Free Throws

As a coach it is important to spend time in practice working on the fundamentals of free throws. Making or missing a free throw can be the difference between winning or losing a close game. So when going over free throws in practice first you want to go over form shooting. Some of the basics to shooting with good form are having your feet shoulder width apart, your shooting arm parallel to the floor, your fingers spread across the ball keeping your palm off the ball, and following through with your shot. When you follow through with your shot the last fingers that should be leaving the ball are your thumb, pointer, and middle finger.

Sometimes players miss free throws because of the pressure that they feel to make them at key points in the game. The most common thing that a coach does to practice this kind of pressure is to have players shoot free throws for conditioning. In the video below Michael Jordan recommends something that player’s can work on during their own time that could also help with this problem. He recommends getting a feel for the basket with your first shot. Next, when you are shooting your free throw right when you are getting ready to shoot close your eyes and shoot the ball. The fundamentals do not change, the dimmensions do not change, the only thing that changes is a players confidence. Once a player can get their fundamentals down to where they can make free throws with their eyes closed, the confidence to make them with their eyes open increases as well. I would recommend practicing this but never recommend having a player shoot with their eyes closed during the game. The second video below is a clip from when Michael Jordan actually shot a free thow in the game against the Denver Nuggets with his eyes closed.

Officials

Although officials are not perfect, I think that for the most part they call the game to the best of their ability. Just like with anything else, the only way they can get better is through actually officiating a game. The video below is about a guy officiating for the first time. Something that is not shown in this video is the classes that the officials have to take to learn the rules of the game and become a patched official. In addition, officials often attend camps to help increase their knowledge as well.

Something that I am sure every coach has experienced at one time or another is having a player argue a call with an official. While an official might give some leeway to a coach talking to them about a call, they often have a short fuse when it comes to players. With an experienced official the best possible scenario will be that the official explains the call and nothing changes. On the other hand, depending on what your player says to the official it could lead to your player getting a technical foul. This hurts the team because it gives the individual player another foul, as well as, gives the other team two free throws and the ball back.  In either scenario the official does not change his call and in the second scenario it hurts the team. Therefore it is pointless for a player to argue a call with an official. As a result, a coach should stress to the players on the team to just play the game and keep their mouth shut. In the video below we can see the outcome if a player does not keep their mouth shut and just play the game.

Cutting Players

Since we are moving closer to the start of basketball season, let’s discuss what is arguably the toughest part of coaching. Deciding what players to cut is a difficult task that no coach likes. As a coach, you have to evaluate each of your players strengths and weaknesses to see where they fit in on your team. While evaluating your players it is important to let them know the criteria they are being evaluated on. 

After evaluating the players on your team, it is important to have an individual meeting with each player and another person from your staff. In these meetings a coach should explain to each player what their stregths are, as well as, how to work on their weaknesses. Also, in these meetings you will have to inform each player whether or not they made the team based on your evaluations.

At a few schools there is a no cut policy for freshmen because then they do not have the opportunity to develop their skills. If this is the case for you, it is important to be honest with the freshmen that they are not guaranteed any playing time. However, they will be allowed to practice with the team and develop their skills.

Other aspects that might impact your decision to keep a player at the high school level is a players attitude, and team dedication. If two players are at about the same skill level but one has a poor attitude it is not likely that they will be kept on the team. When a player shows dedication to the team by going out every year and participating in summer basketball, they are more likely to make the team than someone who is just as good as them going out for the team for the first time as a junior or senior. The  player going out for the first time has to be better than the player who has been dedicated in order to steal their spot. This is not because you are punishing the new player but because you are rewarding the other player for their dedication.

Sometimes players go out for the team so that they can spend some time with their friends and just be around “the guys”. In the case when you are having to cut players, you can give these players an opportunity to still be a part of the team by letting them be managers or help with other things like keeping stats. That is one option for players being cut that just want to be part of the team.

Offensive plays

After developing basic fundamentals and defensive skills, it is a good idea to implement your offensive plays. The reason it is good to develop your players in this order is that basic fundamentals will help improve your players for your offense. In addition, developing your defense will help you get a better look at how effective your offensive plays are.

When it comes to implementing offensive plays, it is important to think about the different defenses you will be playing against. Some plays work better against man-to-man defense’s while others work better against zone defense’s. The reason why some plays work better than others against a different defense is that each defense has different weaknesses, and as a result, leaves you different openings. Another thing to think about is whether or not you want you offense to be a continuity offense that repeats the movements or a one time set play.  The different kinds of offense’s that you can develop are:

• man-to-man offense
• zone offense
• motion offense (can be use against man-to-man or zone defense’s)

After finding plays that you think are effective it is equally important to develop different drills that improve the skills for your offense. For example, if you have a designed play that has one of your player’s coming off a pick to shoot a shot at a certain spot on the floor, you might want to implement a drill into your practice that works on that exact movement and shot. By doing  this you are able to increase your players repetition of a specific movement and shot which can increase their shooting percentage in a game. As a result, you will put yourself closer to winning ball games.

Calling a time-out

When it comes to taking a time-out coaches need to use good judgement because you only get a limited amount per game. The main reasons a coach should use a time-out are:

• To discuss team strategy and execution
• To break your opponents momentum in a game
• To keep a game close that is getting out of hand
• To save or gain possession of the ball during a close game
• To let your players catch their breath and get some water

 

Key things to remember about time-outs are:

• Time-outs do you no good at the end of the game if the game is not close
• If the game is close save at least one time-out for the final minute of play
• Never waste a time-out before the end of a quarter

 

Before calling a time-out it is important to know the few key points that you want to talk to your players about. Remember that if you do cover many things during a time-out, most players will only remember two maybe three things max. Depending on the level of crowd noise at the game you might want to take your players onto the court during a time-out, as depicted below. This is helpful because it gets you away from the crowd behind your bench and allows your players to hear you better. One of the best things to have on your bench is a dry erase board for time-outs. These are helpful for drawing plays and showing defensive positioning to your players.

Butler's coach, Brad Stevens, talks to the Bulldogs during a time-out

Learning as a coach

Relying purely on your past experiences and knowledge from playing basketball is the biggest mistake that a young coach can make. As a coach it is important to continually learn new drills, and ways to teach players how to play the game of basketball. You can do this by attending coaching clinics, and watching videos that show how other coaches break down skill sets through the drills that they use. Getting a broad perspective about how other coaches teach their player’s the game of basketball will never hurt. If you attend coaching clinics or watch videos and do not like what you see, then you do not have to implement what you have learned into the things that you do.

 If you are having trouble developing your player’s in certain areas you can focus on learning from other coaches that do a particularly good job in that area. Let’s say for exampe that you are having trouble developing your teams defense. You can then look for videos made by other coaches that focus on teaching defensive aspects of basketball. Since Duke has been know to have a good defensive team I decided to look for videos that show the defensive drills that Mike Krzyzewski uses in practice. In this video Krzyzewski explains the purpose of the drill and the movements involved. By finding videos like this and implement the drills into your practice you would be able to better develop your teams defense. Granted the video below is only a small portion of the skill sets that go into playing defense.

Parent/player questions and concerns

About a week to two weeks before your first game of the season it is a good idea to sit down with each basketball player on your team and let them know your evaluations thus far. In these meetings I like to be open with my players but not over critical. I discuss with each individual the role I see them having on the team based on their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, I suggest ways that each player can improve to increase the potetial amount of playing time they will receive. One thing I stress in these meetings is that no playing time is guaranteed to any player on the team. Towards the end of the meeting any questions or concerns of a player are addressed. As a coach you will find that having these meetings before the first game of the season are helpful because no player is surprised by their role on the team, eventhough they may not like it.

After having these meetings you might expect to have a few angry parents show up to the next practice to ask questions concerning the things that were discussed in the player meetings. That is why it is a good idea to have another coach sit in on these meetings, because sometimes things can be taken out of context. However, the questions that parents have must be addressed. The only rules that I have about discussing problems with a parent  is that I will not discuss any problems during practice, or at a game. Since I like to be open I allow parents to sit in on my practice, but ask that they do not disrupt or make comments during my practice. Every once in awhile having parents at practice may motivate players to work harder than what they have been, but not to often. Most of the time get to see first hand what the coach’s perspective of the problem at hand.

An example of a past problem that I had was dealing with a player that did not want to participate in all of our drills. When it came to shooting drills that player was always able to participate, and in fact he was a good shooter. However, when it came time for defensive drills and conditioning he was always injured. As a result, I had to discuss with the player that if he was too injured to participate in conditioning and running then he is probably too injured to participate in shooting drills. Having the parent come to practice allowed them to see the potential for their kid to be a good basketball player. However, the parent was able to see that there kid needed to develop more skills in order to be able to play competitively.

When discussing problems with parents it is important to listen to what they have to say and not interrupt. By doing this you will not give off the impression that the problem is not important. This will also help you get a clearer understanding of what the parent thinks the problem is and help you to develop a better solution. Then when the parent is finished discussing a problem I reply with the solution that I feel is best for the situation. After that it is good to give closure to the meeting and leave the door open for any other questions or concerns that a parent may have in the future. If further action is required let the parent know when you will get back to them. It is important to keep the time you get back to the parent within a day or two otherwise it may come off as not being important as well.

Practice planning

An obstacle that every coach has to overcome is being able to prepare their team before the first game of the season. To overcome this obstacle as a coach, you need to strategize and make a decision about the aspects of basketball that you want to cover before the first game. Narrowing down what you want to focus on will help you create a better practice plan. Through creating a practice plan you will be more prepared and be able to utilize the full amount of time for each practice. 

Triple Threat: Shoot, pass, or dribble.

 One of the things that I like to focus on before the first game of a season are the basic fundamentals of basketball. I like to spend time working on things like catching the basketball in a triple threat position, establishing a pivot foot, defensive stance, rebounding, dribbling, and shooting. By working on these basic fundamentals you will be able to start making an evaluation of your players and their skill levels. This is also helpful for making future decisions about what your team needs to work on. Remember to encourage your players to work on fundamentals outside of practice because there is only a limited amount of time for them in practice. 

Another aspect that I like to focus on before the first game of a season is defense. I spend time working on defensive positioning, jumping the ball, and communicating. After working on the basics of defense I like to work on different defenses like man-to-man, 2-3 zone, 3-2 full-court press, and a 3-2 half-court press. The main reason I focus on defense before my first game of the season is that it puts my team in a better position to win. Playing good defense and creating turnovers reduces the amount of points your opponent will score, as well as, gives you more opportunities to score. 

As a coach you  may have a different strategy about what you want to cover in practice before your first game. The main thing is to decide what you want to cover so you can utilize the amount of time you have in practice. You can never go wrong by being prepared and creating a practice plan. This will help reduce the amount of time you waste in practice, develop organization, and give structure to your practices. 

Something to remember is that practice may not always go as planned. In the event that something takes longer than expected, you will need to be prepared to make crucial decisions. If the drill you are running is important you might want to cut into the time that you have allowed for other drills to cover the situation. However, you do not want to do this for every drill because you might end up spending extra time on things that are not as important. Another option you have is to move to your next drill, and then give yourself extra time in the following practice to cover the situation from the day before.

How to establish discipline

Self-discipline is one of the most important aspects to building a successful basketball program and it starts at day one. In order for your team to be disciplined you have to set ground rules for your player’s to follow. The ground rules you make can help your player’s become physically disciplined, and mentally disciplined on and off the basketball court. Some basic rules that you can establish are:

• Be to practice on time
• No talking when coach is talking
• No cursing
• Treat teammates, coaches, fans, and officials with respect
• No use of alcohol, tobacco, or drugs

In addition, you also have to establish consequences for breaking each team rule. Just as important as establishing rules and consequences you need to enforce your rules. Once you do not hold a player accountable for their actions you will likely lose credibility among your player’s, parents, and even other coaches. So be strict when it comes to enforcing your rules, but be fair. Some consequences that you might establish for certain actions are:

• Extra conditioning
• Sitting out of practice
• One game or more suspension
• Expulsion from the team

When a player commits an infraction on one of the more serious rules it is important to talk with them and listen to what they have to say. Then you can explain the consequences, and even get the player help if they need it. Another thing to remember about disciplining your players is that after you have enforced the consequences of an action let it go. Continuing to hassle your player about an infraction will only contribute to lowering their self-esteem.

Coaching Philosophy

As many coaches know, John Wooden is the former basketball coach at UCLA. In his time at UCLA Coach Wooden was able to win ten NCAA titles, four of which were perfect seasons. In the video below Coach Wooden goes into depth about his coaching philosophy emphasizing topics such as success, diversity, punctuality, discipline, patience, and winning .

For the purpose of this blog I am only going to focus on Coach Wooden’s definition of success. Coach Wooden’s definition of success is, “Piece of mind attained only through self-satisfaction and knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you are capable.” This should be the measure that coaches use rather than just winning or losing.

One thing that my dad taught me about basketball while growing up was to always strive towards being the best. When you strive towards being the best, you look at how to become better at each aspect of the game. When you become the best that you can be, winning and losing will take care of itself. Being the best does not only apply to athletes but it applies to coaches whether it be going to coaching clinics or developing better relationships among your athletes.

Being a coach is no easy task! As a result, it is important to take some time to look at what goals you want to achieve. By defining your goals you will be able to develop a coaching philosophy that will help guide you towards accomplishing what you set out to do.