What I Learned From Coach T.J. Rosene’s First Practice

Just a couple of days ago, I had the fortune of watching Coach TJ Rosene’s first practice for the 2016-2017 season.   Coach Rosene is the head men’s coach of the Emmanuel College Lions basketball team. Not everyone may be familiar with Coach Rosene, but his teams through the years have been featured on Better […]

Year-End Evaluation

As 2016 winds down, here is a powerful exercise to do with your team… Have each player and coach answer the following 3 questions anonymously on index cards. Have them fill one out for every player and coach on the team (so if you have 14 players and 4 coaches, each person will complete 17 […]

22 Tips to Coach Today’s Players

Players today are different from they were when I was growing up… and I’m not even that old. I know every generation says that… but it’s true. One of the biggest changes to our society as a whole has been technology… more specifically the internet… and even more specifically… mobile smartphones and social media. What […]

Tiny Tweaks Lead to Big Changes

It is well-known and commonly used as motivation that it only takes a one degree change to turn water into ice and similarly water into steam. This same concept should be considered in coaching, especially this time of year. Whether your team is having a record season or under-performing, a coach must continue to look for meaningful adjustments […]

Leaving a Legacy

Do you know what you want your coaching legacy to be? The fact is you will leave a legacy when you stop coaching. The only question is: what will that legacy be? Don’t wait until it’s too late to decide what kind of legacy you want to leave. These 3 sets of 3 questions will […]

End of Quarter Offensive Management

Game management is a vital piece of your coaching philosophy that your players should all know and rehearse in practice throughout the entire season. Knowing the time and score and how to handle these situations can and usually will determine how your season ends on the court. Today we are going to focus on an […]

Playoff Preparation

The Playoffs are a destination that every coach and player wishes to reach at the conclusion of the regular season. Once you get to this point, no matter how good your team is, they will only go as far as their bodies and minds will take them. Athletes, especially at the high school level are extremely fragile. […]

Skills without Drills – Part 7

Players: You want to bring something to the game – bring something to your team that can immediately affect the outcome of the game, but you don’t time to acquire a new skill like shooting, or point-guard-dribbling-abilities, or ten more pounds of muscle. These things take time – usually off-season time. What can you bring […]

Five Ways to Become the “Go-To” Coach on your Staff

Every coach on a staff has a role (sometimes more than one), but the key to a successful staff is the presence is a “go-to” coach. This is not the coach who everyone dumps work on, but rather the coach everyone looks to in times of adversity. The coach everyone knows they can count on […]

Skills without Drills – Part 6

Here’s the situation: Season has begun and you find yourself wanting to bring something to your team that can immediately affect the outcome of the game. But you don’t time to acquire a new skill like shooting, or point-guard-dribbling-abilities, or ten more pounds of muscle. (Those kind of things take time – usually off-season time.) […]