MAKE AN INVENTORY "PUT IN" CHART

The start of the season is still weeks away.  Coaches have all kinds of ideas for their offense, defense, and special teams.  Some of the things that the players will be taught will be a repeat from previous years, but chances are there are some new wrinkles added to the team's X and O inventory.  Regardless if something is new or old to the players TIME will be needed to implement it into your team's arsenal before the first game of the season.

How do you know when to put everything in?  The answer to that is to create an INVENTORY PUT-IN CHART.  This chart is a pacing guide for you as you map out the start of your season.  Coaches must have a plan well in advance to figure out when to put in each of their X's and O's.  You can't fly by the seat of your pants and do things on a whim as you start your season...plan it out!

What is an Inventory Put-In Chart?  What you need to do is create a calendar that starts with your first day of practice through your first game of the season.  On another piece of paper you will need to write down all the of the X's, O's, and special teams you need to have in before the first game of the season.

Prioritize.  You need to decide which is the most important for your team to focus on before the first game.  This will become your top priority and you will want to make sure that is put in first.  Continue from there through each practice leading up to your first game.  You can't do it all early in the season.  Coaches must realize that you don't need to have every single set play, BLOB, SLOB, or defense in prior to your first game.  Start small and work your way up to adding more as the season progresses.

One thing to consider is to add one or two new things a day for the first few weeks.  Doing this will allow you to focus part of your practice in implementing X's and O's, while using the remainder of your practice to review X's and O's already put in and skill work.  If you decide to spend an entire practice implementing a bunch of different X's and O's you are wasting time.  The result of doing this would be too much standing around by the players as they listen to the coach talk, and an overload of information for the players.

Below is an example of a two week "Put-In" chart.  Listed are only the new things being put in.  Obviously you will be reviewing others X's and O's you have already put in throughout the two weeks leading up to the first game.

Nov. 12                Nov. 13                    Nov. 14                   Nov. 15                     Nov. 16
5 Defense            Transition O            Wildcat Zone O       Set Play 4 vs Zone    121 Press
Flex Offense       Press O                     55 Defense                                                BLOB 1
                            Set Play 1 vs Man

Nov. 19                     Nov. 20              Nov. 21                          Nov. 22              Nov. 23

Set Play 2 vs Man    BLOB 3             Set Play 5 vs Zone         Jump Ball          SLOB 1
BLOB 2                   121 Soft Press    Full Court :04 seconds  Free Throw D    Pre-Game
                                                                                                                             BLOB 3

Nov. 26                       Nov. 27
SLOB 2                      GAME #1
Set Play 3 vs Man

COACHES SHARE RESPONSES: WHAT CHANGES ARE YOU MAKING THIS YEAR?

"Thanks" goes out to the coaches who responded to this week's Coaches Share.  Your input helps us all.  All coaches are invited to help with the share each week.

This week's Coaches Share question:  Coaches are always making changes with their teams/programs during the off-season; some big, some small.  Some changes are philosophical, some relate to practice, and some with X's and O's.  Which changes are you most excited about with your team/program for this season?

"I am mostly excited about the new roster we will have this year."
~Coach Roberts

"We made a program-wide decision to make some changes to our man-to-man defense.  We are now going to be more of a pressure team in the passing lanes.  We had been more of a gap control team, and it worked fine for us.  But we are going to take more of an aggressive philosophy in hopes of creating more turnovers.  We need to speed up the game."
~Coach R.T. (TN)

"We are going to be making an effort to shoot more in our practices.  Trying to incorporate as much shooting with drills that have other focuses to it.  Our biggest question mark coming into the season is our ability to score so hopefully this will help."
~Coach Mark T. (TX)

"Our coaching staff added another coach.  I am very excited at the options we will now have with having another coach in the gym."
~Coach Lori

"The biggest changes we are making this year are with our side out of bounds plays.  We have a series of them we are going to use that will give us more quick scoring options."
~Coach B (IL)

COACHES SHARE: WHAT CHANGES ARE YOU MAKING THIS YEAR?

We would enjoy hearing from you.  Saturday Coaches Share is a way for YOU to help other coaches.  Each Saturday this blog gives you an opportunity to comment on a different basketball related topic so our readers can learn from your opinions, philosophies, and experiences.

If you are interested in commenting on this week's Saturday Coaches Share all you have to do is email your response to dietelgreg@gmail.com before 8:00 AM (CST) Sunday, September 23.  Then look for your response to be posted on Sunday's blog.

Today's Coaches Share question:  Coaches are always making changes with their teams/programs during the off-season; some big, some small.  Some changes are philosophical, some relate to practice, and some with X's and O's.  Which changes are you most excited about with your team/program for this season?

Remember coaches learn from each other.  Share your thoughts on today's question and see it in Sunday's blog post. 

SUPERHERO RIP THROUGH DRILL

Superhero Rip Through Drill is an offensive drill only.  Defense will be asked to do things that you wouldn't normally teach, but it is necessary for them to do it in this drill to teach an aggressive rip through.

1 starts with the ball at the top of the key.  2 starts in the corner.  They are offense.  X is the defense and starts on the wing, just inside the three point line.


2 will cut to the wing where X is located.  1 passes to 2.  On the catch X will attempt to grab and steal the ball from 2.  Be physical, and foul without being too grossly aggressive.  X will NOT stay with the offensive player in the drill.

On the catch 2 will immediately inside pivot as this will keep the ball away from the defense.  They will execute a proper rip through and attack the basket and score.  X does not guard them once the rip through takes place.  Make sure to do this drill from both wings.

Drill Variation
*Have a coach stand at the basket with a football pad and bump the offensive player as they attempt to score.

4 EASY TECHNIQUES ON HOW TO GET YOUR PLAYERS TO "WANT" TO PLAY HARD

Have you ever wondered what you have to do to get your players to "want" to play hard for you as a coach?  Here are four easy techniques to use that can help develop a connection with your players that could lead to a stronger desire to play hard.

1. Use a player's name out loud when they are getting praise.  Use their name in a smaller voice when you are pointing out a mistake.  People naturally give you their attention when they hear their name.  If players hear their name loudly when it is connected to positives it can inspire them to continue to do the right things.  You are at risk of having them go in a shell if you constantly have them them hear their own name with negatives connected to it.  There is a time and place for harsh tones, but pick and choose those times instead of doing it often, and it will have more of an impact.    names + a positive = desire to succeed.
2. Expectations should be set for players and the entire team.  Letting your players and team know what is expected for each drill helps them understand what is to be done.  Be clear in the expectations you give and you will see your players play quicker and stronger because they know exactly what is to be done.  Spending an extra minute before a drill explaining the expectations might save you more time in correcting during the drill.
3. Learn from mistakes and losses.  Nobody likes mistakes.  Nobody likes to lose.  Coaches have to realize that there are teaching moments after mistakes have been made or after you have experienced a loss.  Take time to teach so the possibility of it happening again is less than before.  This may require the coach to take a moment, step back, take a breath, and think about why it happened.  Analyze it quickly and then speak.  A loss is only a bad thing if you don't learn from it.  Your players will see that you aren't reacting out of anger and will work hard for you as a result. 
4. Let your players know you appreciate them.  Take a quick moment to let your team, a player, or a group of players know you appreciate something about them.  Point out something to them that might be something different than their basketball abilities.  Let them know you notice they are a good teammate.  Let them know you saw them try to pick up a teammate that may be having a bad day.  You have to see your players as people too, not just basketball players.

FULL COURT CATCH UP DRILL

Full Court Catch Up Drill is a 1-on-1 transition defense drill.  The drill puts 
defense at a disadvantage to start and forces them to give maximum effort to
prevent the offense from getting to the other end of the court without having a defender in front of them.  The goal of the defender is to get in between the dribbler and the basket.

1 and 2 are on offense.  X's are defense.  The X's each start on the block,
right in front of the offensive player, and facing the baseline.  Coach stands in the lane with a ball in each hand.  To start the drill Coach will pass a ball to 1, then wait for a count of 2 and pass the other ball to 2.

As soon as 1 and 2 catch the ball they will start their speed dribble down the court.  The defense starts when they see the person they are defending catches the ball.  When their person catches the ball they will sprint to touch the baseline in front of them (which will only be a step or two away) and then sprint down court to get ahead of the person they are defending.  Once they get in front of the dribbler they will try to force them to change directions with the dribble as many times as they can.  When the offensive player gets to the opposite baseline the rep is over.



COACHING POINTS
*Focus on the plant foot when the defender touches the baseline to turn and sprint back on defense.
*The defender should get their entire body in front of the dribbler and square up on them.

DRILL VARIATIONS
*You can make the drill a contest by seeing which player can get totally in front of the ballhandler furthest in the back court.  Make that the standard for the rest of the team the next time you do the drill.
*Split your team into two groups.  Keep track of how many times each group makes the offense turn throughout the entire drill.  The team that makes the dribblers turn the most, wins.

COACHES SHARE RESPONSE: WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY IS IT?

Thank you to the coaches that took the time to share their thoughts with other coaches.  Check back again next week and your thoughts will be welcomed on our next topic.

Coaches Share question:  Let's say Team X has a reasonably comfortable lead in the second half of a game.  The coach of the team with the lead substitutes players into the game that have not played yet.  Do you feel the team with the lead should hold the ball a little bit before looking to score so it doesn't appear they are running up the score?  Or do these players deserve to play the game like the players in the regular rotation get to play?  SIDE NOTE:  Let's assume the team with the lead is not a full court pressing team for the sake of the discussion.

"Team X is doing the right thing by putting players into the game whom have not yet played, you cant tell players who work just as hard in practice as the starters to just pass the ball around, they deserve to be able to showcase there skills and prove to there coach they deserve more playing time with the regulars and this is a way of doing that."
 ~Coach Ken Lessig/Head Coach Northgate HS/Womens Basketball

"I feel the only thing that should be be held in check is any type of full court pressure or trapping.  Other than that your substitutes should be allowed to play the game the same way as the team's philosophy.  I don't think a team, substitutes or not, should ever have to change their style of play no matter what the size of the lead or the time left in the game (except for full court pressure or trapping)."
~Coach B (High School Boys Coach from IL) 

"All of the coaches I've ever worked with say "do what you do". I think you should out in your backups but if they are running the offense and scoring then there isn't much you can do. We had an example of that this past year. We were up big on a team. And jumped out of our half court trap. A big percentage of our offense comes from that defense. We went back into our match up zone. While the other team picked up offensively, we failed to score in the 4th quarter. I bothered our head coach until our next game. He spent the next few days telling me, "do what you do". And what we did was our half court trap."
~Coach K.T.

"I don't think the leading team should change their game plan at all. The substitutes wouldn't want to be treated any different from the starters. In fact, the players might regard it as a little disrespectful to slow the ball down and 'take it easy on them'. The substitutes need to get use to the real game if they won't to improve to that level."
~Coach Mac. http://www.basketballforcoaches.com

"You let the subs play - they deserve the opportunity to get out there and show what they can do - lead or not."
~Coach John Carrier (MN)

"The coach of the team ahead has to be careful because I've been at this long enough to know that what goes around, comes around. I do feel every single player on the roster has the right to play the way the coach expects.  Each player deserves that.  But there is a point where you don't want to cross that line and look like you're trying to run up the score."
~Coach B.W.