a year-round conversation contributed by coaches at all levels across the country. share the climb!
Coaching Staff Retreat
One of the final elements during the off-season is the coaching staff retreat. Try not to get caught up in the word retreat, it’s not likely as luxurious as the connotation. Whereas some may have the budget to find a remote cabin in the mountains; most will embrace a reserved room at their local sports…
Developing The Next Generation of Basketball Players
Let’s try not to get ahead of ourselves here. Coaching the next generation of hoopers doesn’t imply dismissing all precedent for what has contributed to the talent level we witness today. Versatile defenders capable of switching multiple matchups 3-level scoring: finishing, efficiency between perimeter to paint, and extended range Ingenuitive footwork (pressuring the refs to…
Becoming The Best Assistant
There are a variety of directions to take the notion of “Becoming The Best Assistant.” At the end of this post are notes on the very same topic from Larry Shyatt while speaking at a coaching clinic a few years that is worth the read. Written below is the #1 attribute from an assistant during…
Building A Winning Staff
Any thriving organization is often driven by its employees; however, it is the decision-making from executive leadership that can derail any potential for sustainable competitiveness. There are too many instances to count where a superior product or an enviable team of talent fail to meet expectations because of a lack of direction, discipline, or collective…
Coaching Burnout
It is mid-January, you just lost to the cross-town rival by a last-minute bucket. To make matters worse you play the number one team in your conference tomorrow night. As you drive home you remember your principal is coming to observe your classroom tomorrow for your last observation of the year. Then to top it…
Life As A Graduate Assistant
First and foremost, life as a graduate assistant is not easy, I know this might not sound tempting right away but trust me it’s worth it. Late nights working on the film for your next opponent, coding the morning’s practice in order to get stats for the coach, and then working on homework for the…
How We Handle Exit Meetings
Similar to style of play, or anything coaching; every program has their own approach to handling exit meetings. Following the last game of the season with time built in between to decompress, the staff will begin scheduling exit meetings in the Spring. For underclassmen, it is an opportunity to identify a progression plan between the…
Going From Competing To Coaching
First off, I’m not proud of the title of this topic given that it somehow insinuates coaches stop competing after hanging up their jerseys. There is, however, a different mentality preparing to compete as a coach versus a player, and unfortunately, in my experience harder to forget afterward. It has been ten years removed since…
My First Year As A Head Coach
I got the most unlikely call from my AD in April 2020 while going through quarantine just like everyone else in the world. The school where I had played HS ball at and been an assistant coach at for the past 2 seasons had just offered me the Head Men’s Coaching position at the age…
52 Weeks of Coaching
The first season of #52WeekCoaching is a wrap. What started as a project to challenge my own ability to follow-through on personal objectives, transpired into an opportunity to share weekly stories about a variety of topics that occur throughout the course of a given year in coaching. Intentionally, the topics were prepared to align with…
Triangle Concepts Today
With little to no live sports to engage the millions confined to their homes; #TheLastDance has captivated the country. And for us coaches desperately seeking scheme to steal or scrutinize, the Triangle offense has emerged as a relevant conversation starter. During the 1991 to 1998 seasons, the Chicago Bulls won 6 NBA championships under the…
Positionless Basketball
Ten years ago, the basketball world watched a player by the name of Anthony Davis reap the rewards of Guard skills in a Post body. All too often, adolescent players are labeled and locked into positions determined largely by their height and handles. Davis is a beneficiary of an uncommon idea known as Positionless Basketball. …
Off-Season Focus
When dealing with off-season focus, there are a number of things that need a coach’s attention. These items can range from things that need to be improved on the court as well as things that need to be improved off to court. As a coach approaches the off-season, the goal at the end of the…
Coaching Carousel
As they say, “So you want to get into coaching?” If you click on the thread below there is a collection of coaches giving 280 character snapshots of their journey. Every spring flooding into the summer there is a “Coaching Carousel” that has given prominence to accounts, such as HoopDirt or AtticusFinch. The landscape, particularly…
Exit Meetings
Exit meetings are one of the most important things that you can do. This is a critical component that bridges the season that you are concluding, with the next season that you will be going into. As a Coach, this a time that you can give your assessment on the performance of your players and…
Team Banquets
#FinalFour is a wrap and all the #StateTournaments have crowned champions. There is likely one more opportunity where that particular team can get together as a group for the final time. #TeamBanquets are an opportunity for everyone involved in the program to reflect on the season. Some schools create a mini-awards ceremony on campus to…
Final Four
The Final Four is one of the best weekends of the year. Unfortunately, there will be no Final Four this year. This, like a lot of other things currently going on, is unprecedented. Ever since I can remember I have been captivated by the Final Four. As a kid I wanted to play in the…
What Do We Do Now
Every coach responds differently to the end of the season. My objective is to take time away from the game for at least a week to decompress and be with my family. Others may continue going to the #StateTournaments out of tradition, or for motivation. Some may have exit meetings immediately after the season while…
State Tournament
My brother was a sophomore on the Varsity roster that had just made it to the State Tournament preparing to play in front of thousands in legendary Rupp Arena. Affectionately referred to as the “Sweet Sixteen” totaling 16 champions from their respective regional tournaments; the state of Kentucky finishes the season with one true champion…
Season Part Three
There aren’t too many people that would’ve predicted how the season finished across the country. “Control what you can control.” These words have never seemed to ring more true than in the moment. There is a lot of uncertainty right now beyond the realm of basketball and rightfully so, however a lot of the circumstances…
Future Rule Changes
Innovation in basketball is largely influenced by the rules governing the game. From the Original 13 Rules to the NIT Experiment there is always a discussion for how to improve the game. The first contest ever recorded finished 5 to 1, compare that now to the top defensive-rated teams in the NBA keeping opponents right above…
What Loses Games
Many times, it is easy to talk about what wins games. We put such a premium on this, that we sometimes fail to talk about #WhatLosesGames. In many cases, these can be direct opposites. As I break down what loses games in this article, we will take a look at on & off the court…
What Wins Games
Don’t spend too much time looking for the recipe; the biggest ingredient to winning more games is talent. As much as coaches want to play the role of fixing the flawed like your favorite rom-com flick; there has to be a foundational skill-set to work with to facilitate competitive balance. But, when talent is equal…
Post-Season Preparation
This will be the second consecutive year where we will not be competing during the postseason. It is not where we want to be, however, it provides polarizing experiences from a coaching standpoint to learn from comparing the first two seasons as a head coach competing on a higher level. The best teams have one…
Season Part Two
I consider the playing season to be broken up into three segments: preseason/out-of-conference, conference, and postseason. Progressively there is a narrowing focus to incrementally grow as a team in preparation for the next. The early part of the season is the installation and integration phase. Depending on the level, each basketball calendar works differently; here…
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