Ideas to Make Your Season More Successful               

Here are several ideas that may make you coaching life easier and your season more successful.

1. DO IN PRACTICE WHAT YOU WILL DO IN THE GAME.

Make sure your players do things in practice the way they will be doing it in a game. Don’t let players shoot from half court, shoot with faulty technique, dribble with their head down, palm the ball while dribbling and so on. If players can’t do things correctly in practice, don’t expect them to do it correctly come game time.

2. DON’T TRY TO DO IT ALL.

                Focus on fundamentals. Players need to learn how to shoot, pass, dribble, pivot and so on before they can execute plays, moves, zones and presses. Break each skill into as many teachable parts as possible. You don’t need to synthesize skills. After saying this, look for drills that will incorporate various skill simultaneously. Find plays that fit the player’s skill level.

3. NO GAMES, BUT CONTROLED SCRIMMAGES DURING PRACTICE.

                Learning not only follows repetition, it follows rapid or consecutive repetition. In games you do not achieve this type of practice because a player may only shoot, dribble or pass once every few minutes. In proper shooting practice, for example, each player can shoot 20 shots each minute. A coach watching 10 players in a game probably will not correct or even detect most mistakes. Having said this, have controlled scrimmages. You can blow the whistle and determine what each team does on the floor. If they do not do it correctly, stop the scrimmage and have them begin again starting at half court.

4. TEACH MAN-TO-MAN DEFENSE. IT WILL HELP YOUR ZONE DEFENSE

                Teach man-to-man defense. Zones are more difficult, because players need to know how zone shifts in addition to the man-to-man skills. Defense is easy to teach and learn compared to offense. After working on defensive position and movement, teach defense in each situation from the basket outward. The four or five man shell drill is a good place to start.

5. CONDITION YOUR PLAYERS.

                Conditioning makes a difference. In the last few minutes of a game, conditioned teams make fewer mistakes and move faster than poorly conditioned teams. Conditioned players are better athletes. All conditioning should involve basketball skills. Do not run just to run. Run with purpose. Keep practice moving from the time they walk on the floor until they leave the floor.

6. WRITE DOWN YOUR PRACTICE PLAN.

                Plan for the day, week, month and season. All but daily planning involves deciding when to introduce particular skills. It’s OK if you don’t say exactly on schedule. Some skills, like shooting and defense, need to be practiced every day. Others can be practiced every other day. Many team skills, especially plays, can be postponed.  Make sure your plan keeps players involved all the time, not waiting in line for other groups to finish.

7. GIVE OUT A PLAYBOOK. GIVE HOMEWORK.

                Players can and will practice skills at home, even if a ball and court are not available. Assigning homework yields remarkable results. Here is a pivoting homework example: Do 100 pivot-25 forward, 25 backward and then repeat using the other foot. Homework assignments should follow what you do in practice, not involve new material.

                Coaching begins and ends with individual instruction on fundamentals. Teach each player like everything depends on it, because it does. Your effort will reap great rewards; players will improve and everyone will have a better season.