A Coach's Diary

“I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I'm like, 'My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don't have it. I just want to chill.' We all have self-doubt. You don't deny it, but you also don't capitulate to it. You embrace it.”  ―  Kobe Bryant

Duke ran a couple of good 'Floppy' variations.  Butler had its chances to tie or take the lead, including a great look at the final 3 from Gordon Hayward, but Duke held on for the win and the National Championship.

You have to be able to take care of the ball, against pressure, to be able to run any kind of offense with success.  Dick Bennett has a couple of drills that he call 'Soundness Drills' to improve his teams ability to take care of the ball and to improve their poise and decision making. In the drill above, called 1 on 2, he has one ball handler trying to advance the ball against two defenders.  Your ball handler has to have poise, know how to protect the ball with both hands, has to be able to retreat dribble away from pressure, and has to know how to attack when time. We have expanded this drill to teach scoring at the end of it.  We want our 1 offensive player to try to score.  Then, make or miss, we have the 2 defenders come back on offense in a 2 on 1 situation to teach how to play 2 on 1 basketball on offense and defense.  We also use this drill as an opportunity to teach how trap and take proper trapping angles. In the video above here,...

'Be Warm and Demanding' As Brad Stevens states here, the most effective leaders teach athletes how to persevere and to have more grit, and to do so, it is important to find the balance between being warm and demanding.  These leaders are approachable, but on the court, there is a demand and an expectation that everyone is going to work and perform at a high level. Demand excellence, but remember, we are still dealing with human beings with human emotions, and we have to be receptive to that. via: positivecoach.org

Brad Stevens is a rising star in the NBA.  His ability to draw up plays, especially in special situations late in game, are well talked about in coaching circles.  Here is a good video showing the Celtics running a nice 2-3 defense in late game SLOB situations. One way I see to beat this is to flood the backside.  Send a player to the backside block, one to the backside wing, one to the top of the key, and one to the high post.  The middle and backside forward would have to make a decision on who to leave open, and I would think they would leave the back side wing open, giving you a long close out to attack. Thanks to Half Court Hoops for the video breakdown and pdf breakdown:   https://www.dropbox.com/s/jf5n0ospn80...

Two biggest issues that Geno sees right now is 1) teams are playing too fast and 2) bad shot selection. Shot selection might be the most important thing that you can teach your team.  Everybody thinks that they can make any shot. Shot selection is the biggest killer of offense because the wrong guy is taking the wrong shot, you can't rebound when you don't know when a shot is going up, and you are out of balance and can't get back on defense. Rule #1 When you are open, you have to shoot it if that's the shot you work on everyday.  Everybody knows and expects it and is prepared to rebound. Rule #2 If you shoot when you aren't open and somebody is, that's the last shot you get that game.  Thats where selfishness begins.

--> --> The following article comes from an article that I found on Linked In from  Brett Hagler .  You can see the original article  here . Kobe Bryant recently shared an all-time great mindset, manifested into a subtle quote that not many people noticed. It's been three weeks and I can't get it out of my head, so I wanted to share. You can take it literally or (mostly) metaphorically - both work and can be applied to the dream you're chasing.  The quote came from Kobe when he was on stage accepting the 'Icon Award' at the ESPYS.  He was addressing fellow athletes:  “We’re not on this stage just because of talent or ability,” Bryant said. “We’re up here  because of 4 a.m . We’re up here because of two-a-days or five-a-days. We’re up here because we had a dream and let nothing stand in our way. If anything tried to bring us down, we used it to make us stronger.” There are thousands o...

US Men's Basketball u16 head coach Don Showalter gives some advice to those trying out for the national team on how to separate themselves from their competition. 4 Things That Separate Talented Players 1 – Choices – Make choices that will help you get where you want to go 2 – Comfort zone – How do you react when you are out of your comfort zone 3 – Communication – Being able to communicate effectively is a  separator 4 – Compete -   Don’t be afraid to compete for your spot

O'Sullivan remembers when youth sports was about children competing with other children instead of adults competing with each other through their kids. Following nearly three decades as a soccer player and coach, O'Sullivan began working to reshape youth sports and inspire a major shift in culture. After serving as a youth coach for the Portland Timbers in Bend, he founded the Changing the Game Project and is now an international speaker and national best-selling author of Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High-Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports back to Our Kids. His writing has also been featured in the Huffington Post, Soccer America Magazine and The Soccer Wire.

We see it all the time - that one parent out there barking orders from the sidelines at their kid.  Maybe you are that parent.  Here is a great video from the kids themselves about what goes on in their minds when we yell at them as parents. Here is a link to a great article where a former major league baseball player answers this simple question: What is the point? His simple answer is: The heart of the child is the point. A coach can either be a stepping-stone to success or a stumbling block.  It is important to build up a young athlete through relationships first and foremost.  Teaching fundamentals and discipline through sports should be a by-product of a relationship.   Do everything you can to help foster and grow the love and creative expression of your athletes.  Don't over teach or coach so much that you lose their heart.  Don't focus so much on winning that they lose their love of the game.  Don't push them so hard so early tha...

This is 10 of the best minutes you can spend on the internet today, as former Indiana and Marquette head basketball coach Tom Crean gives life advice through basketball. - To have success, you have to love to compete and love to get better. - Everything you do is going to impact your future, so work hard and eliminate what doesn't matter so you can spend your time focusing on what does matter for your goals. - Kids really do want to learn, but we have to figure out how to give it to them in a way that they will accept and buy-into. - Always show up and bring your best and don't let the distractions get you away from what's really important - making guys better, bringing value, and building life-lasting relationships.

DJ Sackmann is one of the rising basketball trainers in the world.  He does a really good job of breaking down moves to the smallest parts and building them back up so that they are easier to learn and so that you can use them in games. This video is a great example of how he breaks down and teaches the ' Bradley Beal Hip Swivel .'  Did such a good job that former Indiana head coach Tom Creane was taking notes.

Buzz Williams, the head men's basketball coach at Virginia Tech, talks about icing the ball screen.   At the end of the video, around the 5:30 mark, he talks about how important it is to teach and coach toughness and playing hard everyday for basketball and for life. - Any time a rotation is forced you are at a disadvantage.   So, they use ice so they don’t have to have an extra defender to rotate over.   You have the handler and the screeners man to contain the ball so that the other 3 guys can stay on their other 3 guys.   - The more simple and precise you can make anything, the better.   You get slippage any time you make stuff personnel specific, so having a set system or plan helps with consistency and limits mistakes and game slippage. - Make sure you spend time on other coverages that are different than what you do.   The % of icing the ball screen, even in college, is still low.   So he has to work on the other coverages.   ...

What Is The ‘Mamba Mentality?’ No matter what happens, come hell or high water, no matter what obstacles you meet, or negativity you may face, or injury you receive, or form of resistance that you encounter, you have an inner belief and an inner confidence that you are going to figure it out and you are going to get this done.   It’s a never die attitude. How Can You Apply The Mamba Mentality? It’s about wanting to be better, and in whatever you do, try to be the best at it.   It doesn’t matter what it is.   If you are doing something, why not try to be great at it.   If you are preparing for a test, or you want to be a great carpenter, or whatever it may be, study every great carpenter that came before you and try to be great at it. Greatness has not limit to industry.