That Basketball Life

I have spent a lot of time over the last couple of years breaking down general offensive movements.  I have shown my general philosophies on how to get open on the wing to start an offense to what players should do when the ball is in the middle of the paint.  What I haven't done is expressed my philosophy on offensive flow.  This is what this article is about.

There is a nice article on ESPN about Steve Kerr and how he and his coaching staff came up with the offense that made Golden State such an efficient offensive powerhouse. The article states that Steve Kerr's philosophy is to get everyone involved in the offense in order to get max effort.  To pass the ball and then to move.  There is no standing still.  If your not open you're moving. I love the article because the offensive beliefs that it lists as being a huge part of the Golden State offense are beliefs that I try to instill in my teams when I coach offense.  Granted any team is always going to be as good as the parts that it has.  But as shown in the article, a team can get a lot better with the right philosophy. It's an interesting article.  Link is here .

I've often sat back and wondered about basketball.  I really love the game and during most days I find myself thinking about various elements of the sport.  Today I was wondering about what a coach can do in order to make players work hard in practice.  It is a belief of mine that the harder a player works, the greater the chances are that the player will improve and this is what you want as a coach. Your goal at the start of every year (especially when coaching at the youth levels) is that each player you coach is better at the end of the season than they were at the start.  How do you do this?  The answer to this question deals with competition.  You need to make sure that every practice is competitive and that the players on the team have the opportunity to leave everything they have on the floor at practice as well as in games.

The word offseason is a misnomer for people that want to improve their game.  A better phrase for the months of the year when there are no games would be "the window for improvement."  This is the time of year where you get the chance to gain an edge on your competition.  All of the greats use this time of year to fine tune their body and their game.  It is a fine balance between making sure you get enough rest to recharge your batteries for the upcoming season and including enough time in the gym to work on your game and your body while maintaining a good nutritional plan. 

One of my favorite sayings is "Don't fear losing, embrace competition."  I love this saying because in a few words in encompasses everything that an athlete should have in his belief system in order to be successful.  Let's start by saying nobody likes to lose period. 

Over the last few years I've had the opportunity to coach kids that are in the second grade and below.  It has been an interesting endeavor to say the least.  Overall my philosophy has been to try to teach the kids the fundamentals in practice and to get them enough games to put the skills we've practiced to use.  My main priority has never been for them to win games or to teach them exotic offenses or defenses but to rather expose them to the fundamentals and to give them all an opportunity to play in games so they can get a taste of what it's like to compete.

As a coach you wear many hats.  It is your job to be able to manage the team, prepare the team, get the team up from lows, and keep them from getting overconfident.  It's your job to make them understand what the goals of the team are, teach them how the team is going to get there, and then keep them focused on the task during the long hard grind of a season.  It's like a tight rope that you need to carefully manage.  One false move and you will fall off.  The price you pay when you do fall off is that you lose your team.  From the outside looking in, some may think that coaching a team of players is easy but it's not.  In many ways you are like a good symphony conductor who is able to bring all of the wonderful talent that surrounds him into harmony. So how do you get started on this task of bringing a group of players and form a team?

Another important position which needs to be defended accordingly is the post.  Neutralizing the opposing teams post game is so important to being successful in the game of basketball.  That being said how you play post defense will vary depending on the type of team that you play.  The one thing that always remains the same is that successful post defense will depend on the whole team and not just the people who are supposed to cover the blocks. Remember the name of the game is scoring more baskets than the other team and by taking away the other teams strengths you will increase your odds of winning ball games.  The phases to successful post defense are as follows: 4 ways to guard the post. Low post defense. High post defense. Post help. Weak side post positioning. Moving from one position to another as the ball moves around the perimeter.  Teamwork

In it's simplest form, basketball is about making shots while keeping the other team from doing the same.  Many coaches spend a lot of time in practice teaching skills related to the offensive side of the game but don't spend the same amount of time on the defensive side.  Think about it.  In basketball you not only need to score but you also need to find a way to keep the other team from scoring.  That statement tells us that defense is just as important as offense and as such it would be wise to make sure you spend as much time in practice on your defensive principles as you do on your offensive ones. Now that we have established how much time we should spend practicing defense let's move into the details.  What is a good defensive philosophy?

When you are coaching a team sport your most important job is not the x's and o's but rather to convince your team to play for each other and to talk to each other.  Many times this can be difficult, after all there is nothing that feels better than scoring a basket on your own.  There are a few things that you as a coach can do from the beginning of practice to make sure that your players share your vision that the team is more important than any one player and to encourage that they communicate with each other on the floor.

There are many different metrics which are used by coaches to gage why a result of a game may have turned out the way it did.  Some like to use turnovers, others like to use rebounding differential, others like to use field goal percentage, and the list goes on and on.  The one metric that I like to use takes many of the stats other coaches use and combines them into one figure and it is called Quality Possessions Percentage (QP%).

Coaching young kids under the age of 10 is a huge responsibility and one that should be taken seriously.  There are a lot of decisions that need to be made.  You need to teach them fundamentals at that age but how do you go about doing it?  How fast should you go?  How do you keep them interested?  Do you toss in coordination drills as well?  How often do you have them play a game?  Should those games be played 5 a side or with less players.  How about defense?  Do you teach them man to man principles from a young age and have them build on that or do you teach them a zone? Finally what about offense?  Do you teach them a structured offense or do you teach them about floor balance and pass and move basketball?  This post is aimed to addressing all of these questions.

Basketball is a game and a game is supposed to be fun.  As a coach you can't lose sight of that. The main reason why your players play is because they want to have fun.  When the game stops being fun then you've lost your players.

Ever since I first touched a basketball I have loved this game.  Growing up in Chicago and being able to witness the Michael Jordan years cemented my love for the game.  Rain or shine, cold or snow, sunshine or darkness, I would always be outside shooting hoops in the backyard.  My neighbors must have thought I was nuts but nobody ever complained.  Through all of the practice, I did manage to become a decent basketball player and I could hold my own in most pick up games, but I made the huge mistake of not trying out for my high school team.  As a greek kid growing up in the US, your identity comes from the church you attend.  I attended Holy Trinity church in Chicago and made most of my friends and acquaintances at the church.  It was because of this that my loyalty belonged to the church and I made my choice to play basketball in a church league instead of in high school.  Now don't get me wrong, I was never good enough to play ball beyond the h...