Articles for coaches
Hello, Coaches! We are happy to introduce a new section to the Stars club web site, called "Head" Coach. This will be a section of the site devoted to articles written and compiled by our "Head" Coach, Kelly Adams, to help you learn and grow as a coach within our club.
Kelly's bio can be found here. Welcome Kelly!
Preparing for provincials!
So now that you are heading onto the last few weeks of the basketball season, how will you prepare yourself and your team for the Provincial Championships? Obviously, practices throughout the year have played a large part in developing both the individual players and the team as a whole, and whatever the results are from the various tournaments have determined your team's ranking as they head into Provincials.
Some suggestions that may be useful include: (1) Reviewing the goals set by each of your players and seeking input from both the player and the rest of the team with regard to progress. What else needs to happen to achieve these goals? Could additional time (say 10 minutes) be allotted during the remaining practices for individual work? Could the Assistant Coach take a small group and work on relevant drills and/or plays, while the Head Coach meets with each player to provide specific and focused feedback?
(2) Reviewing the goals set out for the team at the beginning of the season. Has the team accomplished what it set out to do? If not- what are some of the remaining challenges to be addressed to ensure success? The older and more experienced the players are, the more involved they should be in devising solutions and taking ownership of their own progress.
(3) Has anyone been assigned the task of videotaping any games? (i.e. a keen parent) If so- the team should watch their performance and analyze what worked well, and what was missing. There's nothing more effective than a player seeing how they really performed versus how they thought they did, or how you communicated their performance. This is actually an under-utilized teaching tool that should be used throughout the season.
(4) Are there players who could use some performance preparation coaching, or even some psychological intervention with regard to "nerves" or debilitating performance anxiety? If so- help is available. And what about the whole team? Perhaps a session on meditation or visualization exercises would be useful right before the Provincials. The truth is that mind mastery requires just as much practice as all the technical basketball skills in order to become "habit".
On a more specific technical note, Coach Jeremy Sims (Girls Junior AAA) has additional advice to offer:
(5) Do the homework on your division. It's always good to go back and speak to coaches who have played the teams that you play in your draw. Collect your notes from season games and determine a game plan that responds to your notes, like " Team Y has a 6'3 post who does not like contact" etc. Also look for patterns in your notes. If you don't play well against zones - make sure you have plays and a plan to get easy shots and the proper personnel on the floor to make those shots. If you're not confident your players know the plays sufficiently well, ask them to draw/write it out for further clarification.
(6) Executing plays and strategy in games is challenging! Players should know the plays intimately so they don't have to focus on remembering the play, as it should be automatic. They need to know the plays and the counters in case the defence takes away your primary options.
(7) Have an inbounds play for zone and man-to-man and a baseline inbounds play for zone and man-to-man. Repetition is the key. Ensure that you have a zone offence for a 1 guard front zone, and a 2 guard front zone.
(8) Lastly, practice late game scenarios. Bring a shot clock to practice to simulate late game scenarios. That way the players won't be rattled at Provincials if they're in a tight situation. Some hypothetical examples are: Red team is down 2pts with 15 seconds left and has the ball at half; Blue team has no fouls to give; another could be the Blue team is down 10 with 3 minutes left. Which offence will ensure a quality scoring opportunity, and which defence will enable you to gain possession and stop the clock?
Good luck at Provincials!
Remember that the players will have these memories for a long time, so as the coach, do your best to make them good memories!
Cheering you on,
Kelly Adams and Jeremy Sims
Please send any feedback or inquiries to Kelly directly, or to jeremysims@rogers.com.