GOLD STANDARD COACHING @CoachLok

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.

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 ...

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, techni...

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 0365/1035/SPORTS14">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 b...

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.

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 n...

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.

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 shot...

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 opportun...

This article is from a series of posts that occurred at the Coaching Hoops Yahoo! Group. Here is how one parent and son dealt with not making the team. Being cut can be a difficult experience for all (players don't want to be cut, parents don't want their son or daughter to be cut and can find it difficult when there is nothing they can do to help, and coaches really don't enjoy when having to make cuts). If there is one way to deal with it, display phenomenal character, and be a role model for others, this is it! The initial cry for help: GUYS, I REALLY NEED SOME HELP WITH THIS ONE PLEASE Hello Everyone, I need another perspective, besides mine, regarding my son being cut by the coach. We moved to a new town in Texas. My kid was not known in the area and most of the players on the team came up from Middle School or participated in the Coaches camps, and were known. Anyway, he made the Freshman A team. As the season went on, I witnessed my son's mental toughness test...

In "The Legend of Bagger Vance" the movie was in a golf setting but was a tremendous analogy for coaching, life, or the game of basketball. The title character is a mysterious caddie and in many ways, the consummate coach. Bagger Vance helps a down-on-his-luck golfer named Junuh find the deep place inside, where his ego is quiet and where he can “be” with only himself, and where he can be at one with himself. The vehicle for his transformation is the game of golf where he becomes one with the game. This is only possible when he sets aside his ego and the need to validate himself with individual achievement. At one critical point in the movie Bagger says, "...it’s time...time for you to see the field...feel that focus. Alotta shots to choose from, duffs `n` tops `n` skulls. But only ONE shot is in perfect harmony with the field. An "authentic shot". And that shot chooses YOU. There’s a perfect shot out there trying to find each and every one of us - and all we g...

When we coach young kids there are a few premises that we need to keep in mind: 1. Players participate for a variety of different reasons. 2. It's rarely going to mean as much to them as it does to you. 3. We do not know what 100% is for each kid - only they can tell us. 4. Players don't know how much they have to give until they've experienced it. 5. Sometimes we won't get 100% but we should strive to get more than yesterday. If we can create an environment where it is fun to try without the fear of failure, kids will begin to give us a little better effort every day. And the funny thing is - it doesn't really change much as they get older. I heard an interview recently with the Washington State point guard, Derrick Lowe. The legendary coach Dick Bennett retired and the job was passed to his son, Tony. Both are GREAT coaches. Lowe was asked why they were having such a great season after being picked last in the Pac 10 preseason poll. He said, "Last year we tri...

Coaches should try to schedule games against teams that will present somewhat of a challenge. While padding the schedule with wins may seem attractive, playing teams of inferior talent will actually hinder a teams development. However, many times in preseason tournaments obvious mismatches between two teams occur or a league may be set up where you have to play someone far inferior. The tough thing for coaches in this situation is figuring out a way for their team to get everything out of the game that they can, without humiliating the opponent. Coaches, in the 1st half - do your thing, play your game, anything goes. If the lead starts to get real big, your regulars may not be benefiting anyway, so play your substitutes a little more. Mix up some lineups and play a couple of subs with the starters. You may find a diamond in the rough. Try a player at a different position. You may get a pleasant surprise. If you know ahead of time it might go this way, it's not a bad time to reward ...

In every sport there is always post-season talk about Player of the Year or MVP. I remembered a quote from an article on a POY a few years back. Read this link for some perspective from both the player and the coaches perspective. http://lang.sgvtribune.com/socal/preps/articles/031902/tpoy.asp It happened one June afternoon long before our championship season was to get underway. I had a conversation with my senior standout, John Haywood, as we glanced into the trophy case at the retired uniforms. None belonged to a boys basketball player. "You know how you get yours up there?" I asked Haywood. "Set some records?" Haywood responded. "No,you have to be Player of the Year, and that usually goes to the MVP of the team that wins a (CIF-Southern Section) championship." A few moments passed before a big smile appeared on Haywood's face. Several months later that smile grew bigger after Haywood led our team to the Division III-AA title. For his efforts, Hayw...

As I sit and watch some college basketball and a flurry of "bad" (IMHO) shots off of the dribble, a thought re-occured to me that I've used in comments on other topics - but it stands alone as a valid philosophical question. There is always so much talk about whether a player can "create his own shot" well enough to play at the next level. My question is: "Outside of the last 10 seconds of a shot clock, if you have to *create your own shot* - maybe you shouldn't take it ?"