Coaching basketball is a skill and an art. These coaching basketball essentials are culled straight from a presentation Bob Knight gave. Bob Knight is one heck of a basketball coach, and he’s fun to listen to! He just tells it how it is and doesn’t sugar coat. He’s also an excellent speaker as you’ll soon see if you watch the video below.
In this video entitled “Bob Knight’s Essentials of Coaching Basketball” Coach Knight discusses a couple of topics. First topic is “coaching in a way that your players become better” and the second is on letting your players make as many decisions as possible.
Practice Timeouts
It starts with the following suggestion. Try running a timeout in practice, and then immediately afterwards, rather than running the play you discussed, or the strategy or whatever… instead have each player write down what you said on a 3×5 notecard. What you learn and see on paper will be what you already know from experiencing it in a game. Knight jokes that you’ll find out how dumb your players are – but he really means they don’t listen when it’s important or, more likely, they don’t really know how. I would add that you should make sure that you should share the results with the team. Let them know how badly they absorbed. Most coaches don’t necessarily train their players on how to listen and focus in timeouts.
So, that’s the first of our coaching basketball essentials. Practice timeouts and communication within the timeouts. Practice your own communication and your players listening. Keep in mind, it might actually be the coach that is not communicating very well. Be intentional about becoming an excellent communicator in short bursts. Work on it on your own, and use these practice timeouts to find your own weaknesses as well.
Decisions that Don’t Matter should be left to the Players
Coach Knight also recommended something I’ve also found in either Dan Blanks or Anson Dorrance (Dan and Anson are high achievers and the soccer coaching world). In either case, the concept is, that if you don’t have a preference about a particular thing – then let the players make the decision. This goes a long way towards getting buy in (it’s our team) and towards accountability. His example was around setting times for weekend practices. He never sets the time – he lets the players choose the time. You can hold them extra accountable if not on time. They picked the time! It’s really as simple as that. If you don’t care – let them choose! You can set boundaries or give multiple choices, but then let them choose.
I’ve been able to use the “let them decide” method in practices to great success by simply having a list of 3 to 5 things it would help us to work on. I know we only have time to give a couple of topics the amount of work that is needed so I give them the list and then say “you girls choose the 2 or 3 you want to focus on today”. They choose and then it’s get to work time.
It’s amazing how much more uptake there is when they pick the work. “WE DECIDED” to do this thing means “WE UNDERSTAND” it is valuable. Now they’re more receptive to being corrected or focusing on being more detailed (more coachable) because they chose to work on it. Now their perception has changed. Instead of someone dictating to them, I’m just helping them improve at what they said they wanted to get better at.
Coaching Basketball Essentials Wrap Up
So there you have it. When coaching practice timeout communication and let your players make decisions about things that don’t matter to you! Players, practicing timeouts means focusing on concentrating and knowing what is being asked of you when play resumes. For coaches that means clear, concise communication. Be sure to have your players make as many decisions as possible. The more decisions they make on a regular basis the more of a partnership it will become. You’ll be surprised about how many ‘pointless decision questions’ you no longer get asked to make when they understand they can just do it themselves. As they make more and more decisions they’ll get better at it as a team – and that will make them a better team.
Be sure to check out more articles from us about coaching basketball essentials to improve in various areas of your coaching. Best of luck in your seasons, now and future.
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