Coaches Basketball Tips

Coaching

• Coaching: You learn at any level. Even the younger age groups
• Always be learning
• You learn more from experience than you do video
• You are the ambassador for your team
• Must help players figure out their roles on the team
• Why do you coach?
• You coach because you love it and you want to help the players become better on and off the court
• Care about the kids. If they know that you care, then so do the parents
• Every team has something they do really well, how can you take that away?
• Figure out what each kid is good at. Then figure out a way to best utilize the kids based on their skill level and what they do best.

Zone Offense

• Push the ball! Don’t let the zone get set
• No matter what you run, you better teach them how to play
• Would you rather have 2 good plays at the end of the season, or 2 players?
• Get ball reversals, and look for vulnerable areas
• Cuts from the outside in are the toughest to defend in zone
• Push it, spacing, ball reversals, get ball inside
• Inside to outside
• Always start practice with passing drills. Lost art
• Get into gaps - make 2 players guard one
• Rebound the basketball - grey area or weak-side of zone

Zone Defense

• Get back on defense quickly to set up zone defense
• Teach them rotations! Everyone has to know where to be, wherever the ball is on the floor. Strongside and weak side of ball
• Make sure to have hands up in the passing lanes. Don’t let the ball be easily thrown anywhere on the floor. Bother the passer, whether you are on ball, or away from ball.
• Talk to each other on the floor. Call out if there is a cutter coming from the middle or baseline to help the defensive players’ blindside
• Keep ball out of the middle. Once in the middle, defense breaks down

Man Offense

• Ball movement is key. Make defense rotate/ keep moving
• Best to drive off of pass.
• Attack areas where there is a lot of space to operate
• Space opens up driving lanes
• Allows for creativity and puts burden on defense
• Driving makes defense collapse to the ball and opens up the perimeter to kick out for an open shot
• Use screen away from ball to free up player to either drive or shoot. Difficult for defense to guard. Also used to create mismatches

Man Defense

• No standing! Always be in a defensive stance
• No middle penetration. Have players that are guarding ball, position themselves where they are forcing their man out of the key. Help defense makes sure that they have the key guarded as well.
• Players away from ball need to know where they need to be at on the floor to have good help defense. This is to make sure that there isn’t an area that is uncovered
• Make sure to teach the basics for positioning:

1. On-ball
2. Deny defense
3. Help defense

• Help and recover quickly
• Make sure you are talking to each other when screens are being set by the offensive team
• No ball reversals
• No face cuts
• Move when ball moves (rotate quickly)
• Hands up in passing lanes on and away from ball

Skill and Player Development

• (KILL) Keep It Likeable and Learnable
• Increase players enjoyment of practice, increase retention, and transfer of skills learned into a game
• Block practice - work on same thing repeatedly.
• Practice should develop in a way where the player is never doing the same thing in the same way over and over. Doesn’t transfer into game. Example, think of different ways to work on ball handling, going through the legs in different game like situations. Or, for anything else
• Basketball decision training (trying to bridge gap between game and practice)
• Simulate defensive cues (Arm length away and arms out to try and intercept pass)
• No pause action, keep feet moving at all times
• 0 second philosophy. If you are open, shoot the ball
• Only game-like practice is offense vs defense
• Chest pass is not as popular. Restricts player’s freedom
• Add creativity by passing:

1. Outside the body
2. Behind back
3. Over the head

• Some players learn how to do things better on their own
• Offensively, the decision making is harder than the skill itself

1. Offensively, if the defenders chest is on the offenders shoulder, then the offensive player has an advantage
2. If offensive player is chest to chest to the defender, then the offensive player has to make a decision to counter (Counter Moves)

• Practice should combine skill and the decision
• Emphasize different types of finishes for layups
• The struggle in practice and games will help players improve their skills and decision making
• Ask a lot of questions during practice for the players to answer.
• Give players ability to play free on offense
• Teach leading and following - allow players to lead drills + rotations to stimulate the mind
• Use specific feedback over general feedback

• Players have to be able to buy-in to you
• Drills and practices don’t translate unless they get minutes in games!