As the calendar turns over, basketball coaches begin conference play, and hope to have the answer to how their team can win. Through the experiences gained from October to December, most teams have had an opportunity to be challenged, learn from adversity, and establish an identity. Below are three questions that you had better know the answer to, if you want a chance to win your league:
✔ What does your team do better than anyone else in your league?
✔ What is your team’s biggest weakness, and how can you help your team overcome it?
✔ Do your players know and accept their roles?
These three questions are guiding thoughts, which will give your team a chance to play their best basketball. We hope this helps your coaching staff evaluate where your team is at, as you prepare for the most important stretch of the season.
You can follow Dynamic Coaching Tools on Twitter at @DynamicCoaches
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DCT Podcast – Episode 1 – Doug Brotherton
Episode 1 of the Dynamic Coaching Tools Podcast is an introduction to what listeners can expect from future episodes.
Take a listen and find us on Social Media, YouTube, and visit our website.
If you have any questions, or suggestions, please contact us at:
INFO@DynamicCoachingTools.com
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ARTICLE: Treadmill Mentality
NBA rookie, Javon Carter, wrote a letter to the City of Memphis. There were a lot of great takeaways from players, and some interesting insights into the program at West Virginia. Here are some of the things that stood out to me.
“See, it was like this at West Virginia: The only thing that mattered to Coach was that we played harder, every single play, than the other team.”
“Coach’s whole philosophy was about maintaining focus, minimizing mistakes and working hard. He wanted to make sure that no matter who we were up against, we were not going to be the first ones to get tired.”
“I remember when he first scouted me at an AAU game my senior year of high school. It was an 8 a.m. game. I wasn’t being recruited by that many D-I schools, even by my senior year. I remember that after the game he told me he liked me because the other guys on the court looked sluggish — but not me. He told me that he thought I was quicker than people gave me credit for, and that he was impressed that I got my hands on a lot of balls. I had been the top scorer in the game, but he didn’t talk about that at all.
No coach had ever talked to me about deflections. Huggins was different. I liked him right away. And when he gave me an opportunity, I jumped at it. That was all I needed.”
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE
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End of Season Tools: AAR
As teams finish their season, we want to help provide some valuable tools, which will launch your program into next season. One of the hardest things for coaches to do, is to turn off their competitive spirit, drop the ego, and effectively self-evaluate. We found a great tool, which is pulled from the book, “The Culture Code,” by Daniel Coyle. An After Action Review (AAR) is used by the U.S. Army to deliver feedback after unit training exercises. The purpose of the AAR is to identify issues, find areas for improvement, and obtain lessons learned. So, how does this relate to your team? The answer to this, is found in the questions associated with the AAR. Take a look at the questions below, and think about your basketball season.
After Action Review Questions
What were our intended results?
What were our actual results?
What caused our results?
What will do we do the same next time?
What will we do differently?We recommend that you follow this process, in using the AAR questions to evaluate your season.
- If you are the Head Coach, answer these questions by yourself. Do not share your answers with anyone else, but make sure to keep a copy.
- Get your coaching staff together, and have them work together to answer the questions. Have someone document their answers, so you can use them later.
- Have your players work together to answer the AAR questions. This should happen without guidance from the coaches. Simply give them the questions, and let them document their responses. These are group responses, not individual responses from each player.
At the end of these After Action Reviews, the Head Coach has a nice collection of information, which can be used to begin productively planning for next season.
The AAR will provide you with the WHYs, which can lead to the HOWs, and this information will help you effectively plan for next season’s success.