I guarantee you know what takes the performance of your best player off the tracks.
Usually, you can see it a mile away. I know there are times I can predict it. A blown wide-open layup, leading to a quick foul, followed by an argument with the referee. When I come across an athlete who has a pattern that sabotages them, I ask a simple question.
"Why? Why does blowing a wide-open layup set you off?"
I get a meaningless stock answer. "I want to win," for example. At that point, I press the athlete to look deeper and ask why again. Eventually, if I push them to reflect more deeply, we will hit the why. Maybe it is about the investment of time in their craft or embarrassment of blowing an easy shot. But they need to recognize the pattern.
Because once they recognize why it derails them, it loses its power.
Players aren't the only ones who allow events, people or results to take them off the rails. There is often one moment when it shows up in a game: you stop coaching and start reacting.
Different coaches, different triggers. But every coach I have ever worked with has one. The specific thing that pulls them out of their best coaching version, every single time.
Some know what it is.
Most don’t.
What a derailer actually is
A derailer is a repeatable pattern, not a weakness. The most common ones I see:
The ref making the same bad call twice. The 10-0 run in the third quarter. A specific player’s body language when things are going south. A parent whose negative reaction you see in the crowd. A specific opposing coach whose game plan or behaviour always frustrates you. Your own pre-game anxiety that leaks into the first media timeout.
What makes it a derailer is not the event itself. It's the pattern of response. The event triggers the shift. Your coaching changes for the next ninety seconds, or the next quarter, or the rest of the game.
What Steve Kerr figured out
Steve Kerr’s coaching identity is built on preparation and basketball IQ. That is his strength. Hours of film, meticulous game plans, strategic adjustments at every timeout. He is one of the most prepared head coaches in the NBA.
So what derails him? The one in-game force that can instantly invalidate hours of preparation. The refs. Steve Kerr has been ejected multiple times over his interactions with refs in his Warriors tenure.
Kerr is normally even-tempered, but he has certainly lost his way from time to time. Early in his career, bad calls led to conflicts and ongoing battles with officials that would often escalate. Several of his clipboards met an untimely end in these situations, including a famous incident during game one of the 2016 NBA Finals.
He has also openly discussed how meditation, mindfulness, and mental skills work have allowed him to stay steady under pressure. Three championships as a head coach suggest he has done that work well, most of the time. He is certainly much more relaxed on the sidelines than he used to be.
The derailer almost always attacks the strength
I have noticed this across almost every coach I work with. The derailer is not random. It almost always attacks what you have built your coaching identity on.
The preparation-first coach is derailed by refs who make preparation irrelevant.
The coach who champions culture is derailed by the selfish star who refuses to buy in.
The relationship-builder is derailed by the athlete who betrays trust.
A coach who preaches high standards gets derailed by a player who does not care.
Which means identifying your derailer is easier than you think. You do not have to introspect for hours. You just have to work backward from your strength. What is the thing that most offends it? That is where your derailer lives.
My derailer
I have written about my derailer in previous issues of this newsletter. It hasn't changed. Referees derail me. But not for the normal reasons. I ref myself. (Side note: run the other way if you see me getting ready to ref one of your games. I am not good at all.) So I know that refs make mistakes, miss calls, and get emotional. They are human. Reffing basketball is really hard.
What sets me off is when officials disrespect my players. I don't love it when they treat me poorly, but I am an adult; I can handle it. But it really sets me off when they treat my players disrespectfully. They expect the players to treat them with respect. To me, it must be a two-way street. Most of the technicals I have earned come from situations like this. And when it happens, I struggle to focus on what my team needs next.
It was becoming a problem. Why was it so triggering for me? So here are the three questions I used to help me unpack why refs took me off the track.
The three questions worth sitting with this week
- What is a specific in-game moment in the last two seasons where you KNOW you stopped coaching and started reacting? Not “a tough stretch.” The exact moment.
- What was happening? Not “we were down.” What SPECIFICALLY: a call, a player, a coach across the floor, a decision, a crowd? Name it in one sentence.
- Explore WHY it happens. What is it about this that sets you off? Don't settle for the easy answer; dig past the surface answer.
In the end, I realized that when the refs treated my athletes disrespectfully, it violated one of the core principles of my coaching philosophy. I hold my players to a high standard on respecting everyone they come into contact with.
Once I realized why it had power over me, I could come up with a plan to handle it. Whenever my assistant saw me getting into this type of situation, he would physically get between the ref and me. Then he reminded me what needed my attention next. At which point I would take a deep breath. It worked and helped me be my best more often.
Then Build A System to Keep You On the Rails
Knowing your derailer is the first step. A big chunk of the work, but the important part is understanding why. Then the remaining challenge is to build a specific system around it. An assistant with permission to intervene. A breath you can execute on the sideline without anyone noticing. A sentence you say to yourself when you feel it starting.
Trying harder in the moment will not keep you on the rails; a well-thought-out plan will.
You will coach your way out by naming it, planning for it, and letting someone else support you as you work on it.
Which starts with naming it.
What is yours?
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P.S. — I'll collate the data and share it with you. Knowing other coaches wrestle with the same challenges is often the first step to working on your own. If this piece resonated, forward it to a coach who can benefit from examining their derailer.
A Great Podcast Episode
This 2019 Finding Mastery features Dr. Gervais sitting down with Warriors Coach Steve Kerr. He discussed some of the challenges that take him off the rails. He also discusses how he channels joy to help combat it. It is a great listen.
Are you or your athletes struggling to be their best?
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