Coaching Basketball: Establishing Your Philosophy and Priorities

thank you

We need more articles on basketball Philosophy . .

Thank you again

I,m very exited about the new youth articles and I can't wait to put the imformation to use.
Thank you for all you do.
Mike

This common sense is so often overlooked. This should be mandatory reading, and coaches should have to take an oath.

KG

Very good info. Keep up the good work.

My question is, how can you pull a team together that knows that they aren't that good? I feel that I have lost this team because most of the players don't look me in the eye when I am talking to them and they always say that they understand what I am saying when they really don't. I have tried telling them that it is okay to tell me that I am doing something wrong and that I should change what we are doing because it won't work. The biggest mistake I made was teaching the team advanced basketball skills before the fundimentals. Some of the players don't understand most of the terms that I use when I talk. The season is almost over, but I still want the team to feel as if they can be successful at anything they accomplish. So my real question is, how can I get them back to wanting to play basketball?

Craig,

Maybe someone smarter than me can give you a better answer, but I don't think there's anything you can do to turn things around overnight.

Here are some things you can do to slowly turn things around:

i coach semi pro and they love to learn new stuff even though most of them played through college. Its the way u approch them!!!

I just started coaching last school term 2007. I handled under 14s boys who competed locally. I felt frustrated and very disappointed about the results. I blame entirely this predicament to my inability to motivate the kids to practice. Most of the game period I relied only on 2 or 3 players. Team work was very weak.
Reading your article on coaching philosophy gave me tremendous insights and boost to improve my coaching approach. Thanks a million for all your coaching lessons.

Manolo

The information i have received from this site is tremendiously informative. Thank you very much!


Raymond

i have been coaching for ten years now,and i enjoy the role of being a student of the game.thank you very much,im relearning things that ought to be learned.

i have once decide to give up the work as a coach.cause i am not good in playing basketball,although i like it..however, thanks a lot for the newsletters which give me more courage and confidence to move on..

hi jef...,

first upall id like to thanking you exploring youre experiance.. I'm from sri lanka , a little third world country, near to jiant India.. of cource we were the world champions in cricket in 1996, and the finalist who met the australia in 2007 in the same subject.. So its very difficult to attract new young players to basket ball, since lack of funds, lack of expertise knowladge, gap between the mother federation and the players and so on... But here in sri lanka we have a very good seoson in mercantile bb.. I just manage to won the trympe few weeks back.. Ive refered your free e books and good points you mentioned,, thanx for all jeff... im being coaching bb for last 8 years or so. Think i have my own phulosopy about my teams.., i have listed down all of stuff as u do,, and very much simiar to you.. but jeff, my problem is that, why our country cannot make any significANT thing in bb.. why we cant rather i cant contineu my wining habitt atleast in domestic seoson..? It ll be a greaaaaat help if you could help me to develop my knowledge, my skills, and my teams.... Thanx again Jeff, you already helped me a lot...

thank you i cant whait to give this info to my team we are 4 and 0 we can use this thanks again

thats so helpfull thank you

It is very refreshing to be able to go to a site for good free advise to help our young players. Thank you very much.

Thanx so much esp on the teamwork issue.

Humbly, please allow me to share this information. Last year (2007, from November to December 23 (Saturdays and Sundays only), our Basketball Clinic (N.G.O.) conducted a 3 on 3 Skills Application Basketball Tournament, with 8 teams participating and with the theme "Teamwork," which was printed above the number in the back of the kids' uniforms. In the semifinal games, the expected team to win the championship (W=7 L=0) landed 4th and the winner pushed their winning ways all the way to the top! Somehow, ball movements got them to that top. All participants received certificates for "Potential Player For Organized Basketball." Participants cast their votes for "Best In Fundamentals" and "Most Behaved Player (MBP)." Certificates not trophies were awarded. At least they can keep the certificates and value same for life.

thank u so much .. i was so confusing and u gave me the light ..

hey thanks men; i owe God the game of
basketball but i'l probably credit you
majority of my basketball knowledge;
well its not a propability anymore, i'm quiet
sure of it!

Great information and assitance. Thanks so much to your company for the committment to help build better coaches and players.

yah..i agree with ur viewpoints!
the performance of the team defends on the good leadership of the coach....

First and foremost, the game is for the kids. Every major league player I have heard interviewed has said to keep it fun. Learning to face good times and bad, to grow as a person as well as an athlete, to meet new friends, to meet new and challenging situations, and a lot of other ideas come up in a season. Coaches are sport and life teachers.

Great lesson, Keep it coming. Need more people thinking this way!

Life's journey is to me about developing the right skills to travel successfully to the place/s you want to reach. Having the right morals and attutide will develop you mental to get there. So without a doubt create the philosophy to carry out your actions.

My philosophy is pretty simple. Fundamentals, conditioning and teamwork. The first day of practice it if very important. I must set the tone for the season and tell the kids what I expect of them. That is being on time, working hard on the drills and so on. Each year I learn from the last season and try to get better and better. I also think simplicity is the way to go. I also know that how you walk on the floor as a team makes a difference. I tell the players to run onto the court during a game and run off the court during time outs. Have your hands up on the free throw line. It shows team unity, this way the other team sees it as well as the parents.
My season will start on Dec 1. I have been working on this season three months ago, so I know i will be prepared.

thank you for your support. this is my first time coaching fifth graders and your material has been most helpful. i will continue to use this resource now and in the future and would recommend it to everyone. nicely done!

Jeff,

I am an engineer, not a coach but I would like to get into coaching. I am a basketball nut and I can relate to your comment about the influence coaches have. I remember practically everything my coaches told me when I was in High School and these coments have influenced me for the past 35 years.

That was real informative and I can personally say I do a lot of what was told in the article with my teams and can say we're always successful.

I am a parent and my question is, how should I approach the coach regarding his philosophy? I''m disappointed with how he communicates to the team and parents. We''re all very hesitant about asking him questions to get information we need regarding practices and games. Most parents call each other for information. He also tells us one thing at a meeting, but quite often never follows through with his own rules.
I think your site is very informative and inspirational and I''d love for him to see it, but I don''t know how to let him know about it without offending him or blowing me off.

Hi Rhonda,

That's difficult, because so many people don't respond well to criticism and instantly become defensive.

I would advise to go out of your to compliment him on something he does well. Talk to him for a few minutes. Then, say that you found this website with tons of free coaching information.

You can say whatever else that would like to convince him to check out the articles or the site.

Jeff,

I have a difficult situation arise and I was looking for an objective opinion.
I coach 7-8 girls'''' basketball at a small school and I was wondering if you could shed some light on the following problem.
I agree 100% about teaching fundamentals and running M2M defense. I have some parents that disagree with this philosophy. They think the way to teach basketball is to play as many games as possible. IN order to accomplish this, they have their daughters play on a traveling team all year round and throughout our school season. This traveling team consists of players from neighboring towns and the coache''''s philosphy is to run zone presses and other junk defenses. These parents also take the "best" players off my team and form a different team to play in tournaments on the weekend. The girls that get left out are hurt and jealous and I have to try and fix it. On top of that, this parent/coach then teaches them a different offense and runs a zone press too.
I am trying to build a foundation for these girls to grow and work together for one common goal, but I feel that I am just spinning my tires in the mud.
Our athletic director talked to the parents before the season and asked them to respect our season and not participate on other teams until our season is over. Unfortunately, these parents have gone against the schools advice and continued to play. I am frustrated with coaching and dealing with ignorant parents. HELP!!!

Jodi,

It sounds like the parent you are dealing with is either an ass or ignorant. But it's not uncommon and you're not the only one dealing with this.

Without being in your shoes, it's hard to give specific advice. But I'll throw a few ideas at you. Maybe it will help.

Option 1 - Give the players and parents some rules. The should be written rules. The consequences should be written too. This needs to be clearly provided a head of time. If they break the rules, you follow through with the consequences. If it's important, you could have a rule "No organized leagues or games during the regular season. One violation results in one game suspension. Two violations result in two game suspension. Three violations result dismissal from team."

My philosophy is simple. Set expectations and accountability with players and parents. Clearly communicate those expectations with written materials and verbally. Then hold everyone accountable and follow through.

Option 2 - Give the parent our information and materials. It's funny you mention this because that parent really need to listen to an interview we just did with Don Kelbick. We are developing product to help coaches, parents, and players develop off season basketball workouts. We did one recording just for youth and middle school players. In the recording Don talks about how other counties are pulling away from the US in skills and starting to kick our butts. The big reason is that other countries practice 5 times a week and play once or twice. But in the U.S., for some reason we play 5 times and maybe practice once. That recording would really hit home. Don really knows his stuff and works with youth players all the way to the NBA. I think the parent would start understanding the error in their ways. When you hear it from Don, it makes perfect sense.

We're still working on packaging the audio and everything, but maybe we can provide you with something to help. Just drop me an email and maybe we can come up with materials or a plan to get something for that parent.

Here are other pages the parent should read:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/defense/age.html

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/youthfundamentals.html

BTW, what age level are you working with?

i read many articles that should include fun in the drill when the players are beginner, but how i can i get those of information, Does anyone have suggestion?

Hi Clement,

You can find more drills on this page: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/basketballdrills.html.

If you are looking for fun drills specifically, we have created a product called '60 Fun Drills & Games' which you can look at here: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/fun-youth-drills.html

My philosophy is simple to look out how to pleyers are feeling before they start by then introduce them to the daily routine

Thank you for this site. These ideas have helped re-enforce my own, and have given me ideas to add to my teams

How do you handle a player who is truly very talented on the 7th grade girls team? This is not just my opinion, the varsity coach has a great interest in this girl. She has already played up a grade and has started on a national AAU championship team..She is also a great kid, just so far advanced.