SCOUTING- How did you handle or divide up scouting responsibilities? How did you handle when you had Friday and Saturday games? Did you create something to give to the players- paper or video? What info did you want as a coach, and what info did you want the players to have? For a Friday game, when would you have started going over the scouting with players? How did you give the scouting to players- walk thru, film, meetings.
Mike Cooper- Ottawa
The most important thing when it come to scouting is organization. I divided the season into 3 different time periods The days leading up to the game, right after the game, and the off season.
During the off season I would try to watch as much film from previous opponents as I could and make sure I have the information filed.
I would spend time during summer shootouts watching any teams that we might play in the regular season to get a feel for what they are doing and if they have changed anything. It is also a good chance to get a feel for personnel.
I would have a file folder and a file on my computer for each team we play that I would put scouting reports, rosters and other pertinent information about a team in the file. This would be a cumulative file so I could look back on previous years.
The days leading up to the game I would try to give the players the scouting report two days before we played. If we played back to back games I would try to give them the second report right after the first game so they could look it over before we play the next day. The second game if it was a non-conference game, my assistant would handle the scout. I would still be very familiar with the report but my assistant would walk them thru sets. After we played a team if they did something different I would add it to the scouting file for the next time we play.
There were alot of times the coaches would work with the players to come up with a plan together. I might give them an option as to whether we were going switch a screen or fight thru. I always felt if the players had some input they would be more focused and wanted to make sure their choice worked.
Be consistent with always giving a scouting report, don't let the kids think a team is bad by not giving them a scouting report. That is an easy way for a team to take someone for granted and get upset. A good scouting report can be the difference between a win or loss!
Thom Sigel- Rock Island
The information within scouting has not changed too much over the years. However, the means by which we can gather information and how we share with players has changed drastically. Obviously the main reason things have changed is because of technological advances.
Delegating has never been one of my strengths, so I always wanted to have eyes on teams even when assistants would assist in scouting opponents. I even went as far as trying to see teams in person as much as possible. Having the convenience of Hudl allows coaches to access multiple game films on opponents, but seeing teams in person when possible was something I felt was important and could help pick up calls that you might not hear on film.
When scouting opponents, the scouting packet I started with was broken down into categories - personnel, defensive philosophies, offensive tendencies, and favorite sets and out of bounds plays. Player tendencies are some of the basics - strong hand, shooter or driver?, chance to get charges?, defensive weaknesses?
In my career in the NCIC and Western Big 6 we rarely played Tuesday games, so we had all week to prepare for Friday night conference games. Depending on the opponent and style of play (or maybe if we had areas we needed to work on based on our play in the last game) we would start covering scout information on Tuesday or Wednesday (depending if we took Monday off or had a shooting day). Having 3-4 days to prepare also afforded us the opportunity to instill our scout in segments if needed. If we had a Friday-Saturday weekend, we would see if there might be anything that we could work into our prep that would help for Saturday. But our focus would be on the conference game, so sometimes we didn't even get to our non-conference opponent until Saturday morning.
The information we would give players actually varied. I found that some teams were more prepared with detailed scouting reports in written form and additional film work. I found it interesting that there were a few groups that were better off with some specifics and not details because they would "guard the scouting report" rather than guarding the other team - overthinking and playing tight. I also learned clipping film down to 10-15 minutes was much better than trying to skip through full game films for an hour before technology made it much easier to edit film into segments to show the team. It seemed important to use multiple clips to reiterate tendencies to our team. Sometimes we could set up our edits to make teams look worse if we needed more confidence going into a game. There were times when our team might get overconfident, so we would make the opponent look better on film - or maybe not even show them film on the opponent.
I also believe just like in the classroom, players learn in different ways. Therefore, we wanted to use all means necessary to get everyone prepared. So scouting reports, video segments, and on-court were all used.
Evan Massey- Galesburg
Let me digress about scouting in the “old days.” Today with Hudl, everyone pretty much gets whatever tapes they want. Before Hudl, a huge advantage was gained by “out scouting people.
I would go to as many games as possible, and I would always be curious how many times an opposing coach would come to our games. Kelly Wynne (Moline), Steve Ford (Moline), and Jay Hatch (Alleman) had the same approach as I did. And for a long period of time, few Peoria area coaches would go scout in person.
I subscribed to the Argus-Dispatch, Peoria Journal Star, and Chicago Tribune before the internet to get as many Boxscores as possible. I eventually subscribed to the internet editions of the Peoria, Quad Cities, Rockford, Sterling, Ottawa, Mattoon, and Chicago newspapers. That was probably over kill but I wanted to get as much info as possible.
When Steve Peachey was an assistant, he was incredible following our opponents via the internet. He was constantly printing up things he found.
The first thing a coach needs to do is to develop a spread sheet with all of your opponents games listed. I would then figure out how I could get film on as many of their games as possible, or if I needed to send someone to film a game.
Network, network, network- I really liked talking to other coaches and sharing with other coaches. You have to be willing to give to receive.
For the report- we did what everyone does… personnel, their defense, their offense, their ob’s, their press break. Some things that I thought were helpful for us…
1- Who were their three point threats.
2- For me, I drew up their plays. By the end of my career for the players I started to just describe what we needed to be prepared for- flex cut, high ball screen, etc. And we didn’t then walk thru the entire play but just showed certain actions within plays.
3- I absolutely hated when the other team scored on a “trick play.” So I tried to give players the call and the play. I realize that this might have just meant preventing 5-6 points in a game but I felt that those scores deflated us and pumped up the other team.
Basics I thought were important…
1- Treat every game the same. Give players “practice” in going over scout reports.
2- Give players the basics, give coaches the details.
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