"Pick-Up" Leagues

I've often thought that it would be a service to kids to provide a league that was NOT refereed - but merely "moderated". Allow the kids to call their own - and give them a minimum time to agree before the moderator steps in. Kinda like we used to do at the park. Players no longer have (or don't take advantage of) those opportunities.

And how much do you learn about *life* by settling your own disagreements, admitting that you made a mistake (foul), or having
the courage to call someone on one of their "transgressions", and coming to a consensus in a timely fashion ?

Why they call you "COACH"

The small, 14th-century, Hungarian village of Kocs is located on the main road along the Danube between Vienna and Budapest. These two great cities needed well-built, fast vehicles that would carry more than two people over the bumpy roads of the day in as much comfort as was then possible. So in Kocs they began to build superior wagons, carts and carriages.

One of the best of these multi-horse carts was called, in Hungarian, "kocsi szekér" or a "wagon from Kocs". Its design was so compact, elegant and sturdy that the design spread throughout Europe. The German-speaking Viennese started to call this vehicle a Kutsche, which is how they heard Hungarians saying the name of their little carriage-making town. From Vienna these lively vehicles traveled to Paris and the French, adapting the Austrian word, called it a coche. When it arrived in Rome in Italian, it was a cocchio. Eventually, the English called it a coach. When Anne of Bohemia married England’s Richard II in 1382, she brought carriages from Kocs, Hungary with her to England. Wealthy squires had their servants read to them as they drove in these coaches about the countryside or on long trips into a nearby city.

So the first coaches took very important people from where they were – to where they wanted to go. And many of them learned along the way.

Are we taking kids where THEY want to go? And are we teaching them other valuable life lessons in the process?

Team Communication - be seen AND heard!

Communicating on defense is crucial, but for some reason is very
difficult to get players to do. We can`t get them to be quiet in
class and can`t get them to talk on the court - go figure!:?)

To just get them to talk, and also help foster a better team
attitude, we would use a "Buddy System." Whoever your pre-practice
shooting partner was is your "Buddy" for the day. It was up to you
to recognize EVERY positive thing that your "Buddy" did and let them
know. In order for that to happen players had to watch, recognize,
and understand what they were praising. Soon players will be doing
it, on instinct, to players who are not their "Buddies" also. So it
also helped to keep players engaged and positive - leaving them more
receptive to coaching.

Simply encouraging players to talk at all times helps, but having an
organized method gives players specific verbal cues to go with
situations and fosters effective team defensive communication.
Here's our defensive communication system

"BALL"- The most important thing to guard is the basketball. The
player with the ball is the only man that can score. Every time a
pass is throw, someone should let everyone know, verbally, that they
have the "BALL". If you are playing defense and do not hear this,
theoretically, you should turn and look to go cover the player with
the ball.

"BASKET"- The next most important aspect of team defense is to
protect the basket. Once the ball is covered, a player needs to
reteat to the key and call "BASKET". The player responsible for the
basket is usually the furthest man away from the ball, on the side
opposite the ball(weakside).

"HELP(left or right)"- It is helpful if the player guarding the ball
knows if he has any defensive help to his left or his right. The
next defensive player in either direction of the ball should holler,
"HELP"(left or right)". If the offensive player sees(and hears) a
player in position to help, they might not even try to penetrate via
the dribble in that direction.This also allows the defender on the
ball to pressure with a little more confidence.

"CHECK"- When a defender is guarding a player on the weakside of the
floor, many times they are responsible for the basket. In some
offense their man may "flash" to the ball side. The defense should
"check" that cutter in a denial stance and verbally let the team
know, by saying "CHECK". This verbal cue reminds the player to
"check" his man and also reminds the rest of the team to "CHECK" and
see who should be responsible for the "BASKET" next

"CLEAR"- Sometimes an offense will "clear" out the weakside, and
take away the "basket" defender. IF a player has the basket and his
man clears, he should yell,"CLEAR" to let any player in the post
area know that the basket area is clear and there is limited help.
This also could cue teamates to see if , maybe, they can drop and
help protect the "BASKET".

Special Situations - Gut Feeling...or by "the Book"

To clarify our situation chart and the use of "the book", I have a
bench coach that has this chart on the bench and it's been his job
to be "in my ear" and remind me when one of those situations occur.
That doesn't mean that sometimes a "gut feeling" won't trump the
chart, but this serves as a guideline. Obviously, the chart has our
calls, so come up with the plays that you have in your arsenal that
best fit that situation.

Next to the situation have a play or two that you'd prefer to run in
that scenario - then maybe you can choose from a couple diferent
ones. However, some of the situations, for me, ARE pretty cut and
dry and this is what we will do in that situation *every time*. This
way the kids are prepared, through practice, and time outs are not
as necessary. KNOWING what they are going to do does wonders for
their confidence in the fact that they CAN get it done.

Lessons Learned

Having not had a great high school or collegiate experience with
coaches, When I first stopped playing and got into coaching
I thought that I knew better and had all of the answers.
After a few years I realized that I had mentors that were letting me
hang around (regardless of how stubborn I may have been) and I was
not letting them mentor me. So we began to get in open debates and I
took to becoming a real student of the game.

Allowing yourself to be exposed to a variety of ideas and styles of
play helps you solidify what you really believe and enables you
develop your own unique philosophy, instead of just being a clone of
those that you played for.

Later I realized that one of the the most important aspects of teaching was that a player recognized that they made a mistake - not to just let them know how much I know, that I'm in charge and then chastise them for making it. If a player knows that he made a mistake, what to do to correct it, and he also knows that you know - that is far more important than
the tirade that lets him know how upset you are over it.

Developing an economy of words allows you to be more productive in
practice. I remember in practice my first 3 or 4 sentences would be
useless to the kid.

Typical rant: "Dog-gone-it Johnny, how many times are you going to
make that mistake... we've been working on this for a month and you
are still doing the same stupid things that you were doing the first
week in practice... you're so much better than that ...I can't
believe...yada. ..yada... yada..."

At that point I hadn't done a thing to help him yet. He's now checked
out and entirely unable to hear whatever advice I was eventually
ready to give. Get to the point - the tirade is useless. (then when
you finally do have to let loose it will really mean something!:? )

I read a study in Psychology Today by Tharp and Gallimore that
followed John Wooden during his final year and categorized all of
his communication to his players. As a college project I audio-taped
my own practices to try and compare the amount of instruction,
information, praises, criticisms, hustles, etc. I've tried to, less
formally, go back throughout the years and analyze practices
accordingly to keep myself in check.

Possession by Possession

A great Dean Smith quote,
"Pay attention to execution, not the score"
answers another question, "How to get players to play - LOOSE"

During our best season we had a slogan on the back of our t-shirts
that said, "POSSESSION BY POSSESSION"
and our guys completely bought in. Leads or deficits never really
affected their play because it doesn't really matter. We spent a
year trying to take the focus off of the scoreboard because it
doesn't really matter in regards to your effort. What are the
players going to do during "crunch time" - try harder? If so
-shouldn't they have been trying that hard to start with.
Concentrate? Focus? That should start at tip-off.

The score, winning or losing really doesn't matter. The only thing
that matters is NOW. The task at hand. A game isn't just a game - it
is 100+ battles. 50+ on offense and another 50+ on defense. Within
each of those battles might be a dozen different decisions, skills,
techniques, strategies, and tactics that a player has to execute and
each and every second is an adjustment so that you are in the right
stance and spot to get it done.

This is a mentality that has to be fostered in practice. You can't
all of a sudden emphasize the importance of the ball when you
haven't respected the basketball all week during practice. it has
to be a habit - a mentality. You have to start wit hthe first
whistle on the first day of practice. The best thing about this
approach is it allows players to get over mistakes and not dwell on
them or compound them. It allows them to approach an important
possession with the same level of stress as a random possession in
the second quarter.

Early in the year, during a pre-practice soliloquy, I remember
ranting that you should approach every possession like it was a
"*4th quarter in March*." After a year full of never using the word
"WIN" once during a practice, pre-game, halftime talk or time-out we
had an opportunity to play in the finals in 17,000 seat arena that
wasn't anywhere near full - but felt like it. Especially when we got
a big blocked shot that led to a deep 3pter at the buzzer ending the
3rd quarter, giving us the momentum, and giving the crowd a reason
to get loud and crazy. Over the noise I asked the players if they
knew what time it was. They looked at each other trying to figure
out what answer I was looking for, and I reminded them,

"It's now a *4th quarter in March*!".

Why do we coach?

A coach should ask him/herself , "Do those players*play for me*?" or
"Do I coach those players?"

Our great profession got it's name from a vehicle (a coach) that
would take very important people from where they were - to where
they wanted to go.

Are we doing that?

The kids aren't under contract, aren't getting paid (generally!:?),
and have other things going on. If they aren't there - they are
missing out. If we haven't created that feeling then we just have to
keep working harder to get there. Sometimes that is a tough job in
certain places and those coaches have an uphill battle. That's why
those jobs open up more often and the ones where the climb is not so
steep aren't available.

For those that have "hard an fast rules" about summertime, consider
this story:

Facing a demanding schedule of games and travel and weeks of
answering recruiting calls from college coaches has left one of the
top girls basketball players in nation feeling overwhelmed.

So instead of burning out, Ursuline's Elena DelleDonne decided to
take a step back from it all and enjoy the rest of her summer.

DelleDonne took a two month break and played no summer league
games, no tryouts for the U.S. under-19 national team, and no
contact with college recruiters, lest they'd like to hurt their
chances of DelleDonne attending their school. Instead she spent
the rest of her summer volunteer teaching at a Wilmington school
for children with disabilities

And some coaches, according to their *hard and fast rule*, would cut
her ?

Developing Coaching Philosophy

Bobby Knights' retirement and the subsequent secession of his son, Pat Knight, to head coach reminds me that moving over a chair or two to the head coaches seat is so tough - now you HAVE to make those tough decisions.

I think that it's great to take any variety of situations, on and off the court, and play "what if.." to determine what you might do.

Trying to find where, we as coaches, draw the line goes a long way into forming our coaching philosophy.

Too many times young coaches sit down and say, "I want my teams to do A,B, & C and I want to stand for X,Y & Z". Then they are face with a decision and find out that what they believe doesn't always fit into that alphabet scheme that they initially felt was important.

It is MUCH better for a coach to role play through several scenarios, like this, and figure out what they would do. THEN develop your coaching philosophy based on those answers.

Pressure is a privilege

This past weekend Maria Sharapova won her first Australian Open Tennis Championship. On Saturday morning before the final Sharapova received a text message from one of the all-time greats of the women's game, Billie Jean King. The message read,

"Champions take chances. Pressure is a privilege".

This quote really speaks to the importance of playing without the fear of making mistakes and emphasizes the true value of the first goal of a Double-Goal Coach, as defined by Positive Coaching Alliance. A Double-Goal Coach is one who teaches his team to strive to win, but realizes that learning life-lessons is a far more important goal.

The pressure of winning and doing your best, whether it is self-imposed or from outside sources, is what provides the necessary slow-simmer of heat that makes the second goal of learning life lessons possible to their greatest extent. If we are outside shooting baskets, playing catch, or rallying in tennis it's all about fun and there might not be much "learning" going on. However, as soon as we introduce uniforms or a scoreboard all kinds of potential lessons are set on the table. Positive character traits like desire, persistence, resilience, and a sense of honesty or fair-play are tested and developed.

Sports doesn't only build character... it reveals it!

Combating Pressure

I am big on facing the basket and less concerned with “triple
threat” than I used to be. Far more important to me now is reading
the defense and making a counter move *on the catch*

For example in a shooting sequence from the wing that we do often we
would:
1) catch and shoot (if you’re open)
2) catch-baseline drive (if the D was in deny and is above you)
3) catch dribble baseline jumper (if the D was in deny and is above
you-but help comes)
4) catch- drive middle (if the D is trailing and is below you)
5) catch dribble middle jumper (if the D was trailing and is below
you-but help comes)

Then we would have a traditional *rocker series* from triple threat

6) catch-jab-crossover & drive (if the D was in deny and is above
you)
7) catch-jab-step back-shot
catch-jab-head fake-drive
9) catch-shot fake-2 dribble jumper (both ways).

Often times you can make those first five moves *before the pressure
comes* and use the defenses speed against them.

TRANSITION DEFENSE: BASKET-BALL-MAN

Quite often basketball games are decided by the team that gets the most "easy" shots. A good way to prevent your opponent from getting these easy shots is to improve your teams TRANSITION DEFENSE. There are a number of different transition defense philosophies that vary in the amount of immediate pressure the defense puts on the basketball. These range from "jamming" the rebounder by pressuring him right away with the closest man and getting into an immediate full court press to everyone simply sprinting back to the defensive end. Different styles may be chosen based on the qualities that your team possesses and it’s ability to apply defensive pressure. One of the safest ways to protect against easy fast break baskets is to remember the phrase, "BASKET-BALL-MAN"

The phrase, "BASKET-BALL-MAN" refers to the order of protection when retreating on defense. The first player back on defense must protect the BASKET. This will prevent the easiest of shots and limit the number of fast break layups the opponent may get. Once the basket is protected, the next player back needs to stop the BALL. After the BASKET is protected and the BALL is pressured, then players can feel free to match up and find their appropriate MAN or responsibility. The most important transition basket to try to prevent is the open, "breakaway layup", when the offensive player is even or slightly ahead of the transition defender. Let’s talk about four steps to preventing this breakaway layup.

1) STOP THE BALL
When hustling to sprint back and prevent a breakaway layup, the first option should always be to get back and establish a legal guarding position. Maybe you can contain the ball before it even gets into shooting range.

2) TAKE THE CHARGE
If you acquire position near the basket before the shooter leaves the ground for the layup attempt, try to get set and get an offensive foul on the shooter. Taking a CHARGE on a player about to get a sure basket is one of the best ways of changing some momentum to your team

3) STRIP OR SWIPE
When a defender is too late to get set to take a charge, an overlooked technique is to STRIP or SWIPE at the ball while running past the offensive player directly thru his path as he drives for the layup. The defender must avoid all contact and try to steal or deflect the ball as they run by. Many times, the mere act will cause the shooter to lose concentration and either travel or miss the shot.

4) CONTEST OR BLOCK THE SHOT
As a last resort try to CONTEST or BLOCK the shot at the point in which it is directed. The defense should wait and time the attempt until the ball is out of the shooters hand and approaching the backboard. We call it "meeting the shot at the glass". Trying to block the shot out of a shooters hand might result in a foul, although many times that foul may be to a teams advantage. Rather than giving up an almost certain two points, a team may wish to "make the player earn it" by forcing them to make two foul shots instead. If a team is going to foul, they should foul for an advantage and make certain that the shooter does not make the layup AND get a free throw (And1). Most important in this is to avoid "hard fouls" or those that may be dangerous or cause injury.

Administrative support over parental concerns regarding playing time

I thought I would share an e-mail exchange that my Principal sent to a parent who had complaints over his son's playing time. The parent responded to the Principals first email, offering *videotape proof*, which precipitated a follow up message by the Principal to make his position clear.

It is really good stuff, so I hope you bear with the length. I really appreciated the administrative support on this issue. Names have been deleted to protect the ***guilty*** !:?)

Here goes:
#1
Dear Mr. ********:

Thank you for the email with follow-up
information following our telephone
conversation of yesterday. As I suspected, and
your email confirmed, the
"problem" that you wanted to discuss is a matter
of playing time and/or role
on the team for a particular student-athlete,
your son ********.

You need to be aware that our policy is that it
is totally the coach's
decision as to whom and how much an individual
student-athlete should play.
Since yesterday I did have the opportunity to
discuss your call with Coach
Lokar. In discussing the matter, I am comfortable
that Coach Lokar even took
the time to discuss the matter with you. He
indicated that he even outlined
specific areas in which he felt that ****** needed
to improve to increase his
role with the team.

Coach Lokar pointed out to me that with regard to
the area of playing time,
when he checked the book before Christmas, *******
had actually participated
in 45 of the first 48 quarters the team played.
As of today, he feels that
he has played probably fifty-five of the sixty
quarters the team has played.
In the times I have been able to attend the boys'
games I recalled ********* as
one of the first off the bench.

Thank you for sharing your concerns with me, but
it is not appropriate for
me to review matters of student-athlete playing
time. I hope that *********,
with your continued support, will further develop
as a student-athlete and
have a collegiate career that makes us all proud.
I trust that with all the
video you have taken of his playing time, you
will be able to develop a
"*********" highlight film that will make
him continue to feel proud
of his overall contribution to the team.

Sincerely,

*******, Ph.D.
Principal

#2
Mr. *********:
Although I do not plan to get into a further
discussion about the matter,
after reading your email I felt that I just need
to make my position clear.

Coaches coach, players play, and parents parent.

The coach's role is to decide who plays and in
what situations they play.

Players have the responsibility to listen to
their coach and perform to the
best of their ability when called upon to do so
for the TEAM. They need to
be adequately prepared especially physically and
mentally ready for their
opportunity.

Parents need to support the coach and when they
disagree with their
decisions, they need to encourage their child
through the disappointing
times. Keep in mind that there will always be a
brighter future. Students
don't always see the long range future that
parents can see. It is NOT the
prerogative of the parent to decide that a
particular player should play a
different role than what the coach has determined
fits best for the TEAM for
that game or situation.

Taking the time to review your video tapes would
be irrelevant, because the
decision as to ********'s role on the TEAM is a
coach's decision.

(the AD)'s role is to supervise the coach.
In that regard, we were both
impressed that Coach Lokar took the time to
listen to your concern and
explain his position to you. We cannot ask more
of him. As coach, it is HIS
decision.

My role is to supervise (the AD). He took
the time to meet with Coach
Lokar and to speak with you. I cannot ask more of
him in this situation.

You disagree with a coach's decision on playing
opportunities for ********.
That is your right. Let the matter close and
encourage ******** to continue to
seek to excel in his role as it is determined by
Coach Lokar.

Thank you,

**********, Ph.D
Principal