The 9 Most Important Questions for Every Basketball Coach. Ignore Them at your Peril.

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By the time you finish reading these questions, you'll realize that coaching is much simpler than you thought and you'll start to unlock the secrets to successful coaching.

Take a moment to answer the questions below. I promise you will become a better coach!

It really is this simple...

Tactical Questions

1 - How can you get more shots than your opponents?

HINT: How can your team get more rebounds than your opponents? How can your team commit fewer turnovers than your opponents?

2 - How can you improve your team's shooting percentage?

HINT: How can you get more lay ups? How can you get more uncontested shots? How can you develop better shooters?

3 - How can you lower your opponents shooting percentage?

HINT: Improve your defense by keeping the ball as far from the basket as possible and contest all shots.

4 - How can you get to the foul line more often than your opponents?

Intangibles

5 - How can you teach more life lessons to your players and set a better example?

6 - What are the most important character building qualities to teach your players?

7 - If the players on your team were your own children, what would you want them to get out of this experience?

8 - How can you motivate your players?

9 - How can you improve teamwork and the attitudes of each player?

These are the 9 most important questions you should be asking yourself. That's it.

Basketball really is this simple. It's a simple game. Don't make it too complicated. Stick with simple tactics that will help you improve in each of these areas.

When you stop to think, the only thing you can do to win is... shoot a higher percentage than your opponent and/or take more shots than your opponent.

That's all you can do. When you start thinking in those terms, the game becomes really simple. And your priorities become very clear.

How much time do you waste in practice doing things that do NOT greatly impact one of the 9 areas mentioned above?

I'll bet the answer is more than you want to admit. Save these questions and refer to them once a week. This will keep you focused on the important things and make your practices very efficient.

Hope this helps.

What do you think about about these questions? Please share your thoughts.

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Carlo Dorigoni says:
2/8/2010 at 12:09:54 PM

Motivation, Rebounds, Teamwork, Defense, Trust, Honesty...some of the key words to success. Good post, thanks.

1 reply

Al Turner says:
12/27/2016 at 1:10:25 AM

Carlo I think you've said it ALL. Thanks

b bighorn says:
2/11/2010 at 1:01:51 PM

Speaking of the intangibles (5-9) the first question for every coach is to honestly ask themselves why they want to coach.
The lives of young people is at stake: their values, their morals, hopes, dreams, opportunities, and much more.
If you cannot adequately address these issues in your answer to that question you shouldn't coach.
For 1-4 just stay tuned to breakthrough basketball.

Darrell Watson says:
2/12/2010 at 11:14:31 AM

I agree with my fellow coach B Bighorn you need to be honest with yourself and ask why you want to coach?

As a coach we all want to win but it shouldn't be at the expense of losing our players both mentally and physically whether in the game or at practice. What we do and say at practices and games will impact our players when they go to the next level whether that be middle school, high school, or college.

Coach for all the right reasons and your rewards you get as a coach will be bountiful.

Joe Haefner says:
2/12/2010 at 11:31:03 AM

Great thoughts. I couldn't agree more. WHY DO YOU COACH?!? Hopefully, it's to make every person you come in contact with a better person.

Mike says:
2/16/2010 at 8:29:32 AM

Here's why I coach. We set our teams up by draft. One week after our draft I find out my 1st round pick is going to miss every other game because his parents are divorced and his father won't bring him to the games the weekend he has him. I ask his coach from last year whats up with that. He just says the kid missed the games, excuse me, you just let him miss the games. Well, I call the father and as diplomatically as I can explain to him how much his son loves the game and how much fun it is to watch these kids play. To make a long story short,1st game he was going to miss the dad shows up to watch. I see the kid come into the gym, he sees me runs up to me with an ear to ear grin jumps up and gives me a double high five, still brings tears to my eyes seeing how happy that kid was to be at the game

Joe Haefner says:
2/16/2010 at 9:50:44 AM

Great story, Mike. I think every coach that truly coaches for the right reasons has one (or many) stories just like that.

Brian says:
2/16/2010 at 9:59:52 AM

Great post. I'm a new coach and this lays it out as simply as possible. My 8th grade boys will appreciate it. Thanks.

CoachWil says:
2/16/2010 at 10:08:19 AM

Yup, i believe each and everyone has their own style of coaching but the bottom line is well discussed in these 9 points and i believe that we coaches can all agree that we are the most important figure our players look up to. They all listen to us, and we too should listen to our players. Personally, i assess my players individually and don't shove things down their throats knowing they can't handle it. I make sure that they can do things i ask them to do coz this helps build their morale and eventually give them task which they believe they can do.
We are their 2nd parents. We make sure we guide them right to prepare them for the big fight in life.

Charles Hudson says:
2/16/2010 at 3:47:21 PM

Wow, Mike...... just, wow. I coach high school boys and
have never had anything quite so touching happen.
Thanks for sharing that....
Charlie

Danny Sexton says:
3/3/2010 at 2:04:37 PM

Thank you, all, for the stories and tips you share here. This is my first year coaching. I coach a 9-12 year old girls team. Without my assistant coach and breakthrough b-ball, Im not sure this season would have gone so well. Again, thanks for all the work that goes into this site.

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