Jon Owens is dedicated to helping youth find the joy in playing and learning about basketball.

I suggest that all coaches (especially youth coaches) incorporate “life lessons” into their basketball practices.

Ironically, the “life lesson” I’d like to share with you today also helps improve team bonding! So it’s a win – win for everyone involved.

Before getting into the specifics, I’d first like to explain what we mean by “life lessons” and why you should use them in your practices…

I believe it’s important to consciously teach “life lessons” because not only will this help you win more games — but more importantly this sets a good example for your players and helps them develop into happy and successful people.

Whether you realize it or not, basketball coaches have a HUGE influence on their players. You have an opportunity to have a very positive impact on something much bigger and more important than basketball.

By teaching these “life lessons” you also improve your basketball team and win more games. But that’s not the intent. The intent is just to do the “right thing” as a basketball coach. Winning is simply a pleasant by-product of doing the “right thing”.