Something as simple as statistics can make a huge difference for your basketball team.

It might sound hard to believe but by using stats properly you will:

1. improve rebounding
2. improve defense
3. reduce turnovers
4. motivate players to work harder
5. avoid complaints about playing time
6. score more points
7. and win more games

When I first started coaching I didn't pay much attention to stats.

But now I have been using stats for several years and I don't know how I'd coach without them. They help us in so many ways and solve so many problems for us.

Stats just make me a better coach and get our players working harder and performing at a higher level.

Are you familiar with Pearson's Law?

One reason stats can help so much is because of a phenomenon called Pearson's Law. The law states...

• "When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates. "

Simply showing the right statistics and metrics to your players will boost their performance.

If you stop and think, it makes sense. By giving someone a measurement of their performance it makes them more aware of what they are doing on a daily basis.

Also, the employee/player knows at a subconscious level that the boss knows whether they are performing well or not. This little incentive and piece of knowledge makes a difference.

We have found that by tracking certain stats, emphasizing them, and reporting them back to the players makes a significant impact on their performance and effectiveness.

Be Careful about Misleading Stats & False Indications

It's important to use the correct stats and use them the correct way...

As an example, many coaches will look at rebound totals. However, you should NOT base your decisions on "totals". Not only can it give you a false indication of the performance of your team's rebounding, it can also give you a false indication of an individual player′s performance on the boards.

Here's a simple and common scenario...

Let's say your team shoots 20% from the field and your opponent shoots 60% from the field. Now you will have significantly more offensive rebounding opportunities because you are shooting so poorly. Because of your poor shooting, you are almost guaranteed to get more offensive rebounds than your opponent. Since you got more total rebounds, does that mean you did a better job with offensive rebounding than your opponent?

Of course not! You just had more opportunities for rebounds. This is why we do NOT look at rebounding totals. Instead we use Offensive and Defense Rebounding Percentages.

There are of course many other examples of how stats can be used the wrong way and how they can give you false indications. Instead of going into all those details (which would almost require an entire book), we'll just cut to the chase and give this article with the best stats to look at and ideas on how to utilize them.

Related Pages & Helpful Resources

Tracking Your Defensive Statistics And Performance
Track Stats on Your iPad or iPhone - Breakthrough Stats App
Basketball Statistics - Using Stats

What do you think? Let us know by leaving your comments, suggestions, and questions...

Comments Most Likes First   Oldest First   Newest First Jeff Haefner says: 7/24/2013 at 9:45:43 AM Douglas, Maybe you missed this link at the end of the article. Here it is. It explains what stats coaches should look at and gives you a few ideas on how to use them. http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/stats/9_stats_basketball_coach_should_track.html Hope it helps. Like     login   register Douglas Reid says: 7/24/2013 at 9:32:44 AM Good heads-up article. It would have been nice to know some of the stats that we coaches should use and examples of using them correctly. Like     login   register

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