How To Make Your High School Basketball Team

Today's special guest, Coach Marcus Konde, Head Girls Basketball Coach at Fairfax High School, gives us his version of what a high school coach is looking for in a player.

Below is the link the interview. Listen closely. Take notes and enjoy.

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Comments are always appreciated.

Easy Steps to Get Your Players to Play with Confidence

This article is a continuation of the previous posting where we discussed what your child or player should learn.

Coaching is a matter of building player’s confidence, especially at this age (6-9) when they are just at the beginning stages.

When players are confident they will:

• Practice more
• Challenge themselves
• And find the game more enjoyable.

You may ask how you build their confidence?

Here are the 3 steps, I usually take when teaching this age group.

1) Create Fun Easy Drills


This group drills should concentrate on ballhandling, such as dribbling & passing. I break down passing into two sections: catching and receiving.

The players must be able to see themselves performing the drills. The simpler, the better. One of the easiest drills is the Isiah 7, and it presents a challenge to the players because it requires the same rotation of drills from both hands

2) Demonstrate
Many coaches tell players what to do rather than show them. This age group is very visually oriented, and learns quicker when shown how. This only mirrors society as a whole. Even more of these postings will be via video.

3) Give Praise
Younger players want to please their coach and/or parent(s). They thrive on praise.

So Give it to them!

As a coach/parent it is easy to fall into the trap of focusing on all the things a 6-9 year old is doing wrong.

Be special!

Focus on what they are doing right and let them know about it!

Their confidence and enjoyment levels will soar and so will yours.

Ballhandling (ISIAH 7)
As promised, here is a drill you can use with very little space required. I will have a ton to say on this subject later, but for now just click the link below and get busy!

http://www.bestyouthhoops.com/Test/wp/blog/?p=176

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What Skills Should Your Players Learn

The past couple of weeks have been one of great observation to narrow the focus of training for various age groups.

Generally, we want all of our players to master the basics of ballhandling, defense, shooting as well as knowledge of the game. Wouldn't that be the ultimate player at any age?

As we very well know, it takes time to mold a complete player.

That is why have broken down my observations into 3 age groups.

1) 6-9

2) 10-11

3) 12-14

Today's posting will concentrate on the 6-9 age group.

What I have found is as follows:

Players ages 6-9 need to learn the basic movements, not just of a particular sport, but footwork and stances that will assist them many sports. There is a posting on this site about the magic position as a starting point for many sports.

From this position take them into many activities that incorporate running, jumping, stopping, changing directions.

For basketball specific fundamentals, if you begin in the magic position with a basketball, you are now in the triple threat position. This is where you have the option of passing, shooting, and dribbling.

Primarily, with this group you spend most of your time teaching ballhandling skills which includes dribbling, passing, and receiving.

Right now I can stop and say this all they need to learn. Many times we get caught up in looking at the whole rather the parts. In youth basketball, most points are scored within 5 feet of the basket because a player who has tremendous footwork and ballhandling skills usually is attempting quite a few layups. Notice I said attempting, not making.(There will be a posting on this later)

Certainly, you want them to learn how to shoot properly, especially layups. What you will find is making layups is mainly a matter of having proper footwork.

While having proper footwork is important on the offensive side, it’s more significant for defensive purposes.
Usually a quick fix for lack of footwork is play zone defense. If any of you have been reading the previous posts, you will know I don’t consider zone until age 14. That’s just a matter of opinion.

The next post will cover some cool drills you can implement for this age group.

7 Easy Steps to Becoming a Top Dribbler

As we know dribbling is a key component of basketball. Proper dribbling takes practice and patience.

Players should start with stationary drills and move into more movement drills with each of the steps.

A great drill brought to my attention and used by my players as well as students is the "Isiah 7". It's simple and easy and can be perfected without much effort.

Best part you don't need much space. Do this in the driveway, sidewalk, patio, basement, garage, etc.

Below is a video taken by Coach Barry Thompson with Leila Thompson performing the drill.

The 7 steps are:

1) right side dribble
2) left side dribble
3) Side V, right hand
4) Side V, left hand
5) Front V, right hand
6) Front V, left hand
7) Crossover

Make sure the players keep good basketball positioning with their heads up while dribbling.



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What is the Magic Position in Basketball?

This is the 2nd of 2 videos regarding cueing and how your players respond to your commands.

To some coaches, there is nothing magical about the position, but to players using the words can trigger an immediate positive response.

Click the link below to find out how:

Dribble, Pass, Shoot Clinic

[gallery]Below is video of the January 31st "Dribble, Pass, Shoot" Clinic

How Do Your Players Respond To Your Drills?

Over the past 2 weeks, I have been involved with Coach Barry Thompson in putting on full day youth basketball clinics on 2 separate days.

We have rehashed and discussed what was discovered at each of those events.

One of the topics was regarding "cueing" and it's effectiveness in getting players to respond to various drills.

"The Edge" has upgraded it's blog to include video blogging, and below Coach Thompson explains what cueing means to both coaches and players.



Enjoy and Feel free to Share with a friend.