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At one of the first-ever Coaches clinics I attended (a PGC clinic, I believe), I got to see Mike Neighbors, current LA Sparks Assistant and then Head Women’s Basketball Coach at the University of Washington, speak. Coach Neighbors was a hero-coach of mine. I loved his approach to teaching, philosophy, emphasis on shooting, and his general skepticism toward “conventional coaching.”

The title of his talk was “25 Signs You Might Suck as a Coach”.

He prefaced it by saying, “I have done all of these.”

I saw the version with 25, but by the time he refined his talk, it had grown to 40!

I loved it. It was part comedy special, part extremely insightful commentary on conventional basketball thinking. He made you think and question things that had become so common in coaching basketball that no one really questioned them.

One of the 25 signs:

“…if you’ve ever put Defense Wins Championships on a T-Shirt.”

Neighbors was only half-serious. Obviously, defense is important. But his point was to say that we should question whether or not that’s actually true, rather than just accept it blindly because other people do. He showed stats of the last few NBA Championship winners, and NCAA Champs on both Men’s and Women’s side, all of which had been one of the best offensive teams in their respective leagues.

Why that stands out to me specifically is because there was a young coach, maybe 2-3 years older than me at the time, who just stewed the entire time. His face got redder and redder. He eventually mumbled to me (because it seemed he just couldn’t keep it in), “But defense DOES win championships! Right?”

I just stared at him, amazed that this guy looked like he was ready to fight someone. He couldn’t stand it. He stood up and walked out.

When he walked out, I looked around and noticed that there were 3-4 others doing the same thing.

Neighbors meant what he said, but he was really using the headline as a provocative way to talk about something more important. That you should build your team's identity around the type of player you want to recruit. That both sides of the ball matter a lot, not to mention that it’s seemingly easier to recruit kids to play a more offensive style. He wasn’t saying you were wrong for doing it.

He was making the point that doing that might blind you to other truths of coaching that might be just as true!

Putting “Defense Wins Championships” on a shirt doesn’t mean you suck as a coach. But, it might!

Last week, we ran an activity with the golfers at Georgia called:

“18 Signs You Might Suck as a Golfer.”

It was lighthearted.
It was honest.
And it worked because everyone in the room recognized themselves in at least a few of them.

Things like:

Some were obvious, a few were more subtle. The value wasn’t in the point that was made, but in the discussion amongst these elite golfers that ensued.

Athletes can laugh at that kind of feedback because they’re used to being coached.
This activity also worked because it gave them signs to look for in the golfers they were competing against that would give them an advantage.

Coaches, on the other hand?
We tend to be a little less comfortable with mirrors.

But, if we could take the same idea and apply it to coaches, what would those things be? What would our version of the Mike Neighbors coaching clinic be?

This isn’t about being a bad coach.
It’s about patterns that quietly limit good ones.

Every coach we know, including the best, has flirted with some version of these. The difference is whether you notice them early… or let them calcify into habits.

With that in mind, here are five signs worth paying attention to.

1. If you blame “this generation” more than you examine your habits and your leadership.

There are real generational patterns and tendencies. No one would argue that. But we can complain about them, or we can get better as coaches to coach our kids.

It’s like Mike Tomlin’s quote about how he loves hearing coaches complain about players. He sees it as an opportunity where he can gain an advantage.

2. If you’ve ever had an emotional outburst at a player about body language or attitude.

Does body language matter? Yes.
Does attitude matter? Yes.

But using emotion, intensity, and a lack of good body language or attitude yourself while holding a player accountable is the fastest way to lose influence.

The way you get players to live a standard is for you to live it first, not yell about it.

3. If you’ve ever put a new team motto on a shirt each season.

(We know lots of coaches do this and are incredible coaches).
But, you have to ask yourself. If the phrase changes every year, it probably wasn’t a value.

Culture isn’t seasonal branding.
It’s repeated behavior.

If the language shifts every August, your players eventually learn not to take any of it too seriously, and that MIGHT be hurting your ability to build the longstanding culture you want to.

4. If you’ve ever said, “We just don’t have enough leadership in this locker room.”

Two issues with this that might indicate you are hurting yourself as a coach. There’s an assumption that leadership should just happen instead of being developed every day.

And second, that’s usually a system problem, not a player problem.

Leadership doesn’t emerge from hope. It emerges from clarity, modeling, and repetition.

If no one is leading, the culture hasn’t taught them how. And you are the culture.

Players don’t magically become leaders.
They grow inside environments that show them how.

5. If you’ve ever talked about “culture” more than you’ve scheduled time to build it…

Culture isn’t a theme. It’s a calendar item.

If it’s not built into daily rhythms, it’s just vocabulary.

None of these means a coach is failing. But they can be small signs on the surface that reveal issues in your leadership. They mean you’re human.

The real danger isn’t showing up in one or two of these. It’s refusing to look because the title says “coach.”

Athletes improve because feedback is normal.
Coaches improve when reflection becomes normal, too.

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