Two great posts Joe!

You learned all this a lot younger than I did.... First of all, if you teach plays, thats what they learn... plays., Bball isn't football where thats all you do.... motion is the way to go because it teaches kids how to play the game... you can still run a set here and there to keep teams honest... and get that shot you need at a certain time. It is a lot easier to defend sets/plays than it is to defend a continuity motion type offense... learned that my first year of high school coaching.

As for running.... let that be for the track and cross country guys. Teach basketball.. do it with a ball... and if you need to disicipline - read the things Joe wrote there. It doesn't mean a quick up and back cant be used from time to time. Every Thursday we used to do something called.. "Run the Idiot drill" It was for guys that did something goofy or were failing/near failing a class... couple of times I had a manager do it because he misplaced my keys. It was done for laughs and as a small reminder... it was ONCE up and back. Would probably have to change the name today - its not PC.

Coach Ben: The players you are referring to, are they two of your better players, or are they substitutes? If they are two of your better players and you use bench time as a motivator to improve their attitudes and towards the betterment of play, then it is a solid suggestion. However, if they ordinarly come off the bench then that will not work. In many cases such as this, you will find out that the parents are a large part of the problem and these problems need to be addressed with them. I had a similiar problem with a player several years ago and it occured during a time out. During my timeouts, all five starters will sit on the bench facing me and the others will be behind me. During one time out a parent actually came on the floor and began telling his son what to do. During a time out in the next game, the father, who was on the first row behind the bench jumped up and began giving instructions to his son. I stood up looked his father directly in the eye and said "If you are going to coach your son, you are going to have to find a team to play on because you're not going to coach him here. I never had problems again. I give this scenario, because I want to emphasize that my desire in this situation was not to embarrass the young man but to solve a problem that i felt could only become more harmful to the player and the team if i allowed it to continue. If you dont address such problems immediatly, all they do is get worse. ..you want to emphasize to your parents that you need to work hard together to do whats best for the child. Ive found it helpful to always keep an open mind and to remember the words, "You can disagree without being desagreeable. Let me know what happens Coach Mac

Another good post Mac,

Good to have you back!