A Coach's Diary

The skill of shooting is arguably the most important part of basketball.  To win, you have to be able to put the ball in the basket. Watching LeBron James, Giannis Antentenkompa and other high flyers is fun, but guys like Steph Curry and Klay Thompson have changed the game with the way that they shoot the ball. Learning how to teach shooting and learning the proper way to shoot is as important as any other aspect of the game.   YouTube is littered with 'how to' shooting videos.  Pro Shot Shooting System is a well-researched approach to learning how to shoot and for teaching how to shoot.  I have a few of the basic videos below to help get you started on how to shoot the right way, according to their system, and a systematic approach to teaching shooting for coaches and trainers. These 1st 3 videos give you a good starting point:  1 - Your shooting stance 2 - Your shooting rhythm 3 - Your follow through 4 - Your eyes on the follow through ...

Often, actions lead and emotions follow.  That's why when you smile at someone, it makes you feel happier than when you frown. Grow your teams culture or be a better teammate by finding small but meaningful actions that will bring your team and teammates together and improved the emotional well-being of the team. One systematic way to do that is called '2 good things.'  All you have to do is say 2 positive or encouraging or motivating things per minute.   Now, it's just like any new system - it won't run on it's own.  It needs to be clearly taught and communicated and modelled and there needs to be consistent re-teaching, follow through and feedback to make it a sustained part of your team's culture.   But once it is, it the new level of communication and connectedness could be a game changer.

The following article is from the Time Herald and can be found in its entirety here . Editors Note:  Brandon Day has become a legendary wrestling coach in the Blue Water Area, leading Richmond to several state championships. This is his first guest column for the Times Herald.    After 17 years coaching at the high school level, I am not a big fan of the youth sports culture in America today. I don’t think we are developing better athletes and/or people in our current system. We have developed a culture that will not serve our student-athletes well as they grow into adulthood. We have organizations and private coaches that are making a profit filling parents’ heads full of false information and dreams of scholarships rather than focusing on the development of the athletes, regardless of their skill levels. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but not every kid can be a college scholarship athlete and that is OK. We need to take pride in c...

On the road to success, there are many roadblocks.  But, many of those roadblocks are in our minds.  They include doubt and fears and limitations that we put on ourselves.  To combat those internal feelings, Jon Gordon says that we should: "We need to talk to ourselves much more often than we listen to ourselves." We have to make sure that we have a 'growth mindset' that will help us overcome obstacles, real and mental, and that will help us deal with, learn from, and grow from mistakes. Kevin Eastman uses these 4 words to combat these roadblocks and to get to greatness: - Trust - Belief - Resolve - Preparation I think it all starts with the preparation.  The more prepared that you are going into a situation, the more you can trust yourself, the more you can believe in yourself, and the better prepared you are to bounce back from inevitable setbacks.  Prepare yourself the best you can going in, and you will have a different le...

'IF' you want to be successful, you have to have a plan, create goals, and then you have to work for your goals.  You have to have an action plan for your goals.  Creating a plan and having goals without action will just lead to disappointment and frustration. Using the word ‘IF’ when creating goals can create the action for you.   ‘IF’ is the work that is required to achieve your goals. -   If I want to make varsity, I will have to _________________, _________________, and _________________. - If I want to be all-district, I will have to _________________, _________________, and _________________. -   If I want to get a college scholarship, I will have to _________________, _________________, and _________________. - If I want to become a better coach, I will have to _________________, _________________, and _________________. - If I want to create better relationships with my students and/or players, I will have to _______________...