Summer Basketball: 10 Team Bonding Options

Summer Basketball: 10 Team Bonding Options

For many High School programs across the country, summer basketball stands filled usually with team camps, summer games and individual workouts. Many view summer as the ideal time to work on your basketball weaknesses and turn them into strengths. As such, most coaches and trainers put individual development as a top priority. This might involve strengthening their athletes’ off hands, increasing their shooting range or improving their physical strength and athletic ability. The goal evolves quickly to make as many improvements as possible before school starts.

With so much emphasis and concentration on developing top notch athletes, some coaches often neglect the importance of strengthening the overall team chemistry. The summer can often make or break a high school team and while I agree that individual development is extremely important, I’m convinced that coaches should also give equal attention to the meshing and bonding of their team.

Summer Basketball: The Perfect Time for Team Bonding

One common myth is that team chemistry is best built during the spring because it allows the kids to interact everyday with each other at school. However, there are many others that argue this is not true. Here are two reasons why the summer may be the best time of the year to develop team chemistry:

  • Because school is out, many of the everyday distractions such as homework, teenage social drama and “non teammate” friends will be out of sight and out of mind.
  • Summer is also a time when it is easier for your athletes to view you and your staff as being coaches and friends who have their best interest at heart rather than teachers and authority figures. In other words, kids seem to bond better and quicker in more relaxed atmospheres.

10 Options for Team Bonding

Because of the current economy, many coaches are hesitant to promote team bonding with the use of expensive activities may prevent some athletes from participation. Here are several inexpensive yet fun and effective activities that you and your team can do this summer.

  1. Overnight camping trip
  2. Team hike
  3. Day on the river or lake
  4. Pizza Party and watch the big game (NBA playoffs, Major League baseball, World Cup soccer, WNBA)
  5. Video game competition
  6. Conduct a clinic or summer camp for younger kids
  7. Play city league softball or soccer
  8. Movies
  9. Frisbee Golf
  10. Service project for boosters (yard work, painting, hauling debris)

The possibilities here are endless. The important thing is to spend some time together and to have fun. Guaranteed it will pay off next winter!


Related: Are You Sabotaging Your Players’ Success?


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Summer Basketball Prep Work

Summer Basketball Prep Work

The season is over and spring workouts are starting to commence. It’s now time to start thinking about your Summer Basketball plans. As your players ease into their time off from school, summer stands out as the perfect opportunity to improve their game. It’s never too early to prep for next season!

As you prepare for the next season, it’s important to remember every other team will be doing the same. Communicate to your players that teams are planning and working towards defeating them on the floor. It’s up to them to be ready for the next challenge. Urge them not to wait until the next school year. Definitely tell them not to wait until September to physically prepare. Impress upon them the value of being the person that’s going to work harder than everyone else to improve. Your journey starts with summer basketball prep, so ignore the noise, embrace the grind, and love the challenge!

Consider these elements to help streamline the summer basketball prep work and to help have a great off-season.

Returning Opponent Data

Our staff loves to go through our upcoming opponents for next season and start gathering data on them. Summer is a great time to start this basketball scouting work. We look at their previous season record, returning players and starters. We also look at offensive average and defensive average.

By doing this, we consider what the strengths and weaknesses of our opponents are. This helps us think about the main question of our program: What do we have to do to be better than our opponents?

The answer to that question will help dictate what we focus on starting in our summer basketball practices.

Promote Basketball Summer Camp

The youth/feeder program is the lifeline of any successful high school program. It is important to have these upcoming athletes coming into your gym.

There are a variety of ways to run a summer basketball camp, but the most important thing is to find one that best fits you and your players schedules. With this ever-changing world, it is important to have all hands on deck. If your school requires service hours for their students, using your players as counselors for the youth summer basketball camp might fill that graduation requirement for them. It also keeps them busy and in the gym!

After locking in a date for your camp, promote it! Get into the schools to talk to your future campers, create a YouTube video, promote on social media, do whatever it takes to get as many people in the gym as possible.

Schedule Summer Basketball Games & Practices

This is something that needs to be done with your high school athletes, but you may want to even consider doing practices and games with your middle school athletes, too. Communication is key at either level, especially with parents. Make your expectations clear for the involvement with summer basketball work in your program.

Chat with your returning players about their schedules, get a feel on where they’d like to play games, and find ways to make these as fun but as cost effective as possible. Find local games against your local high school opponents but also consider an out-of-town trip to bring about some extra bonding with your team.

In addition to practicing with your high school players, find time to get into the gym with your middle school players, too. They can start to hear your voice, hear your philosophies, and start prepping them to be part of the high school program.

Overnight Summer Basketball Camp Trip

If possible, find a team summer basketball camp that is out of town. Get a hotel and find some activities to enjoy as a team. Take your players to cities they have never been to. Partake in activities they’ve never done (escape rooms, billiards, bowling, etc.). Eat at restaurants they haven’t been to, and play games against opponents they otherwise may never see.

These activities provide valuable team building opportunities that will strengthen the bonds between players and coaches. Summer basketball trips often create life-long friendships and memories that your players will cherish.

If you have some players with aspirations of attending college to play basketball, find schools they may be interested in attending after high school.

10K Shot Club

Motivate your players to get shots up on their own. As all high school coaches know, you can never have enough shooting. Encourage your players to log their shot attempts and track this. Reward them in the fall with prizes, recognition, food, whatever it may be. Do a shooting program not only for your high school athletes but your feeder athletes, too.

Summer basketball work is important for any high school program. It is essential that you are maximizing your time and make sure your program is in a great position to have success in the upcoming season!

Related: Basketball Conditioning

Resources:

Coach Unplugged Podcast:

Ep: 1069 How to Evaluate Yourself and Players in the Summer

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Summer Basketball (Avoid the Drought)

Summer Basketball (Avoid the Drought)

With the sweltering heat of the summer months on the horizon. The fear of drought can overtake even the best of teams. And only the vital summer rain can keep the fields fresh and the crops growing. Young basketball players are no different, especially freshmen. But the rain that they require to grow is in the form of experience and guidance, provided by veteran players and coaches. A drought can strike a young player or team at anytime and in many forms. Even a brief lack of focus and dedication can be huge dangers to a young crop, especially during summer basketball.

Summer Basketball

Bad habits can also be a form of drought, which can quickly spread throughout the team if not addressed early. It can be something as simple as a poor diet, or something as complex as not properly grasping an advanced scheme. These bad habits can be compared to stubborn weeds that consistently appear in a yard or garden. Pulling them up is only a temporary solution, and the only way to be rid of them completely is to destroy the source beneath the surface.

It’s also extremely important to make a list of these bad habits as soon as they pop up. Even after they’re addressed and eliminated. Writing each one down makes them far less likely to forget about. Including when, where, why, and how they occurred. Just like the famous George Santayana quote: “Those who do not remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.” In contrast, be sure to list all the good habits as well, which can just the same be easily forgotten.

Lastly, it’s also a helpful suggestion to have all players write down their individual “Max-Out” Shooting numbers (from “Spring” Blog) as they progress throughout the summer. As the preseason gets closer, it’s best to have those numbers as accurate as possible. At this point, all routines and regiments should be carved in stone. Most players are creatures of habit, and the product of every summer break should be a strict “Game Day” and “Off Day” schedule to be followed in detail for the rest of the year. And with these details established, it’s time to tip off another preseason.

Related: Summer Team Basketball Work

Resources:

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Summer Team Basketball Work

Summer Team Basketball Work

As we continue to address the topic of summer, I find it’s time to start talking how the improvement happens for a player in the summer. First, you have to understand that many other steps have to be in place before summer begins for the biggest improvement to happen. There is still a lot of effort that needs to be made on the coach’s part to make growth happen. Here is my pre-summer checklist, note these actions can happen right now if needed.

Summer Team Basketball Work

1. Player Evaluation with an End of Year Meeting

I believe development is at its strongest when supported and guided by coaches. Take the time to meet with your players after the season. Talk about what skills they need to work on, but also enhance the strengths that possess.

2. Schedule available times throughout the summer for players to work on their game.

Society and the game has changed so much. You hardly see players working on their games in their driveways or the local parks. Players tend to do things when organized for them. Create a calendar that players can see in the advance so they can plan with their parents on to make time for getting better.

3. Workout Resources

You need to provide workout for your players. I have developed my own and used others in the past. Please email me if you need workout resources

4. Summer Camp

When I was Varsity coach, I ran a camp early in June. During that time, I took the time to teach the players the workouts during the camp. The rest of summer, I provided gym times to do the workouts on weekly basis three times a week.

5. Less emphasis on games more dedication on getting better.

Some players will play more than 40 games in the summer if they play the AAU circuit. Players need to understand that games will only help your game in small amounts, but direct workouts of basketball skills is where development happens. You can’t be a great shooter by just playing games. It takes repetition just like any other skill in basketball.

6. Develop a culture of hard work and improvement

At my end of the season, I tried to highlight the players who improved the most from the previous season. Usually, it’s those players who committed to the summer are the ones making the gains.

For example, I had player who told me at the end of his junior season, he was going to score 1,000 points in his career. I said, “You will have score more than 500 points in one season.” We worked together to make this goal happen. He learned to create his own shot with learning how to be a rim attacker. His growth is one of many stories I share with players and parents about the importance of getting better.

Your team is only as strong as its weakest player.

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Basketball: Remember the Dream

Basketball: Remember the Dream

Basketball: Remember the Dream

We’ve all heard expecting parents talk proudly about the dreams they have for their child or children on the way. They’ll say things like: “My son’s gonna play for the Yankees” or “My daughter’s gonna play for UConn”. Even before a child is born, the foundation of lofty dreams and expectations are already being laid. However, there is no box labeled “Dreams” on any birth certificate. Perhaps if there was such a box, it would feature 3 choices: “Dream Big”, “Dream Small”, or “No Dream”.

Of course, life doesn’t work that way. But it would be an interesting experiment to find out how parents would answer that question. What about coaches? Would any parent or coach have a mind to select “Dream Small”, or even worse, “No Dream”? When confronted with such blunt options, it’s unlikely, but not inconceivable. In reality, it’s not so obvious. But in many ways, parents and coaches convey these negative outlooks everyday. In most cases, without even realizing.

By not creating a culture of dreaming big and chasing those dreams, we’re consequently creating an opposite culture of mediocrity, and either dreaming small or not dreaming at all.

Ironically, we’re all completely equipped at birth to dream and achieve anything. But parents rarely encourage their children to dream passed a certain age. Yes, genetics does determine our physical makeup overall, but the heart and mind are virtually an empty canvas just waiting to be painted. Unfortunately, many parents often fear the thought of handing their children that proverbial paint brush, and daring them to dream big. In looking to spare their children the pain of failure and rejection.

In actuality, can send them on a path that’s far more likely to lead to mediocrity, and often more failure and rejection than if they’d encouraged them to dream big in the first place. Disappointingly, many of these children at some point enter into athletics with this uninspired mindset. It’s the job of every coach who believes in the power of dreams, to reverse this process as soon as possible, and inspire them to dream before it’s too late.

To the player, this new concept of inspiration and the instilling of dreams, goes far beyond the game of basketball. In fact, it can often be a pivotal turning point in their lives. Many happy and successful adults can look back to one specific coach or teacher that had a huge impact on their lives. We must never forget to inspire our players to dream big from the very beginning. And remind them to remember the dream throughout their lives, both on and off the court. It’s a great responsibility, but one that provides joy and inspiration for everyone involved.

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Picking a Basketball Camp

Picking a Basketball Camp

When I was younger, I had the privilege to attend many basketball camps. Each camp had its strengths and weaknesses within the time I spent there. Now from coaching point of view, a camp is only effective if you take what you learned and put into practice. I spent a lot of my parent’s money and my own getting similar instruction all over the state of Wisconsin. What I have learned through my experience of attending, viewing, working camps, and running my own camps is that effectiveness resides with specific focus and training. Provided is my keys of picking a basketball camp for a player or players in your program.

Picking a Basketball Camp

Many camps cover a mile long of material, but it only scratches the surface. Some camps try to cram in drills for too many skills without ever allowing a player to grow in a specific area. One of the key questions to ask when picking a basketball camp is if the coaches concentrate on any specific skills. That will give you a guide to what they can offer your youth player.

Players come to youth basketball camps at a variety of different skill levels, so its important to consider how good the player actually is. You don’t want a beginner landing in a camp for AAU tested talent.

The camp’s environment should be one that provides learning opportunities for each youth player. The best camps challenge players to grow physically and mentally. Players should be constantly learning when involved in drills, practices and scrimmages. A camp that builds on basketball IQ is a major plus!

Parents often forget to ask other coaches and players for feedback on potential camps. Sometimes a coach can recommend a reliable colleague. Or a teammate can suggest a previous camp they’ve attended.

The daily camp schedule stands as another important deciding factor for many parents. How much time is dedicated to skill development? How much time is dedicated to playing games? Are there competitive practice games? If there’s too much scrimmage time, there might not be enough skill development available for your youth player.

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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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The Cost of Competition: Why It Is Important to Think Hard Before Getting Involved with An Ultra-Competitive AAU/ Grassroot Basketball Tournament Team

The Cost of Competition:
Why It Is Important to Think Hard Before Getting Involved with
An Ultra-Competitive AAU Tournament Team


Chances are, if you’ve been a basketball fan in the past decade you’ve heard of Tyson Chandler, but not everyone knows the unique circumstances behind his unlikely rise to basketball stardom. As detailed in the critically acclaimed book Play Their Hearts Out, Chandler was first spotted by an ambitious AAU coach by the name of Joe Keller. Keller took Chandler under his wing, sometimes even giving him a place to stay on weekends so he could travel and compete in some of the major AAU tournaments across the country. It’s an engaging read, and perhaps the most comprehensive investigation into the world of high-stakes national level AAU basketball out there.
Those who have not seen it firsthand will be shocked to read the accounts of countless coaches who make a living off of young athletes. Oftentimes these coaches will find one or two players who display exceptional talent, then spend years attempting to mold them into potential NBA prospects. Once these players “make it,” the AAU coach is often paid a hefty sum for all of his work. Keller is rumored to have received such a payment, and hey, why not? And this is not to say that Keller is a bad guy. After all, he took a young man from nowhere and helped him rise to NBA stardom. Who knows if scouts would have ever seen Chandler had Keller not organized his team?
On the other hand, the reality is that finding a player like Tyson Chandler is about as easy as winning the lottery. The overwhelming majority of AAU coaches will never coach NBA talent. When my own nephew played AAU ball his father used to pay anywhere from $5000-$8000 each year to cover tournament and travel expenses. Luckily, my brother worked hard and had a career where he could afford these costs, but many of the greatest NBA players have come from low-income backgrounds, and AAU coaches often sacrifice significant time away from their families in order to keep their teams afloat. Most of these coaches are great people with the well-being of their players among their top priorities, but there have been reported cases of AAU coaches who recruit players, make a million promises, then leave the player out to dry if he ends up being unable to perform at the level his coach expected him to.
In my personal opinion, I think the AAU is a great organization, and I would encourage anyone who wants their son or daughter to play competitive basketball to consider playing AAU, but I would also say you should proceed with caution and never forget to keep the larger picture in mind. Basketball, like any sport, is a game that can teach life lessons. It’s fun, it can bring people together, and it can ultimately lead to a college scholarship, or even a career. Just make sure you are in it for the right reasons.