Coaching Toolbox Blog

Point Guard Qualities

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 07:00:19 +0000

I received these notes from Weber State AssistantPhil Beckner.

Offensive Concepts/Point Guards

By: NBA Great Gordon Chiesa

Follow him on twitter: @gchiesaohmy

The NBA is a Point Guard driven league.

The hardest position in the NBA to learn and master is the “point guard position”.

About Point Guards…There are two kinds of Point Guards: 1) “New School,” aggressive, looking to score points early, by creating off the dribble; 2) “Old School”, trying to execute the offense first by getting other players shots early. As the shot clock is winding down, then being more aggressive.

The Point Guard position is about “winning intangibles.” The best ones make it special by their assists, leadership, clutch shooting, and defense!

About NBA Point Guards: You never want your point guard to be so “Shot Happy”, that he doesn’t or won’t get his teammates involved first in the flow of the “Team Offense”.

Good NBA Point Guards will always see the floor, control the tempo of the game, make timely jump shots, and uncanny lay-ups in the lane.

Good point guards should have an assist to turnover ratio of 3 to 1.

Good NBA point guards play the game “one pass ahead”. They feel/see the “play” before it happens.

Bright Point Guards learn to limit their own personal “emotional fogs” during games by playing forward, not backwards. Stay focused to lead!

Winning Point Guards respect the ball. Their focus is to get as many offensive possessions possible by not committing “reckless turnovers”.

Smart point guards understand how/when to count internally, when the shot clock is winding down. This “mental countdown” creates confidence.

Elite Point Guards master the intellectual, physical and verbal challenges of playing the position by consistently making “big plays”.

Winning, scoring point guards have that “instinctivemental balance” of understanding when to look to score, and when to get their teammates going.

Solid back-up point guards have an underrated impact towards winning by being ready to play due to injuries, foul trouble, and speed match-ups!

Electric Point Guards add value to their teams by scoring and creating in the open floor. They’re “tempo changers” of velocity and emotions.

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

Competitive Basketball Practice

admin — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:03:57 +0000

These concepts came from Coach Mike McNeil with the Comments by Alan Stein.

You can download the rest of this article and 10 other coaching nuggets pdf at Alan’s Stronger Team Blog by clicking here.

Some great stuff from Mike McNeil on ideas to make players more competitive in practice which translates into them going harder for longer period of times — really good stuff from Coach McNeill — thanks for sharing!

I (Alan Stein) have put my thoughts after each one in red italics.

Many years ago I had the opportunity to ask Gary Williams, the Head Coach at University of Maryland, what was the most important quality he looked for in the players he was recruiting. I was thinking he was going to say something like size, quickness, shooting ability, or understanding of game, but instead he looked at me like I must be from another planet, and said “they have to be a competitor”. As a coach you want to believe that every contest you go into you know your players will give it everything they have to perform well.

The team may not shoot well, or they may turn the ball over but at least you know they will compete on every possession. While many people believe you cannot make non-competitors into competitors, I disagree to a certain point. I think if you use proven strategies in practice you can improve the competitive fire in all your athletes. Are you going to make an infrequent competitor into a consistent, hard-nosed tough competitor? – I doubt it; but you can improve each of these athletes.

Just like any skill you work to improve you can help each athlete compete harder and more consistently by using some of the strategies described below. It is your responsibility as a coach to help your athletes become the best competitors they can become. Therefore you must create a practice environment where competition is expected and embraced.

A critical aspect of competing is being in the present – not thinking ahead and letting the past go. Coaches must teach, preach, and demand that players focus on the present responsibilities each player has so they will compete better. The following is a list of strategies that can be used to teach your team to play hard and to compete every possession.

1. The coach is the only one to call fouls. The coach can then set the standard of play. While it is important to teach players to play without fouling it is equally important to teach players to play through fouls, to play physically, and to play aggressively. It is also important players not concern themselves with the officials.

Alan’s comment: We do this as well…when scrimmage against our male team; we will let them foul a little more than we allow our team…we want to be aggressive on defense without fouling.

2. There is no out of bounds! If the ball bounces out of the normal boundaries of the court the play is still alive. The players will then hustle after the loose ball to maintain possession. This will keep kids hustling after the ball. There are two arguments I have heard against this concept: 1) kids will get hurt –in 20+ years I have not seen it happen; 2) they will not be aware of where the out of bounds lines are –
again, I have not seen this be a factor.

Alan’s comment: We have several drills where we utilize this principle…we don’t do it all the time because we want them to know the floor as well.

3. Make every scrimmage or drill a competition; all competitions have either a score or a time standard. Examples, you must make so many lay-ups in a 3 player weave in 2 minutes or first team to five baskets. The consequences for losing are severe if the losing team did not compete very hard – set of lines, suicide, 60 seconds. If the losing team did compete hard make it a less severe penalty or no penalty.

Alan’s comment: We are very big believers in this one — hold them accountable and have a penalty for the losing team. We do it in individual drills as well as team drills.

4. Play every drill, scrimmage, and breakdown until the defense gets the ball, i.e. if the offense scores and then recovers the ball from the basket they can score again. Our guideline for this is that we always want to convert as least one time (sometimes twice).

Alan’s comment: We might be working on our half-court offense but we are going to have one transition before resetting. The conversion game is very important to teach and it allows your team to play through all possessions.

5. Use overload situations, 3 vs 4, 4 vs 5, 5 vs 6. This places extra pressure on the out-manned team to concentrate and play harder to compensate for out-numbered situation and it also places pressure on the team with the numerical advantage because the expectation is to win. Give the team with the numerical advantage a slight score disadvantage to start each drill. We refer to these as “Disadvantage Drills.”

Alan’s comment: We may play 5/4 with the offense getting an extra player to overload the work on our defense. We might play 4/4 with no dribble to place our offense in a more difficult setting. There are a variety of ways to “stretch’ your team in competitive situations.

6. Use a rebounding bubble. Because no baskets are scored – score with stops, rating of shots and offensive rebounds. This will increase the hustle to secure the ball.

Alan’s comment: We use the rebounding bubble early in the season quite a bit. It is one of the most physically aggressive things we do. We tend to stay away from it during the season because of the possibility of injuries.

7. Give extra points for offensive rebounds. When you scrimmage or play any drill if a team gets an offensive rebound they get 2 extra points. Offensive rebounding is about desire and hard work – this should be rewarded!

We play “Motion Game” where we use points in a variety of ways. An offensive rebound is worth 1 point. A turnover is worth 2 points to the defense. In fact, you can utilize that drill in a variety of ways. Maybe you want to work on your low post defense so you give the offensive a point for a low post feed. A great imagination can make this type of scrimmage setting very effective.

8. Reward the team with extra points whenever there are hustle plays such as diving on the floor or drawing a charge.

You can download the rest of this article and 10 other coaching nuggets pdf at Alan’s Stronger Team Blog by clicking here.

Lawrence Frank Defensive Concepts

admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 21:56:45 +0000

Lawrence Frank (Head Coach Detroit Pistons) – Defensive Concepts

I received these notes from Coach Steve Smiley.

“Your every day habits will determine your execution.”

To play on a good defensive team you must:
a. be a good individual defender.
b. be a good team defender.
c. be both a & b.
** If neither, you won’t play! **

Defensive non-negotiables:
1. Sprinting back on defense.
2. Protecting our paint.
3. Closing out hard and contesting the shot.
4. Playing aggressively without unnecessary fouls.
5. All five players blocking out and rebounding.
** No Layups
** No Freethrows
** No corner 3′s

If the ball gets into the paint, what are the consequences for the offense?
1. Charge
2. Steal
3. Deflection
4. Blocked shot
5. Hard “NBA” foul
** Never mention anything about scoring!

Transition Defense:
1 back = Dunk
2 back = Layup
3 back = Jumper
4 back = Got a chance
5 back = GAME ON!
- Win the first 3 steps!
- Stop the ball above the 3-point line
- Get the ball out of the middle 1/3
- Think “help”
- Open shots beat you in transition, but mismatches rarely will.

“Accept who they are. You job is to make them better than they were.”

1-4 High Set Play

admin — Sun, 06 May 2012 16:43:17 +0000

from Coach Creighton Burns’ newsletter.

If you are interested in being added to his newsletter, let me know and I will pass your e-mail address along.

#1 enters the ball to #5 who steps out on the perimeter to receive the ball.
After passing, #1 cuts down to the ball side block.
Both #2 and #3 move down toward the baseline as #1 makes his cut.

#4 steps out and receives a pass from #5.
On the pass from #5 to #4, #1 sets a back screen and #3 runs a flex cut to the rim.

#5 makes the pass to #4 and then down screens for #1 in a screen the screener action.
#1 uses the screen and cuts up toward the elbow.

If #4 does not make a pass to #3, he will pass to #1.
On the pass from #4 to #1, #2 cuts on the baseline and receives a screen from #5.
At the same time #3 moves up and sets a back screen for #4.
#1 will look over the top to #4 and then to #2 down at the wing.
If #1 passes to #2, he will screen for #3 and then fill the back side wing.

If #3 does not have a scoring opportunity, or cannot feed #5 in the low post, he
will dribble out and pass to #3.
#3 will swing the ball to #1 and then screen down for the back side post, #5.
#5 will flash up to the ball side high post.
#1 will look low to #4 and then high to #5 and if #5 is denied the ball he will look
to throw the diagonal skip pass to #2.

If the pass is made from #1 to #5, #2 will back cut to the rim and #3 will fill the
back side guard spot.
In this situation, #5 makes a pass to #3, which keys the back screen by #4 for
#5.
#3 will look to #5 on the back cut to the rim, and then to either #4 stepping to
the ball or to #2 at the wing.

Basketball Plays

#4 steps out and receives On the pass from #rim.

Jeremy Lin Scoring Workout

admin — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:31:59 +0000

These drills came from Alan Stein’s Coaching Nuggets Collection.

They cover many areas of coaching basketball. He even put my 37 ideas pdf in there!

He has 11 pdfs available with a lot of great coaching ideas.

Here is the link if you are interested in downloading them:

http://www.strongerteam.com/download/coachingnuggets.aspx

These are 4 drills that Jeremy Lin uses as a part of his scoring workout. There are more drills from the workout available at the URL above.

EXTENDED LAYUPS

Because he isn’t the most athletic player, Jeremy must do a good job of extending to the basket on all layups to separate from defenders.

Drill: Player takes large strides to jump and make extended layup on both sides of the rim. For next rep players self passes to FT line for catch, pivot and score.

STEP THROUGH LAYUPS

Jeremy must also use the art of misdirection to score against larger help defenders.

Drill: Same concept as extended layups but make first step a misdirection jab step before extending into layup. Done on both sides of the rim.

STOP AND GO ATTACKS

This is the move that Jeremy used on John Wall to get the dunk the other night. Defenders try hard to stop NY’s pick and roll. Jeremy reads this well and makes defenders pay by rejecting the screen and attacking.

Drill: Cone is screen (chair can be used too). Player sets up the screen and then makes movement towards it. Player quickly crosses back to other hand and attacks rim with layups already practiced or pull up jump shot.

BOUNCE OUT TO RE-ATTACKS

Lin has great ball handling ability. He is able to keep a play alive when bouncing out from help defense to re-attack.

Drill: Come off pick and roll and attack second cone. Bounce out with dribble and re-attack either driving baseline or crossing over to the middle. Do drill to both sides of the court.

Extended Layups

Motivation for Basketball Players

admin — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:22:37 +0000

This is a short video that is a good message for players to hear regarding basketball practice.

The thoughts apply to both in season practices and to out of season workouts. I think that sometimes it is good for the players to hear another voice other than their coach’s. Especially if that voice has credibility. Even if you don’t want your players to watch the video, I hope it gives you some thoughts to add some variety to the messages you give your players regarding practice and skill development.

It is a youtube video, which I know some of your servers may block.

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Gannon Baker’s Kobe Drill

admin — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 02:17:28 +0000

The video below shows a good drill to put into your player’s out of season skill workout drills. It is a good way to end a workout. The contest is not open to beat Gannon, but you can certainly set up a contest to have your players compete against each other or themselves on the time that it takes them to make the 4 shots. The video is a youtube video and the sound is not the best, so you might have to adjust your volume setting to hear his instructions.

By clicking the link below, and entering the coupon code below, you can get a 25% discount on Ganon Baker DVDs.

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Point Guard Drill

admin — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 21:58:20 +0000

The video below shows a drill to work with your point guards–or any player who drives to the basket on getting to the paint and then backing out if necessary. The video is 2 minutes in length. It is a youtube video, so make sure that you are able to access that site from the network you are on.

By clicking the link below, and entering the coupon code below, you can get a 25% discount on Ganon Baker DVDs.

Get 25% off on Ganon Baker Basketball DVDs – Use Couponcode toolbox

Empowering Your Players

admin — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 22:24:21 +0000

I received this in Creighton Burns’ newsletter. It was written by: Allison McNeil

Here are 10 things a coach can do to empower his or her athletes:

1. Create a safe/inclusive environment where every athlete is valued for what they do on the court, but more importantly for who they are and what they bring to the group. Appreciate each of your athletes for their uniqueness and the special things they bring to your team. Value the differences in your athletes and see the good in every young person you coach.

2. Allow your athletes some decision making power – on the court and off the court. There are “team” decisions and your athletes should be part of that process. On the court, at practice, use questions to engage your athletes and make them part of the decision making in game situations.

“Tell me and I will forget, show me and I may not remember, involve me and I will understand.”
Native American Proverb

3. Do not do everything for them – give them access to information and resources that they can use to help themselves now and when you are not there for them. We need to support our athletes, but we do not need to hover over them and do everything for them.

4. Encourage and reward assertiveness. Don’t shoot down your athlete’s when the show some assertiveness, it is not about controlling them it is about empowering them.
Here is a great definition of assertiveness: Asking for what one wants or acting to get what one wants in a way that respects the rights and feelings of other people.

5. Teach and encourage your athletes to think critically – to ask questions, to see things differently.

6. Teach and encourage your athletes to have a voice – to make a difference in their own lives, their community, and the world. Encourage your athletes to stand up for the things they believe in. One great way to do this is to have your team adopt an elementary school; to help at a homeless shelter; to visit a children’s hospital. You can also have your team adopt an orphanage, run for Breast Cancer, or raise money for a cause they believe in.

7. Develop independent athletes. When you do this you are increasing their self-esteem and therefore helping them to be more resilient and increasing their chances of success in basketball and in the “real world”. Your goal as a coach should be that they DO NOT depend on you!

8. Allow your athletes to express frustration and anger in an appropriate way, not bottle it up and pretend that everything is “fine” if it is not “fine”. Communication is key. Your athletes need to feel that they can express their concerns without retribution.

9. Listen to your athletes. Encourage open and honest communication – this is a skill that will help them for a lifetime of healthy relationships. There is no chance for successful relationships in life if you cannot communicate.

10. Create a safe learning environment for your athletes to take risks and Learn new things. Compliment them when they try something new, they will have more fun and improve more quickly.

Out of Season Advice for Players

admin — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:34:17 +0000

The video below contains advice for point guards from Ganon Baker applies to many positions on your team. As you begin thinking about what to do to improve your team, showing this video to your players is a good way for them to hear another voice as to what they need to work on to be able to do by next year.

The video is only about 90 seconds long, but has some very concrete things that point guards and players in general need to be able to do for their teams to succeed.

By clicking the link below, and entering the coupon code below, you can get a 25% discount on Ganon Baker DVDs.

Get 25% off on Ganon Baker Basketball DVDs – Use Couponcode toolbox