That Basketball Life

My son had a baseball game yesterday and in that game his coach had to sit 4 of the 13 players that showed up to play for him.  He had no choice of course since you can only play 9 in the field at a time.  He decided to sit these 4 players for the first 2 innings of the game and he also had all 4 of these players batting at the bottom of the order.  In essence he had these players sit and watch for the first 30-45 minutes of the game.  In the pros that is not too unusual but we are talking about u10 baseball here.  It's tough enough to keep them engaged when you have them playing, let alone when they are sitting doing nothing.  I decided to pay attention to those 4 boys and see how they would do for the rest of the game.  In the end they all did poorly at the plate and many of them were not as engaged as they should have been in the field.  This got me thinking about basketball and keeping players engaged.  How can you make sure that all of y...

Offense is always hit or miss.  Sometimes your team has a good game and sometimes they don't.  A bad shooting night will cost most teams a win but not those teams that can fall back on a solid in your face man to man defense.  A good man to man is a great equalizer in basketball.  It can make inferior teams more competitive, it can help push a team past an equally talented opponent, and it can help reduce the risk of upsets when your team is the favorite.  In order to teach a good man to man defense a coach tries to reinforce a couple of things. Force the offense into spots on the floor where they do not feel comfortable playing in and  Everyone on your team is on the same page.

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?

The second principle to sound defense is also very similar to our first principle.  It's similar in that it doesn't require unique athleticism, or an excellent basketball IQ.  Just like team work everyone should be prepared to talk to teammates on the basketball court.  Without communication it is impossible to defend.  As a defender you have a responsibility to keep an eye on your man and the ball.  This is a very difficult task so to add keeping track of possible screens, and switches is nearly impossible.  A good defense relies on all five players on the floor talking to each other.

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.

Basketball is a game of great individual achievement.  It is one of those team sports where one great player can truly make a difference.  Regardless of how true the above statement is nobody is good enough to win a championship by themselves.  Even star players need to trust their teammates in order for the team to succeed.  It doesn't matter how good a player can be its tough to guard all 5 opponents on defense.  It's even tougher to beat all 5 defenders on the offensive end of the floor if they know that one player will refuse to use his teammates.  The point I'm trying to make is that even if you have an exceptional player playing for you, the best thing you can do is to teach the squad how to play as a team.  This is the only way a team can be successful.