The holiday is over and now it's back to business for my team, Baltimore Blast.

It's been three weeks since our last game against Rockford Rampage and now we will be facing them again at their own venue.

The last game we played against them was good for us. We won but also got a chance to watch their style of play and evaluate their new players

Our game is on Saturday, which means we are travelling on Friday and will be back in Baltimore on Sunday.

We would be travelling with a squad of 20, which includes 16 players, two coaches, an athletic trainer and our radio announcer.

Coaching with a professional team comes with its challenges. Some of the basic things you have to be on top of if you want to be successful are being able to scout, recognise good talent, be organised and be able to manage players and deal with media.

Scouting players is huge, but first you have to break down how you want to play and know what type of players you need to suit your style.

Once this has been done then comes the scouting and being able to take chances on some players, being patient with a few and tough enough to release the ones that do not fit your mould.

I must tell you one of the hardest parts of this environment is releasing players.

They all come in looking to be a professional, so telling them that they did not make it is the worst information they want to hear.

Organising your training session is also key. You cannot wait until the morning before training or on your way to training to figure out what you want to focus on.

If we play a game on Saturday, that Sunday morning after watching the game tape over and over again is when the job is done

The basic structure for the sessions has already been set for the season, but when you start playing games the structure changes a little depending on your opponents.

Managing the players is very important. To do this you must learn their personality and character.

Dealing with professional players is not easy. They get paid to play so they want to play, they want to be able to show what they have and be able to improve their contract the following year.

The stars enjoy the limelight and so many players want to be the star.

Players battle each week to be able to make the starting line-up as well.

If you are successful with managing the group you automatically build trust and confidence in your players.

Media are also an important part of how the team develops. If the team play poorly, the coach must be able to take the responsibility and deal with the outcomes. They should not spread or blast their players in the media as that does not help.

As a coach you need to generalise the situation, talk about your own faults first and how you have to change things or make changes. This has to be taught to players as well.

The media would beat the door in to get the inside story or just to find out what others do not know.

When things are going well everyone is happy, and we all love the positive write-ups that get posted. But it's when they go bad you tend to hide from media, but this is not good because they will not forget and wait for the time to burn you.

I have some good advice that was giving to me from Bo Jackson, the former baseball and NFL player, when it comes to media.

He said: "We have to understand that they do not talk about who you are, but what we do.

"So do not get upset when they talk about how bad you played or coached. It does not mean they do not like you, but just what you do is what they will judge heavy."

Understand at the end of the day no matter what happens it's vital to keep your integrity and you must stick to what you believe.

Until next time!