Examine Your Coaching Philosophy

Your style is often an extension of your personality. Coach within that personality. If you're quiet and soft-spoken at home, most likely you will assume that same persona when coaching. Assess your players in the same manner. As you become more familiar with your team, you’ll be able to gauge the team's personality as a whole, as well as the personalities of the each player. Try to pinpoint a coaching approach that will work for all your players - individually and as a group. Make a concerted effort to focus on your strongest characteristics and incorporate them into your coaching style. Be aware of your weakest traits so you can eliminate them when they begin to surface on the court.

A coach wears a number of hats--teacher, administrator, parent, friend, and counselor. Regardless of the role you play, the most important thing that you can do is be yourself. Take tips from other coaches who you you admire. But be careful to be yourself -- if your true personality doesn’t come into play, your players will see right through you and have a difficult time relating to you.

Be yourself. Players can sense right away when you are insincere or not being yourself. You will go further if you coach in a manner that you are comfortable with.

Coaching Style

Your coaching style will have a large effect on your coaching philosophy. Start by setting some goals for your team. What you want your team to accomplish? What do you want them to get out of this experience? What’s most important - winning or getting along with each other and getting everyone equal playing time?



In other words, set priorities. If you’re coaching a youth level team, simply getting everyone some playing time might be your top priority. This will most likely not be the case, however, if you’re an AAU, high school, or above coach."

Coaching is Teaching

A good teacher doesn’t necessarily make a good coach, but you can’t be a good coach without being a good teacher. Offenses and defenses don’t win games, players do. The better you teach those players, the better they will play.

Good coaches are good teachers and good teachers are consistent in certain areas: they are clear in their teaching, they are demanding, and they are adamant. Apply these principles to your coaching and you will be amazed with the results.

Be a Student of the Game

You may be a coach and teacher but you should never stop studying the game. Without constantly searching for a better way, it is difficult to keep up with the latest methods and strategies that you might face in this ever changing game. At the very least, that quest for knowledge might just reassure you that what you are presently doing is what you strongly believe in.

A good source of coaching information is clinics. You can generally listen to a number of coaching experts at one site for a reasonable rate. If you can come away with one idea that helps your program, the clinic has been well worth it.

Whether you read books and articles, research online, watch other coaches` practices, or attend clinics, your ability to learn new ideas and techniques will keep what you are doing fresh and exciting--both for you and your players.

Care-Think-Try

Coaches are always looking for the secret to a team’s success, and many of them develop long laundry lists of qualities and attributes that they want the team to strive to develop. If players truly CARE about their teammates, THINK about their actions and TRY their best, the team will grow into a unit and begin to be the best that they can be.

CARE. When teams begin to work together and go through the everyday effort they develop a certain camaraderie that forces them to truly CARE about their teammates. When that happens, they will do everything that they cannot to let their teammates down. Everyone must accept teammates and coaches as they are and mold themselves into whatever is necessary to make US successful. As a group remember the goodness required to enjoy each other and have fun while participating in this great game. In our off-the-court lives, it means contributing our time to others, to good and worthwhile causes, and to the welfare of our families and our loved ones.

THINK. Players and coaches must focus on learning the knowledge of the system and the fundamentals of the game of basketball. Strive for individual improvement on a daily basis and work to reach the team goals by executing the prepared game plan without fail. Pay special attention to time and score situations and understand the objectives of each. THINK about the risk and reward involved in each decision, both on and off the court. Follow all of the laws, rules and regulations as students, employees, and citizens while striving to achieve a rewarding life plan.

TRY. Just try you’re very best every time! Display the self-discipline necessary to prepare and succeed at the highest attainable level. Give a supreme daily effort, in all areas of life, towards being the best student, employee, and citizen possible.

Success in the game of basketball may be the first step to finding an avenue for social mobility. In the process of achieving athletic success, acknowledge that the world outside the gymnasium is where true success and fulfillment can be found. The basketball court will merely be a laboratory to prepare for the game of life.

A Coaches' Influence

It has been pretty widely accepted that a successful athletic program boosts pride in the student body and the institutional alumni. Those alums are the ones making financial contributions to the institution and those contributions are used for everything from building construction to funding the research that may go on in those buildings. Who knows what great and valuable things that happen in those buildings or what comes from that research. Any athletic programs appearance on TV is potentially the greatest commercial that the institution can afford. Imagine how much a University would have to pay for 2 hours of TV commercials. Instead THEY get paid to be on TV. While what goes on in the classroom may be more important in the grand scheme of life the results of a students math test is not published or the performance of the chemistry teacher is not scrutinized in the paper 2 or 3 times a week.

A positive athletic image and the resulting publicity that it creates does wonders for campus morale, community support and the future enrollment/success of a school at any level. It is not much different in community recreation programs.

Don't ever minimize the effect that you have as a coach on the grand scheme of things in your school and community. It is not "just a game." It is Life in a game situation and the court is the laboratory. The Coach can make a difference far beyond those on the court.

Develop an Offensive Philosophy

Ask yourself: with the type of players on the team, should we play fast or slow? Should we be inside oriented or outside? Or, maybe a combination of both? Do you want to be Play Oriented, Pattern Oriented, or would you like a more freelance offense? You might want to develop a Situation/Reaction offense that counters your opponent’s defensive strategies. Try to determine how you need to play to compete with the BEST team on your schedule?

Most coaches run a combination of offenses but have one that they predominantly stick with. Find one to make your teams trademark. Have a good understanding of how to play in regard to time and score. A number of websites and books have diagrams of various offenses such as, Passing Game, Swing, Shuffle, “Princeton”, Flex, UCLA High Post Mover/Blocker, Wheel, Mixer, Triangle, etc.

Whatever offense you run, you must have:

1. Bust Outs (ways to get open, create lead, begin offense)

2. Multiple Option Entries

3. Ball Reversal To a Layup

4. Special Plays

5. Counters

6. Inside Attack

Really study the options, examine what you believe works, get your team to believe in it, teach precision, and demand excellence. Then, you are sure to be a success.

Demand Excellence

The teams that step up to the next level from average to good, or good to excellent are those that DEMAND that excellence from themselves. Mistakes will happen, but the teams that play with a NEED to succeed are those that limit those mistakes.

Demand excellence from your team every time they hit the court for practice or for game. If a player is not executing a play correctly, it is the coaches responsibility to correct the player in a positive manner. Don’t be afraid to push players beyond what they think they can give you. You (and they) will be surprised when you see that the results far outweigh what your team initially thought you were capable of. Then it becomes a habit for players to perform at that level. This will create a “self-motivated” athlete who will continue to work, even after the coach stops yelling.

Teach Skills, Not Just Systems

A common oversight among coaches is spending too much time learning "plays" and not enough time learning how to play. Teams do need to have organized offenses and plays (we have tons!), but it is far more important to be able to execute the fundamentals of movement, ballhandling, dribbling, passing and shooting than it is to know how to run through a particular offense.



Teach your players the fundamentals of the game, as well as the concept of "relative motion". Help the player understand his/her place on the court -- the position of the other players relative to his/her position. A player with this understanding will know how to move to get open, create proper spacing, passing angles, play good on ball defense, and give good team defensive help.

Keep it Simple

It’s getting down to that part of the basketball season where every play becomes pretty important. Players at earlier stages of development need to simplify their game to ensure successful possessions. By the same token, coaches need to keep their "systems" simplified and have the team master what they do - rather than trying something new.

In an All-Star game, the extremely talented NBA players get a little carried away with the entertainment aspect of the sport. On your high school team, 1) players are not as skilled and 2) fundamental development, execution of skills, and solid possessions are much more important. Coaches are tempted to try to put in very intricate plays, new offenses and sets, along with special defenses to win basketball games down the stretch. Perfecting the things that you do, and doing them well in games is what will get it done come playoff time.

A wise old coach once said to use the KISS system.

K.I.S.S : Keep It Simple, Stupid!

"Mental is to Physical as 5 is to 1"

Bobby Knight said this years ago during a successful run as the basketball coach at Indiana University and it still holds true today. Are players focusing on the wrong things? To a great extent, the answer is a resounding "yes."

The tough thing about mental/visual training is you never really know if the players are seriously doing it without getting some type of feedback. Visualization for example is apparently effective, but if you tell a player to do it - do they really?

The Thrill of Victory - The Agony of Defeat

That famous line from the beginning of the legendary TV show, "Wide World of Sports" is never more evident than it is during the NCAA tournament, March Madness. We start with 65 teams in a single elimination tournament. Every game is a sudden death situation. Lose and your season is over. Win and you move on to the next round. As Pat Riley, Hall of Fame NBA coach says, "Survive and advance."

Every game during the season cannot be evaluated, won, or lost by only the final play. Similarly, the entire season cannot be evaluated by only the final game. Only one team in the NCAA tournament goes home with a victory in their final game. Teams at all levels that reach the playoffs have had tremendous seasons, and players and coaches need to keep in mind their accomplishments throughout the year - not their failures in the final game. Sure, everyone wants to win them all so disappointment is natural. Be disappointed, evaluate and learn from any mistakes. Get back to work on your game and try your best to improve. Then everyone is truly a WINNER!

Patience and Praise

Players respond to positive feedback. Even if the coach feels the need to say something negative, he should follow it up with a positive statement. Some coaches try to use negative comments to motivate their players. I think that players are more likely to try to live up to your high expectations when you tell them how good they can be, rather than trying to prove you wrong if you tell them that they are not playing well.

A good method of communicating to players when they exhibit negative behavior is to praise/scold/re-instruct. Tell a player how good they can be, then admonish them for a poor play, but then follow that with instruction on how they should perform or how to do it better. Players don’t play well when they are "looking over their shoulder," waiting to be taken out of the game or yelled at for a mistake.

Exhibit confidence in a player and they will try to please you. Show patience for their mistakes (but re-instruct!) and they will try to correct them. Continue to teach, and you will improve right up until your final game. Remember, the player you may be ready to give up on today, may be the player you need to help you win a big game at the end of the year.

Up the Coaching Ladder

Too many coaches want to "move up" to a higher level of coaching far too fast. Maybe a "lower level" job in a good program, working with a good coach is better than having the "title" of `varsity assistant`. Your job as an assistant coach or as a freshman or JV coach is to make the players better within the system the varsity coach has provided. Showing a united front and working in the system is the best, if you want referral from your head coach, work on doing a good job for him. Show you are capable - be trustworthy, loyal and hard working and the head coach will give you more responsibility.

Wait until you are ready. WHO you are working for is of major importance. Where will you LEARN more? The key is to acquire, utilize, and demonstrate knowledge of the game - then convey that eloquently and with enthusiasm in your next interview as you attempt to move up the ladder.

MOST of all you need to develop TREMENDOUS people skills. A large portion of the job is outside the lines. Get prepared - then your time will come!

Good Luck!