6 Areas to Know and Articulate
Why do we spend so much time selling what we want from our players to the players and their parents?! Here is a common conversation many coaches go through on a yearly basis: When I total the number of hours and days of basketball that I’ve played in, coached in, practice planned, conducted practices, it adds […]
Game Day with Alan Stein
I am thankful to be a part of one of the most storied high school basketball programs of all-time. If you aren’t familiar with DeMatha Catholic High School’s basketball program – please Google it. I am honored to receive hundreds of emails, Tweets and Facebook messages each month from coaches around the world asking questions […]
Step 3 to Maximizing Your Team’s Performance Under Pressure
In case you missed Step 1 or Step 2 from Mental Training Coach Spencer Wood, make sure you click over and read both before finishing Step 3. Step 3. Practice and Prepare It has been said that “sometimes things don’t go according to plan because that plan didn’t exist in the first place.” Consistently performing well under pressure […]
Look in the Mirror – Part 1
It’s the 1st week of February. Have you stuck with the New Year’s resolutions you so confidently set for yourself about a month ago? If you are being honest with yourself, you probably haven’t. Statistics show most folks begin to fade off course by the 3rd week of January. While I love the enthusiasm and optimism that surrounds them, I never […]
Fouling Too Much?
The following comes from Coach Randy Brown. If you are a team that is sending your opponent to the free-throw line too many times in the game, it is time to find out why. For example, if your team has committed 290 fouls and 95 steals on the season, how many fouls were committed by “trying […]
WE is Greater than Me
A basketball coach’s most difficult job is getting 15 individuals to fully acknowledge and embrace this fundamental concept: This is not an easy task. Human beings are inherently selfish. We are programmed at a very early age to always look out for #1. Trust me, I have 3 children under the age of 4 years […]
5 Team Building Exercises
The following article comes from Jon Gordon. Positive, high performing teams don’t happen by accident. They are built, cultivated and developed through great communication, shared experiences, positive interactions, common challenges, and vulnerable story telling that connect people at a deeper level. Having worked with many business and sports teams I’ve witnessed firsthand what many great […]
Finish Strong
What does finishing strong mean in the game of basketball? To me, finishing strong applies to 3 distinct aspects of the game: Finishing around the basket Finishing the end of a game Finishing the end of the season (Playoffs) Finishing, in all three cases, has more to do with mental toughness than anything else. How […]
Losing Your Best Player
READ: LOSING YOUR BEST PLAYER REACTION: THE TEAM BEGINS TO WIN The example I’m pulling from is a team that was in their third year of running the Read & React. This team’s leading scorer, leading 3-point shooter, and 5th leading scorer in their conference goes down for the season with an injury. The injured […]
Creating Successfull Feeder Systems for your Program
A common complaint I hear from numerous high school coaches is that when their Freshman class arrives on campus in the Fall, they are not very skilled on the basics of basketball. (Check out my post, 5 Tips to Coaching Youth Basketball, geared towards players 10 and under.) Because high school coaches have their own offensive and defensive philosophies, […]