SB COaching Resources

Old Man In The Gym (pdf book on player development)

1. Have great basket-area vision. Always look under the net when you have the ball. Consider it the Tiny Archibald rule or, as Point Guard College would say, “Touch leather, peek iron”

2. Follow the LAW. Stay low and wide with the ball — a stance so strong you can’t be pushed over. Chinning the ball (holding it with two hands and bringing it chin-level) to get elbows out. This will eliminate half of a youth team’s turnovers.

3. No rainbow passes. Rainbow passes are soft and vulnerable to a steal. We teach to throw a pass like a frozen rope. I also call them “maybe passes,” because it seems both the passer, receiver, coach and the ball itself are unsure whether the ball is going to get where it needs to go. And those high-arching passes? Remember, there is no gold at the end of the rainbow.

4. Have great shot selection. A good shot is a shot you would bet $20 on making. The motivation of getting what we call “the green light” takes extra work that helps build grit and perseverance. Further, I believe that focusing on becoming a better shooter is a great life lesson. While hard at first, shot selection is perhaps the single most important skill we stress.

5. Watching the paint dry. Failure to move without the ball is a violation.

6. Weak hand/weak excuse. Failure to use the weak hand on a drive that calls for it.

7. Head on a swivel. Turning the head away from the ball is a violation. If they don’t see both the man and the ball, they’re making a mistake.

8. No barnyard dribbles. If you dribbled a basketball in a barnyard, the ball wouldn’t bounce back to your hand once you pushed it to the ground. Barnyard dribbles are dribbles that take you nowhere. They slow down the ball and let the defense get set. They also put the dribbler into a dead position, making them unable to drive or move with the ball. This allows the defense to deny the ball. Barnyard or drop dribbles kill the momentum and, quite possibly, the game.

9. Protect the basket on defense — no layups. Being unselfish on defense is hard, but it’s a valued skill. If you don’t protect the basket, you will give up layups. And giving up layups leads to defeat. The player who’s protecting the basket is key. They can see the whole defense, and they must talk and anticipate.

10. D-LAW — You must be in a stance. There is no reason to ever be out of a wide stance. Don Meyer did his Ph.D paper on the characteristics of the best defensive teams in the history of basketball. He found that they played defense in a stance. The Old Man in the Gym feels youth coaches should first teach players to comprehend the value of being in a stance before they learn positions.

11. Noises on; don’t be quiet. Players talking on defense is key. Learning to call screens and communication must happen. College coaches want players who talk. Plus, a quiet gym is a loser’s gym. Players must talk, or it is a violation.

12. Practice COPS (Cut Off Pressure, Pursue, Secure). Players must look to make contact on all shots. We also have competitions where we use rebounds as a currency. Rebounding should be stressed with young players.

13. Practice second-step cutoffs, and be the second jumper of defense. Teach players to keep the ball in front of them when defending the ball, and you’ll make their future coaches happy. Avoiding the drop step and straight-line drive is a varsity-desired trait of a great player. Playing 1-on-1 with dribble limits helps make up a good second-step cutoff team. The more a team dribbles to move, the easier they are to defend.

14. Have “Stick-to-it-ness.” Players must give good effort on every play. They must go for loose balls and avoid false efforts. A lot of players make a half-hearted attempt to steal an outlet pass so they can jog back on defense. Youth coaches must be aware of the ways players use false effort to get out of doing hard work, and they must put an end to it. Action that fortifies negative attitude, and takes away from team building, is a violation and must be addressed. This includes pouting, dropping the head, jogging back on defense or criticizing a teammate. There’s no room for any of that on a team.