8 Coaching Principles That Cross Every Border

Insights from Coach John Farwell at Athletes in Action's monthly International Coaches Connect

This summer, John Farwell traveled to Cameroon to run a two-day coaching clinic and train alongside several local teams. On a court shared by 18-year-olds and four-year-olds, with limited balls and hoops, the same themes surfaced that John has seen across 30 years of coaching in the United States, New Zealand, and the Middle East.

What follows are the principles John believes every coach, in every culture, should consider when developing their coaching philosophy.

1) What is Your Player’s Why?

Often in coaching it is discussed to know your why. But do you know your players why?

The answer changes from country to country. In America, basketball can lead to a scholarship, notoriety, even fortune at the highest level. In many places around the world there is no such on-ramp. Players there compete simply because they love the game.

In New Zealand, basketball ranks around sixth behind rugby, cricket, and netball. John's professional players practiced three times a week and earned little. When he asked why they sacrificed to play, the answer was unanimous: they wanted to make the national team. So he framed everything around that goal. "I need you to rebound, because it will help you make your national team, and it helps us too."

Knowing the why doesn't lower the standard of excellence. It puts effort in perspective, and it guards against a danger common in places like the U.S., where sport quickly becomes a business. You don't want to lose sight of the fact that we're playing a game.

2) Coaching Is Relational

At the end of the day, your success as a coach is really going to depend on your relational capacity with your players. How well do you connect? How much do they trust you, and how much do you trust them?

Players are not chess pieces a coach moves around a board. One of John's former players went on to win a national championship. His earlier teams were talented but fell short. What changed was how connected the team was to each other and to him as head coach.

Cultures view authority differently, and coaching young children differs from coaching adults. But the principle holds: build emotional safety. When players feel safe, they want to come, they bring their full selves, and they feel free to ask questions and to fail.

3) Culture Is Created by What You Celebrate

Whatever a coach celebrates becomes the culture. In Cameroon, John urged coaches to celebrate something unexpected: mistakes.

If players aren't making mistakes in practice, they probably aren't pushing their speed, agility, or effort. John wants mistakes made at full speed, because that is how the game is played. Think of the young player who misses a breakaway layup because he is moving faster than he ever has. Practice should be harder than the game so the game feels easier.

John told his professional players they weren't playing for him. Instead, they should imagine five NBA general managers watching every practice. That year, two G League scouts actually showed up. The players went harder than ever, and practice went horribly. They hadn't trained at that speed and intensity, so they weren't ready for it.

The Cameroonian players smiled at first when John high-fived a genuine, full-effort mistake. It felt strange. But once mistakes stopped being the enemy, the mood of practice rose and verbal encouragement grew.

One drill made it concrete: the whole team must make a set number of full-speed layups in a row. Say ten players are going and someone misses number nine. Do you blame him or encourage him? The result is already in the books either way. What matters is how you frame it moving forward.

4) Every Player Counts

John was the 12th man on his high school team. Yet without him at practice, the team often couldn't run five-on-five. Every player has a role and real value.

The goal is to help the weakest player become the best version of themselves, measured against themselves, not others. The same goes for the best player, who shouldn't settle for simply outshining teammates. "Comparison is really dangerous," John said. You can always find people less talented to make yourself feel better, but that won't help you grow.

This matters most where basketball carries no money, prestige, or tangible reward. There, a coach's job is to create an environment people want to be part of.

5) The Coach Is the Thermostat

Vince Lombardi, famous in NFL football, also coached high school basketball. Before practice he lined players up on the baseline and shook each one's hand as they promised to bring their best that day.

It's old school, but the point stands: the coach sets the temperature. You decide what energy, attitude, and effort you will accept.

John uses "pressure drills" where players keep count and meet clear expectations. If they can't line up correctly or keep count, they won't execute a complicated play. "If they can't do the simple things, they're not gonna do the more complicated things."

The standard is each player's best, and best varies. A top player's full speed differs from the weakest player's. John judges each accordingly, so he doesn't punish the weakest or let the best coast.

In Cameroon, one team needed 30 to 45 minutes to complete a drill. John didn't move on. Once players realized he wasn't changing, they buckled down and visibly improved. It becomes a battle of wills, and coaches must fight their own boredom too. When you understand the payoff, the standard sets itself organically. Later, how a team handles these drills tells you where their heads are that day.

6) Discipline Without Anger

How do you balance discipline and encouragement? Many of us learned that discipline requires anger. 

Discipline, in John's view, is simply reinforcing a clear standard that players chose not to meet. "The standard's a standard."

In one place John coached players were often not on time but the team had the gym for exactly two hours. So on time meant on the court, stretched, shoes on, ready to go. If someone wasn't ready, the whole team ran until they were. He did adjust for one player who lived outside town and worked full time. Standards should cover what players can control.

Playing time followed two simple rules: be unselfish and play hard. Selfish play or not getting back on defense meant coming out. That isn't punishment; it's accountability to known standards.

7) Take Your Daily Vitamins

"Daily vitamins" is a phrase from Gregg Popovich's San Antonio Spurs. It describes roughly ten minutes of layered ball-handling work, including two-ball and tennis-ball drills, that every player does before practice. John first saw it at Virginia, whose players did the same.

John's own daily vitamins:

• Footwork. Jump stops, V-cuts, and cuts the length of the court. "Everything starts from your feet up, I don't care what sport you're playing."

• Passing and catching. "If you can't pass and catch, you can't play the game." A player who can't catch can't dribble or shoot. Some of John's pro players in the Middle East lacked the strength to throw a straight pass to half court or beyond, so they worked on it.

When a recruit in New Zealand scoffed at the pro team doing jump-stop and V-cut drills, John was glad to let him go elsewhere. The Chicago Bulls ran the same basics with Michael Jordan. Professionals don't do different drills; they do the same ones faster and right 99% of the time.

Coaches get bored with fundamentals faster than players do. Fight that, and ask like a parent: what do my players need right now? Keep it fresh by training one skill through five or six different drills.

8) Maximize What You Have

Before practice, take stock of balls, hoops, courts, and space. Then build stations, such as shooting at two hoops and ball handling in open space, so no one stands around watching. "Your practice time is too valuable."

In Cameroon, one court held 18-year-olds and a child who looked about four. John called it "a prayerful moment." The answer was building-block drills that don't depend on age: full-court jump stops, jump cuts, and V-cuts.

John knows he is succeeding when he's delayed by a meeting and his players start practice without him. They know the norms and what to do.

A Lifelong Learner With a Changed Heart

Asked how he learned all this, John pointed to a great college coach and a habit of lifelong learning. He started at 18 as a manager at Purdue and became an assistant coach at 22. With Athletes in Action, long flights and downtime let him learn from players who had played for outstanding coaches across the U.S. 

But John was clear: "Nothing really changed in my coaching until I changed my heart." As a young coach, he coached for his own recognition. Players' mistakes felt like obstacles to his goal of feeling good about himself. "That made me a horrible coach."

Things shifted when he recognized his misplaced priorities and came to understand who Jesus is in his life. His relationships with players changed, basketball became more enjoyable, and he became far more teachable.

John encouraged coaches to be gentle with themselves. Everyone makes mistakes, often without realizing it until later. Give yourself and your players grace for where they are. Stay humble and curious about the game, about people, and about how to teach. That attitude will bless many players.