A Coach's Diary

The picture above is called the 'Game Within the Game Chart' used by Bob Starkey at Texas A&M.  He was asked on a Facebook group to explain to young coaches the chart.  Below is his response: “Game Within The Game” stat sheet was something we come up in the 80’s while I was a men’s assistant at WV State College. We wanted to develop a stat (because kids are driven by stats) that would help give attention to a few areas of the gam e. We made each situation simply a win or loss situation. SCORE FIRST EACH HALF: If we scored first we got the W…if we didn’t, our team did.  FIRST TEAM TO SCORE OUT OF A TIMEOUT: Again, whoever scored first got the win. INBOUNDS: If we scored or got the stop it was our W. For followup, we shared the stat sheet with our players the next day and at times would show video if these areas. This would total around 20 possession each game. So while one in-bounds may not seem important to a team, we felt by making it a win-loss situation would ...

This article comes from Hoopthoughts.Blogspot.com regarding the characteristics needed to be a successful head coach. Bill Polion, one of the NFL’s best general managers, in his book,  "The Game Plan: The Art of Building a Winning Football Team," gives great insight to what he is looking for from a head coach.   Below are the 10 characteristics that he finds most important in a head coach: The 10 characteristics he outlines are: 1 – Organization 2 – Leadership 3 – Communication 4 – Emotional Stability 5 – Vision 6 – Strategy 7 – Flexibility 8 – Judge of Talent 9 – Public Relations 10 – Player Respect You can read the article in full below.

The article below was borrowed from Bob Starkey at HoopThoughts.BlogSpot.com .  You read the original article here . It's been a while back, but I posted briefly about a concept that I hold dear to my coaching philosophy -- the ability to teach your players to figure things out on their own. There are three things that I think coaches should stress, teach and demand on a daily basis regardless of what their philosophy is in regard to X & Os, discipline and team building.  I believe you should be teaching players to Talk, to be Tough, and to Think.  Figuring things out is a major component to thinking. One of the most underrated things that the best coaches teach, in any sport on any level, is that of educating their players how to think on their own.  Few were better than Coach Newell. “I wanted players with initiative, guys who could control a difficult situation on their own.  People may not realize that years ago, you couldn’t bring a player...

Megan Leuick and Kaitlyn Cresencia have created a website titled ‘ The Coaching Assist .’  What they do is target various coaches and then do a comprehensive 30 minute interview via telephone and then put those thoughts their website.  They also include book reviews. They recently interviewed Bob Starkey, the mastermind behind the popular blog  Hoop Thoughts . Coach Starkey’s career began at the high school level and includes stints of time on both the men’s and women’s sides of the collegiate game. The following excerpt is from that interview regarding the importance of establishing strong relationships with today's athletes.  You can find the full article  here . When we asked Coach Starkey if players have changed during his time as a coach, he pointed out that parents are the ones who have changed. Kids today are raised differently than they were 20 years ago, just as society as a whole has changed. From working with people like Dale Brown he ...

Megan Leuick and Kaitlyn Cresencia have created a website titled ‘ The Coaching Assist .’  What they do is target various coaches and then do a comprehensive 30 minute interview via telephone and then put those thoughts their website.  They also include book reviews. They recently interviewed Bob Starkey, the mastermind behind the popular blog  Hoop Thoughts . Coach Starkey’s career began at the high school level and includes stints of time on both the men’s and women’s sides of the collegiate game. The following excerpt is from that interview regarding the importance of correcting your players in a quick and efficient manner so that they can get the important information and move onto the next play without focusing on the present and future as oppose to previous mistakes.  You can find the full article here . John Wooden had a rule where he tried his best to never lecture his players or spend too much time making a point; brevity and conciseness...

Megan Leuick and Kaitlyn Cresencia have created a website titled ‘ The Coaching Assist .’  What they do is target various coaches and then do a comprehensive 30 minute interview via telephone and then put those thoughts their website.  They also include book reviews. They recently interviewed Bob Starkey, the mastermind behind the popular blog  Hoop Thoughts . Coach Starkey’s career began at the high school level and includes stints of time on both the men’s and women’s sides of the collegiate game. For newcomers to the coaching world, Coach Starkey has the following pieces of advice: 1.  Seek multiple mentors - Have 5-7 people you can go to at all times - Inside and outside coaching 2.  Do the best you can and others will notice - He never had to apply for a job; all of the job changes in his career he was recruited for - Focus on being the best you can and the opportunities will come 3.  It’s a journey, you can neve...

The following post comes from Bob Starkey at hoopthoughts.blogspot.com .   He is an assistant coach at Texas A&M University. Aggie Defense Part 1 Over the next few weeks, we will take a look at some the thoughts, principles, and guidelines for our defense.  We'll start with some basic concepts (our why ) that guide what and how we do what we do: WE WANT TO TAKE AWAY THE PAINT AT ALL TIMES When the ball gets to the paint it creates easy shot opportunities in the paint When the ball gets to the paint it creates easy perimeter shots When the ball gets to the paint it creates help and recover situations When the ball gets to the paint it creates closeout situations When the ball gets to the paint it creates fouling situations ...taking away the paint starts with transition defense ... stance, head, eyes and footwork are critically important … team defense — having the ability to help early — is a necessity WE WANT A HAND ON THE BALL...

Barkley talks about the importance of getting paint touches. The following post was borrowed from Bob Starkey at  HoopThoughts.Blogspot.com For the large majority of us, we are well into the beginning of the off-season.  A major part of the off-season for the best of coaches is a thorough review of their system of play.  As I view the NBA plays-offs, my question to us is this:  WHAT'S YOUR PAINT GAME? I'm a strong believer that championships are won in the paint.  This speaks to both offensive and defensive philosophies. In 2011, the Miami Heat lost in six games to the Dallas Mavericks.  The Mavs dominated the paint and the Heat settled for jump shots far too many times.  In that off-season,  LeBron James called up Hakeem Olajuwon  and asked him if he would work with him that summer on his paint game.  You have to give great credit to LJ for first recognizing what he need to work on to improve his game and then for not hes...

Here is an article that I found at the   Green Bay Press Gazette   via   Bob Starkey  about the legendary Dick Bennett. Key Takeaways: -  We never know how much we can/do impact others -  Be great in the small things -  Know your philosophy/values via Mike Vandermause : I consider myself fortunate to have learned firsthand about Dick Bennett's influence long before he became one of the most successful college basketball coaches in state history. As a high school junior in the summer of 1975, I attended a University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire basketball camp and by the luck of the draw, Bennett was my coach. It might have been the best $125 my parents ever spent on me. At the time, Bennett was a relatively obscure coach at Eau Claire Memorial.   One memorable week is all I needed to discover Bennett was a very special coach. I loved playing for him and would have run through a brick wall if he asked. I had n...

In 2008,  Pat Williams , the GM of the Orlando Magic and a tremendous motivational speaker put out a book,  “The Ultimate Coaches’ Clinic.”  It is a fascinating book because of the style Pat utilized. He surveyed over 1000 coaches and administrators for insights to what is important to successfully do their job. From time to time I will share a few but it is a great book to own and I highly recommend it. Here are some thoughts from  Jeff Van Gundy : •  The players don’t care if you are short or tall, black or white, a former player or not, all they care about is whether you can help them. •  When I was 29 and an assistant with the Knicks,  Pat Riley told me I could be a head coach in the NBA. Then Pat said, “Remember these four things, and you can lead anyone:” …… Competence—know your stuff. …… Sincerity …… Reliability …… Trustworthiness •   John Wooden  and  Dean Smith  were right. Focus on the process and not the result. That i...