Coaching Toolblog

It has been entirely too long since I have posted something on the blog.  I have just had so many other things going on with the Coaching Toolbox and HoopClinics that I have not been able to post as much as I would like.  I hope that today's entry will be a useful one. At this time of year, it is always stressful for both basketball coaches and for basketball players who played (or are still playing) a fall sport as to when they should start practice if the seasons overlap.  Even when the fall sport ends on a Friday or Saturday and then basketball practice starts on Monday, it is a tough call.  I would like to express my opinion and encourage high school and middle school coaches that have to deal with this issue to give it a lot of thought.  I do not believe my way is the only way or even the right way, it is just what has worked best when I have had to deal with it.  My belief is that each situation should be handled on an individual basis and that there is no way to have a blanket policy as to when a fall athlete should be required to start practice.   A reasonable agreement can be worked out between the coaches and the athletes who fall into this category with a little communication. There are several reasons that I feel that each case should be handled differently.  One is that each fall sport is different and affects different positions differently.  I ran cross country in high school, so this is not a slam on cross country runners, but it makes sense that they do not get as beat up as a running back in football who carries 20 times a game for nine or ten games. On the other hand, a cross country runner who competes in the state meet on say a Saturday,  might have a tough time being at a 6:00 am practice on that next Monday. Even within a particular sport, the physical toll is different.  A setter in volleyball does not have as many landings and as much strain on the legs as a hitter.  I have very little specific experience with specific wear and tear on all of the fall sports, so I am not going to go into more examples. I just believe that it is something that should be discussed with your assistant coaches in order to have a plan in place ahead of time that is the best you can do for each individual who is affected. One factor that complicates things is that I feel that it is not right to talk to the fall athletes about basketball as they are entering their playoffs and state tournament series.  I believe that there focus should be allowed to be on that sport, just like I hope that the spring coaches extend us the same courtesy in late February and March. I do believe that if a fall sport ended over a week before basketball starts that the player should be at the first practice unless there is an injury involved.  Then they should be at practice to watch unless they have doctor visits and or rehab. I always like to take the late practice time slot the first day of practice if that works for the other programs that we share the gym with.  That gives us a little more time to talk with the fall athletes whose seasons may have ended over the weekend.  I have never liked to run to them to start the school day to see what they want to do. I want to give them a little space after their previous season ends.  If you can't practice late, you might have the assistants start practice while the head coach talks with the fall athletes. It is difficult to get the season going as you are wondering when your players will be out for practice, in some cases needing to make cuts, stay withing state guidelines for the number of pre-season practices required, having a short time to prepare for the opening game, having to take care of the administrative items of passing out equipment, pictures, parent meetings, etc...  And, to top it all off, basketball is the only sport that has the added difficulty of sharing facilities and having to either change practice locations, practice times or both. I do not believe that it shows that a player is not eager for basketball who asks for a few days to recover from fall sports.  There will be some that want to start as soon as possible, and those are easy to deal with.  I believe that for the big picture of the well being of both the athletes and the program, if they ask for a couple of days off before starting practice, you will be better of in the long run for granting them.    Basketball is a long season and the coach is not giving up much by allowing a little rest and recovery.  I do think it is important that you communicate to the other players when that player will be joining the team and why they want or need the days off. I wish you the best as you try to sort through these types of situations.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players. I have been so busy working on Hoopclinics that I really didn't watch as much of the Men's Basketball (or any of the events for that matter) as I wanted to.  However, I did catch enough of the Men to see that they clearly were on a mission and put their own egos aside for the good of the team.  I am interested to see how much of that carries over to this coming NBA season, or if a team attitude was a one time thing for those players. To me, that is why Michael Jordan is the best player ever.  He was the defensive stopper every night, not just on special occasions.  He played with a team attitude every night, not just when there was an Olympic gold medal on the line.  That is probably why he was the leader of the team that won more regular season games than any other NBA team in history.  He delivered every night. I heard Rick Majerus talk at a clinic once about his showing the "Be Like Mike" tape to his teams at the beginning of every season.  Not the one from TV with the dunks and electrifying plays, but the one he constructed showing him diving on loose balls, taking charges, fiercely fighting for rebounds, and the multitude of other hustle plays that he made night in and night out. In my opinion, a truly great player can be even better when he or she puts the team first, regardless of how superior they are in talent to their teammates. I think Coach K proved once and for all that coaching does make a difference.  I once heard somebody state that if they had to win one game, they would take Coach K if the team had more talent than their opponent, and Dick Bennett if it had less.  I couldn't agree more.  He took a group of individuals who were not accustomed to playing as a team and constructed a team.  Their gestures with their medals shows how they felt about his leadership and them becoming a team.  I think his strong leadership was even more necessary on this team with no one with dynamic leadership ability.  I think LeBron will become a great leader in the course of time, but he still has a ways to go to be considered dynamic. It seems that Coach K has a way of getting along with most players and being able to get a lot out of them.  He is a strong personality, but there seem to have been few personality clashes on teams that he is associated with despite coaching many talented and strong willed players.  I think he personifies the coach as leader.  I know that there are times when you have to get on players, but some coaches do it so much that you wonder if they realize that they are on the same team as their players. I am interested to see how much of the team attitude carries over to this coming NBA season, or if a team attitude was a one time thing for those players.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see. The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players. We have opened the Film Room at HoopClinics until September 3 for everyone to see what we are putting together. We have posted some of our own videos as well as some of the better ones that we have found on Youtube. Our goal is to assemble some of the best basketball coaching videos on the internet to save coaches time from having to do it themselves. We want to make it convenient for you to find them in the HoopClinics Film Room rather than having to search for them yourself. Click here to visit the Hoop Clinics Film Room At this time, some of the topics we have in the film room are motion offense, zone continuity offense, transition offense, out of bounds plays, offensive spacing, and individual development workout drills. The launch of HoopClinics is Wednesday September 3 at 7:00 pm EST. We have one more giveaway this coming Friday. We have enjoyed bringing you the information that we have posted and e-mailed out since August 1 and hope that you have enjoyed receiving it as well. The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players. Hoopclinics online basketball coaching clinics Sneak Peek #4 is now available. If you haven't registered for HoopClinics yet, you can do so by going to: HoopClinics We already have 800 other basketball coaches who have registered since August 1. We'd love to have you join us as well! This miniclinic is a transition that serves two purposes: 1) You can run it if the defense attempts to deny ball reversal 2) It flows directly into the UConn Continuity that was a part of sneak peek #3 We hope that you are finding the sneak peeks valuable. If you are, then we think that you will really like our HoopClinics release #1 that will be launched on September 3 at 7:00 pm EST. We are putting the clinics together with the purpose of providing basketball coaches with a contextual, focused, and detailed presentation of information and materials that can be put to use effectively and immediately at all levels of basketball coaching. We'll keep putting out more information about the HoopClinics program on this blog and also on the HoopClinics Blog, so please keep your eye on each one! The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players. Sneak Peek #3 from the online basketball coaching clinics site, HoopClinics is available for download. Just Click on this link to register: HoopClinics The miniclics that are available for registering are:

• 80 minute video chalktalk breakdown of the 2-2-1 fullcourt denial press
• 36 page eBook on the 2-2-1 press
• eBook and audio interview with stretch expert Robert Selby
• Chalktalk breakdown of a 1-4 High Delay Game
• Chalktalk breakdown of 'U-Conn' continuity offense
• Chalktalk breakdown of Pop - a youth league zone offense

Each of these miniclinics gives you an idea of the way that HoopClinics will be presented and we also hope that it gives you some great information that you can use somewhere in your basketball program. The launch date for HoopClinics has been delayed due to the fact that the original launch date was scheduled for Labor Day. We were so busy working on the project that we thought that labor day was the 8th! Thanks for your understanding... We are excited about the following that HoopClinics is generating. We have over 900 registered to download the miniclinics and Sneak Peaks and are approaching 8000 visits to the online basketball coaching clinics site. We will be posting about Sneak Peak #4 very soon. Until then, take a look at the blog, the articles we have posted, and the new feature that we are launching--The HoopClinics Film Room. The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

Coaching at the end of a tight basketball game is more of an art than a science. But, I feel better as a coach having gone through as many scenarios in my mind and come up with how I am going to handle them as I possibly can. I think teams will be more successful in tight games if your players have practiced various end of game situations and know how you, as their coach, will react to them. It is often difficult to communicate at the end of the game when the gym is loud and you are out of or rationing your timeouts, so it is essential that your players are sure about the strategy in advance.

Let’s take the case where a team is up eight points with two minutes to go in the game. Certainly, there are hundreds of time and score situations that we could examine. For the sake of brevity, I am going to use the up 8/2:00 to go in this article. The intentions of this article are: To motivate basketball coaches to consider as many similar scenarios as you can imagine and how you will handle them as they come up in a game, and to encourage you teach your philosophy to your players through repetition in practice.

I have heard, probably said it without realizing it, and disagree with telling a team, “We’re up eight points with two minutes remaining in the game; we don’t need to score.” My thought is that in the vast majority of end of game cases, you will still need to score to win. Your opponent will be more than capable of scoring eight or more points in two minutes, so you are going to need to score to win.

The rule I follow is this: If the regular rotation players are still in the game, then we still need to be prepared to score to win the game. If you have cleared the bench and are ahead, then you are making the statement, “We don’t need to score again to win,” without saying it.

What coaches really need to say at the end of the game when milking a lead and the clock is:

“We want to control the types of shots that we take to get the additional points we will need to win this game. We don’t want to take quick shots, unless they are free throws after a quick foul. We don’t want to take outside shots. The shots that have the best chance of going in are lay-ups and free throws, so let’s make sure that those are all that we shoot.”

Since that is often hard to communicate in a gym that is up for grabs in a tight game and uses too much time in a timeout, I learned one word (or gesture) that would communicate what I want to milk the clock late in a game. “Four.”

We use the Don Meyer shot rating system. 4 = lay-up or power shot, 3= great perimeter shot, 2 = okay perimeter shot, and 1= bad shot. So, at the end of the game, holding up four fingers means it is time to shoot only lay-ups (and free throws). Not contested lay-ups, but open lay-ups that will not be missed. You can apply it to an end of game spread or delay offense or to your regular half-court offense.

In a perfect world, you could spread the floor, milk the clock, and run off the last two minutes of the game without a change of possession. However, more than likely, the team that is behind is going to stretch out the game with timeouts after scoring, quick shots, attacking the basket quickly since you are not going to want to foul, fouling when you have the ball to stop the clock, and flooding the perimeter with defensive pressure so that often the basket is one of the more open areas on the floor. Frequently, the number of possessions of the last two minutes is equal to or greater than the number of possessions in the previous 4 minutes. A well coached team can create 10-12 or more possessions the last two minutes. It will be difficult to protect an 8 point lead without scoring for 10-12 consecutive possessions at the end of the game.

But, if your team: Has a plan to milk the lead that has been practiced frequently, can handle the ball well enough to make the defense foul you, shoots only uncontested lay-ups that go in, and can make your free throws—then you have a good chance of scoring enough points to maintain the lead and close out the game with a victory.

You can see several other articles similar to this one at HoopClinics: the home of online basketball coaching clinics.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players. Our HoopClinics sneak peek today is an interview with stretching coach Robert Selby. Coach Selby has lectured to basketball players and coaches at every level, including the NBA, about the benefits of pre-practice, post practice, and off-season stretching. The interview is approximately 15 minutes long and can be listened to as an audio file, or it can be downloaded as a short e-book. One of the points that Coach Selby made during the interview was his belief that the end of one practice is actually the beginning of the next practice. When you do spend the time to warm down by doing a post-practice stretch, the players are ridding their bodies of lactic acid and that will allow them to recover quicker and be more ready to go tomorrow. Make sure to take a listen because he has several other thoughts for coaches in the interview. You can get the downloads, along with a download of the 2-2-1 full court denial press here: HoopClinics.com HoopCinics is a new site that offers online basketball coaching clinics. The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players. We launched our HoopClinics Basketball Coaching Clinics Program and appreciate all of the feedback and interest that you and the entire online basketball community have shown in our program. The 2-2-1 press screencast has been downloaded over 450 times and the site has been viewed over 2000 times in three and a half days. We are excited about what will be coming in the month of August. We will be releasing some great basketball coaching materials every Friday in August. If you haven't seen the 2-2-1 yet, you can check it out here: HoopClinics.com If you have already taken a look at the 2-2-1, you can check out the blog and other articles and postings here: hoopclinics.com/blog We will continue to keep you updated on the happenings. The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players. I have not written much on the blog during the month of July because Coach Josh Stinson from www.perfectpractice.net have been working on a partnership that we are calling Hoopclinics. The first product of our partnership will roll out this Friday, August 1. We will be announcing how and where you can see it on that date. On a personal note, I would also like to take the chance to congratulate Jon Everingham, who I had the pleasure to coach as his assistant high school coach, on becoming the new head boys' coach at Dekalb High School. Dekalb is a large classification school in northeastern Indiana whose most famous basketball alumnus is Luke Recker who was the 1997 Indiana Mr. Basketball and then played at Indiana and Iowa collegiately. Good luck Coach! As all of you who are coaches know, there are very few relationships and friendships that mean as much as the bond that forms between players and coaches. To me, that is the best thing about coaching and what makes the difficult times worth it. The memories of the good times together are priceless and then being able to stay connected today is so much easier with web 2.0 and the various social medias, instant messaging etc... i never thought that I would have a facebook page, but I have really enjoyed being able to stay in touch with a lot of players that I coached. Don't forget to keep an eye out for the HoopClinics info on Friday! The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

With the NBA playoffs going on, we at the Coaching Toolbox think there are a lot of things that both basketball players and coaches can take from the games in addition to the entertainment value.

In Today's post we will discuss what we think can help a player to look for:

The good:

1. How hard they play on defense when the games mean something. They play so many games in the regular season and maintain a grueling travel schedule that they cannot physically play as hard as they can night in and night out. Now that there are consecutive games in the same city and travel days when they do switch cities, fatigue is less of a factor. Every game is important now, and they play like it. High school players don't have those excuses. Play hard every night!
2. They play for 48 minutes and every possession at both ends could be the one that determines the outcome of the game. There are not wasted possessions because the game hangs in the balance every second.
3. Even though every player in the playoffs has great talent, the players play within the established offensive and defensive game plans and schemes. Because they do, the team is able to benefit from the talents of each individual. The best teams are better as a whole than the some of the individual talents and abilities because they do play together as a team.
4. The coaches make adjustments during the games and the teams whose players execute the adjustments are the ones that win.

All of those are good things players can learn from.

The bad and the ugly are the trash talking and the grudge matches. Losing your poise hurts your team no matter who you are because you don't handle pressure as well after losing self control. In team sports there is never a time to hold a grudge against an individual opponent. Focusing on one opponent takes your attention away from your objective to win the basketball game. No one is as good as he or she could be when they lose sight of the target.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.