Jeff Haefner's Coaching Blog

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Message to Your Players – Being Selfless and Helping Others

December 21, 2013 by Jeff Haefner 1 Comment

What’s more important than teaching life lessons and helping others?  I think basketball is a great tool to teach those lessons and set a good example for players. With that in mind, I’m sharing an email I just sent to the players on our sophomore team.   I have found this is a great way […]

Filed Under: 10th Grade (Sophomore) Basketball, Positive Impact

Decision-Training Style of Coaching. Is This a Better Method?

December 20, 2013 by Jeff Haefner Leave a Comment

Brian McCormick makes good points about asking questions and using decision based teaching.  I’m trying to do a better job on this area.  It takes practice.  I guess us coaches still have to practice too! Use a decision-training style of coaching, meaning that I ask a lot of questions to help the players learn. Coaches […]

Filed Under: Strategy

Keeping ALL Your Players Busy in Practice and How to Handle Large Groups

December 19, 2013 by Jeff Haefner Leave a Comment

This season we often find ourselves in the gym with one or two coaches and over 30 kids.  This can be a real challenge and requires some creativity to stay productive. I think it’s important to keep as many of your players busy (and improving) as possible. How much can a player improve when they […]

Filed Under: 10th Grade (Sophomore) Basketball, Drills, Practice Strategy

Cutting Down Turnovers, Improving Defense, and Objectively Analyzing Your Game Results

December 6, 2013 by Jeff Haefner 18 Comments

We lost our first game of the season.  It was against my old team that I coached the last couple years.  So it was bitter sweet.  I was happy to see the players I worked with last year play really well.  But at the same time I wanted to win the game with my new […]

Filed Under: 10th Grade (Sophomore) Basketball, Drills, Practice Strategy, Stats

New Favorite Drill for Our 3rd Grade Team – Fun and Improves Passing

December 5, 2013 by Jeff Haefner 2 Comments

Here’s a passing drill we have been using with my daughter’s 3rd grade team.  I also plan to use it with my high school team as a passing and conditioning drill.  It’s called Pass and Switch. For our 3rd graders, it’s their new favorite drill and they have been asking if they can run this drill […]

Filed Under: 3rd Grade Basketball, Drills Tagged With: Drills

Sweet Basketball Coaching App – One of My Favorites to Improve Shooting

November 25, 2013 by Jeff Haefner Leave a Comment

Coaches Eye is a pretty sweet app that I use to analyze players shots.  It’s great because I can record their shot with my ipad or iphone, and then a few seconds later show them in slow motion what they are doing. Almost every single time… the player looks at the slow motion video with […]

Filed Under: Coaching, Tools

Simple Way to Define Shot Selection and Improve Offensive Efficiency

November 22, 2013 by Jeff Haefner Leave a Comment

This season we added a new wrinkle in how we present our offense.  We believe it will help improve our shot selection and overall efficiency of the offense. It’s all based on this simple premise… We only take two kinds of shots:  1)  WIDE open jump shots. 2)  Shots within 9 feet of the basket. […]

Filed Under: Drills, Offense

10 Ways to Keep Injured Players Busy and Productive During Practice

November 22, 2013 by Jeff Haefner Leave a Comment

As coaches, we all at some point have players attending practice but can’t participate in regular drills because they’re injured. Of course, it depends on nature of the injury, but you should almost always be able to come up with ways for players to work on their game and improve their skills during practice. The […]

Filed Under: Practice Strategy

Day 3 – Practice Plan and Drills

November 21, 2013 by Jeff Haefner Leave a Comment

NOTE: This practice plan is based on specific strategy we have developed for this team and this season. Your strategy and philosophy might be different based on age level, skill level, number of players in the gym, number of baskets available, etc. But hopefully the practice plans and drills give you some ideas. I highly […]

Filed Under: 10th Grade (Sophomore) Basketball, Practice Plans

Day 2 – Practice Plan & Drills (Sophomores 2013/14)

November 20, 2013 by Jeff Haefner 2 Comments

Here’s our practice plan from Day 2 (10th grade boys)…. Intro Explain you have to learn 3 pivots and 3 counters on your own. Hand out pivots doc to those that need it. Review core values. Read and hand out “hard working” doc. On Ball Defense Defense lines – Stance, mirror, push step, dig, contest […]

Filed Under: 10th Grade (Sophomore) Basketball, Practice Plans

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About Me

I’m a basketball coach, skill development trainer, and Co-Owner of Breakthrough Basketball. I currently live in Marion, Iowa with my wife, two kids, and our golden retriever (Izzy).

Right now I am coaching two teams. I will be coaching... Read More...

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