One of the major things coaches emphasize with their players is the importance of working in the off-season to improve their game. Coaches come up with all sorts of plans and programs designed to motivate their players to invest the time to elevate their skills.
If there is a skill coach putting on a program in our area, coaches give their players the info and encourage them to go. Coaches organize camps for their team and enter them in leagues and tourneys in the off-season. And often coaches encourage them to become part of an AAU program.
The message to our players is loud and clear— “If you want to succeed, you must be willing to invest the time to make yourself a better player.”
While this message is loud and clear to our players, there are many coaches who don’t seem to understand the same message applies to them as coaches. If you are going to be successful as a coach, you MUST be willing to invest time to improve your knowledge of the game and knowledge of methods of instruction.
We expect our players to do everything possible to elevate their game, but it is amazing how many coaches don’t make the same effort to elevate their game.
I am guessing some coaches reading this would say,”Oh, I work to elevate my knowledge and coaching, I look at stuff on Twitter and google things.”
My response is that if that is all you are doing, you are a coach that I would like to schedule. You are not working as hard at self-improvement as you are expecting your players to be working on self-improvement.
Here are some ways that ALL coaches should be looking to elevate their coaching game…
Clinics
The depth a coach goes into during a clinic presentation gives you an understanding of how to teach a particular offense or defense. And they give you the counters and the tweaks that are necessary.
In a clinic you see how they teach concepts. You hear the vocabulary they use in teaching and the urgency that is needed in their teaching.
At clinics you get new ideas that you can incorporate, this allows you to keep your practices and approaches fresh for your players.
Clinics may expose you to basketball trends you don’t choose to incorporate in your program. But when you play another team that uses those concepts, you understand what they are trying to do.
Often you may hear speakers covering something you already do- this has value. It always gave me a sense of confidence and greater belief in what we were doing.
Positive Clinic Examples from My Career
I had the opportunity to attend clinics thru the years with other coaches like- Jay Hatch, Thom Sigel, Dan Sullivan, Mike Reynolds and Ryan Webber. Not only did I learn from the clinic speakers, but the conversations that I had in the stands, in a restaurant, or in a car were just as valuable.
Early in my career, I had the opportunity to listen to Jim Valvano give a detailed explanation and demonstration of the numbered break. He gave the why, the how to teach, and wrinkles to the break. The numbered break then became foundational to my teams for the 30+ years. I didn’t go to the clinic looking for the numbered break but I found it.
On a Sunday morning in St. Louis, Hubie Brown went over a simple action vs. zones. He had players on the court he used. He showed the simple action and adjustments he made if going vs 2-3, 1-2-2, 1-3-1, and Box/1. Then added a couple counters. That zone action became the basis of our zone offense and our secondary breaks vs zone defenses. I have looked and I have never seen a videotape demonstrating it. I have googled it and have never seen it.
I once went to a small clinic that had high school speakers. Sam Alford gave a talk on program organization where he talked about a “Daily 30.” It went thru 6 drills that he expected every coach in his program to do for a total of 30 minutes each day. I took that concept and created my own “Daily Dozen”, a set of 12 drills that I expected coaches in my program to use regularly.
College Practices
Our practices are the most important part of our coaching. There is no better way to learn about how to build effective practices than to attend college practices.
Positive Examples of Attending College Practices from My Career
I had an opportunity to attend a pre-season Tennessee women’s practice with Pat Summit. The practice was tremendous to watch, but she came over and sat with the three high school coaches at the practice. For 45 minutes, she explained why they were doing drills they were doing and what they hoped to achieve.
I had an opportunity to attend a Wisconsin men’s practice with Dick Bennett. He did a series of offensive “Sureness Drills.” The entire concept of each of the drills was to reduce turnovers by their offense. It had a huge impact on my offensive teaching methods.
When Tom Davis was at Iowa, Coach Gary O’Malley, Coach Dan Sullivan, and I had an opportunity to go spend a couple days at Iowa. They gave us access to any practice video, game video, offensive and defensive breakdown videos. We were set up in the players locker room to watch. We had coaches and players come thru who watched with us and we could ask questions. It was during these sessions that I learned so much about the 1-2–1-1 full court press that became a big part of our program.
These days, I go to Tulsa practices as often as I can. I am a basketball nerd, so I take a pad and paper to take notes. One practice they did nothing but defensive transition drills. In 90 minutes, they did 6-8 defensive transition drills. Offensively, I am fascinated about how they break down their offense and teach the execution of parts of the offense and then put it all together. I am retired but it is fascinating to see how they teach the game.
Professional Organization
The Illinois Basketball Coaches Association is a fantastic resource for coaches wanting to grow as coaches. By belonging to the IBCA, coaches can shine light on players and help grow the game in Illinois. Many coaches may not realize how valuable membership in the IBCA can be for a coach working to build a network of coaches.
Positive Examples of IBCA Membership in My Career
In 1985, when the IBCA took in girls basketball coaches, I joined immediately. I had an opportunity to be on the first IBCA All-State Committee. We met in a crowded classroom, and it was intimidating for me as young downstate basketball coach to be surrounded by some coaches who were already legends in girls basketball. One of the coaches, just a few chairs away was Derril Kipp of Maine West. As the meeting went on, we talked back forth a little bit. After the meeting, Derril said that I should bring my team up to Maine West the coming summer to play in a one day tourney. We went up that summer and every summer for over 3 decades with the one-day tourneys becoming 3-day tourneys for us, and going up a couple times each summer. For a long time, we were the only downstate team taking advantage of this opportunity, and it helped us be successful in the winter. It all started with a conversation at an IBCA All-State meeting.
Bob Anderson- Love the Game
For those of us who have attended clinics thru the years, we have seen Coach Bob Anderson sitting in the front row of every clinic. It didn’t matter who the speaker was- big time college coach, young college assistant coach, high school boys coach, or high school girls coach.
In our latter years coaching, I had a conversation with Bob at a clinic when our paths crossed. I asked him why he kept going to clinics, and he said two things that always stuck with me…
“I always go to clinics because I can’t stand the thought that someone I coach against is going to pick up something that they will use against me, and I won’t be prepared because I didn’t go.”
“If you love basketball, why wouldn’t you want to go hear people talk about basketball.”
Bob had a good point about loving basketball. In my 45 years coaching, I came to realize that some coaches can have short term success with talent, but to have long term success like Bob Anderson, you have to love the game. The coaches who coach 20, 30, and 40 years are the coaches who love the game and are the coaches who are at clinics trying to learn more about the game.
Jay Hatch- So Much to Learn
Coach Hatch is one of those coaches who is at every clinic. I have totally enjoyed going to clinics with Jay and talking basketball. Often if clinics had two speakers at the same time, we would each go to a different speaker then sit down and share our notes.
A quote from Jay captures the value of coaching clinics…
“Whenever I go to a coaching clinic, I realize how little basketball I really know. There is so much I don’t know and so much to learn.”
And maybe because Jay is there learning at clinics is why he has won a State Basketball Championship and over 600 games!!
IBCA Statewide Clinic at Bradley University on Saturday, September 26
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