Basketball Strategies – September 2010

HoopTactics Newsletter

Successful Pre-season Planning
Effective Play Diagraming
One-on-One Defensive Fundamentals

Coaching Strategies – Pre-Season Organization

Pre-season is the time of the year that coaches love. It is the time of the season for teaching and preparation. The things coaches enjoy doing the most.

“Coaches want to practice, practice, practice,
Players want to play, play, play,
Parents & Boosters want to win, win, win
And officials want to quit, quit, quit.”

Tom Newell, Coaches Who Care

Pre-season preparation and organization entails planting the seeds for a highly successful season. This involves careful  thought and planning. Pre-seaon practices should be designed with the objective of preparing a team physically, technically, and mentally for game competition. It is imperative to start building correct habits and techniques from the start. Physical habits do not change in a game. Learn more about  Coaching Prerequisites & Practice Guidelines:

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Effective Use of Play Diagraming

Basketball play diagrams are the universal language of basketball coaches throughout the world. In fact, you can find basketball graffiti (play diagrams) on clipboards, whiteboards, napkins, gym floors, pieces of scratch paper, or just about anything coaches can write on.

Play diagrams can be a very effecty visual learning  tool, even during a game such as a timeout  However, do NOT assume that all of your players know how to read and interpret basketball play diagrams. 

To some players, play diagrams may look like hieroglyphics or may be difficult to comprehend. Therefore, make sure that all of your players know how to interpret and understand your play diagrams. By using a system of a few basic symbols will make it easy for even a novice to understand even the most complex play action.

Learn More About Play Diagramming – Click Here

Free Printable (USA, NBA & FIBA) Court Diagrams. Choose from 33 different styles: Full court (12), half courts (15) and combinations (6 ).  – Click Here

 One-on-One Defense: Building Attitude as Well as Aptitude

Mastering man-to-man pressure does require “over and above” time, energy and all out commitment to tough, hard-nosed effort. However, the rewards are real and immediate and a worthy sacrifice for all the sweat and effort invested. The need for drill and practice is not new.  There is no minimizing the fact that drills are methodical, repetitive and often demanding. Skillful execution of skills and second nature response to any given game situation cannot be achieved in any other way.

However, if drills and learning are approached with enthusiasm and intensity and are reinforced by consistent, positive encouragement and feedback, tedium gives way to tenacity! Pride in becoming a defensive “Stopper” and holding the individual opponent below their average scoring level can become as important a individual scoring stats. Such a defensive climate is no accident, but is the result of conscious and concentrated effort to communicate the importance of defensive dimension of the game. If you thrive on such a challenge, then pressure defense will actually be fun not work!  

Learn more about defending the player with the ball one-on-one.

SOS Defense: One-on-One “On Ball” Pressure – Click Here

Player Development: Pressuring the Player with the ball
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