Don Meyer: Secrets to Building a Championship Basketball Program

A few years back I took an Advanced Basketball Theory class with Don Meyer.  During the course, we had to watch a series of videos.  Here are some notes that I took at the time over the Secrets to Building a Championship Program video.

Don Meyer Secrets to Building a Championship Program

Shooting Drills eBook

This free eBook, which contains shooting drills from a number of great coaches, gives coaches a wide variety of shooting drills to implement in practice.  You will find individual, partner, finishing, transition and team shooting drills that are competitive and high intensity.  I hope it helps with your practice preparation.

Shooting Drills eBook

Bobby Knight: Practice Planning Clinic Notes

Here is a great set of notes from legendary coach, Bob Knight.  Coach Knight provides great teaching concepts and drills to teach players and coaches how to better understand the game of basketball. 

Bobby Knight Practice Planning Notes

Coaching Quote #9: Bad Passing

"You cannot allow bad passing in practice.  If there is a bad pass, do it again"
"Most important thing about passing is don't pass it to the other color."

--- Bob Knight

Don Meyer: Player's Camp Notebook

Years ago when I was the head coach of a girl's team, I had 12 girls go attend Coach Meyer's positional camp.  One of my girl's had typed up her notes and given me a copy.  I thought I would share the teaching points that she recorded.

Don Meyer Position Camp Player's Notebook

Coaching Quote #8: Effort

"If your best player is not your hardest worker it will be a miserable year even if you win it all."

--- Don Meyer

Kevin Reilly: Getting the Most Out of Bench Players

Here are some great ideas from Kevin Reilly to get your bench players inolved in the game.

1. Establish roles for your players (i.e. defense, passing, three point shooting.
2. Try to get substitutes in end of first quarter and during second quarter
3. Reward players for their efforts in practice with more playing time.
4. Getting players in the game early gives them confidence if they are needed later.
5. Getting players in early gives you one less thing to think about down the stretch of a close game.
6. Matchup your substitutions with your opponent's substitutions.
7. Establish positive relationships between first stringers and reserves.
8. Work with second team in practice.
9. Get kids ready to play.
10. Use different combinations and different starting lineups.
11. Take kids out of a game on a good note, if possible
12. Don't yank kids out of a game after a bad pass, missed layup, etc., if possible.
13. Make all kids feel involved in the game and practice.
14. Give kids opportunities to see for themselves why they are not getting more time or playing with the first unit.
15. Talk and explain substitution process when possible.

Larry Brown Practice Breakdown

Here is a portion of some Larry Brown clinic notes.  Below, Coach Brown is discussing his approach to practice organization. 

The daily practice schedule is designed to simulate the flow of a game, from the pregame meeting through overtime (total time – 2 hours)


Playing hard is the top priority – Intensity development is built into the daily practice schedule by making all drills competitive against the clock or an opponent

Warm up (:20)

– Focuses on ball-handling and shooting

Defense (:40)

– Defense is taught in a “part” fashion, utilizing three- and four-man breakdown drills to reinforce concepts

“Halftime” (:10)

– A series of shooting drills is utilized to give the players an active rest period

Offense (:40)

– Offense is taught in a “whole” fashion, utilizing 5-on-0 and 5-on-5 drills to develop spacing and seamless teamwork

“Overtime” (:10)

– Special situations (baseline out-of-bounds, sideline out-of-bounds, end-of quarter, and delay games that often make the difference between victory and defeat are rehearsed in situational scrimmages

Practice Planning with Mike Dunlap

Mike Dunlap is well known for his attention to detail and his practice preparation.  Here are some notes with great teaching concepts for you to think about.  Hopefully there is something that you can apply to your program.

Mike Dunlap Practice Planning

Anatomy of a Timeout: Tip #5

One of the toughest places to inbound the ball is from a deep corner sideline.  You can be limited in your options if you don't plan accordingly.  Therefore, at the end of a game, what do you need to cover when you have to inbound the ball from the deep corner?  Personally, I like to have a Zipper action to start of the play because this will get a passing angle for the in-bounder.  Furthermore, I like to have the post player setting the down screen post up hard looking to get a direct pass from the corner man.

From there, you now have a wide range of options that you can use depending on your style of play, your end of game actions and what you have previously practiced.

I have added a couple of sample plays that could be used or modified to fit your players strengths for this situation.

Deep Corner SLOBs

Coaching Qhote #8: Drivers and Shooters

"Make drivers shooters and shooters drivers."

--- Duane Silver

Don Meyer Post Development

When it comes to the details of player development, Don Meyer is one of the best.  In today's basketball resource, Coach Meyer breaks down different fundamentals for post development.  This resource also provides a number of drills to help teach the fundamental skills. 

Don Meyer Post Development

Coaching Quote #7: Passing

"Passes go over or under the defense; never through the defense. Create long passes."

--- Frank Martin

High Low Entries and Sets Playbook

Here is a playbook that I compiled a while back just that just focuses on entries and sets for the High Low offense.  Many other coaches shared a number of these sets and actions with me.  I just simply compiled them into 1 resource for other coaches.

High Low Entries and Sets Playbook

Wayne Walters: Swarm Defense

I would like to throw in a plug for a coach, Wayne Walters, who I have had many conversations with over the years.  He has challenged my defensive thinking and got me to buy into a sideline break philosophy.  He has a wealth of knowledge and many unique ideas to the game.  Coach Walters is always willing to help other coaches and has a website with a wealth of free basketball resources which can be found at Swarm Enterprises.

He also has a series of instructional videos that breakdown his aggressive SWARM defense.  You can visit Hoop Kings to preview his video series.

George Karl: Advantages to Running

1. For whatever reason, refs call way more fouls in transition than in the half court
2. Everything is better early, no matter what action it is
3. Offensive rebounding increases by 10% in transition
4. Wants players to penetrate in transition
5. Coach Karl would rather have his team too wild and fast and coach them down, then the other way around.

Coaching Quote #6: Great Playerss

"Even the greatest players accept coaching and value the need for discipline and the order it brings to the team."

--- Dr. Jack Ramsey

Quick Strike Playbook

A few years ago, I put a playbook together with simple quick hits that could be used as entries into a base offense.  There are a number of options from various formations.  Hopefully you can find something in there that will help.

Quick Strike Playbook

Coaching Quote #5: Future

“You can never change outcomes, but you can try to change futures.”

--- Tom Crean

Anatomy of a Timeout: Tip #4

As I have previously noted, I like to switch up defensive schemes after a timeout. I have found that most of the time this will bust up the offensive set that was designed by the opposing team. On the flip side, I feel that it is very important to have combination sets that will work against man or zone. Furthermore, it is important that you have a BLOB and a SLOB that will work against man and zone defense as well. Many times, you are able to make simple modifications to what you are already running to attack man or zone schemes. Like always, the key is to work on these situations during practice to better help your players understand the situation and what the correct adjustments are.


I have talked with other coaches who will simply have 2 plays called. If they see that the team is in a zone scheme, they will run the zone set. If they see that the defense is in a man scheme, they will run the man set.

So the big questions we have to ask ourselves are:

1. Do you want to be the type of coach who goes over 2 different plays during the timeout and then make the call from the bench once you see the scheme? Are both of these plays going to be from the same alignment so players don’t have to get into a different formation once you recognize the defensive scheme?

2. Are you going to run 1 set and review the adjustments, whether zone or man, in case the defense switches schemes?

Coaching Principles: Seth Davis and Bill Russell

Here are some coaching principles from a Seth Davis and Bill Russell presentation. Something all coaches should keep in mind.


1. Love the game: Watch it, learn it and love it. Don’t think you know it all.

2. Know your team: When making adjustments, make adjustments your team can make. Know your strengths and limitations so you can set your team up for success.

3. Make rules reasonable: Your authority is established through proof not command. I’ve always said: the best use of power is not having to use it. If you make a rule make sure the punishment is clear: Red would fine a player $10 for being late to practice. Yelling is not a punishment, it takes a rules offense to a personal and negative level that hurts the whole team.

4. Loyalty is paramount: “I only ever played for the Celtics and I never would play for another team—they were loyal to me, and I was loyal to them”

5. Negotiation is key: Everything between a player and a coach is a negotiation. When you want a player to do something you want—you have to give them what they want. Negotiating so everyone wins is the goal.
6. Craftsmanship: Know what you need to do to get this done.

7. Winning: When I do my job and you do your job—we all win.

8. Own your decisions: When you make a mistake, when you fail to lead by example, when you do something wrong: own your decision. Accept personal responsibility, apologize and move forward. Be a model of positive decision making and turning a negative decision into a positive.

Coaching Quote #4: Parents

"Parents are not going anywhere, so must find a way to survive"

--- Frank Allocco

Vance Walberg Drills

Here are some intense pratice drills that Vance Walberg uses daily in his practices.  Each of these drills teach transition offensive and defensive concepts.  Even if you don't run a DDA/DDM style offense, you can adapt them to fit your style of play.

Scramble Drill
Texas 22
Texas 111
Cardinal

3 Ball Baseline Drive

Here is a great shooting drill to teach players proper rotations on baseline driving actions.  I got the drill from a Don Meyer clinic.  Hope it helps you in with your practices.

3 Ball Baseline Drive

Anatomy of a Timeout: Tip #3

In Tip #2, we talked about things to cover when you are trailing in a game with only a few minutes left in a game. Today, we are going to flip the perspective for the same situation. When you have a lead in a game, what items do you need to go over with your team during that timeout situation? Here are some questions and items to consider and discuss with your staff.

Offensive


1. At what point do you go into your delay game offense, if you have one? Motion coaches will probably say that they will continue to stay in their motion set, but will just be more disciplined in their shot selection. How about continuity coaches? Do you stay in your continuity or do you go into some sort of delay offense? I have seen coaches go into a delay to soon and their teams become stagnant, thus turning the ball over and losing momentum. When you are in your delay offense, whatever it is, what are the points of emphasis you need to relay to your players? We emphasize the following items.

2. First, we need to keep high and wide spacing. The defense is going to be in a gambling and aggressive mentality. Therefore, we need to have good driving lanes and cutting lanes on defensive overplay.

3. Second, shorten the pass by meeting the pass. In other words, we want to close the gap when passes are being made to prevent the defense from shooting the passing lane.

4. Third, catch, rip, and triple threat. Again, the defense is going to be in our comfort zone so we have got to be tough with the ball. We tell our kids that we have got to be confident with the ball and if they can take their man to the rim, DO IT. We are happy to get to the free throw line during this part of the game.

5. Fourth, if you are denied, it is an automatic back cut and fill out. Absolutely no standing.

6. Fifth, our best players always need to be 1 pass away. The reason for this is because we our best players to get the most touches and we want them to get to the free throw line.

7. Have you practice a full court, ¾ court, and ½ court special designed to get the ball in when the other team is trying to get a steal or foul?

Defensive items

1. How are you going to handle late game screening situations? Are you going to switch?

2. How are you going to defend drive and kick situations? The offense is going to be aggressive to the rim.

3. Do you know who the weakest player(s) is on the other team? Are you going “dork” defend him in order to help shade towards the other team’s best player who will most likely get the most touches?

4. If you are up 3 with a few seconds left, do you foul to put them in a bonus free throw situation in order for them not to get a 3 point shot off? Do your players know how to properly foul and WHEN?

5. On a made basket, do you want the in-bounder to get the ball in quickly or do you want your team to take their time and get set up in your press break?

6. On a made basket, does your in-bounder know whether he can run the baseline or not?

The answers to a lot of these questions are determined by your philosophy as a coach. As always, it is vital that you work on these situations during practice. It is hard to cover them all, but the more you practice them, the more prepared you are for those situations when they com

Shooting Drills eBook

Here is a variety of shooting drills for you to incorporate into your practices.  A number of coaches were nice enough to share them with me, so I am just passing along the resources.

Shooting eBook

Zone Sets

Here are some great zone set actions that will get you into a 1-3-1 base.  Hope they help.

Zone Sets

10 Commandments of an Enthusiastic Team

1. Help each other be right–not wrong
2. Look for ways to make new ideas work–not for reasons they won’t.
3. Help each other win and take pride in each other’s victories.
4. Speak positively about each other and about tour organization at every opportunity.
5. Maintain a Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) no matter what the circumstances.
6. Act with initiative and courage as if it all depends on you.
7. Do everything with enthusiasm–it’s contagious.
8. Whatever you want–give it away.
9. Don’t lose faith–never give up.
10. Have fun!

Coaching Quote #3: Mistakes

"What to do with a mistake--recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it."

--- Dean Smith

Anatamony of a Timeout: Tip #2

There are times during a game where you are going to be down X number of points, with little time left and you will be in a timeout situation and your players are going to be looking to you for guidance as to how they can come back and win the game. What topics do you cover in those 30-90 seconds. Hopefully, you have practice these situations a number of times throughout the season so your players have some prior knowledge to go off of, but here are some questions to think about that you will probably need to cover in a timeout situation.


1. How much time is left on the clock and at what point do you need to start shooting 3’s to get back in the game? Obviously, this is going to depend on the current score, but if you are down 8-10 points and there is 2 minutes left, do your players clearly understand your offensive expectations of getting a quick 2 or at what point do they need to be looking for a 3?

2. When you are down 3-4 points with a couple of seconds left on the clock, do your players understand how to miss the second free throw, and what everyone’s responsibilities are on the miss in order to get the offensive rebound and another FG attempt to win or tie the game?

3. Do your players know at what point they need to start fouling in order to extend the game? Do your players know how to properly foul? Do you have a verbal and nonverbal signal?

4. Do your players clearly know your defensive objectives on defending delay game offenses? Do they know who the best free throw shooter is in order to deny him/her and who the worse free throw shooter is in order to foul him/her?

5. If you are able to get back in the game, do your players know whether they should push the ball in the final seconds and try and score before the defense gets set, or should they call a timeout?

Again, the true success of these situations is preparation in practice. This not only prepares your players for these situations, but also helps you as the coach in those situations as well. A few years ago, I took an Advanced Basketball Theory class with Don Meyer. One of the things that he did frequently was work on a special situation at a random time during practice. For example, after or during a drill, you as the coach could call “timeout,” have half of your players go to one coach, and the rest go to another coach where you work on a time and score situation. You can make it a 30 second timeout or a 60 second timeout. The 2 teams would then go and execute the discussed game plan. This simulates stress and spontaneity to your players. This does require some planning with the coaching staff in order for all the coaches to be clear as to what the situation is and what the expectations are.

Coaching Quote #2: All Stars

“You can no longer beat great teams with just a group of all-stars.”

--- Jerry Colangelo

Kevin Eastman Coaching Notes

Here is a great set of notes from one of the greatest assistant coaches in the NBA, Kevin Eastman.  Coach Eastman does a lot to grow the game of basketball.  Check out his website, Kevin Eastman Basketball, where he has tons of coaching resources. 


Kevin Eastman Notes

Coaching Quote #1: A Champion

I am going to start a running collection of coaching quotes.  I will keep them indexed so we can better keep track of them and add them to our own collection of coaching quotes.

“The Vision of a Champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, and at the point of exhaustion, when no one else is watching.”

--- Anson Dorrance

Anatomy of a Timeout: Tip #1

Many games are lost and won with a timeout. There are so many things to consider during timeout situations, so it is vital that you practice different timeout situations during practice. Today, I am going to talk about the advantage of switching defenses after a timeout. Coach Bobby Hurley Sr. mentioned in his defensive DVD that at least 1 time during a game, he will switch defenses after a timeout in order get an advantage for 1 possession. Many times, coaches will design a set or quick hitter during a timeout. Therefore, I love the idea of making a defensive change while coming out of time out. You can make a very subtle change or you can get really creative. The type of change you make should depend on what you have practiced, the time of the game, and the collective basketball IQ of your players. Here are some ideas to consider:


Subtle Changes

1. All out deny the other team’s best scorer

2. Trap the other team’s best player on catch or dribble

3. Switch from man to zone or vice versa depending on what you were playing prior to the timeout

4. Switching all screens to disrupt the flow of a set or quick hitter

Aggressive Changes

1. Box and 1 or diamond and 1 on the other team’s star player

2. Triangle and 2 with chasers on the point guard and best scorer

3. Show zone defense and then match on the first wing pass

4. Show man and then zone on the first wing pass

5. Aggressive trapping scheme such as trapping wings/corners/post entries

As I already noted, there are many variables that play into what a coach should switch to after a timeout, such as your style of play, time and score of the game, your opponents, or what you feel your players are comfortable adjusting to. The last thing you want to do is over coach the kids and have a defensive break down.

Don Meyer's Questions For Seniors

Don Meyer, one of my favorite coaches, is a mastermind at building a strong team culture.  Today, we take a look at questions that he asked his seniors each year. This gave him a player's perspective as to what they needed to improve on for the next year. 

1. Who is going to control the locker-room next year?
• Who needs to step up and take some control over the locker-room and off-court stuff next year? Who will other people listen to?
2.  Who will be the best practice player?
3. Who is the toughest guy coming back?
4. Who are the potential problems coming back? Why?
5. Who would be in your fox-hole? Who is out?
6. Who will be our best…?
• Defender?
• Rebounder?
• Team attitude?
• Leader?
• Scorer?
7. Anything need to be done differently at the regional tournament with all the spare time?
8. How can we get better in the weight room? What needs to be emphasized more?
9. What else should the coaches be worried about for next year? Any other potential problems with players, recruits, etc?

Russia Flip Set: 2012 Olympic Games

I have been watching and dissecting a lot of Olympic basketball lately.  It is amazing the unique actions that you see in international style of play.  Some amazing stuff.  Here is a Flip action set ran by the Russian team that gives a variety of different scoring actions.  Hope it helps.

Russian Flip Set

2011-2012 Spurs Playbook

Here is a short playbook that I put together on the San Antonio Spurs from last year's playoffs.  Gregg Popovich is a master at offensive play design for getting the ball into the post.  I hope you can find something in this playbook to help your team this year.

2011-2012 San Antonio Spurs Playbook

2012 NCAA 24 Hour Marathon Schedule

Tuesday November 13, 2012 the NCAA 24 Hour Marathon will begin.  The scheduled games will be as followed:

Midnight: West Virginia at Gonzaga


2 a.m.: Davidson at New Mexico

4 a.m.: Houston Baptist at Hawaii

6 a.m.: Stony Brook at Rider

8 a.m.: Northern Illinois at Valparaiso

10 a.m.: Harvard at Massachusetts

12 p.m.: Temple at Kent State

2 p.m.: Detroit at St. John’s

4 p.m.: Butler at Xavier

7 p.m.: Michigan State vs. Kansas (Champions Classic, Georgia Dome — Atlanta)

30 minutes following MSU/KU: Duke vs. Kentucky (Champions Classic)


This is one of my favorite times of the year as there looks to be some great match-ups.  Last year I compiled a playbook, called 2011-2012 NCAA Marathon Playbook, with different plays used in the games from all of the teams participating in last year's event.  I plan on releasing another playbook this year as well.

Being On Top - Kevin Eastman

"The most successful people in life control the controllable things in their life. Those that stay on top of these have a chance 2 be on top!" ---- Kevin Eastman

Thoughts from NCAA and NBA Coaches

1. If your bigs are still terrible at ball handling by their senior year, it’s your fault. - Geno Auriemma
2. Make sure your team is full of 2 hand rebounders. Rebs. grabbed w/1 hand scream SOFT! - Tom Izzo
3. Get your players to get their ball to the back half of the basket on their shots. 80% of missed shots are short. "Get the ball in the back half" - Don Meyer 
4. Dribbling is the widely abused skill in basketball - John Chaney 
5. Give your team 1 timeout per practice. They can call it at anytime to regroup. - Kevin Eastman 
6. To be a good a good offensive coach, you need to know defensive actions (like a football coach) - Brendan Suhr
7. Know who want to take the ball out at the end of a game. - Doc Rivers 
8. Plan each practice as if Hubie Brown was going to come watch that practice. - Fran Fraschilla 
9. As a coach, it your job to give your players the answers to the test before they take it. - Lawrence Frank
10. Everything that happens or fails to happen is your responsiibity. - Eric Kapitulik

10 Important Questions Coaches Should Ask Themselves

1. Why do you want to coach? Explain the driving force for wanting to be in the coaching profession.
2. Are you willing to dedicate yourself 24 hours a day, seven days a week, if necessary for your players and fellow coaches?

3. Is your family willing and able to bear the sacrifices?

4. Are you willing to lead by example in everything that you do? This will require you to live your life in a “fishbowl” with your professional and personal life always open to view.
5. Do you have the personal courage to live by your core values and make tough decisions regardless of the consequences?

6. Are you passionate about teaching and dedicated to helping others improve their lives?

7. Do you possess the knowledge, energy, and tenacity to lead your program to excellence?

8. Are you willing to take full responsibility for everything that happens, or doesn’t happen, in your program?

9. Do you understand that loyalty is a two-way street?

10. Are you entering the profession fully understanding the risks in coaching and knowing that you may be relieved of your job at any time?



-Taken from Coaching Team Basketball by Tom Crean and Ralph Pim

Don Meyers Defensive and Offensive Absolutes

One of my favorite coaches out there is Don Meyer.  I have a huge appreciation to his approach to basketball and living.  If you have ever listed to Coach Meyer talk, you know what I am refering to.  His attention to detail and his expectations of having good character is like no other. 

Coach Meyer also has a way of simplifying the game.  Today, I wanted to share with you his defensive and offensive absolutes.  Regardless of your style of play or philosophy to the game, we can all stress these principles. 

Defensive and Offensive Absolutes

Scouting

Scouting is an important part of game preparation. However, as coaches, we all go about scouting differently. Some coaches will travel to watch a team play and do a live scout. Other coaches will get game film and break down specific things they are looking for. Other coaches will email another coach asking for a scouting report. Regardless of your method for scouting or what it is you are looking for when you scout, scouting can give you insight on a particular opponent and help you plan practices accordingly.


Personally, I love to scout teams. Over the years, I have changed our scouting form to better fit our needs. When I go scout, I am less concerned about what types of sets or offenses they run, but more concerned about tendencies. For example:

1. Do they front the post?

2. Do they pressure or pack?

3. Do they tend to switch defenses after a time out?

4. How many players do they typically play?

As I mentioned above, it does not matter as much to me if the team runs a flex offense, DDM, or Princeton style offense. How are we going to appropriately simulate those types of offenses in practice? We couldn’t. Therefore, we try to keep a simple focus. For example, do their posts locate the ball in transition defense? This is important to us because our posts really run the floor hard and we would really want to exploit this situation.

I have included my scouting template. As you will see, it is very detailed. This is simply a coaching tool. The players do not see this as it would be information overload for them. They would get a much more condensed version focusing on a few game objectives and points of emphasis.

Scouting Template

4 High Blast Set

Here is a 1-4 High set play that will give your players a variety of different read options including hand-offs, high/low action, and ball screen.

4 High Blast

I Do Have Favorites

I came across an interesting resource called "I Do Have Favorites."  Not sure where it came from or who wrote it, but I found it rather interesting.  It kind of gives a different perspective on player accountability. 

I Do Have Favorites

New BLOG Contributor

I want to take a moment to introduce a new author, Tim Hansen, to the basketball BLOG.  Coach Hansen and I have been colleagues and friends for 10 years and he has been a tremendous resource for me.  He is true student of the game and has a wealth of knowledge to all aspects of coaching and teaching.  Coach Hansen and I routinely get together to talk hoops, which usually ends up in both of leaving with notes written down on the napkins of the restaurant we met at.  We are constantly challenging each other’s coaching philosophy which has made me a better coach.  I think you all will get a wealth of knowledge from Coach Hansen. 

Developing a Strong Feeder Program

I really believe that developing strong feeder programs is vital to the long term success of a basketball program. As with anything, there are a number of different philosophies and methodologies to successfully implementing a successful feed program. Today, I am simply going to discuss my philosophy to a successful feeder program. I won’t be talking about X’s and O’s as much as much as the philosophical elements of the program.


To me, the purpose of a feeder program is to provide an opportunity for youth players to develop program specific individual fundamental skills, program specific team skills, and to have competitive fun. Too often when I watch youth basketball games or go to youth basketball practices, I see an overwhelming emphasis on the end product, winning, rather than proper process of developing fundamental skills.

As a coach, I am not concerned with the number of games that the feeder programs win. Instead, it is more important that kids develop proper footwork, on the ball defense, help defense, spacing, cutting, ball sureness and so on. The development of these types of skills will actually provide more long term success down the road. Granted, both of these, the product and the process, can be achieved, but too often coaches lose sight of what they are there to do, which is improve fundamental skills and prepare the players for the next level of play. For example, I attended a youth basketball tournament a few weeks ago. A team I went to watch started out playing man defense, which I was pleased to see. However, it was not long until they began to have problems defending the cutting actions of the other team. Therefore, the coaches had the team sit in a pack 2-3 zone in order to defend the cutting actions. The really frustrating part, as a coach, was that the high school coaching staff had clearly explained the philosophy that they wanted taught, and nowhere in that discussion was zone defense talked about. Instead, winning became the primary goal. Granted, they ended up winning the game, but I feel that the process suffered along the way.

Another element that I think gets over looked is playing time and how teams are divided. I was talking with a good friend of mine and great coach from a rival school district. He was explaining to me how he was going to use a different approach to splitting up his teams. Traditionally, most teams will be divided by an A Team, which is made up of the top 10-12 players and then a B Team, which will be made up of the remaining players. However, he is taking his top 10-12 players, and is going to split them evenly between 3 teams. The same thing will be done for the other 3 teams. I thought that this was a great idea. If those top 12 players were all on the same team, how much development would players 7-12 get? Instead, these players will get more minutes in a totally different capacity when they are split up from the other top players. They will now have more responsibility in leadership. Furthermore, this will now open up more development opportunities for kids who don’t typically get a chance to start or be one of the top reserves off of the bench.

These are just a few of my thoughts regarding feeder programs. There is so much more that goes into a successful feeder program than what was touched on here, and there is more than one way successful way to run a feeder program. I like to win more than anybody, and it is something that we strive for extensively at the high school level. I just strongly believe that in feeder programs, the proper learning process, which might mean you lose some games, is more important than the number of games you win and ultimately, that process will get you more wins in the long run.

I highly recommend the following websites if you want to research some great ideas for youth basketball development.

1. Brian McCormick Basketball
2. Mike MacKay

Preparing for the 1st Game

As we all begin to develop practice plans for the upcoming season, there are always a certain amount of items that we need to get in before that first game. Granted, these items can vary from team-to-team, but there are some definite constants. I have generated a list of items that you can keep in mind when preparing for your first game.


Offense

1. Base man offense

2. Base zone offense

3. Primary break

4. Secondary break

5. The number of sets and/or quick hits (Man/Zone)

6. The number of BLOBS (Man/Zone)

7. The number of SLOBS (Man/Zone)

8. Man/Zone counters / reads

9. Delay game

10. End of game full court specials

11. End of game ¾ SLOB specials

12. End of game ½ SLOB specials

13. Dead corner SLOB specials

14. End of Game FT transition special

15. End of Game FT Miss, offensive rebound, and put back

16. Jump Ball Tip (offensive / defensive)

17. End of game rebounding

18. Come back game approach (when to start shooting 3’s to make a comeback, quick 2’s)

19. Approach to a Triangle-2, Box-1

Defensive

1. Base defense

2. Complimentary defense (man, zone, match-up, junk)

3. Press defense

4. Trapping / stunting schemes

5. Defending off ball screens (narrow pins, wide pins, double staggered, doubles, cross, back screens, flex, shuffle, away…)

6. Defending ball screens (flat, wing, points, corner, staggered, double, hand-backs, drag…)

7. Delay defense

8. Defending with the lead

9. When / how to foul?

10. Pick up points

11. Verbals

12. BLOB defense

13. End of game rebounding

14. End of game foul court defense situations (lead/behind)

15. End of game ¾ SLOB defense situations (lead/behind)

16. End of game half court SLOB defense situations (lead/behind)

17. Post defense (front, 3/4, full front)

This is just a generic list and a lot of it depends on your philosophy to the game. The important thing is to plan with your coaches and figure out in detail what it is that you MUST have in for the first game. It is our job as coaches to do the planning and preparation to equip our players with the skills they need to succeed.  I have attached a planning resource that you use to input your items in an organized manner.  Hope it helps you prepare for that first game.

1st Game Checklist