the candles.

My Upbringing

Every single Christmas Eve, minus the COVID year, my family would attend Lovefeast Service at our church.

Near the end, we all receive a candle and the pastor would ask us to raise the candle to brighten the sanctuary. The pastor would then ask us to share that light with others in a dark world.

I take that to heart.

I, again, have the privilege every day to share that light through coaching basketball. Whether that is through high school, through club ball, through camps, through individual or group skills, or through associations across the country. It is an opportunity that I don't take for granted. Maybe it is just a smile, maybe it is just equipping someone with some small amount of knowledge, or maybe it is just motivating someone to be better than they ever thought they could be.

Win, lose, or draw... there is an opportunity to share that light from your candle.

I can't let that opportunity pass.

Advice To Younger Coaches

My advice to every young coach that asks is to not waste time on non-sense. Speaking down on another person or another person's career or business will cause you not to be successful in what you are trying to accomplish. If there is always drama around you, you have to look at what you are doing in the mirror. No one, no matter how successful a season or two or three you may have, likes being around that all the time. Yes, you have a couple of good years, you may win some awards and you may get some praise, but when you try to reach the top by trying to extinguish someone else's candle, you'll end up being burned by the same candle you tried to put out.

I've seen it so many times to so many coaches. Some listen and stop themselves before they hit the bottom while others won't and don't and find themselves with no one to talk to, no one to help and in a bitter state.

I am careful with my candles. Some who I extend a candle turn around and try to burn me. It has more times than I can count, but as time goes on the wiser you get. Yet, it doesn't stop me from sharing the light. I just watch from afar, from a distance, to see how those in my and around my world use their light.

Thus, when people say "Brian doesn't talk to anyone". No, those who know me know that I talk. Some say I am sometimes kind of funny. It just that I have so many candles around me, I have to keep an eye on them all. You can't watch if you are constantly talking.

If I coached or coach you, I hope that I shared some light with you that you can share with others. If you are of have been in my life in some way, shape or fashion that hope is the same.

As a coach, you can't save them all. You can, however, share with them all. It is up to them to accept it or not, but you extended the candle and offered your light.

I hope that my coaches look at me with a smile and say "I am glad I / we shared our light with him".

Coaches - understand that you have the opportunity to share your light every single day.

Yours for Better Basketball Always,

Brian / Coach Robinson