Basketball Shooting Drills

Basketball Shooting Drills

One of the most important parts of any coach’s practice plan is the incorporation of basketball shooting drills. These drills are valuable no matter the level of the team or the talent of the individual player. Shooting remains a key aspect of the game, and only through repetition and focus can a player improve.

For coaches, finding the right drills for your team can be frustrating. Depending on the team’s level and the talents of the gathered players, coaches sift through dozens of drills, searching for the right series. It’s important for a coach to understand their team’s ability and continuously push them to improve.

When developing shooting drills, a good coach must consider what types of shots they want to focus on. Drills should reinforce the skills that will help the players perform within the context of a game. So shooting drills should be designed around shots that would normally result from a team’s offensive actions. The best basketball shooting drills are representative of a team’s base offense.

 

Basketball Shooting Drills: 3-2-1 Shooting

This drill involves at least two players and is a high-volume, high-repetition practice. Over the course of one or two minutes, non-stop, a single shooter progresses through a series of jump shots. The other player rebounds and feeds the shooter from near the hoop.

The shooter begins behind the three-point line for their first shot. From there, the shooter moves into the midrange for their second shot. The last shot in the sequence is a layup (which is worth one point). The rebounder keeps track of the shooter’s score as their teammate progresses through the drill. After the time is up, the players switch roles.

This shooting drill provides valuable practice for any shooter, regardless of talent-level. The shooter must move, set their feet and find a repeatable release. Even the other player gets reps at securing rebounds and making solid passes.

This drill can incorporate internal competition as well. The two partnered players can compete with one another, or with another pair at another hoop.

RELATED: Basketball Competitive Practice Games

 

Basketball Shooting Drills: Team Spot Shooting

Team Spot Shooting is one of the most valuable basketball shooting drills. This practice sequence emphasizes form shooting and positioning, all within the framework of a team competition.

This drill involves a set number of players progressing through a series of shots on the floor. The group might start at the short corner, then move to the elbow, free throw, opposite elbow and opposite short corner. In order to progress to the next spot, the group needs to make a designated number of shots in a row. Once the group has made three from the short corner, for example, they move to the elbow. But if they miss at the elbow, a coach can signal either that the team runs or returns to the previous spot.

This drill can be redesigned as a practice game as well.

Related: Basketball Pre-Game Warm Up Drills

Resources:

Basketball Shooting Drills

Basketball Shooting Drills
Teach Hoops

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Lessons Learned From The 2018 NBA Playoffs

Lessons Learned From The 2018 NBA Playoffs

“Lessons Learned From The 2018 NBA Playoffs”

*S.E.O. Words: Intensity, Desperation, Motivation

Year after year, the NBA Playoffs offer us all a front row seat to the game of basketball being played at it’s highest level. However, even the top seeded teams can often fall short of that level when it comes to playing with maximum effort. In any given game, most NBA Teams can be trusted to play their hardest, but in a “best of 7” series, there are far more opportunities for human nature to sink in. Following a loss, the most common NBA Playoff Team adjustment is usually not schematic, but simply to play with more energy and determination.

Coaches have used several different buzz words over the years to describe either how an abundance of effort led to victory, or how a lack of effort led to defeat. In the past, the most frequently used buzz word was “desperation”, which has graced the narrative of many post-game press conferences and off-day interviews. However, in 2018, the new buzz word appears to be “force”, which ironically has been used most by Head Coach Steve Kerr of the Defending Champion Golden State Warriors. Regardless of whether “desperation” or “force” best describes maximum effort. What’s most important is why it alludes a team to begin with, and how to get it back when it does.

Overconfidence is the most common contributing factor, and also the most damaging. Overlooking any opponent brings about consequences that often cannot be reversed. Coaches of all levels can learn a valuable lesson from this years NCAA Tournament, in which a #16 seed beat a #1 seed for the first time ever. The concept of “rest vs rust” is also a major factor, when a team is affected by having either too much rest, or not enough. Lastly, is a lack of 3-dimensional preparation. Most preparation is based on 1-D and 2-D tendencies, such as preparing for an opponent that plays fast, or tries to dominate the paint. An example of 3-D preparation would be discovering that your opponent has a hidden motivation, such as a team member dealing with a tragedy, or perhaps a hidden revenge angle. That hidden motivation could make this game extra emotional for them, causing them to play with maximum effort and increased intensity. That could be huge problem if you as a coach are unaware of it, and your players enter the game at only a standard motivation level. Bottom line, there are infinite reasons why a team can lack effort in any game, at anytime, at any level. These are just a few details to keep an eye on.

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Summer Basketball : Building a Basketball Program

Summer Basketball : Building a Basketball Program

First, I want to say thank you to Coach Collins for asking me to do this Blog for Teach Hoops.  Two things you need to know about me is that I am not all knowing, and I am always learning how to better myself as a coach.

 

Right now at the college, we are just kinda at a wait and see period for some recruits with an attempt to find that gem that went under recruited by the 4 year schools.  Yes, I am assistant at junior college in Wisconsin, but before that I coached 5 years as a varsity boys coach and I almost coached every level below that since my coaching journey started in 2005.  As I sit typing my Blog in the sun over Memorial Day Weekend, I ponder the question….why are coaches so busy in the summer?

 

First, I think it’s important to know that all coaches are not busy in the off-season.  For example, I consider myself as a college coach to have a lot of free time. But, my position is much different from when I coached Varsity Boys Basketball at the high school level.  My current summer commitments reside in help running two youth camps and support supervision for open gyms. But, I know how much work consist in the summer for High School coaches in the summer.  And in reality without summer, I think it would be impossible for coaches to function without it. Summer is a time for development, trial and error, and logistics. Here is a list of items I have done in one summer as a head coach.

 

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  1. Coach summer league games

  2. Support and watch JV summer league games

  3. Open and supervise skill sessions 3-4 times per week

  4. Plan and Run 3 different youth basketball camps

  5. Watch and review 8 different basketball coaching dvds

  6. Organize and host summer fundraiser

  7. Attend overnight summer tournament with players

  8. Coach summer tournament at a local high school

  9. Plan fall fundraiser

  10. Complete practice schedule for HS program

  11. Weekly open gym

  12. Plan out special game nights for the season: Goldout, Parents’ night, Throwback Night, and etc

  13. Rank and evaluate talent for the upcoming season

  14. Plan and meet with youth program board monthly to plan for fall registration, budget, and other agenda items

  15. Facilitate 10,000 Shot Club

  16. Host HS Summer Camp

  17. Diagram and review old sets for all situations

  18. Try and tweak new sets, defenses, offenses with team opportunities

  19. Meet with High School staff weekly

  20. Plan and organize online shoe and apparel stores for upcoming season

 

Wow!   I forget how much I did in the summer for preparation for the upcoming season.  The question you really asking is why? Winning is hard work, and frankly my tenure at my previous job  had only small moments of success. I worked harder than most of my players. Personally, I saw more growth in the youth program with future players coming up the ranks in next the 5 years.  But, building a program takes time and making the right decisions through the journey. The worst decision I made was not facilitating the workload to others to provide more time for my own team.  My advice to young coaches is create a pipeline of people to work under you. Build and maintain positive relationships with other coaches, parents, and community members to support building your program.  Your support system comes down to finding individuals that believe in your program and our invested in the program not their child. Again, the process takes time to build a program, which you have to be careful about picking the right job.  That is something I can address in a later Blog.

 

Summer is a period of time for coaches to eliminate clutter during the season.  It’s impossible to do the items above plus coach your team during the season. It would be overload.  I feel the many of items on my list provide clarity and direction for the season to come. You can learn about your players and how they respond to certain offense and defensive schemes.  The regular season has not enough for trial and error and building your identity. 10 practices and your competing in your first game.


Finally, coaching isn’t a full-time job that pays the bills unless you make it to the big time.  I currently still teach 5th grade and coach other sports as well. Without using summer, I believe no one could function during the regular season, unless your single and retired.  Please email with questions regarding my blog at jacobjaysteger@gmail.com.

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Why my son IS playing AAU Basketball

Why my son IS playing AAU Basketball

This is one of many letters I received about the video and podcast I did concerning my son not playing AAU and summer basketball.  I thought I would share

 

Steve,

Appreciate your views on this and agree with much of it.  However a few observations:

I train my son  and his skill development has exploded in the last few years.  But, as you know, there are tons of kids who can “kill a drill” but can’t perform when there’s 10 guys on the court.  When you have defensive pressure and lots of decision-making in a game situation, those skills can all of a sudden look a lot different.  You just can’t simulate that environment in the quiet of a gym while developing skills.  I know every good trainer tries to develop an athlete’s skills while doing “game-like” drills.  But it is just not the same.  Actual “games” must be played and it’s becoming really hard to find them outside of the AAU tourney scene.

In AAU ball, my son has learned “toughness” that he never had before, and would have never developed, in a training session in any kind of drill.  There’s a clock, there’s a scoreboard, there’s fans, there’s referees, and there’s personal “pride” at stake.  When he was getting beat up in an AAU game, he either had to fight back or get crushed.  He chose to fight back and it has served him so well.  He hasn’t turned into an aggressive maniac, but acquired just the right amount of toughness and aggressive mentality that will enable him to play high school basketball.  I guarantee he would not be in the same place at this moment without AAU basketball.  (He’ll never be a college recruit, but he setting himself up to have a ton of fun playing HS basketball.)

It’s really difficult to supplement skills training with “games” without having a place to actually play games.  You and I know there aren’t a lot of parks or gyms that young athletes use to play meaningful “pickup” games that aren’t tied to their schools.  We’ve tried playing in the local clubs and the games are mostly garbage for development purposes.  Please don’t take this personally, but being a father who is a head coach gives your son access to a gym and I’m only assuming a place where players can get together to play decent pickup games (if WIAA allows, which I believe it does) during the summer.  Not everyone has that.

I do agree that AAU travel is ridiculous.  I myself coach a boys AAU team  and my HS daughter plays AAU and I see that the competition 1 hour away is not substantially different than competition 4+ hours away.  I also agree it’s way more games in a weekend than necessary.  But of course, the tournaments are making money and they aren’t going to set up tournaments where you only play 2-3 games — which in my opinion would be plenty to supplement skill development.

AAU is ridiculous for kids under 12 years of age (and maybe that’s too young).  The most physically mature kids dominate and nothing real productive gets done an AAU format for those young kids.  But parents are feeling good that their kid “played AAU”.

I assume the birth of AAU must have been to get the very best players exposure for college.  And it probably then trickled down to younger and younger age groups.

Bottom line — I think there’s value in AAU but I think it’s overhyped.  At the same time, in order to become a better basketball player, it takes more than reps in the gym.  Those skills have to be tested in a game format.  I played DI college baseball and there was plenty of guys who hit .300+ in “batting practice” but in a game, for some it was a completely different story.  It’s all a “balance” (skills practice + games) which I know is what your message is all about.

Thanks for making your video and providing quality content on Teachoops.com !!!

Regards,

Concerned Father

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Basketball Coaching: Halftime, Post Game, Practice, Shooting Machines and much more

Basketball Coaching: Halftime, Post Game, Practice, Shooting Machines and much more

This Podcast is a sneak look at teachhoops.com .  How do you handle halftime?  The post game speech?  What is your off season practice look like?  What type of shooting machine do you use?

 

From the fifth quarter studios in Madison, Wisconsin, you’re listening to coach unplugged. Here is your host, Steve Collins. Everybody welcome to. This episode is brought to you by the people over at HealthIQ/bcu, an insurance company that helps health conscious people like you, runners, basketball coaches, weightlifters, vegetarians, people that eat well, get lower rates on their life insurance over to healthiq/bcu. See if you qualify and help us support the show. And it’s a good, it’s a good thing for you. It’s a good thing for your family. And it’s a good thing for coach plug. So government check Mount Health Iq.com/. All right, so we’re gonna get started here a couple minutes early, but that’s OK. Um, so a couple questions and then if you’ve got questions, put them over in the chat over on the side and I will, uh, definitely get to them as fast as I can.
First question is from from Janice. She had put it in a little bit earlier, but her question was, and, and when I’m looking to the side over here, it’s because I’m, you know, I don’t have quite the right move it over a little bit. Um, I don’t have quite my, uh, set up the way it normally is. My daughter was in doing work in my office today, so I’ll never been quite set up the way I normally do. But anyway, so the first question was, what do you talk about at half-time and how do you break it? How do you break your halftime up? Um, so how do you, how do you tackle a specific halftime and um, you know, we have in where I coach, um, we have 10 minutes at half time, so, uh, the way it works is usually, you know, obviously the buzzer goes,I have an assistant coach who goes and checks the book to make sure that we’re, we’ve got files and everything situated correctly at that point.
And then I put the, I put the team into the locker room and let them have several minutes by themselves, um, before, before we come in and uh, um, have our discussions. What I do is I get the coaches together and we, um, we basically talk at that point, um, and kind of come up with some solutions or the first half. What are we doing well, what are we not doing well, what can our adjustments beef the second half. Um, so then, uh, yeah, so adjustments. What can we do? We talk about offensive adjustments, we talked about defensive adjustments. I apologize for talking in the background there. Um, and then, uh, so then I go in and we tend to do are we tend to do are a sets, we tend to talk about our offensive or defensive assets and I think it’s really important at halftime specifically that you need to, um, talk about probably those key two or three adjustments just before you leave the locker room.
Speaker 1: 03:15 Um, those are really important as far as heading out to the second half. And I usually try to leave two or three minutes to get them loose, get them moving again after half time. Um, I think teams come out of halftime a little flat sometimes, especially depending on the first half went. Um, so I like to leave a couple minutes. I like to, um, to do those specific things. Um, hi todd. How are you? Um, so you can, I guess I didn’t know him, facebook live, you could also leave comments, but anyway, so we were just talking about halftime, what we do kind of do with halftime. Um, you know, it’s not nuclear physics as far as how we handle half time. But again, we check files, we check any, anybody that’s going off, anybody that’s doing really well the first half we meet as a staff so we can talk about offense on events and stuff.
We we basically come up with a plan as a coaching staff before I go in and talk to them and a half time. I think that that’s really important either that I have less time in the, in the locker room at half time and be able to converse about things that we need. Then me just kind of going right in. Um, and then, uh, I usually start with a defensive parts to be honest with you. And then I talk about the offensive parts and then any motivational, anything we’re not doing, we’re not getting the floor, we’re not taking charges. And then just before we leave the lock room, you know, I hit him with a couple of things. Hey, remember we get back on defense, we got to know where [inaudible] is at all times.
I’m whatever. And then we after that, after that spurred me talking for four or five minutes because most of it they’re going to forget. Then I go into um, like make sure they get out so they have enough time to warm up. So it’s that too much after the game. So Janice also asked about what we do after the game, after the game. It really depends. Um, they don’t hear you as well. Do they hear you? It halftime? Um, but they definitely don’t hear you, first of all, after a tough loss, they don’t hear you after a big when they tend to hear you if it’s a game. Um, so if there’s something really important for me to say, I don’t tend to say it after the game, I will keep it short and there are exceptions to this and I’ve actually broken this exception this year.
Speaker 1: 05:44 Um, after some wins that I didn’t think we played well and I thought, hey, we got to adjust. And that was right and stumbled a couple times because of some of the things I said in those, but they don’t tend to hear it. You need to, if you need to get on kids, if you need to talk about what they did well or what they didn’t do well after the game doesn’t tend to be the time to talk to a group. I will grab a specific kid or a specific group of, hey, you did this. You were really rebounding well and you were doing this exceptionally well. I was so good. I was so proud of you. Um, but as it is an entire group, hey, nice when blah blah, blah blah, two or three minutes and then I try to get out of there and they will hear the words that you have to say better the next day at practice or in your film session or something like that than they will after a big win after a big loss there thinking 20 different things.
Who, how am I getting home, you know, it was my girlfriend man at me, Blah Blah Blah. I’m not kidding. It is. Um, it’s that kind of stuff that goes through their mind. So, um, if again, if you have any, any other questions, you know, put them in the comments down below or over on the side. Um, and I will definitely get to him. I’m just going through ones that I got people sent me before. Um, this [inaudible]. So we talked about half time. We talked about after the game, I’m a, someone sent me, how do you deal with a player who has a bad attitude but as, but as one of my better players. Um, that’s a tough one. I’m going to tell you, that’s it. That’s a difficult one. Um, you can’t teach without discipline. Kids want discipline is my, is my theory with that. Um, you know, if they’re not doing what you expect them to do, then there has to be a consequence.
so it doesn’t matter if it’s your best player, doesn’t matter if it’s number 15 on your bench, everything’s gotta be kind of consistent throughout. And if it’s not, you’re going to lose the control of the ship and bad things are gonna happen. So, um, it doesn’t matter. That doesn’t matter. They have a bad attitude because, you know, one bad apple can spoil a whole bunch, so you got to get that one on or you got to get rid of that one. Um, and then, uh, you can move forward, to be honest with you. I think that’s really a sport. Um, do you, here’s another question. Do you do film review, um, with the team after every game to watch it from start to finish? That’s a great question. So we use crossover. We don’t, we do, we use a lot of film. Um, we have a big game tomorrow, really big game tomorrow, one of the top teams in our state we play tomorrow, um, and I think we have nine or 10 names on them.
, uh, we do, we do different types of film sessions. So that’s a great question for all of the pro, the coaches out there. So the way film sessions worked for us is I’m normally the day after a game, especially if we didn’t play well, we will look at our film and it depends it, there’ll be times where we sit down and watch the entire film, um, and we’ll break it down and we’ll stop it, rewind it, you know, that takes good 45 minutes to an hour at least to do that. Uh, so do that after game. Sometimes we’ll just do clips after game, um, you know, will show us, we’ll show like the three minute mark to the seven minute mark or will show or we’re where our price was really good. So that’s the first thing with film. Um, it really depends on the opponent and really depends on what we’re doing and where we are in the season.
So I hope that helps. That. And then that’s the first thing. So, so the second thing is, um, we spent a lot of time looking at opponents because I think, I think coaching is a lot as much of how am I going to judge, how, how it’s player x going to adjust the player, why, um, how are we going to adjust to, to what they’re doing. I think, you know, especially with junior high, middle school, youth, high school, even the in the collegiate level, um, it’s really important, um, to be able to adjust. OK, so it is really about match ups and it’s really about how are we going to stop player 20 [inaudible], how are we going to stop him or her? Um, what are we gonna do to do that? Um, what adjustments can happen there. So I think those are really important.
Again guys, if you have you have comments over on the side, um, anything else you, uh, you want, um, please leave it over there. You know, we’ll, we’ll, uh, we can, uh, we can definitely ask questions, um, over the chats if you’re watching facebook live, if you’re listening to the podcast because it’s probably become one of my podcasts at some point because I think this is really good stuff. Um, or if you’re, you’re on our, you know, our, our live q and a right now, either any of the places, um, make sure that you go and leave a, leave a comment if you’ve got a question. I’m just going through questions that people have already sent me. Um, so if I go over here on the side, I can, uh, that’s why I’m looking at. I’m looking at the questions that people had free since me.
Speaker 1: 10:56 I’m finishing up with your question todd. Um, I think, uh, I think film is. Film doesn’t lie. I think I said that like four times today in practice. I’m somebody who wasn’t boxing out. Somebody wasn’t, I’m rotating correctly and uh, what did I do? You know, we showed him some film and uh, it doesn’t, you know, you, you weren’t getting there, you weren’t rotating the way you needed to rotate. Um, that’s a problem in the film, doesn’t the, you know, look at it, the film doesn’t lie, we talked about it, we talked about our practice, he didn’t the game we need to fix this problem. So, um, and then we, we, like I’ve told you, I don’t know if I told you todd, but we use crossover. So crossover. I’m a stat. Crossover is great for analytics, is great for breakdowns, you know, we can, we can show John’s everyone at John’s three pointers that we’re playing and then how does he deal with those?
Speaker 1: 11:50 And then here’s, um, here’s a specific thing. Um, do you film practice? I used to film practice. Um, there’s a reason I, you know, the problem is there’s only 168 hours in a week and I don’t have time. So a lot of that film initially when I, when I did it sat unwatched, um, and got washed in like June, which is not of any use to anybody. Um, so there will be times for members of the tubes. I have actually pro. I have actually taped my practice, isn’t shared it with them. Um, that’s something that I actually want to do. And for those of you up above, at or, or, or they’re listening to teachings that calm, um, is my membership site is great as a great todd can vouch. It’s a great community, a lot of resources, blah, blah blah. But anyway, so what I’ve thought about doing, and I talked to the dean about this to have the community that maybe we should get together and have each other’s practices and then that would be great if nothing else for the off season.
It’s like, Ooh, look with Dean doesn’t practice or liquid harmony does in her practice in California, or look what todd does, you know, so it would be. Yeah. Um, it is an awesome community. I agree todd. But um, no, I, that’s something that I’ve thought about. The problem is it’s like, OK, so here’s the issue with, with taping practice, college coaches do it. They also have for assistance. They also have a video coordinator breaking it all down. They also have time to watch it. They don’t have other kids like you and I do side gigs or side hustles. I’m teaching math all day, I don’t have time to sit down and watch my practice. Um, so that’s the issue with taping practice I think. I think it’s a good thing to do. Um, but I think it’s easier said than done to be able to find time to be able to watch it.
Speaker 1: 13:41 So I’m todd, did you get that package I sent? I sent it it school mail, so I may want to make sure he gets it. I’m todd Scott has a special needs kid on his. Uh, yeah, he’s got down syndrome, I believe. Anyway. Um, I sent him a package and I want to make sure he gets it. So if he doesn’t get it, you let me know. It is. School mail went out through the school meal so it could be three weeks from now. Who knows? Um, do I have a shooting machine? Yes, I have a shooting machine. Um, we’re in the process of buying another shooting machine. I use Dr. Dish. Um, I liked Dr. dish better. I’m going, AH, they’re going to give it tomorrow and cnet. All right, so, so Brad, I’m going to get back to your question. Hold on one second.
Speaker 1: 14:31 So like I said, I sent this package, um, I found some stuff for um, you know, some tee shirt. Well, anyway, I’m so happy time that, I mean that’s what I love about the community. I love that. I love the coaches are talking anyway. So soup I want a picture of, of, I want a picture of him giving that um, so I can share it with the boys. I told team my team signed our poster and stuff. We’ll do a poster and stuff and they all signed it, wanted to make sure that he got it and stuff. So I definitely want a picture so I can share it with my guys. And let’s hope we play well tomorrow. I’m going back to you brad. Um, so, uh, we, I believe in the shooting, so I, first of all, there’s a, there’s a 15, almost 16 year old living in my house who has spent a lot of time.
Speaker 1: 15:17 I’m on the shooting machine. He has spent a lot of time. I’ve told them he’s a great shooter. He’s not a score yet. Shooting machine is great for repetition. There’s a couple guys in my team that just need more reps right now. So the shooting machine is good. Every second I can get them another shot. Um, so from that standpoint, I love the shooting machine. I think it’s a great way. We don’t have all the managers, we don’t have the people rebounding for kids. I’m like the opponent we play tomorrow, I think four or five shoe machines. So the haves versus the have-nots, to be honest with you. Um, but anyway, uh, there are great for getting shots up. You have to be creative, a doctor, dish in the gun and all them do really good things with drills and stuff. I know all my teachers community, I’ve got some um, some shooting drills with the machine.
Speaker 1: 16:03 I want to definitely do more with that. Um, just because how often do you get your feet square to get an open shop? I’ll on that. So the shooting machine is good for. I think it’s good for that and I also think it’s good for, uh, you asking questions too fast. I got to make sure I read them all. Um, and I also think, what was my train of thought? This is, I’m having a senior moment, although it’s great for arc to. It’s really good for art. Um, I liked it. It teaches art. Um, you can’t shoot a flat shot and, and, and, uh, and get on the shooting machine. Um, yeah, I would agree.
Speaker 1: 16:49 I would agree that, uh, that the doctor dishes the way to go. I don’t know, I think that gun is fine. I just think that Dr. Dish has more possibilities for you as far as trying to get shots up type of shots, um, locations, those kind of thing. So that’s why I like it. I’m Madelyn really bad. Glared in a, maybe it’s just because it’s the middle of February and I live in Wisconsin and um, uh, I can’t, uh, I can’t literally can’t. Um, can’t see. So everyone who is listening right now is going, what is he talking about? It’s like, well, I’m trying to do. I’m multitasking, which is I guess what a good coach does. He multitasks um, I’m trying to do facebook live. I’m trying to do zoom, I’m trying to tape it all at once and the facebook live literally looks like I’m like, I haven’t seen in a really long time.
Speaker 1: 17:52 But anyway, we’ll move on. Um, I don’t have, you know what, I wish brad asks if by having any coaching clinic setup, I don’t, you know, I’m, I’m, I’m working with Dean in our teach who’s community to try to help me get some of those. I mean, I’ve done them all over the country. I mean I’ve been on the east coast so I mean I’d like to go warm, but I’ve been all over. Um, I haven’t done any for a couple of reasons. First I started coaching volleyball because my sons are playing volleyball, so I started coaching bibles which took the fall away from me a little bit. Um, I’m going to try to do some united basketball clinics maybe this fall. Um, and then it’s like I gotta find time to kind of try to find the people say I’m available that had a um, so dean is going to maybe try to help me do that.
Speaker 1: 18:42 Um, but I don’t have any lined up right now and again, one of the reasons I started the tubes that comp because I want it to be able to give back and wanted to be able to answer questions, that kind of stuff. And I guess I can do that anywhere in the world. We have members from Australia and stuff. So, um, yeah. Um, oh, I love to come to Florida. I know. I love to come to Florida. We’re talking about spring break maybe. Um, and I forgot, todd, tell me where you are in the, in the area. But no, I just, you know, I’m going to be honest and this is going to. My wife’s getting killed. Most of the clinics I do. It’s basically costs, you know, um, my only gig is if I run one, you let me tape it. Um, and you know, you get me there and you get me home and you feed me and you know, I’m, I’m not, I’m not, I don’t do this to make a lot of money.
Speaker 1: 19:34 I just like talking to coaches. Some of the best times I’ve had a clinics to, this is no lie, um, and I’ve met some of, I met some of the best coaches in the world of law and the best one is actually not even at the clinic. It’s like, OK, the clinics over and then we go have dinner or the clinic or we have breakfast or something, and then you get like six, seven coaches. What I’d eventually like to do in, you know, I like to run, I’d like to run a meet and greet kind of thing. I’d like to run like a live event where, you know, I’ve always thought this was something for coaches where everybody, I hope you’re enjoying this show as much as I am. This was a great q and a that we had, um, just talking questions and giving me a little bit of pulling back the curtains from, uh, from coach on plug.
Speaker 1: 20:20 So go over and check it out. Um, and then, uh, this is brought to you by and I can’t talk today. This is brought to you by, um, health iq slash pcu. It’s a term life insurance company that helps health conscious people find good rates and um, go over and check them out, see if you qualify. Help us out over coach unplugged. It’s healthy slash bcu, um, to support the show in and to see if you qualify. Um, everybody should have life insurance. So let’s get back to the Qa something for coaches where it’s like a retreat. We get away for a weekend and you can, you know, we can only do so much here via, by audio. And you know, I, I, I, you know, people have questions I can definitely do that. I have, have, have the capabilities of showing you stuff too, especially for the people that are on zoom.
Speaker 1: 21:11 I don’t know about facebook live, but anyway, um, yeah, so that in my utopian world, um, OK. So Kate, where is that? South of Tampa. I again, I’m, I’m reading todd’s questions here. Um, if it is south of Tampa then you’re in warm, warm. I’m guessing you’re north of Tampa. Um, other questions? Does anybody have any in the chat? Um, or down below and let me know and, uh, we can definitely, we can definitely ask them. Um, there is one thing someone ask, let me just pull this up, especially for the people that are on people that are on the people that are on facebook live. We’re going to have to be patient, um, people that are on registered on a, the thing, um, someone asked about a low screens and how to get good kind of open movements. I think it’s really big, um, as far as getting over movements when you set the screens to get to this hash.
Speaker 1: 22:15 Um, so you really want to make sure that you’re posting up in your setting screens at that Hash. So not the block. You move yourself up. And I think this might have been Janice, again, I don’t know if this is Janice from Mike that asked this question, but anyway, um, when you set these screens, most people are down here at the, at the, at the block. You got to move up to the first hash, to the second hash and do all of your movements in that area. Um, you know, if you’ve got a really good team, you know, Wesley, he’s always told me that the hidden areas as area right down here behind the back worrying kind of get lost, um, depending on the kind of teams you have, but we, uh, we try to do a lot of our posts movements in this region right in here, which is again from the [inaudible] for those of you that are listening from the, from the block, from the first hash, the second half going toward the free throw line. Um, that’s where a lot of good things can happen as far as being able to score is about to be able to attack and giving your guards bigs, whoever’s doing it space. Um, I think that’s really important. They’ll have space bale to do that. Right? Any cool. Let me get out of this. Stop the share. Are there any other questions from people, um, that you want me to go over? Uh, you know, I can, I can basically do anything I’ve gone through all the pre given list here. Um, [inaudible] over here.
Speaker 1: 23:49 Can you give a story as to why you don’t use the whistle during practices? Yes. OK. So Brad ass, why don’t I use a whistle during practice because. All right, so this is a long. This is a long story. You know, every coach basically when they start coaching gets a whistle. That’s the first thing they get. Um, and I was, I was the, a stopwatch how to whistle when I started coaching. Um, and Ah, I quickly learned, um, I quickly learned that I wanted them to be able to. And if I, if I start moving, it’s because I’m reading and I’d in denial about having to have readers at this point. So I’m trying to read this and trying to read that. Anyway. So going back to the whistle thing, I believe that the, I want them to hear my voice. What does a whistle, what does a whistle mean?
Speaker 1: 24:42 And again with so means any game, something’s wrong. OK? So let me travel. Somebody followed somebody of that. OK? Which is fine. If that’s what you want to use. The [inaudible] I blow the whistle that they need to stop. Great. Use the whistle for that, but what I want is I want them to be able to hear my voice. They’re not going to always be able to do that, especially, um, especially in a pack gm, you know, tomorrow we’ve got a big game and places going to, I mean, they’re not going to hear someone two feet from. But if there is a voice I want them to hear, it’s my voice. So if I’m yelling something out or we don’t have any timeouts left or we need to be able to execute something, the only voice they need to hear me, um, and the other four guys on the court.
Speaker 1: 25:27 So that’s why, you know, and it gets them tune into my voice. My, you don’t have a deep voice. Excuse me. It’s a little deeper than normal because I have a cold. Um, but I want them tuned into my voice knowing what I’m doing. Um, that’s important to me. Uh, that’s why I don’t use the whistle. A, the whistle was fine. Like I said, you know, I don’t, I hate to compare him to dogs, but a dog whistle does watts, you know, it trains the dog to do specific things. Same thing with a whistle, tells him to stop, play, blah, blah blah. So if you’re using the whistle to stop, play or move, OK. Um, I have better ways to transition from drill to drill than necessarily a whistle. So what I want to do is I want to, you know, I want them to be tuned into my voice and Brad, that’s the reason I don’t use a whistle as probably the reason when I’m 75, I won’t have a voice, but I have found it to be very successful now using the whistle. So I had a heart. Here’s another question. Oops. From Whitney as I’m losing my mic. All right, hold on one second. Do you can tell this is a live video
Speaker 1: 26:48 I’m going to hold. This will make it easier. I’m trying to fix something when you’re doing a live video or audio is hard, so I’m just going to hold it, will make it do and then I will fix this later. So again, not mapped out. That’s what I love about this. Anyway. Um, I have a hard time getting my players to transition from their long day at school to getting ready to work hard and practice. What drills do you use the energy flow early at? All right. So Whitney, that’s a great question. Um, so I’ve changed on this, you know, I used to come in and um, spent a lot of time early trying to get them moving. So what I do is I give them a 10, 15 minutes of individual workout time at the beginning of practice. Um, I have found that to be good.
Speaker 1: 27:37 Like I had my bigs working with an assistant coach. I have the guys that need to get on the machine doing that. I have someone so it lets them kind of get dressed, get out of the locker room, get into what they need to get into. And then um, we transitioned. So then I then I cue them back, going back to what Brad said, don’t, don’t put any more questions though because I’m not reading fast enough. So then I transitioned back. So then they have there. So what happens is they get to see their girlfriend, they get a little snack, they get changed, they come in the gym and so they get a little bit of downtime before school, after school, which we only downtime. I mean shoot, I take it at lunch and watch parks and rec or something I don’t know. I need downtime to.
Speaker 1: 28:21 So give them a little downtime and then in that 15 minutes will not make the difference between winning and losing the next game. Trust me. And then you cue them back. So the night what I do is I gather them back together and say, all right, here’s what we’re going to do a practice. And I cue it up by saying, hey, we’re going to work on getting trapped. We’re going to work on our transition time to get to work. We’re going to keep this short and sweet in and Whitney. That really helps a lot. It does, um, it took me 20 years to figure that out, you know, why aren’t they, why aren’t they ready to pride? So I’m writing, I got my practice by and Blah, blah blah. Yes, you are, you’re the adults. And sometimes I’m not. Sometimes I need a snickers bar or soda or something to get going, but they need to be able to delete a bill which is different, you know, it is a classroom, but it is different to go to.
Speaker 1: 29:10 All right, now we’re a team, Phil, you know, I think that’s really important, but that’s a great question with me. Um, uh, who do you have lined up for future podcast or would you like to line up as who or who would you like to line up? Uh, you know, you saw who was at Lance? That’s a great question, Lance. Um, I am, you know, the future podcasts, you know, I tend to do my interviewing once the season’s over and then I cue them up for the rest of the year. If you’ve got any ideas, send me an email. I’m always open. I’m looking for people that have, that are motivational, that love basketball, that are coaches that or whatever. So, um, it’s Steve [inaudible], Steve@thewebs.com. So that’s a great question, lance, if, if there’s anybody that you would like me to try and go get, I would. I’m open. I’m, the podcast is really kind of taken off, which is excited me. I love doing it is basically talking hoops. That’s why I decided to do this three days ago. It’s like, ah, let’s do, let’s do a q and a. I got a big game tomorrow. Otherwise I’m gonna be sitting in the living room thinking about what I should have done. A practice where rather than what I did do a practice. Um, we got the. OK, so seniors, I’m reading here, so hold on.
Speaker 1: 30:38 So, but OK, so I added something about, you know, building, so moving on to next season. So Tom, those are all great questions. Um, so how do you build trust? Well here’s, this is the issue and I’m, I’m thoroughly convinced about this. You don’t build trust with your team from November to March. You build trust with your team from March to November. OK? It’s the whole winter basketball players may blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Because I gotta I gotTa be dad during the season. I got to be the hard guy. I gotta be the one that’s saying demanding that they get their time. I’m the one that’s got to say, why are you blocking out? OK, in the off-season it’s a totally different ballgame and I can, you know, I can be more, um, I can be more, you know, that and that same friend, but I can be more conducive to the discussions I can find out about their lives.
Speaker 1: 31:35 I can, I don’t have to be on. There’s a couple of things I don’t have. I literally don’t have time during the season. And then [inaudible], you know, I’m worried about the next opponent, you know, where we’re doing here, blah, blah blah. So that’s the first thing in. The second thing is, um, that’s when relationships are built there. They’re going to trust me, they’re going to run through a wall for me because they know I love them, but they’re going to find that out more in the off season and during the season. I’m todd. We can in our community or our faith in our facebook group itself. We can definitely talk about that and put that up. I’d love to put that up in our private facebook group and I’d love to see what the other coaches in our community say. I would love to see that. Um, my bags have trouble finishing through contact.
Speaker 1: 32:21 Do you have any drills? So, so Robert asked that question. Robert d you use, um, the football dummy things. So they’re big pads, um, that basically they used during football. Um, do you use those? If you don’t, you should. Every day. That’s what we, we do a lot of drill our bigs using those football dumping things and I, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, I can definitely, um, I can definitely find one, but it does show you at some point. Um, but that’s what we do there. The big, they’re like square there, you know, how they, um, they tend to be on those slides but they have individual ones that you hold and I thought, I’m sure you can buy them at like [inaudible] and stuff like that. I’ve just gotten a couple of former football staff and they’re just powering things and I, and I’m old, you know, I’m 50 plus and I’ll get in there and bang with him because I know I got that pad and unless I break a hip or something I’m going to be able to be OK.
Speaker 1: 33:17 Um, but anyway, so, uh, Amazon has those pads, branches set. Amazon is as pens. Yeah. Amazon to be better than tends to be expensive. My personal opinion anyway, I don’t know Dick Stock so I don’t really care. But uh, so yes, they’re really good. And Brad, I don’t know if you use them, but I’m a big fan. I’m all right. Other questions if you can honestly believe so. It’s almost nine isn’t nine something I’ve even eaten dinner yet so I practice it or my kids around blah blah blah. Um, so I, I know we have people on facebook live, we have people on our, our um, I’m going to try to send the people that missed it. I’m this, but, uh, if you have, now I’m going to tell you something in, in todd who’s over here can tell you the teacher whose communities great or growing, um, I’m getting to the point where I’m going to have to hire some help because it’s growing so fast and I can’t respond and get to people. I want to be able to like help todd when he sends me an email or, or bob or harmony. Well, whoever, whoever sends me an email, I want to be able to respond very quickly so I have to give her some room to some of the other stuff. So prices are going to be going up. It’s great. I can’t, I mean, it’s a great community. Um, it, it’s, the prices are going to be going up substantially. Um, what’s your ideal tech technique for catching and shooting?
Speaker 1: 34:55 Yeah, I like that he’s asking. I’ve been doing the attack. The pass. Yeah, I like that. You know, there’s w, W we, w we’d have to do that in another one bread because there’s a whole different, there’s whole step shooter. Are you hop shooter, you know, in which progression do you go? Um, I think it’s super important to be able to have the hands up and to be able to be, to be able to catch in that manner. Um, that would be a great idea for podcasts. Maybe we’ll put that for a lesson. Um, but anyway, so I’m going to the facebook live. People can watch here, just listen for a second. Especially the people that are, are listening here. Um, I’m going to show one thing. I got pull it up.
Speaker 1: 35:41 That’s what I want. This is what I want. Um, so what I was saying before, you know, I don’t remember whose I pulled up, I think I pulled up deans teach hoops.com thing, but there is so much stuff in this. Um, like I said, we’re probably going to be increasing. We’re in 19.99 a month. It’s like 12 or 14 bucks for a month. If you go for a year, I’m telling you right now, you will not find a better deal. It’s not only, it’s not only the stuff like the, the amount of videos we’ve got on here, you know, I’m doing a bunch of stuff on reading react because a bunch of our members have been asking about it. So I’ve been doing a lot with reading react. Um, we have office hours every month, so I put all the old office hours. You can see all the old office hours are loaded in their plays and drills, your practice plans, there’s pratts plans upon practice plans.
Speaker 1: 36:33 Um, you cannot like all, my goodness, look at all these practice plans in here. If you’re watching this, it’s just a great thing. And then the video library alone, it’s worth it. You know, you’re going to spend 29, 39 bucks just for one DVD. There’s hundreds of hours of video on defensive lessons, rebounding, offensive lessons. I can’t imagine how long it would take to get through everything. So, um, and then we have, like I was telling, talking with todd about, we have this private facebook group where, you know, the discussions, then that’s why I told him, come back over and put your stuff in here because this is where we talk, you know, this is where you can kind of see that we can advocate or bouncing ideas off each other. It’s a great community. So go over and check it out. It’s a 14 day free trial.
I think it’s a great deal. It’s, you know, it’s the way I was trying to reach out to more people. Um, I think at the end of this month, prices are going to increase substantially. I’m 25 to 50 percent for a couple reasons. I want to make sure people are really dedicated. They’re in it. Um, people that are already in our grandfather like Tottenham [inaudible] worry about is price going up. Um, so if you’re thinking about it, I would recommend it. Do it now, before, later. I’m in, you know, it’s a great gig. All right. Um, all right, any other questions from any of the other coaches? I’m todd. We’re going to have an office hour next Sunday isn’t my guess. I’m maybe this Sunday. Um, so if you’re listening, um, and again, if you’re thinking of joining the bits that come, I, I think you’ll love it, but again, I’m biased.
Speaker 1: 38:20 So, um, all right everybody have a great admin and uh, thanks for joining me. I’m going to try to send a replay for the people that signed up. I didn’t get everybody’s email address but I’m definitely going to try to sign, send to send a link so you can watch some of this stuff and todd can say we do a lot of x’s and o’s stuff in our, in our, um, in our office hours more than this. So I’m, have a great evening everybody and hopefully stay warm. Talk soon. Bye. Bye everybody. I hope you enjoyed that. Please go over and check out the www.teachhoops.com for coaches who want to get better. I’m, like I said, the prices are going to be increasing. I think it will be a great thing for you and your staff. like I said we are going to be increasing prices so I can, I can hire some people to help me.teachhoops.com is growing, it’s growing that’s a great thing because a lot of coaches out there helping other coaches. have a great week.

Eating for Performance Training Basketball / Power Granola Bar

Eating for Performance Training Basketball / Power Granola Bar

Eating For Performance:Training
Fruits & Vegetables
• Eat 2 different colored vegetables AND 2 different colored fruits per day- Have > 5-6 servings from these groups per day.
• Eat a salad at least 4-5x/week. Added bonus – Use Extra Virgin Olive Oil to boost healthy fat content
• Try 1 new vegetable or fruit every 2-3 weeks.
• Frozen vegetables/fruits are usually as high of quality as fresh ones & much cheaper
Protein
• Aim for 0.6-lg/lb/day
• Red meat and eggs (yolks) are HEALTHY
• Unless dairy allergies/intolerances are present or you have chosen a vegetarian lifestyle for personal reasons, select a whey protein powder post workout
Dietary Fats
• Aim for 0.3-0.5g/lb/day
• Realize that dietary fats DO NOT cause fat gain on their own
• Healthy sources include avocado, olive oil, peanuts/natural peanut butter, nuts (almonds, etc).
• Use Butter, NOT Margarine
• Avoid the following vegetable oils: Corn, Cottonseed, Soy
Fluids
• Best Bets – Milk, Water
• Be mindful of fruit juices & Sport Drinks They can be sugar bombs. If consumed, try to make sure it’s 100% fruit juice & consume close to the workout time period. Sport Drinks (Gatorade,) often not needed
• Avoid – Soda; Really Avoid —Alcohol (impairs post exercise muscle recovery, dehydration issues, etc)
• Realize energy drinks (Monster, Red Bull, etc) =/= sport beverages (Gatorade, etc). Keep sport beverage consumption only around

Power Granola Bars

2 cups rolled oats
½ cup crushed walnuts
½ cup unpacked raisins (2 oz)
4 tbsp. whole fax seed
4 scoops vanilla whey
2 tbsp. honey
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. vanilla extract
¾ cup of maple syrup

Directions:
1. In a large bowl combine the oats, walnuts, flax seeds, raisins and whey.
2. Add the honey, syrup, vanilla and salt. Stir until everything is thoroughly mixed. At first, it will seem too dry, but continue stirring and it will blend.
3. Coat a clean, dry 8×8 inch baking dish with olive oil cooking spray, then press the mixture in the bottom of the dish. The mixture should extend to all corners evenly, and It should be about 1-inch thick. You can also use a smaller baking dish for thicker and chewier bar.
4. Bake at 350 degrees fro 10-12 minutes.

Top Portable Basketball Hoops

Top Portable Basketball Hoops

Top Portable Basketball Hoops

We’ve spent time blogging about our gear (socks, shoes) and once you look good you need to be able to play. Of course, to do that… you need a hoop! Because of affordability I am looking at portable hoops only; you’re more than welcome to search for in-ground hoops ($400+)

Spalding 54” Angled Portable Backboard System w/ Starter Pack.: According to google this is their best seller and can be purchased for around $200 at Wal-Mart. Spalding products are durable, strong, and weather well. This pack is one of the best out there; easy to move as well.

Aosom 10′ Adjustable Height Indoor / Outdoor Portable Basketball Hoop: Much, much more affordable at just $142 or so, but this hoop reflects the price in its durability. The Aosom hoop doesn’t have as big of a backboard; it is also not as durable. It is nice to have wheels to roll easily around. Great hoop to shoot around and play small games on, but not a lot more.

Spalding NBA 68395R Portable Basketball Hoop with 54 Inch Polycarbonate Backboard: One of the more expensive hoops that I’m willing to put on here at $275, but portable and strong. Three poles make this hoop, adjustable from 7.5-10 feet, breakaway rim. Also has a free pole pad. If you know you’re going to be lowering/raising the hoop for dunks or for a youth to shoot.. This is the way to go.

Aosom 10′ Clear Acrylic Adjustable Height Indoor / Outdoor Portable Basketball Hoop B6-000: Another Aosom hoop, a little bit stronger/sturdier than the cheaper version. This one comes in around $170+. As I mentioned it’s sturdier, has a better backboard, and is more stable than the other hoop. Also has wheels to roll around and move when needed.

Spalding Vault 44″ Portable Basketball Hoop Blue/Orange: $200. Not like the other Spalding hoop posted a little above but reliable and strong. Another adjustable hoop from 7.5-10 feet. Features a breakaway rim, easy to adjust the rim and move the hoop. Blue/orange color theme so if you’re worried about looks as well, this could sway or push you away!

Lifetime Pro Courtside 48″ Portable Basketball System with Basketball: $185. Like most appears to be sturdy and strong. Doesn’t have some of the other features like the breakaway rim/adjustable. Will still be strong and fun to shoot on for hours.

Lifetime 1221 Pro Court Height Adjustable Portable Basketball System, 44 Inch Backboard: $110! $40 off on amazon right now and an adjustable hoop, sturdy, strong rim. Backboard is cheap but works for the price and especially for younger kids. If you have young kids and are working to get them to play; I would strongly consider this hoop because of the price and benefits!

Spalding NBA “The Beast” Portable Basketball System – 60″ Glass Backboard: Just kidding. $1000+. I mean if you can afford it, just click the link and see why you’d want it.

Top Basketball Socks

Top Basketball Socks

If you’re anything like most players; you’re a freak about your feet. Shoes and socks have to be perfect; we covered shoes recently, so next is socks. I’ve gone through many different types of socks for different reasons (running marathons requires the right sock and more to fight off blisters). Basketball is the same way!

We will not cover all the types of socks, but I will try to pick a few to focus on from the different sizes.

Ankle/Quarter:
NBA Logoman: Most reviews show this sock as extremely comfortable and easy to wear. (Ever tried to put on a sock that sticks to your feet or bunches up? Logoman doesn’t do that!) The best part is how thick the sock is and how that saves your feet from those blisters we all get especially in workouts/practices early in the season.

Jordan Low Quarter:  Durable, athletic, wicking, protection for your feet from blisters. Extremely efficient low sock that people seem to love for the reasons above. One drawback: rather expensive as most Jordan brand appears to be.

Crew Socks:
Asics Resolution Crew Sock: There seems to be a little bit of blowback on feedback of this sock because people bought sizes that were too small. Know this but do not be turned off to this sock! Buy bigger and enjoy one of the more underrated socks on the basketball market. Asics is primarily a running product and the socks are tighter as such. Basketball players initially aren’t used to how tight these socks can be, so again, BUY BIGGER! Despite this, Asics knows plenty about wicking, blisters, and toe protection. I’ve used these to run and also just grabbed and used them as basketball socks and were pleasantly surprised at the different forces and how they’re able to handle. Don’t be afraid to experiment with Asics and basketball!

Nike Elite Crew Dri-Fit Basketball Sock Review: One of the most popular sport socks on the market and for good reason. Handles sweat easily, thick and durable, good fit. Nike is built off basketball so their products normally are able to handle more than other brands. These socks are no different and seem to be one of Nike’s most trusted and popular brands.

Over the Calf:
Thorlo B-15s: Over the calf socks aren’t dead; they’re probably going to make a major comeback soon, as a matter of fact. (I don’t actually know or anticipate this) A lot of us wore socks like this in the late 90s/early 2000s because they looked cool. The Thorlo doesn’t really look cool at all, but it is extremely solid basketball sock. You will not find a thicker sock than these, so if sweat wicking is your major concern then probably not for you. That being said, if blisters are a concern and don’t mind hiking a bland sock over your calf; then these are for you!

UA Over-The-Calf-Team Sock: Little more flashy than the Thorlo’s and not nearly as thick. These socks are flashy (bright colors) and more wicking protection as well. The socks help evaporation more quickly than other socks. Arch support to help your feet and UA has a special block that protects your feet from those nasty basketball odors. Another great sock to check out.

I know I didn’t cover 10 socks, but several options at each length should be plenty to find a great sock or dig a tad deeper into another sock. Nike, Jordan, UA and Adidas are the most well known brands but don’t forget about Asics and even Thorlo depending on the length of sock you prefer.

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Shot Clock : My Open Letter to the WIAA, Board of Control and WBCA

High School Shot Clock

My Open Letter to the WIAA and Board of Control.

( Video of this open Letter…Click HERE)

There has been much change in High School basketball over the last 30 years and I am old enough to know that change is inevitable and can be good for the game of basketball. The three point line was put into the game to spread the floor, give more scoring opportunities and make it a less physical game. Another example is when Wisconsin basketball changed from quarters to halves to expand opportunities for players at all competition levels. These changes make sense and have been good for the game.

Currently, there is a movement for our state to implement a shot clock at the high school level. I am not sure what the reasoning behind this movement. Here are my concerns:

1. Why are we changing? Do we want the high school game to be more like the college game (in which only 1% of our athletes will participate in) or the NBA game?
2. Is the delay game that evident at the high school level? If so, what is wrong with a team playing at a much slower pace?
3. What is this change doing for the game of basketball?
4. I think high school basketball is a unique sport in which athletes can play different styles and systems. Because of shot clock at the collegiate level, you do not see multiple systems being played. Is the goal for all the games to be the same?
5. Who is going to pay for this state mandated expense, not only for the implementation of the clock, but the hiring of a qualified person to run it at all the games?
6. What is the rush and why haven’t more states added this to their game?
7. How accurate are the surveys that have been sent by the WBCA? As a statistics teacher, I believe an unbiased survey is simple, short and with non-leading and biased questions. Is the WIAA and WBCA now in the habit of getting student input?
8. Is this best for the game at all levels? Will players be able to create and score when the shot clock is winding down?
9. Why and How are we going to implement this for the LOWER LEVELS?
10. How do the officials feel about this at the high school level?

I have heard very few solid arguments for the reason behind implementing a shot clock. People have said that than it is exciting, players want it and it will stop the “boring” games. Is this a reason for change?

I would ask that the Board of Control table the motion and further investigate the “need” for a shot clock

Thank you

Steve Collins

Cut Throat and Defense

Cut Throat Drill/Defense and Competition
You will need more than one for this drill, coachmarket.net shows a great example here of a nice drill with just four. He also explains that you can do this drill up to 5 on 5, so set it up how you’d like! 2 points for offensive rebounds, 3 points for taking a charge, 1 point for making a shot, 1 point for running the offense, and maybe my favorite (arguing or fouling a point goes to the other team), turnovers and the other team gets 2 points!
The rules alone put a great emphasis and focus on the drill. Defensive rebounds kill teams (watch the NBA Playoffs or any game ever), they extend possessions, give you more chances to score, draw fouls, limit the other team’s possessions and so on. Offensive rebounds are HUGE to get and backbreakers to give up. Coaches always want their teams to play great position and help defense, taking charges is an emphasis here. It creates a turnover and draws a foul elsewhere. Notice you only get one point for making a shot, the same amount you get for running the offense. Again, it shows where the emphasis is, take care of the basketball, rebound misses, and then score!
The drill is called “Cut Throat” because if the whistle doesn’t blow, you keep playing. How often do you think fouls are called? Coach runs the drill based on emphasis and in different situations: offense, quick hitters, out of bounds, zone offense. Think of the possibilities in your own practices! You could even stretch the drill to fast break, secondary break, and so on. The whole key to the drill is to create competition, focus on defense, take care of the basketball, and call it the way you’ve been or anticipate being officiated.
You can also do this drill with a small group of your friends, as a kid. This helps play through fouls, create competition, and more importantly.. Learn there’s more to basketball than scoring! Coaches year after year, play kids that can’t score because they crash the glass and defend. If you’re watching the finals, take a look at Tristan Thompson for the Cavs.. Andrew Bogut and even Draymond Green for the Warriors; these guys would excel at this drill.. And guess what: They all make 10+ million and don’t really score a whole lot!

Top Basketball Coaching Websites

Top Basketball Coaching Websites

Coaching Websites
Brought to you by teachhoops.com

I didn’t make this list into a top 10 per se, because I’ve used all these sites multiple times. At the same time, I do have favorites on the list depending on what I’m looking for. Most of the time I search, it’s for drills. Occasionally, I’ll search for an area we’ve struggled (a certain zone press, sets off of a certain man-to-man defense). These sites reflect that perspective.

Teachhoops.com: I have to start with my site.  I started in 5 years ago to give back to coaches who were looking to win more game, in less time with a fun mentor.  It is a full mentoring site that is valuable resource for coaches at any level. Weekly newsletter, mini-lessons. full length coaching videos, online community, office hours and much more…14 day free trial.  Check it out today you will not be disappointed

FIBA Coaching Online: Excellent website with drills and plenty of “international” views of the game. Contains videos to drills and plays. We’ve used several of the defensive drills in our practices. I’m a huge fan of the basketball exercises page as well as their “Basketball for Younger Players” free downloadable book.

Coaches Clipboard: Website feels a little clunky, but the information available is almost overwhelming. I’ve used this a ton for different types of drills to give some variety to our workouts. We have our base drills, and we work on other drills as needed based on our team that year. This site is a great resource to find drills that you hadn’t thought of or ways to adapt drills you regularly use.

FunctionalBasketball: This is a site with some pay material, but I’ve used it for the blog posts and maybe the most underrated portion “quotes”. We start every practice with a quote or a Bible verse (I coach at a Lutheran school). That quote is our focus for the day and in part a larger focus for the week or part of the season we’re at. The drills are great, but the quotes are my favorite part of the site.

HoopThoughts: I don’t know if I have ever used this site for drills; I’ve used it a ton for concepts and knowledge, however. The blog is run by A+M coach, Bob Starkey. Starkey blogs about concepts, motivation, and other odds and ends. Truly a great read for coaches and parents alike. Share this blog with your parents to start a season. I encourage you to check out the topics “culture” “leadership” “motivation” and “team building” some of my favorite blogs some from these sections.

Hoopscoop: I linked this to the basketball plays section because it’s my favorite portion of the site (last updated with March Madness plays). There are a lot of great one hitters in here that can be built into your offensive schemes. The site includes stories, drills (hasn’t been updated since 2014) and updated clinic notes.

Teachhoops.com: A full mentoring site that is valuable resource for coaches at any level. Yes I mentioned this earlier in the list but it is the ONE stop shop for every basketball coach

YouTube: Looking for something quick and don’t have time to search or want more than just a diagram? Check YouTube for tons of videos to individual instruction or offensive/defensive concepts with a video. We’ve used YouTube after games or practices to quickly see what we can find; it’s kind of like Wikipedia to me. Find a base of knowledge then explore it further using other websites. Be aware, however, of the flash individual instructional videos with all the and-1 moves that don’t do anything for you on the court. Steer clear!

If looking for Basketball “stuff” make sure to check out HoopsKing

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John Wooden’s First Lesson

John Wooden’s First Lesson

John Wooden was born in Martinsville, IN, one of four sons. He started playing basketball in elementary school. His coach was also his school principal, a man of stern but warm character. Each day before practice (their court was outside, beneath tall maple and oak trees) Wooden and the other players had to pick up sticks and rocks, to clear the court for play. The basketball they used was a large rubber bladder which barely fit inside a leather shell, such that after a few minutes of use the players had to take out the bladder, blow it back up with their own lungs, then squeeze it back inside the leather.

Ironically, this led to the team utilizing an uptempo practice, for the secret was to get the bladder in the ball and use it in as many repetitions as possible, before the ball would empty again. Whoever held it at the time had to blow it up–hence, the need to make quick passes to others.

When Wooden was later inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame (he was the first person to be inducted into the HOF 2-X, first as player, then as coach), Wooden said his remarkable ballhandling skills were in part due to the fact he had a learn how to dribble an oblong-shaped ball that lost air on rocks, sticks and in the holes of his outside court in elementary school.

The first lesson Wooden learned in basketball happened at this same elementary school. He never forgot it; in fact, it became a cornerstone of his own coaching years later, at UCLA, when his teams won an astonishing 10 National Championships.

Wooden was the star of his elementary school basketball team. One day he forgot to bring his uniform to school when he left his farmhouse in the morning. Then, after school, he decided he would not walk home to get it. Instead, he would play dumb when it came time to play that evening’s basketball game. As the game neared, Wooden fessed to his coach that he did not have his uniform. Expecting that the coach would feel some sort of sympathy for him as the star, or at least have a strong desire to win that night’s game with him at the helm, Wooden was pleased when his coach asked the worst kid on the team, “Do you have your uniform for tonight’s game?” When that kid answered yes, Wooden expected his coach to tell him to let Wooden wear his unform that night. Instead, Wooden received the shock of his young life, when the coach said, instead: “Good, because you will play for Johnny tonight.”

Wooden’s face fell. He took off sprinting to his house, and back, arriving in uniform just seconds before the game started. But his teachable moment was not over. His coach said to him, “I am sure you are tired, so sit down.” Wooden sat there, watching his team lose the game, knowing it was his fault.

The 2 lessons he learned that day, are these: 1) The player is not above the team. 2) As a coach, the bench is your friend.

Terry Boesch is a teacher in Martinsville, IN (home of John Wooden), and also coaches girls basketball. Feel free to email him at terryboesch@gmail.com, or call/text at 317-643-6042

Things I Don’t Coach Anymore (Stop the Slide)

Things I Don’t Coach Anymore (Stop the Slide)

Let me ask you a question as fellow-coach: How do we think our defense player is going to move as fast sliding sideways, as his approaching dribbling offense player is going to move sprinting toward him?

I have watched 100+ coaches teach players to shuffle side-to-side on defense. That this is somehow going to “close the door” to the basket for a penetrating offense player on the dribble. I confess, for 25-years I repeated this same mantra to my players. But why? Because I assumed every coach had to say it this way. Not a good reason.

This is now the second thing I no longer teach on Defense–to shuffle-step left and right to stop an offense player from penetrating the ball. To be sure, we should teach our defense player to position his legs wide, and square, in front of the offense player, on the hope this deters him from going around us. But after that, then what? Our human bodies are MADE to sprint forward, not to slide to the side.

Two seasons ago I began to de-emphasize shuffling, and to teach instead an inside-full leg step around method to get in front of an offense player who has gotten around us. It is difficult to explain in words, but easier to see demonstrated on the court. After a couple tries, most players get it, though still some want to revert to their old coaching, and slide.

I call it the Step-Around move.

The player on defense, if beaten to the outside, takes a full step with his inside leg in the direction of the offense player. At the same time he swings his hip and upper body around, planting that foot straight behind him in the direction where the offense player is moving, i.e., toward the basket. Then when he takes his next step, and lands it too on the floor behind him, he immediately pivots on that foot toward the offense player. This results in his body being in a solid defense position between the offense player and the basket. It also happens so quick that I have seen a number of offense players take a charge running into our defensive player.

If the offense player goes to our right, we step around with our left leg; if he goes to our left, we step around with our inside leg. Give it a try, see what you think.

P.S. In this photograph I include, you can tell the green defense player is beaten. She tried to slide her right foot over to get in front of the offense player; it did not work. So now the green player is totally beaten, with no ability to recover.

Terry Boesch is a teacher in Martinsville, IN (home of John Wooden), and also coaches girls basketball. Feel free to email him at terryboesch@gmail.com, or call/text at 317-643-6042

Fixing My Error on Defense (What I Dont Teach anymore as Coach)

Coaching is a learning profession. The coach who humbles himself to learn, will grow. The one who fossilizes himself around fixed points, especially of his own imagination, will not.

Here is 1 thing I no longer teach on basketball defense. First, let me say, growing up in Indiana I thought this rule was inviolable, like the 11th Commandment in the Bible. I share this with you, to ask you to think about it yourself (if you still teach this?). Also, to ask you to share something on defense that you no longer teach as a basketball coach. I almost feel like I need to apologize to Coach Bob Knight for saying this,..

Here it is. I no longer teach “Denial” of the pass to the player one-pass away from the player with the ball. I think it fair to say that every coach in America has told his players on defense, I know I have, many times, when coaching the Defense Shell Drill, “WE must do 3 things: We must Stop Penetration, We must Deny the Pass to the player one-pass away, and We must play Helpside Defense.” To paraphrase Meatloaf, “2 outta 3 aint bad,” for the first and last points are true. But the second? I dont think so. Here is why.

As a matter of logic we should never as coaches expect our players to do that which is impossible for them to do. Watch any basketball game, at any level, and you will see it is impossible to deny the pass from the player at top of key to either wing player of his choice, or vice versa. If they want to make the pass, they will make it, even if the player without the ball has to circle high above the 3-pt line to get it, or go way out on the wing for the catch. Truth is, that pass WILL be made 95% of the time. Thus it cannot be “denied.” We are creating frustration and unreasonable expectations in our players’ minds when we scream out to them, “Deny the pass!” when it simply cant be done. To deny means to prevent, stop and render impossible. It is impossible to stop the pass from being made.

More importantly, there are at least TEN (10) times where we WANT the other team to make the pass! In these instances, we should never deny it, but instead, ENCOURAGE it.

For example, we never want to deny passes that move the ball away from the basket; passes to players standing outside their shooting range; passes when the other team is inside the final 5 seconds of a shot clock; passes to the corner, where we can trap the player; passes East & West that accomplish nothing, and which dont hurt us; passes into the post where we can quickly double-team the post player from high and low (stripping the ball); passes from their best ballhandler to a lesser dribbler; passes from their best shooter to a weaker shooter; passes to a player with a low Free throw shooting % near the end of a half or game; passes to any player on the other team who is their #7-8-9-10 on the bench.

We should never Deny these passes–we should ENCOURAGE them. Why?

This is why now I teach “Stop, Steal and Sag” on Defense. The Stop means to stop penetration, while the Sag means to play helpside defense (just like we were always taught). The Steal however means that I place my best, quickest defenders (with best judgment), out on the points of our defense at the high-elbow/3-pt line area on the court (where their best players are positioned). There I teach my players to lay back far enough away from their player to entice a pass (which also helps block penetration lanes), but close enough to steal the ball once it is in the air. I teach players to read the eyes, and body language, of passers. They never lie. I also reinforce to players that as coach I will never blame them if they go for the steal, but come up short. But I will hold them accountable if they go for the ball with less than full intentionality and speed. In other words, the worst thing a player can do is kinda, sorta go for a steal, while still trying to play it “safe.” It is all-in, or nothing. We spend time in practice on how to steal a ball, and how to deflect it. But I also teach, “If you are going for the steal, I better see you flying to get it, at all costs!. For there are no half-steals in basketball.”

Again, my apologies to Coach Knight. But I think “Deny the ball” is impossible to do, is unwise to do in at least 10 instances, and in approximately 4-6 times per game we can steal it–if we read the body language well and truly throw ourselves into it.

So, what do you no longer teach on Defense that you once did as coach?

“Terry Boesch is a teacher in Martinsville, IN (home of John Wooden), and also coaches girls basketball. Feel free to email him at terryboesch@gmail.com, or call/text at 317.643-6042