During a recent post-season press conference, Memphis Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo made a comment that was shared widely:
“Sports is not its own island that’s separated from the human experience… it’s such a holistic endeavour.”
The question he was originally asking was about how he studied other invasion sports to gain competitive advantages. A question we presume came from an insight into his non-American background. Like most coaches though his answer lay far beyond the surface level and tactics.
Because if you strip it back, coaching is behaviour change.
Coaches helping people adjust what they do, how they think, and how they react, all in pursuit of a goal. None of what we said there used the word sport, or any sport specific lingo. Coaches aren’t just teaching sport specific skills; they are teaching human ones! If you think of it like that, then what everyday skills and activities are you doing that could be relevant to coaching?
Coaches at all levels, who want to improve both for themselves and their team, always think they can be “doing more”. Traditionally this is usually
- Watching more film
- Designing better drills
- Attending more clinics
- Consuming more content
All useful. All valid.
But missing something.
Because if you only ever look at what you know, what you understand, what you have data for and most importantly what’s already happened or happening, you start to miss the very thing you’re trying to influence: people in real environments.
The Shift: Seeing Coaching Everywhere
Once you start to think about coaching not being separate from life, your start to see it everywhere and potential development opportunities expand quickly.
Not in a hypothetical philosophical way but in a practical, observable, everyday way.
Here’s what that can look like.
- Watching how people communicate under pressure
We all have either on purpose or unconsciously caught ourselves people watching. Next time you are in an airport or a café watch:
- Who gets heard and who doesn’t
- How tone changes outcomes
- How people respond when things don’t go their way
You’ll see body language, timing, emotional regulation - all the same things that show up in a timeout or late-game possession.
- Parenting (or being around kids) as a masterclass in learning design
As the parent of a 9-year-old, I don’t think I have ever learnt more about communication or myself than when dealing with that hurricane. Whether it’s your own kids or others:
- You see how quickly attention shifts
- How motivation is fragile and situational
- How feedback lands (or doesn’t)
You start to realise that clarity, patience, and environment matter more than the “perfect drill.”
- Watching great teachers structure learning
This one isn’t to do, unless you are reading this as an U18. If you know a teacher, though consider asking them;
- How instructions are chunked
- How questions are used instead of answers
- How teachers read the room and adjust
It’s session design, just without a ball.
- Observing leaders in completely different environments
Watch a head chef during service, or a site manager on a build:
- Clear roles
- Quick decisions
- Accountability without chaos
That’s game management.
- Paying attention to how people handle setbacks
In everyday life:
- Missed trains
- Work mistakes
- Plans falling apart
You see coping strategies in real time. Some people spiral. Others reset quickly.
That’s resilience - and it’s coached long before it shows up in sport.
- Noticing how environments shape behaviour
Walk into two different spaces:
- One loud, chaotic, unclear
- One calm, structured, intentional
People behave differently immediately.
That’s not accidental. It’s design.
And it’s a reminder that as a coach, you’re not just delivering content - you’re creating environments.
You’re Always Developing
There’s something freeing about this.
If coaching is embedded in life, then development isn’t confined to:
- The 60-minute training session
- The weekend game
- The next qualification course
It’s ongoing, in the margins and easy to miss. But like all learning, it doesn’t just happen, you have to play a part.
None of this works if your default is:
- Head down
- Laptop open
- Always consuming, never observing
The skill you need to develop here is attention.
Coming back to what we wrote earlier, more content isn’t always the answer sometimes its noticing all the content happening around you.
Reflection
The next time you’re planning a session or reflecting on a game, ask yourself:
- Where have I seen this behaviour before outside of basketball?
- What worked in that environment that I can adapt here?
- What am I missing because I’m only looking inside the sport?
Because the tactical edge, the connection piece, the breakthrough moment
It might not come from a drill you have already done but reinforced or tweaked slightly.
It might come from something you saw on the way to training.
One of the most important lines for a coach to remember is you aren’t coaching athletes you are coaching people and therefore coaching isn’t separate from the human experience. It’s a practical advantage if you’re ready to use it.
