The Player’s Point Of View (They Like Defense Too!?)

By Joe Haefner

Here is another guest post from our friend Coach Ken Sartini.

This is a response from one of his former players about his favorite things playing for Coach Sars.

• Playing against 6 defenders.
• Defense footwork drills. These built endurance and desire to play D!
• Working on running our fastbreak lanes.
• Help side defense. Learning how to play up the line.
• Having knowledge of what our opponent was going to do so we can prepare with repetition on how we will run our sets in games. EX: the GNB game (they were ranked #8 in the State at the time) we executed that game plan perfectly both offense and defense. The way we practiced was how we played the game…… We were always more prepared than the other team.
• I think the way we practiced…ALWAYS HARD…. Made us have that same mentality in games, very important!

To be honest, everything we did in practice had a direct correlation to our games, we had no wasted time.

New Article: Do You Yell At Referees?

By Joe Haefner

Check out the new article called Do You Yell At Referees?

NEW Coaching Article: The 9 Most Important Questions for Every Basketball Coach. Ignore Them at your Peril.

By Joe Haefner

Check out our new article: The 9 Most Important Questions for Every Basketball Coach. Ignore Them at your Peril.

Building Team Mental Toughness - Are You Doing This?

By Joe Haefner

Use this great rule for your team that I picked up from Alan Stein:

Do not allow players to bend over and put their hands on their knees when they’re tired. If so, discipline with some conditioning.

Have you ever tried this when you’re tired? It’s tough, and it’s supposed to be. This little intangible will help tremendously in building your team’s mental toughness.

Not to mention, it messes with the opposing team’s psyche if you never look like you’re tired.

NEW Article: Developing a Team Covenant

By Joe Haefner

I’m a big believer in developing “synergy” within your teams in order to over achieve in season. One of the things we are doing this year at UW Stout is working on developing a “team covenant”–a set of ideas that each member of our squad agrees to do that will help us establish norms and positive attitudes.

Below is a list of “I CAN COMMIT” statements that we will be reviewing with our team.

For the rest of the article written by Larry Ronglien of UW Stout Men’s Basketball, visit Developing a Team Covenant.

Creating Team Unity With Coach K

By Joe Haefner

Have you ever watched a Duke game and noticed what happens if there is a Duke player on the ground after a dead ball?

Every single Duke player on the floor runs to the player on the ground and helps him up.  I’m certain that Coach K engrains this into his players from day 1 and it’s important that you do too.

How does this help your team?

1. It builds the team unity. 

2. Intimidates the other team, especially if they do not represent the same team unity.  Not many people like to feel like it is 5 versus 1 or 5 versus 2.  If they do, they’ll never accomplish much in a team sport like basketball.

Put yourself in the player’s shoes.  If you get knocked down, what feels better?  To have 4 teammates sprinting over to help you up or seeing your teammates just looking at you and you have to get yourself up.   I would think knowing that your teammates have your back no matter what would be the better feeling.  This feeling naturally boosts confidence as well.

When your team helps each other out like this, it natrually builds that togetherness that you want.  This unity leads to the extra pass being made, teammates setting better screens for each other, and players playing harder for each other.   

 It’s the little things that separate the great teams from everyone else.

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What Is The Right Age To Focus On Wins and Losses and Start Playing Zone?

By Joe Haefner

On a page where we discuss defense at the youth & junior high level, I recently received these two questions from a junior high coach:
 

Do you believe there is an age where it is appropriate to play a zone?

Is there an age where you should start playing Win-Loss basketball?

These are very good questions and these are the conclusions I have come to:
 

Conclusion #1 - Zones should NOT be allowed until the second half of the Freshmen year in high school (typically 14 to 15 year olds).

Even at the junior high level (12 to 14 year olds), I’m very skeptical of playing zones for development purposes. Some coaches may argue this, but when I coached at the high school level, I dealt with so many kids that played zones at the lower levels that formed some terrible habits. We would spend entire seasons just trying to break bad habits that were formed by teams that trapped, played zones, junk defenses, and pressed when they were at the youth level. Sometimes, we never could break the habits.

When I was coaching a freshmen team, we scrimmaged against another team in the area that was in a league that did not allow teams to play zone until the second half of the season. I thought this was great.

1. Coaches get to spend more time on the fundamentals and building the player’s foundation, because they don’t have to worry about preparing for zones, presses, junk defenses within the first 10 practices.  Without a solid foundation, it doesn’t matter what you do, you are not going to be as successful.  
2. Coaches are forced to teach man to man principles before they go unto zone defense. So many coaches skip man to man principles and go straight to zone. As skill level and strength increases, these zones are ineffective because they don’t know man-ball principles, can’t stop the ball from dribbling by them, and some other bad habits (swarming the ball, going after every steal, etc.) that helped players get more turnovers at the youth level do not work anymore.

In other words, the zone that works at the youth level and junior high level won’t work at the high school level, because an effective zone defense at the youth level is not an effective zone defense at the varsity level for reasons listed above.

Conclusion #2 – I believe Win/Loss basketball should start around 7th grade (Age 13).

However, I think it’s a much lower emphasis on wins and losses than a high school varsity team. Your focus would still be on the developmental portion.

When you get to high school varsity, is when I believe that it truly becomes a win-loss philosophy. At the same time, some years you may be a better zone team, but it’s still a good idea to teach man to man defense, because you don’t want to have a player that doesn’t make it at the college level because he doesn’t know how to play man to man defense. It could literally cost them thousands of dollars through scholarships.

If you focus too much on the win-loss at youth and junior high level (and some would even say the junior varsity level), it could be detrimental for different reasons:

1. Undeveloped kids don’t develop because they don’t get any playing time. That’s why it’s key to get everybody fairly equal playing time. You have no idea who is going to be the best when they get older. A 5’10 kid who already matured may dominate now, but the 5’8 skinny kid who hasn’t hit puberty yet and grows to 6’8 by the time he is a senior may be the best chance for success as they get older.  How is he going to get any better if he’s not playing?
2. Tactics that work at this age (organized presses, zones, traps) won’t work at higher levels, because the foundation (fundamentals) has not been developed. On average, these presses are NOT run correctly. They just swarm the ball and the player that is 1 pass away, because the players are not strong enough to throw down the court and have not developed the ball handling skills to quickly react.

The truth is that COACHES and PARENTS are WAY more concerned about winning than kids under the age of 13. Most kids just want to play. They want to have fun. They are thinking about their own little world, not winning. And even if they think about winning, it’s not nearly as important to them as it is you. By the time, the game is over, they are just thinking about where they will get some pizza. Kids move on really fast. But parents and coaches dwell on the loss for days and hours. That’s too bad.

Trust me. A high school coach would much rather have you work on fundamentals and build a great foundation. If they have a great foundation, it’s relatively easy for them to throw in an effective trap, press, or zone. Not the other way around.

High school coaches please leave your comments on this as well, so youth coaches understand your perspective as well.

Coaching Basketball Effectively by Leading the “Right” Way

By Don Kelbick

Sports hold a unique place in the American culture. Few things have the same impact in so many areas of our lives. Good days and bad days are often defined by how our teams did. Not just for the players, but for the fans as well.

So few things can teach as much about life as sports can. Teamwork, handling success, dealing with disappointment, standing up to the pressure of constant scrutiny, punctuality, leadership, etc. are all aspects that are developed through playing organized sports. For that reason, few professions offer more diversity or uniqueness than coaching.

Coaches are more than people on the sideline calling plays for their teams. The  responsibilities and techniques of coaching basketball require the coach to be a motivator, teacher, substitute parent, confidant, tutor, policeman among other things.  But above all…. a coach is a leader!!

If You Lead, They Will Follow

In a culture as totally encompassing as sports, teams take on the personality and values of their coach. This is true for younger players all the way up through the professional ranks. Coaches make demands, set rules and make decisions based upon his own value system. To be a truly effective leader, the coach has to live those values. Players look up to and want to emulate their coach, especially with younger players. When you accept a coaching job, even at a youth level though to a lesser extent, you decide to accept a lifestyle. Regardless of what else you do, to your players, you will always be “Coach.” Whether you see your players in practice, at the supermarket or in a restaurant, you will be “Coach” first, whoever you really are second. Your actions must reflect that.

Your players will do what you do. Use questionable language in practice, so will they. If you dress inappropriately, so will they. Be late for appointments with them, so will they. Your players, especially at the younger levels, will emulate the way you carry yourself. For that reason, coaching has become a lifestyle.

Create a Persona You Can Live With

Being a leader of young lives is an awesome responsibility. You have a right to lead your life the way you want to but you have to understand the effect you have on others. You have to find a way in your personal life where you can enjoy and grow your life and yet be a person that players will want to look up to. You have to be a person parents will want to entrust their kids to. You have to make sacrifices.

I know great coaches, great teachers, great leaders who have lost their jobs because they were seen in a strip club. I know others who are out of coaching, not due to wins and losses, but due to DUIs. After all, would you entrust your child to someone who doesn’t exercise enough judgment not to drive when he has been drinking? Once you decide to coach, you affect not only your life but the lives of others as well. You must create a coaching persona that you would be comfortable living with but it also must be someone you would be comfortable having your child play for.

However, that coaching persona cannot be different than the person that you really are. Players can tell when you are faking, they can tell when you are not being genuine. In addition, if you are not real, you can’t keep it up all the time. Coaching adults is a little different; they can figure out that there is a coach in their coaching role and a coach in a personal role.

But, if you decide to coach younger players, high school, youth, etc., those kids have a more difficult time with that. You have to remember, at that level, you are always a role model. Standing in front of a player in the supermarket is the same as standing in front of a player in practice. Remember back to when you were in 5th, 6th, 7th grade. If you saw a teacher outside of school and that teacher acted differently than you expected, you looked at him differently when you went to school the next day. The same is true, even more so, as a coach.

I am not saying that you have to change who you are. Nor am I saying that you have to live your life according to your player’s expectations. I am saying that is part of your consideration when making your decision as to whether to become a coach or not, the role model factor has to figure in. If you wish to be a coach, you have to be willing to bear that responsibility.