PLAYER DEVELOPMENT

A basic checklist of what is important for your team to be aware of as they go into the season, dependant on their age group and skill level. 

All focus can’t just be on game and all cannot just be skills, even in the older age groups where we fall more into game situational and structure in our sessions we still need to make sure we are working hard to improve the players as individuals.

For many, the impact you have on your players especially in younger age groups is massively influential. Away from the basketball court, check back with your players in 20 years to see what kind of people they are, that will be an assessment of yourself as a coach, not your win/loss record.

Be aware what’ going on in their lives outside of basketball, this will not only improve your relationship with them, but they will also work harder for you then someone who just screams at them twice a week
NO ONE WILL CARE HOW MUCH YOU KNOW, UNTILL THEY KNOW HOW MUCH YOU CARE

There is nothing wrong with having structure in young age groups. However, young players need to be taught how to make decisions based on what the defence does.
For example, if we go and teach an under 12 team an offence that we walkthrough at training and learn and then we get to the game and the other team switches every screen and we have not taught how to counteract that we will be in trouble.
INSTEAD OF TEACHING PLAYS, TEACH THEM HOW TO PLAY.
It is never a bad idea from a development perspective to throw in a few things inparticular that force your kids to get smarter and make decisions in your offence

 How to make a decision of an on ball screen
 How to make a decision of a dribble handoff
 How to make a read of a basket cut/back cut

Within structure teach players
 What to do when the defence switches
 What to do if we cannot catch the ball at the point we are supposed to
 What to do if we are double teamed etc

On ball screens are being seen more in more in junior basketball. It is important that your team is aware of what they are going to do when they are hit with an on ball screen so that there is no confusion. This will depend on the skill, speed and size of your team, AND WHAT THE OTHER TEAM IS LIKE. Each way has its own positives and negatives; I am a firm believer that on ball screens are things that need to be consistently practiced We can.
 Blitz (trap) a screen
Double teaming the ball carrier off the screen and having the defenders of the ball ump further towards the ball and especially the player setting the screen. Can be effective with SMALL TEAMS, but risks the ball getting to the man rolling to the basket if not properly executed.
 Ice, force the ball towards the baseline of the court
Have the man guarding the ball completely turn his back to the screener forcing the man with the ball to go to the baseline and not the middle of the court, Can be effective when the other teams has a great roll to the basket player and middle penetration drivers as the ball is being forced to the outside of the court and if executed properly will only be giving up long 2 point shots.
 Switch
Simply switching players, can be effective if your team is fairly mobile across the board, However it does leave you open to miss matches, players guarding players too fast, big for
them.
 Show and recover (under)
Having the player guarding the screener step up and “stunt” the man with the ball to hold him up for long enough so that the man who was guarding the ball that was hit by the
screen can get back to his man. Not ideal if the player guarding the screener who is required to step up on the ball is too slow on there feet and gets blown by.

Extra point plays in basketball are
 Free throws
Winning the foul count each half, fouling the least and drawing the most fouls. More trips to the free throw line for your team, and less chance of giving the other team free throws or
having your players foul out at the end of the game.
 Offensive rebounds
Defensively only giving teams 1 shot per possession and giving your team as many chances to score as possible on the offensive end
 3 point shots
Not meaning jacking up the most 3’s in the competition, but not allowing wide open 3’s, force long 2’s and contested shots.
 Fast breaks
While playing under control, getting the easy baskets up the court, defensively not giving up easy layups down the court. Trying your best to train your team up to dominate these areas on offense and defence can give and save you a lot of points.

As said above, no allowing easy fast break points down the court. Also on the kangas website is a document in the coaches’ booklet on transition defence.

You can have the best half court offense in the world, and be a great defensive team, but if you don’t have set structure to be able to beat a full court and half court press it can make it a real struggle. Plus you will be giving the other team plenty of easy points.

A way of scoring as many cheap points as possible is to have set baseline and end line plays your team can run without a timeout having to be called. Can really add up at the end of the game and save you a potential game winning timeout.

All players can’t be given feedback in the same way, and doing this is NOT unfair towards specific players.

If we have player A who has made repeated mistakes and is aware of his mistakes and is more towards a shy player who is lacking in confidence, a “sandwich” method of feedback is more ideal. Positive, what you can do next time, another positive and high five. If we have player B who is a more arrogant or confident type player and they have made mistakes due to laziness, it is likely a small push in the right direction will not motivate that player to improve. In my opinion that is when it is more appropriate to be fair, however slightly more critical of player B as a small show of force will not hurt that players confidence and a pat on the back won’t be taken seriously by that player. This is not an unfair principle, as we are teaching in different ways to get the best out of each individual player.

Links to external coaching resources

We often receive coaching tips and resources which we’d like to share with you.  If you find anything that you believe will be helpful to others, please send us the link to share

Paul Flynn, the Operations Manager at Nunawading Stadium, has sent us the following links:

Developing Post Players: http://team.fastmodelsports.com/2015/09/01/developing-post-players/

Blake Griffin article on improving shooting: http://www.theplayerstribune.com/why-aint-he-dunkin/