What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Coach Ray Lokar shares stories and discusses his journey to becoming a successful youth sports coach.
Ray Lokar is the Director of Basketball4ALL (basketball4ALL.net), which provides a variety of lessons, camps, clinics, competitions, and events for the benefit of the Southern California basketball community. Coach Lokar was the Head Basketball Coach of the 2002 CIF Champions while at Bishop Amat High School led St Anthony High School to the semi-finals, Western Christian High School to the quarterfinals, made 4 NCAA tournament appearances in his 9 years as an assistant coach at Pomona-Pitzer College and is a Past-President of the Southern California Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association.

Always an advocate for the multi-sport athlete, "Coach Lok" coaches baseball at Covina High School and has two DVD series titled  “The Fundamentals Factory” and "Effective Practice Planning" for both basketball and baseball that are available at ChampionshipProductions.com. Ray’s book “101 BasketballTips”, published by Lifetips as part of their Lifetips Book Series,  is available at Amazon.com and his eBook titled "Creating Confident and Coachable Players" can be found on his website, basketball4ALL.net, where you can also book his sport-specific "Gold Standard Coaching" clinics. Lokar also serves as the Southern California Lead Trainer for the nationally renowned Positive Coaching Alliance (positivecoach.org) that provides tremendous resources for everyone in youth and high school sports. He has spoken for hundreds of organizations in over a dozen States on ethics in sports,  peak performance, getting the most out of your players, and being a good Sports Parent.

For over 30 years Coach "Lok" has taught basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, football, swimming and track in the San Gabriel Valley at the youth, high school, and college levels and has worked countless camps and clinics during that time for ages 8-18. He coached his children Shawn, Heather, and Brittany throughout their participation in youth and high school sports and they each went on to compete at the college level. Ray enjoyed it so much he is doing it all again  with his young son, Tyler, who he hopes learns all the same life lessons as his older brothers and sisters.

Website: basketball4ALL.net

Twitter: @CoachLok
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Coaching/Leadership Quote

'When you take the time to teach your boys, there's an implied confidence, that you believe they can achieve, and that's praise in itself'' - Coach John Wooden

Coaching Your Own Kids

Remember often kids like things their team's name being the RoboSox as much as the wins/losses
Before volunteering to coach - make sure to ask your kid if they want you to be their coach
Err on the side of being a little tougher on your own kid- but communicate continually with your child, explaining to him why you are doing what you're doing

My Cringe & ‘Ah-Ha’ Moments

Early on - Coach Lok would start his coaching points being critical - after listening to a Coach Wooden observation, he started focusing on spending more time praising little successes and less time being critical
Coach each game possession by possession

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

Kids respond to recognition and rewards (think about kids in a classroom who will do anything for a sticker)

HUGE IDEA #1

Your results will come from what you measure, recognize, and reward

Mental Peak Performance
HUGE IDEA #2

WIN - Whats Important Now - In high pressure situations - have the kids focus on ONE thing that is important(i.e. hold your follow through) - don't tell them more than one thing or their head will be swimming with too many concerns

Coaching Resources

Basketball4ALL.net - Great basketball resource
Positive Coaching Alliance - Just launched the Development Zone...