Sunday, June 20, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
How to Deal with Coaches
It is important that, as a parent, you have clean open lines of communication with your player’s coach. All coaches are not created equal, so this can be a challenge at times.
Use these tips to get along with any coach.
1. LOOK IN THE MIRROR.
Volunteer Youth Coaches are just like you.
They have busy professional and personal lives. Just like you.
They are pressed for time. Like you.
They have worries. Like you.
They do not have enough time in the day. Like you.
When you are busy and rushed, how do you want people to approach you with questions?
2. DO NOT COACH.
If you want to volunteer coach do it.
Otherwise, do not coach.
To be effective, every coach needs the “authority” to coach. In volunteer coaching, that “authority” is granted by you, the parent, by not coaching.
Coaches are not high and mighty, but they are the adults in charge. When children hear competing adult voices, they can become confused and will begin to shut out all adult voices.
Imagine, in your house, while you are trying to instruct your child, multiple adults begin talking to your child at once and all saying different things.
Not a pretty image.
Do not coach.
Cheer.
Your player will benefit and the coach will appreciate it.
3. SAY THANK YOU.
No matter what you think about your coach, all coaches do a ton of things that no one realizes.
But the biggest thing coaches do is make the time to coach because they think it is important. Without them, in many cases, your child and other children would not have a chance to play.
Remember to thank them from time to time. It will be appreciated.
____________
This article was written by Barry Thompson, FPYC Football Commissioner and Basketball Coach. For more articles, visit his blog at: http://ffxsportsparents.wordpress.com/about/
Use these tips to get along with any coach.
1. LOOK IN THE MIRROR.
Volunteer Youth Coaches are just like you.
They have busy professional and personal lives. Just like you.
They are pressed for time. Like you.
They have worries. Like you.
They do not have enough time in the day. Like you.
When you are busy and rushed, how do you want people to approach you with questions?
2. DO NOT COACH.
If you want to volunteer coach do it.
Otherwise, do not coach.
To be effective, every coach needs the “authority” to coach. In volunteer coaching, that “authority” is granted by you, the parent, by not coaching.
Coaches are not high and mighty, but they are the adults in charge. When children hear competing adult voices, they can become confused and will begin to shut out all adult voices.
Imagine, in your house, while you are trying to instruct your child, multiple adults begin talking to your child at once and all saying different things.
Not a pretty image.
Do not coach.
Cheer.
Your player will benefit and the coach will appreciate it.
3. SAY THANK YOU.
No matter what you think about your coach, all coaches do a ton of things that no one realizes.
But the biggest thing coaches do is make the time to coach because they think it is important. Without them, in many cases, your child and other children would not have a chance to play.
Remember to thank them from time to time. It will be appreciated.
____________
This article was written by Barry Thompson, FPYC Football Commissioner and Basketball Coach. For more articles, visit his blog at: http://ffxsportsparents.wordpress.com/about/
Monday, June 7, 2010
Pick and Roll: Offense For the Ages
Many coaches love to run various offenses which actually appear to confuse their own players.
In previous email you were provided with 3 simple offenses you can implement right away. As promised, the pick and roll offense will be discussed. The folllowing is a excerpt written by Ed Riley, www.coachingyouthbasketball.net/chatterbox.
A well respected coach, Steve Jordan, has allowed me to provide you with the information which appeared on his site http://www.akcoach.com/index.htm. I highly recommend this site because it has been a valuable resource for me as well as thousands of youth basketball coaches and players.
Pick and Roll - This is a little harder to teach. A pick or a screen is really hard for younger kids, but so is riding a bike and they learn how to do that!
Here's how to teach a screen to younger kids. Tell them that they are a detective who has to sneak up on the bad guy and stand to the right or left of the bad guy. By the way, the bad guy is the opposing player who is guarding their teammate with the ball. Their job is to block the bad guy and stop them from following your teammate. The dribbler's job is to dribble around you and run their defender into you, so the bad guy can't follow the dribbler.
The hard part is the person doing the blocking has to keep their feet planted in one place. If they move their feet, they just fouled the other player. The next hard part is that they can't lean their body into the defender, because that too is a foul. The last part of this is that they can't use their hands or arms to block the defender. The way to avoid hands and arms is to have them cross their arms across their chest. The real secret is to get the defender to run into you. This is a pick or a screen.
So what is a pick and roll? Once you succeed in the pick, then you break to the basket looking for a pass or a rebound. All colleges and pro teams use some form of a pick and roll. This offense never goes stale, you can use it forever.
Remember, simple is good? Guess what, there is no more offense to teach you. If you can teach your team these 3 and 1/2 things in the first year, you will have accomplished what it took me 3 years to accomplish. Don't try to get fancy or complicated. You may be ready to learn new things, but your kids won't be. Remember, this game is not for you, it's for the kids. Except for some inbounds plays and things, I have just given you your whole first season's offense. If you can accomplish what I've taught you, you will be a basketball god in your league.
The following is written by Steve Jordan, aka Alaska Coach. His site and Coach Jackson's website are my basketball Encarta. And heeerrrreeee's Alaska!!
Ed "you mentioned the pick and roll. I think you should add a paragraph about how the screener should "roll." I , too, teach arms over the chest, but then have the kids lean on whichever elbow bears the brunt of the contact. The body weight freezes the defender and allows the screeners something to use as a pivot point. The end result is a perfect seal position, for a moment anyway. Too many kids will run up and bang into the defender, jump around and race to the hoop. This makes for a sloppy pick and a tough passing target. A beautiful pick is deliberate and methodical. The extra time creates extra space and gives the offense more options."
I read this and re-read it, and boy did he hit the nail on the head. For those of you who have never seen screening at the younger ages, it can be extremely ugly. Here is some of what you will see:
1. Your player is about to screen a defender, so they run into the defenders back and almost knock them over. This is a foul on your player.
2. Your player sneaks up on the defender, stands straight up, knees locked and the defender runs into your player. This sounds right, right?? Wrong, with their knees locked, your player will normally fall down or stumble. Now they are out of the mix for several seconds until they regain their feet.
3. Your player will run up to the defender, not wait for their team mate to run the defender into them, and then roll to the basket. The net result is that they never ever set the screen for their team mate.
Without waiting for the body contact and without a slight lean on the elbow and side, it is hard to actually block the defender and stop them from fighting through your pick. By slightly leaning, you will have your knees slightly bent so you don't fall, stumble, or look like an idiot. AND, you maintain your proper stance and footwork. AND YOU STOPPED THE DEFENDER from following your team mate.
Enjoy and share with a fellow coach.
Keith Smith
-------------------------------------
For FREE Special Report, "Youth Basketball Coaching Made Simple: The Easy Steps You Need to Take to Develop Your Players to Their Full Potential" visit us at: http://www.bestyouthhoops.com/sq
Also, you will have access to some off our special events with guest coaches who have coached or are now coaching youth basketball.
We look forward to providing great information to help you with your coaching.
For daily updates, visit us at twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bestyouthhoops
In previous email you were provided with 3 simple offenses you can implement right away. As promised, the pick and roll offense will be discussed. The folllowing is a excerpt written by Ed Riley, www.coachingyouthbasketball.net/chatterbox.
A well respected coach, Steve Jordan, has allowed me to provide you with the information which appeared on his site http://www.akcoach.com/index.htm. I highly recommend this site because it has been a valuable resource for me as well as thousands of youth basketball coaches and players.
Pick and Roll - This is a little harder to teach. A pick or a screen is really hard for younger kids, but so is riding a bike and they learn how to do that!
Here's how to teach a screen to younger kids. Tell them that they are a detective who has to sneak up on the bad guy and stand to the right or left of the bad guy. By the way, the bad guy is the opposing player who is guarding their teammate with the ball. Their job is to block the bad guy and stop them from following your teammate. The dribbler's job is to dribble around you and run their defender into you, so the bad guy can't follow the dribbler.
The hard part is the person doing the blocking has to keep their feet planted in one place. If they move their feet, they just fouled the other player. The next hard part is that they can't lean their body into the defender, because that too is a foul. The last part of this is that they can't use their hands or arms to block the defender. The way to avoid hands and arms is to have them cross their arms across their chest. The real secret is to get the defender to run into you. This is a pick or a screen.
So what is a pick and roll? Once you succeed in the pick, then you break to the basket looking for a pass or a rebound. All colleges and pro teams use some form of a pick and roll. This offense never goes stale, you can use it forever.
Remember, simple is good? Guess what, there is no more offense to teach you. If you can teach your team these 3 and 1/2 things in the first year, you will have accomplished what it took me 3 years to accomplish. Don't try to get fancy or complicated. You may be ready to learn new things, but your kids won't be. Remember, this game is not for you, it's for the kids. Except for some inbounds plays and things, I have just given you your whole first season's offense. If you can accomplish what I've taught you, you will be a basketball god in your league.
The following is written by Steve Jordan, aka Alaska Coach. His site and Coach Jackson's website are my basketball Encarta. And heeerrrreeee's Alaska!!
Ed "you mentioned the pick and roll. I think you should add a paragraph about how the screener should "roll." I , too, teach arms over the chest, but then have the kids lean on whichever elbow bears the brunt of the contact. The body weight freezes the defender and allows the screeners something to use as a pivot point. The end result is a perfect seal position, for a moment anyway. Too many kids will run up and bang into the defender, jump around and race to the hoop. This makes for a sloppy pick and a tough passing target. A beautiful pick is deliberate and methodical. The extra time creates extra space and gives the offense more options."
I read this and re-read it, and boy did he hit the nail on the head. For those of you who have never seen screening at the younger ages, it can be extremely ugly. Here is some of what you will see:
1. Your player is about to screen a defender, so they run into the defenders back and almost knock them over. This is a foul on your player.
2. Your player sneaks up on the defender, stands straight up, knees locked and the defender runs into your player. This sounds right, right?? Wrong, with their knees locked, your player will normally fall down or stumble. Now they are out of the mix for several seconds until they regain their feet.
3. Your player will run up to the defender, not wait for their team mate to run the defender into them, and then roll to the basket. The net result is that they never ever set the screen for their team mate.
Without waiting for the body contact and without a slight lean on the elbow and side, it is hard to actually block the defender and stop them from fighting through your pick. By slightly leaning, you will have your knees slightly bent so you don't fall, stumble, or look like an idiot. AND, you maintain your proper stance and footwork. AND YOU STOPPED THE DEFENDER from following your team mate.
Enjoy and share with a fellow coach.
Keith Smith
-------------------------------------
For FREE Special Report, "Youth Basketball Coaching Made Simple: The Easy Steps You Need to Take to Develop Your Players to Their Full Potential" visit us at: http://www.bestyouthhoops.com/sq
Also, you will have access to some off our special events with guest coaches who have coached or are now coaching youth basketball.
We look forward to providing great information to help you with your coaching.
For daily updates, visit us at twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bestyouthhoops
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
3 Simple Youth Basketball Offenses to Help Your Team Score More Points
Usually, I don’t write much about offenses at this level because it’s difficult enough trying to learn the fundamentals. Learning plays just takes away from the development of the player’s ability to master the basics.
With that said, my premise is before you teach offense, your players must learn how to play defense. Thus, your first basic offense is a solid defense. Play solid man-2-man defense and you will be able to steal the ball for easy layups. Maybe, I shouldn’t say easy, but it is a better shot than most shots in a set offense. Also, don’t forget rebounding as the final piece in the defensive puzzle.
What if you can’t fast break? How happens when your team has to slow down the ball?
If you are forced to run a set offense because of timeouts, turnovers, or other stoppages or slowdowns, here’s what you can do.
Each of these are very simple and require no extraordinary amount of time to learn; therefore, I don’t refer to them as plays.
Here’s what I mean:
1) Teach your players to pass and move/cut. The ultimate youth basketball give and go offense. The point guard is the player to start the offense, you can have almost any set up you wish, but I prefer to spread the floor and have the point pass to the wings and cut to the basket while facing the person to whom he/she passes.
The wing player passes the ball (if no open shot is available) to the next open player and performs the same cut towards the basket. If the wing player on the opposite site has not received the ball, they stay where there are until the ball is passed to them. Also, this creates floor balance against a fast break.
This keeps the players from staring at one player and being a spectator on the offensive end.
This offense will be covered in detail in an upcoming article written by Ed Riley.
2) Screen and roll aka pick and roll.
This takes a bit of practice, but will free up a player more open shots. Defenses at the youth level aren’t equipped to handle this just yet, primarily because they lack communication.
3) Spread offense.
This keeps the point guard from over dribbling and gets everyone involved. Works best against a zone defense where the ball is passed around the perimeter and moved til the player has and open drive to the lane for a layup.
I tried this offense a couple years ago when coaching a U-9 team. We were up by 20 points in the 4th quarter and didn’t want to run up the score. So we went to basically a “four corners” offense. Those of you who are old enough should remember the old University of North Carolina’s offense run by Phil Ford.
What I found is by passing the ball around the perimeter, the zone defense they were playing, couldn’t shift fast enough to keep up with the ball, and lanes were wide open. Actually, this is how a couple of players who hadn’t scored all year garnered their first points of the season.
Side note: What to see a confidence builder? Wait til you have a player to finally score their first points of the season. You will notice the increased enthusiasm and confidence.
This offense works well against teams who allows a defensive player to freelance or spy while the rest play zone. Eventually, the player gets tired of chasing the ball and result is open lanes.
Usually, teams allow their best offensive player to roam because most of their points scored are layups from steals.
My experience is these are the 3 simple offenses you can run without sacrificing time for fundamental drills.
Each of these will be covered in detail in subsequent articles.
Enjoy and share with a fellow coach.
With that said, my premise is before you teach offense, your players must learn how to play defense. Thus, your first basic offense is a solid defense. Play solid man-2-man defense and you will be able to steal the ball for easy layups. Maybe, I shouldn’t say easy, but it is a better shot than most shots in a set offense. Also, don’t forget rebounding as the final piece in the defensive puzzle.
What if you can’t fast break? How happens when your team has to slow down the ball?
If you are forced to run a set offense because of timeouts, turnovers, or other stoppages or slowdowns, here’s what you can do.
Each of these are very simple and require no extraordinary amount of time to learn; therefore, I don’t refer to them as plays.
Here’s what I mean:
1) Teach your players to pass and move/cut. The ultimate youth basketball give and go offense. The point guard is the player to start the offense, you can have almost any set up you wish, but I prefer to spread the floor and have the point pass to the wings and cut to the basket while facing the person to whom he/she passes.
The wing player passes the ball (if no open shot is available) to the next open player and performs the same cut towards the basket. If the wing player on the opposite site has not received the ball, they stay where there are until the ball is passed to them. Also, this creates floor balance against a fast break.
This keeps the players from staring at one player and being a spectator on the offensive end.
This offense will be covered in detail in an upcoming article written by Ed Riley.
2) Screen and roll aka pick and roll.
This takes a bit of practice, but will free up a player more open shots. Defenses at the youth level aren’t equipped to handle this just yet, primarily because they lack communication.
3) Spread offense.
This keeps the point guard from over dribbling and gets everyone involved. Works best against a zone defense where the ball is passed around the perimeter and moved til the player has and open drive to the lane for a layup.
I tried this offense a couple years ago when coaching a U-9 team. We were up by 20 points in the 4th quarter and didn’t want to run up the score. So we went to basically a “four corners” offense. Those of you who are old enough should remember the old University of North Carolina’s offense run by Phil Ford.
What I found is by passing the ball around the perimeter, the zone defense they were playing, couldn’t shift fast enough to keep up with the ball, and lanes were wide open. Actually, this is how a couple of players who hadn’t scored all year garnered their first points of the season.
Side note: What to see a confidence builder? Wait til you have a player to finally score their first points of the season. You will notice the increased enthusiasm and confidence.
This offense works well against teams who allows a defensive player to freelance or spy while the rest play zone. Eventually, the player gets tired of chasing the ball and result is open lanes.
Usually, teams allow their best offensive player to roam because most of their points scored are layups from steals.
My experience is these are the 3 simple offenses you can run without sacrificing time for fundamental drills.
Each of these will be covered in detail in subsequent articles.
Enjoy and share with a fellow coach.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Youth Basketball Coaches! Do This and Watch Your Team Improve
Over the past few years, I have learned to become more of an observer of players and the skills they have or in some cases, don’t have.
Mastering these skills is a matter of how you plan to coach your team.
Are you teaching and coaching or just coaching? The difference is teaching is a matter of imparting the necessary fundamentals such as dribbling, passing, defense, and shooting layups. It usually involves repetitive, but fun drills.
While coaching is how you manage your team during game time situations. Too much of this in practice, and end up not teaching the basics.
I know it’s a simplistic definition, but hopefully you get the gist of it all.
No matter how may manuals, audios, videos, you review, your best learning as a coach will come from your own experiences. In other words, you learn by doing and this goes for your players as well.
When teaching a drill, explain the purpose, then demonstrate. Youth players can implement the drill quicker when they have an understanding of it’s meaning.
Make every drill competitive. Divide them into 2 equal teams and make drills such as suicides and layups a relay race. The losing team could do an extra suicide or the winning team could get a prize, such as lollipops. Having drills that are competitive makes the practice livelier and creates team building, What happens is the players end up cheering and encouraging their teammates and also cheering for the other team’s player who hasn’t caught up to speed.
Tip: Because I am usually crunched for time, I implement drills that cover multiple fundamentals.
Let the players choose their own drill. I can see some of you questioning my sanity, but remember the players will choose a drill that you have already used in previous practices. All they are doing is choosing the one that is most fun to them.
My team always chooses the Ring of Fire drill. Don’t know why and it’s one that requires more concentration than the others. They seem to love it and it works on their passing, pivoting, hand to eye coordination, speed, etc.
These are some quick steps you can take to improve your team’s play.
Mastering these skills is a matter of how you plan to coach your team.
Are you teaching and coaching or just coaching? The difference is teaching is a matter of imparting the necessary fundamentals such as dribbling, passing, defense, and shooting layups. It usually involves repetitive, but fun drills.
While coaching is how you manage your team during game time situations. Too much of this in practice, and end up not teaching the basics.
I know it’s a simplistic definition, but hopefully you get the gist of it all.
No matter how may manuals, audios, videos, you review, your best learning as a coach will come from your own experiences. In other words, you learn by doing and this goes for your players as well.
When teaching a drill, explain the purpose, then demonstrate. Youth players can implement the drill quicker when they have an understanding of it’s meaning.
Make every drill competitive. Divide them into 2 equal teams and make drills such as suicides and layups a relay race. The losing team could do an extra suicide or the winning team could get a prize, such as lollipops. Having drills that are competitive makes the practice livelier and creates team building, What happens is the players end up cheering and encouraging their teammates and also cheering for the other team’s player who hasn’t caught up to speed.
Tip: Because I am usually crunched for time, I implement drills that cover multiple fundamentals.
Let the players choose their own drill. I can see some of you questioning my sanity, but remember the players will choose a drill that you have already used in previous practices. All they are doing is choosing the one that is most fun to them.
My team always chooses the Ring of Fire drill. Don’t know why and it’s one that requires more concentration than the others. They seem to love it and it works on their passing, pivoting, hand to eye coordination, speed, etc.
These are some quick steps you can take to improve your team’s play.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
3 Key Observations This Season To Make Your Coaching Better
After 8 practices and 3 games this season, there have been some interesting developments in youth basketball this year.
Sidenote: I coach a U-11 girls recreation league team this year. There is a 90 minute practice each week with a game on Saturday. So, you can imagine the helter skelter style of play in the 2nd half when full court pressing is allowed.
The first thing I've noticed this year is teams who play man to man defense are much more aggressive and foul less than those playing zone. I am sure this is because of the lateral foot movement required to play man to man.
You can put more pressure on the ball with man to man and be in better position to press when the opponent obtains possession of the ball. Also, we tend get garner more offensive rebounds against the zone defenses. Funny how this seems to work at all levels?
Secondly, running sophisticated plays is a waste of time. I really don't consider passing and cutting, and pick and roll plays. But I have seen teams use all types of motion where you can tell the players are thinking first instead of going with the flow.
It takes a quite a few practices to get flowing offensively. That is why playing man to man defense is your best offense. You can create more layup opportunities with steals. Overwhelmingly, the majority of shots made are within 5 feet of the basket.
Third and most important... the teams need to stick to more fundamentals. I know the time limits sometimes deter some coaches to shortchange this, but at least half of the practice or more should be devoted to fundamental drills.
I realize practicing gametime situations is important, especially when time is a major consideration, but how are the players ever going to create their own shot if they can't dribble properly?
How about creating steals without fouling when they have the defensive foot drills?
What about the ability to execute a proper bounce or chest pass? How do you learn this without repetition?
I am sure the rest of the season will reveal some more tidbits to add. Right now the above issues are most glaring.
Sidenote: I coach a U-11 girls recreation league team this year. There is a 90 minute practice each week with a game on Saturday. So, you can imagine the helter skelter style of play in the 2nd half when full court pressing is allowed.
The first thing I've noticed this year is teams who play man to man defense are much more aggressive and foul less than those playing zone. I am sure this is because of the lateral foot movement required to play man to man.
You can put more pressure on the ball with man to man and be in better position to press when the opponent obtains possession of the ball. Also, we tend get garner more offensive rebounds against the zone defenses. Funny how this seems to work at all levels?
Secondly, running sophisticated plays is a waste of time. I really don't consider passing and cutting, and pick and roll plays. But I have seen teams use all types of motion where you can tell the players are thinking first instead of going with the flow.
It takes a quite a few practices to get flowing offensively. That is why playing man to man defense is your best offense. You can create more layup opportunities with steals. Overwhelmingly, the majority of shots made are within 5 feet of the basket.
Third and most important... the teams need to stick to more fundamentals. I know the time limits sometimes deter some coaches to shortchange this, but at least half of the practice or more should be devoted to fundamental drills.
I realize practicing gametime situations is important, especially when time is a major consideration, but how are the players ever going to create their own shot if they can't dribble properly?
How about creating steals without fouling when they have the defensive foot drills?
What about the ability to execute a proper bounce or chest pass? How do you learn this without repetition?
I am sure the rest of the season will reveal some more tidbits to add. Right now the above issues are most glaring.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Purpose of Youth Basketball Coaching
This is where the fun begins!
You have chosen your team and it's practice time.
At the youth level, you have to be careful not to get too involved with wins and losses. Ten (10)years from now the kids won't care or remember how many games they won or lost.
They will remember whether or not it was an enjoyable experience.
They play because it's fun. If it wasn't fun, they would just quit.
You can have a team that will win consistently, but are you developing players individually?
My belief is at this stage (U-13), the coach is a teacher who needs to stick to the basics and develop the individual player. This doesn't mean they don't play to win, you teach them winning basketball by teaching them the basic fundamentals.
For example: You have the tallest player in the league, and he/she is great at grabbing rebounds and scoring off those rebounds.
The player is a center on your team, and you play the 2-1-2 zone.
During your practices, all the player does is hang out under the boards and grab rebounds. Your team wins lots of games.
But what have you fundamentally taught the player?
What happens when 2 years later the player is no longer the tallest player in the league or your team? Can he/she dribble to create their own shot? Is the player able to play man-2-man defense out on the wing?
You have chosen your team and it's practice time.
At the youth level, you have to be careful not to get too involved with wins and losses. Ten (10)years from now the kids won't care or remember how many games they won or lost.
They will remember whether or not it was an enjoyable experience.
They play because it's fun. If it wasn't fun, they would just quit.
You can have a team that will win consistently, but are you developing players individually?
My belief is at this stage (U-13), the coach is a teacher who needs to stick to the basics and develop the individual player. This doesn't mean they don't play to win, you teach them winning basketball by teaching them the basic fundamentals.
For example: You have the tallest player in the league, and he/she is great at grabbing rebounds and scoring off those rebounds.
The player is a center on your team, and you play the 2-1-2 zone.
During your practices, all the player does is hang out under the boards and grab rebounds. Your team wins lots of games.
But what have you fundamentally taught the player?
What happens when 2 years later the player is no longer the tallest player in the league or your team? Can he/she dribble to create their own shot? Is the player able to play man-2-man defense out on the wing?
My true basics are dribbling, defense (foot movement), passing, proper layup form, and shooting form. Then everything else falls as a sub drill of the above basics.
This especially holds true if you are coaching in a rec league. The time you have with your players is very limited, and the basics are necessary if you want you players to move up to more competitive leagues, such as select/travel, AAU, and high school.
We all like to win, but there is limit to what effect you have on a player to just play to win. Teach a player for a lifetime with the basics, and you will help create a winning player.
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