get the most out of my star player

A friend of mine put one of our games on his web site.... this was a long time ago but it shows you some of the things we did.... we ran some 3 out 2 in, some sets and a lot of Open Post.... take a look and you will see that no one cared who scored but they did know WHO could do what. This is truly a TEAM oriented offense.

http://www.ihigh.com/school5105/video_886382.html

Let me know what you think.

I hope that he listens to you... and that he understands that this is a team game... Think about defense ... when someone scores does it affect the the one defender or the entire team? Remind him of my comments regarding Michael Jordon and NOT winning any championships UNTIL Phil Jackson convinced him to get others involved. Let us know how it goes.

Thanks for the link! I will watch it tonight! I'll let you know what I think of it tonight (here in holland tonight haha).

I think I know now how to talk him into his team again and make him a better teamplayer. I will keep you posted.

After you watch this you will see my point guard do a lot of things that I think you want this kid to do. Set up others and get his shots when they present them to him. Being the ultimate team player.... and trust me, he was a handful growing up too. He DID understand the TEAM CONCEPT though.

Maybe you can sit down with him and write some goals .. something that he can see in black and white. Good luck.

I can see indeed that your guard is a good teamplayer, but also knows how and when to create his own shot.

But why do you play the open post offense that high? Sometimes the man with the ball is in the top corner of your offensive half court. The D doesn't press or trap you in the corners but a backdoorpass to under the basket would be impossible. Why don't you play it just above the 3pointline?

There are a few reasons for playing it that high..... it creates a lot of open areas which allows for takes to the basket..... 1 on 1 from the wing and at times from the top..... not sure how much of the game you watched but it does create back door opportunities.... and you did see some wide open 3 point shots in that game. We even had a set play out of that for backdoor cuts.
We wanted to take the Defense away from the basket.... 4s and especially 5s DO NOT want to play D out there, it makes them very uncomfortable because they don't practice that..... they want to be closer and its easier for them to get rebounds ..... how many rebounds did you see that 7 footer get in that game?
Doing that allowed us to control the tempo NOT the other team. That team was #8 in the state and we beat them pretty handily.
Think of this... you over play us, we back door ..... if you are late with your helpside defense, we take it to the basket - if you get lazy on defense, we take it to the basket.... if you get real lazy and sag back, we take the three.
We very seldom got caught in the low corners ... but if they tried trapping us high - I taught them to split the trap off the dribble, hit the man breaking middle and the back side wing would back door for a lay up.

I do agree it creates a lot of space and I indeed have seen a couple of backdoorscores. But I have also seen a lot of backdoorchances who weren't taken because the ball was too high to pass the ball to the cutter.

I have to say, I do like the movement in your offense very much. The patience is great and no one is just standing, they all move and when they move, the do it with power. I did like that very much.

What I'm playing with my team now, is all around the 3 pointline. Spread it with 2 in the corners, 1 man on top and 2 at the wings. The basic movement is just pass and cut and we all rotate. Because the low guys are in the corner, there is a lot of space inside and if the D is sagging in because it's a poor shooter on the outside, they cut themself from the corner inside and force the D to respond. I like your backscreen in the offense, I was planning on implementing that simple screen later in the season, I first want to let the guys completly get this system.

I also like your D, you got a lot of stops, but with making very few fouls! And you got a lot of defensive rebounds.

There are times when the miss the cutter, not so sure it was because they were too high... I always felt like they just missed the guy or the defender impeded his sight. After all, we knew when and where guys were cutting. :-) There are some teams that run this a little lower and at times we did also... depending on the team we were playing... but for the most part... it was high. By the way, we talked a lot about reversing the ball 3 times in practice to break down the defense. (so who knows what the kid was thinking)
We talked a lot about movement.. and that if you were standing still for longer than 2 seconds you were doing something wrong... even if its a cut and replace... force the defense to move/react. The backscreen is a great move, it forces the D to respond which allows easier passing on the perimeter.... if they dont give reverse help, back door lay up THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
I agree with you, teach your kids the basic offense first.... make sure they know that well. I'm not sure how long your season is or where you are at in it right now....... think about this.... IF teams are pressuring you and making it difficult to enter the ball or get it moving, the back screen is a great weapon..... so don't be afraid to show them this IF that starts to happen.
We played a 1-3-1 match up zone and m2m - on/up the line... and when we were doing it right it was hard to tell what we were in. We had a lot of pride in our Defense - our goal was to hold our opponentes below 45 points in a 32 minute game. I felt that we had a great chance of winning if we could do that.

Oke, that explains it for me indeed.
The season just got started, we play one game per weekend, and have two practices per week. We started training in September, and just won our fifth game out of five of the season. Though we haven't play against the better teams in this poule. I'm convinced that we are playing in the wrong poule. The system here is in my favour. Because after the first halve of the season we will be rearranged in smaller poules, with more even opponents. The difference between teams in this poule is huge. For example we won today with 5-143 (in a 40 minute game). I used this game as a training instead of a game, because the opponent was just horrible. My goal is to learn and get the tactics right during the first halve of the season so we can play very good basketball in the second halve. Against the better teams.

I have a very aggressive defensive team and 5 man on the bench, so I'm implementing a 1-3-1 trapping zone at the moment and we have got a very hard full court press (m2m).

From that I play a fast break to wear the opponent out, which results in all five games in a better last quarter from us than the opponent. Again right now against the not that good teams everything works, I'm eager to see how we will do against better teams.

My goal in my tactics is not to keep them below a certain score, but wear them down and keep momentum on our side. Keep speed in the game and play hard defense, from that build on a good steady fast break and have a offense that gives opportunities to all the players to score and is a continuation offense.

The team is picking it up very good. Everyone is working for the team, no one wants te let the team down. From some players I'm expecting more, for example the player we discussed earlier, but everyone understands his role and doing a great job.

I'm a bit worried about the scoring. We have 3 of the 10 players that score a lot of the games points. I'd like to spread that more to more teammates. But I think that will happen when the offense is working better than it does right now. Because it's a bit too basic, only the good players can get theyre shot off.

Patience is the key here, and as long as you are playing weaker teams... you wont have much of a challenge. This is the time to tell them what you want every time down the floor... we want X player to score, or score in the post etc. It sounds like you have a good team... just keep them improving.

I would have loved to play you, my style of ball control vs your up tempo game. :-)

Good luck

We are very strong this year. A lot better compared to the last years. I'm excited to see how we will do against better teams. The great part of this team is that we are in some sort of a flow. We are very focused and working as a team together to get the best out of everything. That's what I just love about this team. I think that is the basis to succes.

I would have loved to play against your guys, I think we are less in fundamentals, because you are training much more, but the intensity and playstyle would have made it a interesting game.

I agree, IF you can keep the focused and working hard... and playing as a team, things have a way for working out.

Yes, we get to practice on days we don't play, usually play two games a week.... so we practice 3 times. I loved playing teams that tried to uptempo us.... presses didn't bother us, we were very patient. The word around was " Don't get down early with East or you will be in for a long night on defense. " :-)

Keep up the good work and you are way ahead of where I was after 5 years of coaching. I wish that all these sites were available when I was coaching.... I would have been a much better coach. JMO

Thank you! I really appreciate it!

That's what I like about the US system, there is so much more time to train and sport, compared to here in Holland. Limited practice time is always a huge problem here. That is the main problem basketball overall here in Holland will never get near your level. Who knows where I will be teaching the game in the future. I am open for everything.

How old are you Kris? What are your goals for coaching? In the States you pretty much need to be a certified teacher to coach at the school you are working for. What are your goals overall? Meaning, what do you want to do with your life. I was what you called a late bloomer... I hated school so I didn't go to college until I was 32, got my BA at 36 and got a job at a high school where I spent the rest of my life teaching and coaching. I loved what I did.

As for careers - "Find something that you love to do and you will never work a day in your life."

There are AAU programs and others but I'm not sure you can make a living out of that.

I'm 21 years old. So i've got my whole life in front of me. I first want to finish my educations here. I know you need to be a certified teacher to coach at a school in the US.

I have two passions, basketball and working with kids. I love to do the two. I think I am too young to really have goals in my life. I do know that I will never quit coaching basketball. In Holland there are a few coaches who can make a living of it, but that's the absolute top.

My dream is to be a fulltime basketballcoach. In Holland we have a system in which you can educate yourself as a basketballtrainer. Last year I've followed and succeeded in my first coachcourse (there are 5 levels, I skipped the first, that was too basic, so that was level 2). This year I am doing the level 3 course. I'm trying to get in touch with as many experienced coaches as possible to learn about the game. To hear different opinions so I can figure out for myself what my opinion is. I'm working my way up and I hope one day I can make a living of it. I'm doing everything I can to make that goal.

When I'm done with school, I want to travel and visit a couple other areas of the world to learn about the game out there.

That are most of all my plans for the future. If I can't be a fulltime basketballcoach, I'll keep combining the coaching with teaching in primary school, i love working with kids so that won't be a problem.

You are never too young to have goals - and at 21, thats a great time to start. The people in life that are successful are GOAL ORIENTED. As you get into teaching you will find out how important goals are... in your lesson plans for the kids in the classroom etc. Every time you set foot on the practice floor you should have some goals.... "what is it that I want to teach / emphasize to my players today?" I had a practice (lesson) plan for every practice which I kept in notebooks. That way I could go back and evaluate what we did and what we needed to improve upon.

After every game we wrote down areas that needed improvement and that went into the next days practice plan. IF there was a particular "situation" in the game that we messed up on, we ran that as a "situation" at the end of practice.. to make sure that we would handle it correctly the next time.

It seems like you know what you want to do and are trying to get the education to do just that. I wish you well.

By the way, how is that one boy doing with what we discussed before? Are you having any luck in convincing him how to go about the game? Doing what needs to be done for the good of the team?

I do have goals. And I am very goal oriented, you said that before. But my goals are good for the coming 5 years. I do not yet have goals for the coming 20 or 30 years.

I'm working with goals in coaching. You are totally right about that point.

You said this:
After every game we wrote down areas that needed improvement and that went into the next days practice plan.
The 'we' you are talking about, is this the group including the players or just the coaching staff? In the other discussion Don said to listen very well to your players. I'm curious about how you dealed with it in reality.

The situation about the boy: He played an outstanding game last weekend, but the whole team did in the 5-143 game. But I want him also to play outstanding against better teams. I haven't had a direct conversation with him yet. That is because he was sick last week and this weekend he had to leave right after the game. I will certainly have the conversation with him this week. As soon as I have an update, I'll post it right away.

Glad to hear that you have some goals.... think about this, WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE IN 10 YEARS? WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE DOING?
No harm in thinking about that. I know I would have been a lot better off financially IF I would have done that a lot earlier in my life. My problem was self confidence - thinking I couldn't be successful in college.. how wrong I was.

After every game my assistant coach and I would go our for a "pop" and something to eat... we did this... while we were waiting for the food and enjoying the "pop" we would talk Bball and write down the areas we felt we needed to improve upon... those went in to the following practice plans... I hated making the same mistakes... I felt that would be on me.... and that wasn't going to happen, not on my watch.

I suppose that every coach has their own way of dealing with their players..... most of the time I would let a few of the players give the post game talk, heck, they get sick of listening to the coaches after awhile.... A lot of what I would hear would come from very informal conversations with them, on and off the court. You would be surprised what you can learn by listening to kids talking to you or around you.

Let us know how things go after your conversation. You seem to be blowing out your opponents...... why don't you scrimmage the age group in your club just above yours? That might bring them back down to earth... but certainly you will and the kids will see where they have to improve as you start playing the better teams.

That's really a good question, I have thought about it before, but I've also changed that goals in the last few years. So I have changed my focus to the short term.

You're right, every coach deals with it in a different way.

The scrimmage against the higher team I'd like to use as a sort of back up plan for me when the concentration gets lost and when the guys are feeling too good. But I do have to say, for the age they have, the keep a great focus. I try to keep challenging them by keeping the level of the practice high and keep improving them. Untill now, it is working great. You can't blow out an opponent with such great numbers, when you are not concentrated. I'm seeing a lot that can be improved, especially in fundamentals I'm trying to keep challenging the players, so they keep concentrated.

I will agree that they are focused.... but from that last score, you and I could have beat that team - just the two of us LOL.... and I'm 10 years older than dirt.

They need some real competition to get them to step their game up a bit. Challenging them is good.... every day in practice make it a lot harder than any game you will play..... but as you well know, kids rather play a game than practice.... so why not kill two birds with one stone...... play better talent (dont worry about the score) get them to execute better each and every possession, both ends of the floor. JMO

Haha, we would have certainly won! But not every team in the poule is of such level. This was an exception. The other teams should give us better competition, not that much that we will lose. So playing the older team would definitly not harm us.

You do have a point in the scrimmage. The problem will be, that I most likely have to give up a practice for it. I might do it, I'll keep it in mind, but right now, we need to improve that much, that I don't want to miss any practicetime.