Coaching High School and College Basketball

As a high school (or higher) basketball coach, you will face some very difficult challenges...

You are expected to win! Or start winning very soon.

You have to deal with difficult parents.

You have to decide who gets playing time and who gets cut.

You face every type of defense imaginable -- zone, man, box and 1, full court press, match up zone, and the list goes on.

You're expected to serve as a positive role model.

You inherit players with horrible fundamentals and it's your job to fix them in a few weeks.

You only have a few weeks at the beginning of every season to teach your players an impossible amount of information.

You watch film.

You analyze stats.

You deal with the media.

You deal with administration.

You need to find quality time for your own family.

FACT: You, as a basketball coach, have a huge list of challenges and obstacles to overcome. The purpose of this site is to help you overcome those challenges and become a better coach.

Some of the tips we share were discovered in the business world because business owners face the same challenges as a coach. You're both stretched TOO thin!

Some of the tips were learned from experience and many of the tips were learned from other coaches.


35 Best Resources for High School, College, and Pro Coaches

Our website is huge with hundreds of pages -- so to make things easier for you, we have taken the time to gather all the "best" resources we can find and put them all in one place for high school and college coaches.

You can of course refer to the left navigation menu for an index of everything on this site. But to cut to the chase, here are some top resources for you...

Best Resources for Basketball Drills

Since it seemed impossible for us to pick just a few of our favorite drills, we decided to list the best places for you to find drills. The drills you choose all depends on your situation, style of play, and what you need to work on.

It's also very important for you to vary the drills that you use and change things up. This is because a major enemy of skill development is boredom. The large number of repetitions necessary to improve or learn a skill could lead to routine, mundane sessions. Having multiple drills that work on the same skill and rotating them will go a long way to maintaining interest and enthusiasm. It also exposes players to multiple situations in which they can use the skills they are working on. This creates greater motivation and better practices.

  1. Free eBook with 72 Basketball Drills - Many of our favorite drills are listed in this free ebook. If you don't already have this ebook, start here.

  2. Basketball Drills Index Page - This page lists and organizes all the drills on our website. Lots of good drills to choose from here.

  3. Youtube Drills Playlist - You'll also find some of our favorite drills on our Youtube channel.


Best "All Around" Tips and Resources for High School Coaches

  1. The Ultimate Guide to Motivating Players - One of the biggest challenges that coaches face, no matter what level, is keeping players motivated and working hard all the time. This report will help you motivate your players and get them working harder than ever before!

  2. Dealing with Parents - 19 Surefire Strategies to Avoid Problems - This is another excellent report that pretty much solves those "parent problems" once and for all.

  3. The Most Important Aspect of Coaching & Leadership - Being a Good Role Model - Very important article and reminder about coaching the right way.

  4. Do You Run "Situations" as Part of Your Daily Practice Plan?

  5. 3 Simple Tricks That Will Instantly Double Your Defensive Quickness


Best Skill Development Resources

  1. Improve Your Team's Shooting Confidence - Implement this simple trick and watch your team's shooting confidence improve.

  2. A Simple Charting Trick to Improve Team Shooting

  3. 10 Tips When You Are Coaching and Teaching Basketball Shooting

  4. Footwork and Post Player Development - One of the most important things to teach players is proper footwork. Yet few coaches know how to teach footwork properly. This ebook greatly simplifies the teaching process and demonstrates footwork brilliantly.

  5. 4 Things You Need To Know To Be a Great Ball Handler

  6. Basketball Moves or Individual Offense - Improve your offense with these tips from a NBA player development coach.


All About Winning - Best Resources to Help You Win More Games

Let's face it, even though there are much more important things than winning, high school and upper level coaches are expected to win some games.

I personally believe that teaching life lessons, building character, and setting a good example is much more important than winning. But if you want to keep your job as a coach you're probably going to have to win a few games. And I know pretty much all coaches want to win more games. So this section is dedicated to the BEST resources we know of to help you win more games.

  1. If I could only pick ONE resource to recommend, I'd say this DVD from Danny Miles will help you win more games than any other resource I can recommend. The reason is that this system will help you motivate players, improve offense, improve defense, lower turnovers, improve rebounding, and take your team to the next level in all aspects of the game. I recommend that you take a close look at this DVD:
    https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/value-point-system.html

  2. Here's an excellent article that I think all coaches should read closely. It could help you pinpoint "the things" that your missing:
    https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/three-things.html

  3. Here's another really good article that helps you get laser-like focus and win more games:
    https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/9-important-questions.html

  4. To win lots of games, one of the most important things you can do is develop a dominating defense. This product will help you do that very quickly:
    https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/huber-defense.html

  5. One of the best ways to win lots of games it to consistently get MORE shots than your opponents. Just take a look at this article that explains how rebounding can have a much more profound impact than what you think:
    https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/rebound-and-win.html

    This eBook will show you a proven step by step system to develop a dominate rebounding team:
    https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/rebounding.html

  6. Finally, great shooting makes the game simple. Shoot a better percentage than your opponent and you'll have a good chance to win. Here's a step by step coaching system that improves your team's shooting percentage (this is the most thorough and highest rated product on our website):
    https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/btshooting.html


Best Offensive Tips and Resources

  1. Offensive Theory and Universal Scoring Concepts - This might seem a little basic at first but this article really makes you think about your offense and helps you determine what offense you should be running. You'll find great all around offensive fundamentals and tips in this article. You can apply these concepts to any offense that you run.

  2. Offenses - This is a list of offenses that we have diagrammed on our website (Dribble Drive, High Low, Cutters, Duke Motion, etc, etc).

  3. Set Plays - On this page you'll find all kinds of great set plays that you can run.

  4. 16 Tips On How To Score More Points With Set Plays - Watch your execution of set plays increase dramatically.

  5. Decrease Turnovers With This Passing Tip - Watch your team's errant passes disappear with these simple passing tips.

  6. Coaching Basketball with Limited Time - This article is written for youth coaches but it's a great tip that applies to all levels. It will help you implement your offense and teach skills in a shorten amount of time.

  7. Great Teamwork Statistic - Use this great statistic and watch your team's unselfishness sky rocket. (It's not an assist)

  8. How To Develop An Explosive First Step - Learn how having a "long" first step can SLOW you down!

  9. How To Break Any Type of Press and Avoid Turnovers


Best Resources for Running Your Program More Effectively

  1. Off Season & Monthly Coaching Meetings - Good suggestions that come from top business practices.

  2. Preseason Coaching Tips - Excellent resource for developing your practice schedule, practice plans, workouts, and getting off to a great start.

  3. Developing a Team Covenant

  4. Creating Team Unity With Coach K

  5. Life Lessons & Team Bonding - Try these simple things and watch your team chemistry drastically improve.

  6. Managing Assistants Effectively

  7. Simple Time Management Tip

Where to Go From Here?

Don't stop with this "Top Resources" section...

For general coaching tips and advice, check out this comprehensive list of our coaching articles and resources. You can also use the Coaching Links on the left menu. You'll find a huge selection of coaching information that you can use for reference.

You can also post your questions and start discussions in our forum. A group of very experienced and knowledgeable coaches monitor the forum and answer questions.

For DVDs and ebooks that we recommend for high school and college coaches, check out this section of our web store.