coaching

What Makes a Successful Coach?
The basketball coach needs to be a true student of the game. To become successful as a basketball coach you must first develop a basketball coaching philosophy.

Obviously you’re not going to wake up tomorrow with the perfect basketball coaching philosophy. This is something that takes years to develop. But the good news is that you’ve already started.

That’s right; from the moment you first picked up a basketball you started your journey to discovering your basketball coaching philosophy. Your own experiences as a player, observer and lover of the game, will allow you to develop your own philosophy, just as the great coaches previously mentioned developed theirs.

Your basketball coaching philosophy separates you from every other coach. It becomes your roadmap to success and it’s something that continues to grow and mature as you learn more and more about the game.

At least in the beginning, I highly recommend studying the philosophies of proven coaches. Read their books and attend coaching clinBasketball Coaching Philosophy
So, what is philosophy anyway?

Once you combine all your experiences as a player, observer, student, and your own personality, you have the beginnings of a coaching philosophy.

Simply developing a coaching philosophy doesn't gaurantee success. How you implement your philosophy is equally important.

You should start off by selecting the offenses and defenses you plan to use during the season and break the offense and defense down into fundamental drills and procedures to use in your practices.

As the coach, you must make practices fun and effective. When practices become boring, and monotonous, players lose interest and focus.

You can do this by implementing a wide variety of quality drills and plays
ics to broaden your knowledge
What’s your priority? Is it to develop your athletes as people, or simply basketball players? It's OK to adopt ideas from others, but if you try to be someone you're not, your players will catch on right away and you will lose your effectiveness as a coach.

The core of your coaching philosophy has to lie in the fundamentals of the game. When teaching the fundamentals, you must stress perfection. These should be repeated so often they become instinctive in game situations.

Balance, Balance, Balance. These three principles are the key to any offensive philosophy. Basketball is a team sport by definition. Everyone has a role to play, and it is your responsibility as the coach to put the players in the right positions on the court.

You must allow your players to take advantage of their individual skills and talents. However, you must make certain it conforms to the overall team effort. After all, welfare of the team comes first.

You must also maintain good team chemistry, and get the players up for every game. Your goal should be to try to get the best out of each player and have a true understanding of each individual player’s needs and wants.

It is very important that you use caution in dealing with disciplinary measures. This is not to say that you turn a blind eye. You need to deal with such problems, and stay on top of any situation that might cause team friction. At the first sign of conflict between players, they should be called in to talk it over. All such problems can usually be settled if they are not allowed to fester.

Be constructive with your criticism. When players make mistakes, don’t jump on them right away. Make at least one positive comment with your criticism. Your players should understand that a coach wouldn't waste his breath if he didn’t like you.

Your relationship with your players is of the utmost importance. One-on-one conferences with each player before, during, and after the season are definitely worthwhile. Use these conferences to discuss their approach to the game, basketball progress, weaknesses, shortcomings, health, studies, outside problems, the player's contributions to the team, and other personal situations.

Developing your basketball coaching philosophy is with out a doubt a difficult task to say the least. However, with the guidelines and resources presented, you now have a working knowledge of what it takes to construct your very own basketball coaching philosophy. With this new philosophy in hand, coaching basketball will never be the same