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OCTOBER 2007
Welcome to Killester Basketball Club's first edition of Coaches Corner. In the months ahead I hope to give you ideas how you can become a better coach. There is a lot out there and I will be borrowing much of it from various websites devoted to coaching. I will try to give you as many of these as I can so that you can glean from them yourself. Each month we will be looking at:
1. Coaching
2. Offense
3. Defense
4. Drills
5. Player Tips
6. Books and videos
7. Humor
8. Links
9. Quotes
1. COACHING
Basketball Coaching Philosophy: Each coach must develop his/her own coaching philosophy, or system of beliefs and ideas. When interviewing for a coaching position, the question almost always comes up, "What is your coaching philosophy?"
1. Be yourself
It's very important that whatever your style of coaching, be yourself.
2. Your teaching style
Coaching basketball is teaching... teaching not only fundamentals, how to play the
game, and team skills, etc., but also life skills.
3. Be organized
You are the leader and must be organized. A disorganized coach imparts this
disorganization and a sub-standard approach to the entire program.
4. Be open, learn from others
All great coaches have learned what they know from other coaches and players.
5. Impact young people
You are not their parent, but you are in a position to be a real positive, important
person in the lives of each of your players.
6. Set rules and maintain discipline
But don't have too many rules that you will later regret. Kids will violate the rules...they always have and always will! More coaching points next month!
2. OFFENSE
Selecting Your Half-Court Offenses
Coaches, don't try to use all of these basketball offenses for your team.
Select an offense(s) and those plays that you feel best fit your team's personnel,
size, quickness, and strengths. For a man-to-man offense, you can choose a
free-lance motion offense, or a more structured, patterned offense like the Flex
offense or the Shuffle offense. You will also need a zone offense. Put in a couple
of set half-court plays and have a couple out-of-bounds plays and you are ready
to go. Teach and establish your main offenses first, and you can add additional
set plays as the season progresses. |
Basketball Motion Offense
A motion offense is a flexible offense that utilizes player movement, correct floor spacing, passing and cutting, and setting screens. Rather than running set plays (which can also be run in the motion offense), players move within a basic set of rules. This allows for greater flexibility than just running set plays, and will usually be effective against any kind of defense, whether man-to-man, zone or "junk" defenses. Players can move freely to open areas on the court. Once the basic concepts are learned, special patterns or plays can be designed by the coach to take advantage of his team's offensive strengths.
Basic rules:
Spacing
Players should try to stay 12 to 15 feet apart. Avoid bunching up, which can result in double-teams, steals, interceptions, and turnovers. |
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Triple threat position and patience.
Perimeter players should always receive the ball in triple threat position, where the player has the options of shooting, driving to the hoop, or passing. In triple threat position, outside players should (1) look into the post, (2) read the defense and look for the opportunity for a shot, shot fake, or a dribble-move. Perimeter players should be patient and hold the ball for a count of two to allow the screens and cuts to develop. If the pass is too soon, the cutters don't have time to execute their cuts. The exception is when the defense is coming to trap, then pass immediately.
Do not allow your players, after receiving a pass on the perimeter, to immediately put the ball on the floor, bounce it once, and then lose the dribble. The player actually loses the options of shooting and driving to the hoop, and passing may be more difficult when the defender closes in, and the other defenders go into deny. We are constantly teaching and reminding players to "get in triple threat position".
Players may dribble:
1. To attack the basket with a drive.
2. Improve or open the passing lane.
3. Penetrate gaps in a zone defense.
4. To get out of trouble and avoid the 5-second count.
5. To exchange positions with another player. For example, if you want the ball to go to the wing, and the defense is denying the pass, the point guard can simply dribble to the wing, and the wing player can exchange and go to the point.
Player Movement
Players must not stand still. They must move with a purpose.
1. The post players can screen for each other and move up and down the lane to the low blocks, elbows, and top of the free throw line.
2. The perimeter players can occupy the three positions shown in diagram A, and also move to the corners. They may make front or backdoor cuts to the hoop, and V-cuts to replace themselves. They screen for each other and run pick and roll moves. They must move after making a pass.
Perimeter players should maintain good spacing at all times and keep the defense spread out. Fill the open spots on the perimeter. An outside player can make a cut inside, but should not stay there and clog things up for our post players. For example, if O1 cuts inside through the paint and does not receive the ball, he/she should immediately cut out to the opposite corner and then wing, while that wing player moves out to fill the spot at the point.
If O1 is having difficulty passing to the wing (the defense is denying the pass to the wings), then he/she can simply dribble the ball to the wing. We have a rule (except in a weave-screen play)... whenever a teammate is dribbling toward you, back-cut out of the area. For example, if O1 dribbles toward O2, O2 back-cuts underneath along the baseline and fills the O3 spot while O3 rotates out to the point. Another thing you can do if the wing pass is being denied is simply run a "weave-screen" play.
Passing
We want to try to get the ball into the low post. A wing entry is usually the easiest way. You can also get there by passing to a post on the free throw line, and the high-post can then pass to the low post. At all times we must "see the defense" and not pass into the defense.
Don't pass to someone standing still as these passes are more likely to be intercepted.
After passing, players must do one of these:
1. Cut to the hoop for the return pass ("give and go" play).
2. Screen away. Example: after the point guard passes to the right wing (O2), he sets a screen for the left wing (O3).
3. Follow the pass and set a screen for the ball-handler (and then roll off the screen).
4. V-cut and replace self.
5. After a cross-court "skip" pass (example from O3 to O2), slide out of the defender's (who should be in "helpside") line of vision and go backdoor to the hoop.
6. After a wing passes into the low post, he/she should slide down to the corner. If the post player is double-teamed, the corner is usually the easiest pass back outside and is often open for the three-point shot.
More “Motion Offense” next month
3. DEFENSE
Selecting Your Half-Court Defense(s)
Like selecting an offense, select a basketball defense(s) that you feel best fits
your team's personnel, size, quickness, and strengths, and your own defensive
philosophy. Some coaches stick to the same defense all season and try to perfect
it. Other coaches will try multiple defenses, not only throughout the season, but
within a game, switching between man-to-man and zone defenses, trying to confuse
the opponent, or trying to stop the offense's strengths. I have seen coaches go
man-to-man anytime the point guard made the first pass to the right side, and go
2-3 zone whenever that first pass went to the left side. Some coaches will change
defenses after a made free-throw, or after a time-out, or will call out defenses
from the sideline. The only thing about all this... in trying to confuse the offense,
you have to make sure your own players aren't the ones who become confused! |
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Defenses can be categorized as:
- Man-to-man defense
- Zone defenses
- Combination "junk" defenses
- Half-court presses and traps
- Defending inbounds plays
Progression for teaching your half-court man-to-man defense
First, teach individual man-to-man, 1-on-1, on-ball defense containing the offensive player. Next, teach defenders how to deny the pass (one pass away) using a 2-on-2 drill. Then, teach defenders help and recover, and the importance of stopping the seams and preventing dribble-penetration from the top or wings (using a 2-on-2, or 3-on-3 drill). Next, use the 4-on-4 shell drill, teaching helpside positioning and rotations as the ball moves. We use both the 4-on-4 and 5-on-5 shell drill when teaching how to defend baseline dribble-penetration, double-teaming the low post, defending cutters and screens, etc.
The defensive drill progression may look like this:
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1-on-1 - contain the ball drill
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2-on-2 deny wing
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2-on-2 stop seam (help and recover)
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3-on-3 stop seam and help
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4-on-4 shell - positioning
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4-on-4 shell - vs dribble-penetration
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4-on-4 shell - vs pass and cut
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4-on-4-on-4 live shell - 3-consecutive stops
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5-on-5 shell, ball on the wing, vs baseline dribble-penetration
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5-on-5 shell, allow pass into low post, double-team low post
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5-on-5 half-court, live (competitive)
More Man to Man Defensive principles next month
4. DRILLS
Team Shooting Drills
Shooting Drill 1: "12 Sets"
Have players partner-up and use all of your baskets. Each player will shoot 12 sets of shots. Each set consists of a 3-pointer (yellow), a shot-fake with jump shot (green), a catch and shoot jump shot (blue), and a lay-up (pink). Start in one corner and rotate around each of the 12 spots (seen in black in the diagram). The partner rebounds and passes back to the shooter. We rotate shooters after each set of four, so the shooter becomes the rebounder and vice-versa.
 
More drills next month
5. PLAYER TIPS
Basketball Mental Aspects - Things to think about...
On Team Concepts:
There is no "I" in "team".
If you feel you are the best, or one of the best players on the team, then you
must feel extra responsibility for making the team and each other team member
better.
A championship team, is more than a collection of five good individual players.
It requires at least eight or nine teammates, who work hard together, who respect,
help and encourage each other, who have a common goal, mindset and spirit,
and yet who all realize their individual roles and importance to the team.
It's not who starts the game; it's who can finish it. |
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On Defense:
Good offense wins games; great defense, rebounding and hustle wins championships.
Good defense comes from 50% good technique, and 50% inspiration and perspiration.
The best way to get back into the game when you're down 10 points or more, is to play great defense and rebound. Keep the other team from scoring so you can catch up.
More tips next month.
6. BOOKS AND VIDEOS
Tom Nordland's "Swish" Video/DVD and "Swish-2" DVDThe Better Basketball Series – the best videos on coaching I have ever seenBooks: Beyond Basketball: Coach K's Keywords for Success by Mike Krzyzewski and Jamie K. Spatola.
7. HUMOR
8. LINKS
Basketball Highway – http://www.bbhighway.com/
Coach’s Notebook – http://www.akcoach.com/
Basketball Playbook.net
Directorybasketball.com – gives you links to other basketball websites
9. QUOTES
Reputation is what you are perceived to be; character is what you are (John Wooden).
The true athlete must have character, not be a character (John Wooden).
In life you make choices, and your choices make you (John Wooden).
You don't have to win a trophy to be a winner.
If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail (John Wooden).
Hope you got something out of this month’s Coaches Corner. Each month we will build on these topics and look at new areas such as strategy, special situations, coaching ethics, and try to get impute from some of the successful coaches in the country on their favourite topics in the games. Have a great season.
Best Swishes,
The Coach
 
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