GOLD STANDARD COACHING @CoachLok

Coach Sallie Guillory, Assistant Womens Coach at McNeese St posted the following on Twitter: Coach Crean has these boards up in locker rooms and watch film after games so they are updated when team comes in the next day... 1.) Deflections (Individual) 2.) Charges taken (2 deflections count as a charge) 3.) Forced turnovers 4.) M.A.’s (missed assignments) 5.) 50/50 Ball + or - in getting to 6.) Shot challenges. Use charts to get percentage of challenged shots 7.) Block outs. Strive for 85% 8.) Blow Bye’s- 1 on 1 defense Marquette offensive board 1.) Missed Layups- 10 push ups/after a loss 25 pushups 2.) Bad shots vs. open shots 3.) Missed Assignments. Ex: screens, cuts, spacing of penetration, positions 4.) Assists 5.) Offensive rebound attempts Goals are great. It’s hard to know if you are improving if you don’t set goals and keep track of how well you are doing in moving toward the goals. Most coaches set Outcome Goals, which are highly dependent on the quality of one’s opponent and...

During the preseason, as basketball coaches are introducing the offensive and defensive game plans, philosophies, and strategies, it is easy to forget some basic actions that can improve players and the team. There are some fundamental things that ANY player can commit to doing, simply by putting their mind to it, without needing to get better at any "basketball fundamentals". These "commitments" can make the player more effective IMMEDIATELY without getting any better at “basketball skills”. ➢ PLAY WITH YOUR KNEES BENT. Always stay in an athletic stance. It is your point of maximum explosion. Be just like a track sprinter coming out of the blocks. Have your knees bent. Be on balance. Be ready to move. You will get open on offense more often. You will guard your man on defense easier. The player with the lowest active stance usually wins. ➢ GET A HAND UP ON EVERY SHOOTER The only person who can score is the one with the ball. Go guard him even if he is not your ma...

The beauty of the mistake ritual is that it allows players to flush, brush off, throw away, or put mistakes behind them. The only part of the mistake a player needs to remember is that part that teaches them. So we don't want players to simply "forget it" we want them to learn from it. Depending upon the sport you have 5, 6, 9, 11 players to coach and any number of them may have made some mistake on each and every play. You don't have time to make all those corrections so a simple sign or symbol says the rest. If they don't KNOW you saw it - they also don't KNOW it's OK... so you have to do something. If that something is a verbal barrage they'll be afraid of making a mistake next time and if it's a litany of instructions we run the risk of "Paralysis by Analysis". If it's a simple "mistake ritual" it may say, and do, all you need in mere seconds. I wrote about the few things that have to happen In order to learn from mista...

Do any of you use a "mistake ritual" with your players? You probably do and just don't know it. But if not... why not? When a player looks at the bench after a mistake What are they looking for?And what does he or she see? Does it help them 1) recognize it was a mistake, 2) reassure them that it's OK, 3) re-instruct them , and 4) help them get Ready for the next play? Anything else is defeating the purpose. I wrote about it here a little more than a year ago, during the Lakers/Celtics final. The Lakers sure put that one behind them and learned from it. A "mistake ritual" can help players put that mistake behind them and play without the fear of making another. Some good examples of rituals and those who uses them are here in this blog. But it's really about Positive Coaching Alliance starting a National Conversation on best practices. Read and comment here if you have any thoughts on the "mistake ritual". Take part in the Conversation. Nat...

The typical basketball lineup in recent years has been three perimeter players with two post players, maybe one more comfortable on the block and another able to step outside a bit. A recent trend is going 4-out around a single post and many teams are even playing open-post, due to the shortage of bigs or the versatility of their players. However, many coaches ask, "What if THREE of my best players are posts and I want them ALL on the floor?" Here is an offense that might fit those needs. This offense can also be run with three perimeter players and two post players out of a 1-4 set, but here is an option with two guards and three forwards/posts. Coaches should work to develop enough perimeter skill in your post players to catch the ball on the perimeter, look to feed the post, and be able to reverse the basketball. Any more than that and it is a definite bonus. This creates some great post up opportunities by erasing the help, off cross screens and then getting the ball to y...

A players confidence, generally, comes from experiencing REPEATED SUCCESS. This success begins in practice. When a player has worked in practice enough, and done all that she can, she should KNOW that she has prepared enough to play, and that's what's really important. Too often success tends to be defined by results and the scoreboard. The great basketball coach John Wooden uses the definition of success as "Peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable." In much the same way, at Positive Coaching Alliance we strive to redefine and reinforce a more complete definition of "Winning" or success. The traditional definition of a winner is the person or team that does the best on the scoreboard. Even a team that is outplayed in every facet of a game but comes away with more points on the scoreboard is declared the winner. Whereas the scoreboard definition is concerned with...

We've pretty much agreed that in a perfect world the club and HS coaches should work together in the best interest of the kid. In reality, we also realize that in a majority of cases that probably doesn't happen. So now what? How do we create change? We've pretty much identified the problems and rehashed them - now we need to do SOMETHING. I spoke at Stanford University with Chip Heath, the author of "Made to Stick:Why some ideas Survive and Others Die", who came and visited with us at Positive Coaching Alliance (http://www.positivecoach.org). We talked about his new book coming out in 2010 titled "Switch:How to Change Things When Change is Hard. I read a manuscript and really like the concepts. Keep an eye out for it because it is pretty good. I think this situation applies because this is a very difficult change to make. I will attempt to briefly summarize and avoid his unique metaphors and examples that Chip uses to make the book great, but essentially it ...

This is the time of the year that youth baseball leagues are selecting their All-Star teams. A small percentage of the players in a league are selected for a tournament team - the vast majority of players do not make these teams. How are parents best equipped to deal with this phenomenon? The key to being able to handle All-Star disappointments is to start emphasizing the Positive Coaching Alliance's ELM Tree (Effort, Learning, and bouncing back from Mistakes) at the earliest ages and rather than worrying about Results and Comparing your child to others. This will create a mindset where being named to these teams is less important (or traumatic). Rather than dwelling on the setback, this is an opportunity for a player to go out with renewed effort to improve and possibly strive to making that team the following season. Focus on the efforts and improvements that were made, rather than the end result of the All-Star snub. Try hard, at all times, not to equate the players performanc...

It's good to have a organized Pressbreak that is consistent with how you attack after any made basket. This should be a set that flows directly from your transition game or early offense. There may be times when the opponent springs a press after a score, and you don't want to be disorganized or have to call a time-out to set up your pressbreak. In this set after a made basket, 3 would inbound the ball quickly, preferably to 1 around the FT line. 2 would run the right lane for a possible over the top pass, 4 would run the left lane and 5 would sprint to the rim. When a press is recognized the team enters the pressbreak seamlessly. 2 would come back to the ball and has the entire right lane to get open from the lane-line extended to the sidelines. 1 needs to get open in the box from that same lane-line to the opposite sideline and below the top of the key. 4 can begin cut to the top of the key and look for an open spot in the middle of the press. 5 continues to the rime to stre...

A careful man I must always be; A little fellow follows me. I know I dare not go astray For fear he'll go the self same way. I cannot once escape his eyes, Whate'er he sees me do, he tries. Like me he says he's going to be; The little chap who follows me. He thinks that I am good and fine, Believes in every word of mine. The base in me he must not see; The little chap who follows me. I must be careful as I go Through summer's sun and winter's snow, Because I'm building for the years to be; This little chap who follows me.

It's important to teach sports in the proper progression. Have reasonable expectations of your level of play and teach to their ability through setting achievable goals for the players. Stretch each player to improve and try not to leave anyone behind by challenging them with drills and activities that measure their improvement over a previous standard or a competition against others. Encourage kids to ask questions by providing sincere answers to all of them. As hard as it is sometimes - it develops a growth mindset they'll appreciate forever. Your entire team (coaches, players and parents) should strive to achieve the Magic Ratio of 5 positive experiences for every correction/critiscism or negative experience. Consider everything verbal and non-verbal. A great rule of thumb is to Relentlessly Reward Desired Effort! Think about that statement. It means you're always trying, you're attempting to be more positive by recognizing achievements, it means they're learnin...

Be yourself. Have a plan. Be decisive. Do what you know is right. Communicate with everybody - about everything. Build trust among the group - that might be most important. Fix "broken windows" immediately - otherwise there'll be more before you know it. Take kids where they want to go - after you sell them on your vision of where that should be.

It’s nice to have a standard Sideline Out-Of-Bounds play (SLOB) that the players can run at any time – but is versatile enough to give your team different options. There have been games where we’ve scored more than a half-dozen different ways out of the same play. Down the stretch in close games with so many stoppages of play, there are often several opportunities to take the ball out on the side. If you can come out of a time out or give the same look – yet attack in a completely different way it gives you a tremendous offensive advantage. The play easily flows into a 3-out/2-in set or works if a team is better suited to a single-post set. Finally, by having a lone multi-purpose play it saves your team practice time to work on other things that are necessary and allows the coach to Keep it Simple-Stupid (K.I.S.S) As the official hands the inbounder, the 3-man, the ball, the 5-man in the corner looks to down screen for the best shooter, in this case the 2-man. If the shooter is open i...

In coaching, especially at the youth sports level, what position a player has an opportunity to play is always a hot topic. In basketball forwards want to play guard, shooting guards want a chance to play point guard. In football, players desire to play offense rather than defense and everyone wants to be the quarterback, running back or receiver. In those youth sports, coaches often "stereotype" players into particular positions. I had a 10 yr old on a team while working a basketball camp, and after going through several substitution rotations, the 5 biggest players on the team were on the floor at once. The best of them asked me, "who's going to play point guard".. so I answered that he should. He replied, "I'm not a point guard... my coach says I'm a center". My response was, "There's no such thing as a 10 yr old center!" And he played point guard, doing quite well, I might add. In " Positive Coaching in a Nutshell" ...

Positive Coaching Alliance says that a Triple-Impact Competitor works as hard as possible to make an impact on three levels: • Improving yourself as a player and person • Helping your teammates improve • Improving the sport as a whole. This plaque was placed on the wall outside the Florida Gators athletic facility. Does this "promise" epitomize that concept? Wouldn't we all love to have a leader on our teams that would make this "promise"?