The Coaching Toolbox turned one year old on March 1 and I just wanted to share a few thoughts on the first year of the site.  This has always been one of my favorite times of the year with high school tournaments in full swing and NCAA March Madness just around the corner, so it seemed like as good a time as any to get the site started at this time last year.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I started and I have learned a lot about building and maintaining a website and about life on the Internet over the past year, in addition to continue to learn about the game of basketball and coaching it.

But, the most enjoyable part of working on the site has been having the opportunity to correspond with basketball coaches and players from around the world and at varied levels of coaching through the site.  It has given me another reason to stay in touch with former players who are now coaching, coaches I have coached with, coaches I have coached against, and coaches who publish other basketball websites.  I have even developed a friendship with Coach Josh Stinson from Perfect Practice as we have worked together on HoopClinics.

My goal each week is to throw out some ideas in the daily e-mails from various coaching topics, some that I have used and some that I don’t use, but that I hope the visitors to the site and the newsletter subscribers might be able to use.  Each week my plan is to vary what I send out, but to put out a defensive topic, an offensive topic, a drill, something on leadership/inspiration, and something on program development.  I know that not every e-mail is going to be used by every coach every day, but I hope that by offering a variety, everyone can find something they like and that fits their coaching situation and the abilities of the players they coach. I strive to mix up the delivery method and offer some videos, some written ideas, some of my interpretations and adaptations of coaching concepts, some ideas from other websites or newsletters, and anything else I can think of to offer variety and that you might find useful.

I have done my best to keep up with the feedback and requests.  I appreciate all of them, and know that it is one area that I want to improve on in the coming year.  Please feel free to leave an ideas that you would like to see explored in the coming year in the comments below.

There have been a couple of side benefits from doing this project.   One is that I have been discovered on face book by several students that I taught as a classroom teacher and friends that I had lost touch with.  I have enjoyed corresponding with them as well.  The second is that we are putting together a reunion for this coming summer of our players, managers, and coaching staff from a school that I coached at 10 years ago.  I am really looking forward to that!

For the most part, things have gone well.  There are always problems in any project and I am still learning how to get all of the e-mails through and help each of you be able to open the videos.  I know that many servers block some of the channels that I use because others use them to send out offensive and unsolicited e-mails.  I will continue to work to improve those things.

I do thank you for the time that each of you have taken to look at the site and the e-mails and for the feedback you have offered.  Please leave a comment below if you have any suggestions for the coming year.  I still have a long way to go to meet my goals of the number of visitors per day and the number of subscribers to the newsletters, so anything you can do to let others know about the site who might be interested in taking a look would be appreciated!

Brian

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of resources for basketball coaching including basketball practice, basketball plays, basketball drills, basketball quotes, basketball workouts, basketball poems, and more!

Growing up and playing high school basketball in the state of Indiana, then becoming a high school basketball coach, I know how all of the young players grow up dreaming of being Miss or Mr. Basketball.  Only one player of each gender is awarded that title each year that goes along with recognition by the state coaches and media that he or she is the best player in our state.  No one ever achieves that honor without years and years of hard work leading up to that senior season.  It takes several hours of working to perfect your basketball skills through repetitions of basketball drills.

April McDivitt Foster lived that dream during the 1998-99 season as she was selected “Miss Basketball”  .She then headed to Knoxville to play for the Lady Vols before finishing her playing career in the WNBA.  All of the lessons she learned and hours and hours of practice, both practicing basketball skills individually, and practicing basketball drills with her teams, have made her a great resource for ideas to improve the individual aspects of any player’s game, of any gender, and any level of competition.

HoopClinics has scheduled an interactive webinar with her for Monday January 26 at 9:00 EST.  For more information on the event, check out this link:

Basketball Skills and Basketball Drills

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of resources for basketball coaching including basketball practice, basketball plays, basketball drills, basketball quotes, basketball workouts, basketball poems, and more!

Coach Ed Schilling is one of the best teachers of individual skills in the game of basketball. That is why he has NBA and Division I players come to him to have him help them to improve their individual skills and individual scoring moves. But, Coach Schilling also has extensive experience working with players all the way down to grade school through 25 years of working at basketball camps and as the Executive Director of Champions Academy in Indianapolis, Indiana.

That is what makes his new DVD, “Mandatory Moves” one of the top training DVDs on the market for coaches and players of all age and ability levels.

If you are watching the DVD as a player, it is just like you are in the gym with Coach Schilling. If you are a coach, you will pick up several teaching points and some terminology that can help you to teach your players to make plays in a much more effective way:

To see a small segment of the DVD, click here: Ed Schilling Short Corner Moves

For more information about the DVD, click here: Ed Schilling Mandatory Moves

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching including basketball plays, basketball drills, basketball quotes, basketball workouts, basketball poems, and more!

I first saw Ed Schilling play when I competed against him in a high school varsity basketball game.  Even though he did not score much, he controlled the game as the point guard for the Lebanon (Indiana) Tigers.  He got all of his teammates the ball where they were most effective with it, hit the big shots, and made his free throws down the stretch as we were fouling in an attempt to catch up.

That was 25 years ago and since then he had a great career as a player at Miami (Ohio), became a head high school coach at age 23, became an assistant at: UMass, the New Jersey Nets, Memphis, and the head coach at Wright State.  Now, he focuses on developing individual skills for players of all levels at his Champions Academy Training Facility in Indianapolis.  He works with all ages and ability levels, including recent NBA first round draft choices Greg Oden, Mike Conley, George Hill, Courtney Lee, and Eric Gordon.

So, with all of that experience and ability to teach players how to play basketball, he has put together what I feel is one of the best DVDs that I have in my coaching library–Mandatory Moves.   In the DVD, Coach Schilling goes shows how he teaches individual moves from various spots on the floor.  The DVD is more than just demonstration.   He is working with three young high school players and you can see not only what he teaches, but also how he teaches it, and how the players benefit and improve immediately from the teaching points he emphasizes.

This DVD is something that players and coaches from every level will be able to apply immediately to their games to improve themselves, or to develop the individual skills their players need to make plays that will improve whatever offense you run.

Here is a link to more information about the Mandatory Moves DVD:

Ed Schilling Mandatory Moves

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching including basketball plays, basketball drills, basketball quotes, basketball workouts, basketball poems, and more!

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

Whether you are a player interested in improving at shooting a basketball, or a coach looking to improve your collection of basketball shooting drills, The Coaching Toolbox has a great resource for you. The third interview in our teleseminar series is with Jay Wolf, the inventor of the Star Shooter Strap.

The interview is about 30 minutes long and Jay gives some basketball shooting tips such as holding your follow through, how to line up your entire body to get the ball straight, what you can do to correct a shot that misses left or right, and several other ideas that will help anyone to improve their shooting.

One of the areas that Coach Wolf stresses during the interview is the concept of practicing at a game pace. The Coaching Toolbox has a series of basketball workouts that force you to go at a game pace.

In our teleseminar archives, we have 10 minute interviews with Eddie Enriquez, a strength and agility trainer, and Ed Schilling, a former NBA assistant coach whose topic is basketball workouts for point guards.

Our next interview will be posted this coming Friday, May 19 and is with Steve Siebold, a best selling author and mental toughness coach for many world class athletes and several fortune 500 executives.

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.

The Coaching Toolbox is very fortunate that Ed Schilling, former head mens’ basketball coach at Wright State University, and an assistant at UMass, Memphis, and with the New Jersey Nets of the NBA did a 14 minute interview with us for our teleseminar series. The interview is live and you can access it here. Coach Schilling currently is the Executive Director for Champions Academy, which is dedicated to improving the individual skills of basketball players through individual development workouts. He trained four 2007 NBA first round draft choices and is currently working with several players who project to be first rounders in 2008!

Coach Schillings topic is individual development for point guards. As a player, Ed set single game, season, and career assist records at Miami of Ohio. As a coach, he developed many outstanding point guards. One of his recent grads of Champions Academy is lottery pick and point guard for the Memphis Grizzlies, Mike Conley. Coach also worked with Greg Oden and Carl Landry, so his expertise is not limited to perimeter players.

Our interview is 14 minutes long. (By the way, we have decided that is not long enough, so we are expanding their length to be able to provide our visitors with more of the great information that our guests are providing us with.) During the short time that he has, Coach Schilling covers the topics of developing confidence and skills, creating space with the basketball, and how to utilize the moves that the point guard develops to help him or her “run the show.” We also have some links to Instructional tapes and DVDs that Coach has produced. Click here to listen to the interview.

Our next interview is scheduled to launch on May 19 and is with Jay Wolf who designed the Star Shooter and is a nationally recognized expert on shooting instruction.

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

The Coaching Toolbox is excited about launching a series of teleseminar interview programs during the month of May. Each one will feature a coach with expertise in a specific area. Some of the coaches we have lined up specialize in the areas of shooting, mental toughness, and a strength and explosiveness trainer with specific ideas for basketball training. We will send out the announcement and a special link as our Tool of the Day as each interview is posted. In order to hear the series, all we ask is that you sign up for our Tool of the Day service.

Our first teleseminar will be Monday May 5 and our guest will be Eddie Enriquez, founder and CEO of MyTrainer.com and CAP Elite (Centers for Athletic Performance). Eddie will be discussing some training exercises specific to basketball. At MyTrainer.com you will be able to view hundreds of videos prepared by trainers that are specifically for basketball.

Eddie has personally trained over 100 athletes who have received scholarships. You can read more about his background and qualifications through either of the links above The Centers for Athletic Performance (CAP) is an advanced, cutting-edge training company that is setting new standards by using scientific research and technology to combine traditional strength training philosophies with functional performance techniques. The result is a world-class program that systematically progresses athletes of any level from a foundation of joint integrity and injury prevention, through explosive strength training, and ultimately fine tuning agility and athletic speed.The CAP management team has assembled a world-class advisory board responsible for cooperatively developing the CAP Programs™. This accomplished group of individuals has developed an unprecedented, combined number of champion athletes that have competed at every level of competitive sports including Professionals, World-Champions, Olympians, Collegiate National Champions, Heisman Trophy Winners and High School State Champions.