Steve Nash on Being a Leader - A Concept for all Youth Coaches

I've been doing a lot of Youth Coaches clinics over the last few weeks.  I really enjoy doing them because those in attendance are the best kind of Youth Coaches.  They want to get better and really care about the success of their team (the fact that they are volunteers really shows their commitment).  There is a part of me that feels like I've bombarded them with so much information during these 2 hours sessions that there is no way that anyone could get all of it.  A lot of the men and women I've met over the last few weeks don't have a ton of experience as a basketball coach either so I worry that a lot of what I've talked about  will get lost in translation so to speak.

But last night I watched an episode of Iconoclast, the great series on the Sundance Channel where two seemingly unrelated "celebrities" spend time together talking about each other's lives.  The episode I watched featured Ron Howard and one of my favorite basketball players Steve Nash. 

Nash shared his philosophy on being a team leader.  He said, "My style of leading a team and being a point guard is one of inclusion, so I think first you start by having a great attitude.  I think that its really important when you go to work every day that you enter a room and the team dynamics are improved by your presence."

Its such a simple concept and one I will make sure to remember to use on a daily basis, but I think it is exceptionally noteworthy for Youth Coaches.  Our responsibility as Youth Coaches is so much greater than the scoreboard.  That's not to say that winning isn't important nor is not necessary for a Youth Coach to try to learn as much about basketball as possible.  We also have to take into account, however, that 99% of the kids playing basketball are not going to be professional basketball players, so the lessons they learn that go beyond the hardwood will ultimately become more valuable. 

No coach will ever learn everything about the game of basketball and every coach is going to make mistakes.  But any team with a coach who improves the team dynamic simply "by walking into the room" will truly have a successful season.

Best of luck to all of the Youth Coaches out there this season.  Keep coming back to this blog for drills and insights that will hopefully make your season a success.

My Least Favorite Opponent

I love basketball for the competition and camaraderie and there is nothing better than when the two go hand in hand.  I read a great article about Derek Smith and his son Nolan Smith. Derek (who played and coached in the NBA) died suddenly when his son Nolan (who plays for Duke) was 8 years old.  One of last things father said to son was that if you have a bad attitude, then no one will want to play with you.  I hope that I've always been the type of player that has been fun to play with, but I've really tried to live up to this standard these last few years as the gap between the memory of my abilities and the reality of my game has continued to widen.

I do fall short of this goal sometimes and it almost always happens when I get more focused on my opponent than on myself. For some reason I'll declare myself judge and jury and decide that someone is complaining too much to the ref, playing dirty or acting in some way that I've declared inappropriate.

Lately I've been doing better at recognizing when I'm headed down the wrong path but there is one type of player that I just can't seem to ignore. Have you ever played against this type of player? They are easily the best player on the other team, physically gifted in both height and athleticism. They are really skilled and have obviously played a lot of basketball. That's not what bothers me though. It's the fact that they always pick the worst player on the other team to guard. They can dunk with ease, but they'll guard the guy whose six inches shorter, two steps slower or both. A lot of times it leads to mismatches for their teammates as a lesser player will be stuck with a bad matchup on defense. There is no advantage to them on the offensive end either as the other team switches a good defender onto them. The worst thing is that the only time they play hard on defense is when their player has the ball so they can physically overwhelm a less skilled player.

It's a total shortcoming of mine, but when I see this type of player I always let it bother me more than I should. It could be the big brother in me, but I think it’s more about what this type of attitude represents. The focus is entirely on the result and not in the experience. I always feel like with talent comes responsibility. How do you know how good you can be if you are never tested? I recognize that in life the path of least resistance can be an efficient way to go, but how do you prepare for facing obstacles in the real world if you always walk away from them in play? What if the obstaclse are unavoidable, do you just quit?

Hopefully as I continue to play, I will get better at ignoring the actions of my opponent, but as a coach I hope I always recognize when someone accepts a challenge even if they are unable to rise to it. Because at the end of the day, without failure there can be no success.

Week 5 - Winter League Thoughts

It was a fun weekend of games again. Glad to see most everyone back and ready to go. I'm really excited as we go for 6 straight weeks without a break. We should see some big improvement in the coming weeks. We'll have one more weekend of playing with the teams as they are and the reform the teams for the second half of the program.

Here's what we're thinking as a staff for each division. Please feel free to share with me any questions, comments or concerns at coach.pat@homecourtnw.com. We're almost to the mid-point of the program so now is the perfect time to gather feedback.

White Division - Sunday Games
I'm having an internal battle between my glass is half full viewpoint of life and the critical eye of a coach with the White Division. I couldn't be more pleased with the commitment that the boys are showing in trying to run the offense. Guys are really trying to make sure they do everything right. On the otherhand we're missing some opportunities to be aggressive because we're worried about making the wrong play. There were some nice spurts in the game today though where the boys got into the offense quickly and then took advantage of scoring opportunities. We'll really focus this week on getting mentally prepared to start the offense on each play and let the rest take care of itself.

Yellow Division - Saturday Games (Early Session)
We're really starting to see some individual improvement in this division. Some guys who were struggling early with the offense are starting to look more comfortable and we had some nice plays on Saturday. We need to do a better job as coaches of letting guys no the positive impact they are having without shooting the basketball. We see, on occasion, guys make up their mind that they are going to shoot no matter what and get themselves in situations where it's too easy for the defense to make the play. I do like the fact that the guys who have the best understanding of what we're trying to do are getting the most opportunities to score. They are recognizing the importance of reading the defense, moving with the ball and being aggressive when they can. It's also good to see the defense being able to stop the one on one plays forcing the offense to work together.

Orange Division - Saturday Games (Later Session)
What a great weekend of games. I think we had three games that came were decided in the last seconds and another that was decided by 5 points. We're definitely ready to start adding stuff to the plate. Practice will be really important the next couple of weeks as we start to incorporate more full court and end of game situations into our lesson plan. We're probably going to spend a little more time on team defense as well. At first it may make the games a little sloppy as we start to give guys some secrets for defending the motion offense, but I can't see any reason why the guys won't make the necessary adjustments on offense.

Again, please share with many any feedback or questions you have. We've got a quite of bit of time left in the program and we definitely want to make sure that everyone is having a positive experience.

4 Corner Slide Relay

Here's another great defensive drill that is also great conditioning. This one is much easier to explain verbally. Hope you enjoy the video.

Was this video helpful? Let us know if there are other topics you'd like us to cover; Shooting, Ball Handling, Motion Offense, Out of Bounds plays, etc.

Caterpillar Slide

This one is a little more complex, but a great read and react drill that really can be used for all ages. We call it the Caterpillar Slide and it's an awesome defensive/conditioning drill. The high school kids in our Pre-Season IDP always start groaning when they see us start to set it up.

Players are partnered up (by quickness preferably) and form two lines side by side. Cones about 2.5 feet apart are set in a line. Have at least two more cones than the number of groups. The first player in each line stands next to the first cone and gets into their defensive stance. When the coach shouts "Go", both players defensive slide as fast as they can away from the cone. When coach yells "Stop" both players sprint to the next cone and the next two people in line take their spot at the first cone. The drill continues until eventually the whole group is in the drill.

After finishing at the last cone (after coach yells "Stop"), players go back to the start of the line, switch sides and wait for everyone else to finish (the break is very necessary). Once everyone has completed the drill we run it another time to focus on sliding the opposite direction.

The first time we run it our coaches pause at each cone to allow some recovery time. The second time through we go quicker to really accentuate the conditioning benefits. Make sure to vary the time between "Go" and "Stop" commands so players don't anticipate and they also get the read/react benefits as well. Let us know if you have any questions in the comments section below.

Home Court Defensive Slide Drill

Here is the Home Court Defensive Slide Drill we talked about at last week's Coaches Clinic. This is a great warm up drill as well as an opportunity for you as a coach to watch defensive technique. Are players staying balanced and in their stance? Are they taking short aggressive strides or slow long ones? Who is competiting the hardest?

Players are lined up from shortest in the front to tallest in the back. Either put your fastest player in front or someone you are trying to challenge to increase speed/effort. Players are in their defensive stance and on the coach's command make three hard slides out in a particular direction and then back to the middle. The goal is to try and beat the player in front of you.

This is definitely a short burst drill though. Use it as a warm up to get the competitive juices flowing in practice and get the kids thinking defense. It's also a great reaction drill for younger players.

In the video we have a group of high school boys and girls from our pre-season IDP but the drill is effective for all ages. We used as the first of three different defensive conditioning drills we used to break up scrimmages (those drills will be posted as well).

I hope this is helpful. Leave questions in the comment section below and we'll be happy to answer them.

5 Second Rule - What's with the Counting?

Those who have had their kids attend our programs know that we do things a little differently at Home Court. One thing that sometimes leads to confusion is the "5 Second Rule" we use during scrimmages.




As you can see from the video from the video whenever a new player gets possession of the ball, one of the referees (Home Court Coach) begins counting. You may have noticed that the coach never got to 5. If a player holds the ball for longer than 5 seconds then it results in a turnover for their team. This is a rule that is unique to Home Court and won't be something your child will experience in regular league play.

So why do we do it?
Well we only use it in our younger player programs and our reasons have everything to do with skill development. Limiting the time a player can have the ball encourages making decisions at a faster pace. Players are forced to keep their head up as they dribble and anticipate the movement of their teammates. It also encourages ball movement and player movement as the offense needs to move the ball quickly. It does make the game a little tougher at the younger ages, but as the players get into the habit of sharing the ball and making good decisions, we stop counting and eventually the kids start playing like this.

Let us know if you have any other questions regarding any of our programs.

Coach Pat

My First Coach - Fostering a Love of the Game

I've been thinking lately of my first basketball coach. I was in fifth grade and I lived in a small town in Oregon. Basketball had been my favorite sport since before I was in school so the opportunity to play on a team with uniforms in a real league with my buddies was almost too much for me to handle. Unfortunately none of our parents had the time to coach us and we were forced to forfeit our first two games. Luckily someone finally stepped in and agreed to be our coach.

Lolita Hankins didn’t have a son on the team (her son was a year older than us). I don’t know why she agreed to coach our team. I don’t know if she had coached before or if she had even played. All I know is that she instantly became a hero to the boys who would play for her that season.

I have forgotten many of the details from my first year of basketball. I have no idea how many games we won, I can’t remember the names of all of the kids who were on my team or what position I played.

It’s funny what I do remember though. I remember that once I decided our team needed a time out and called one without checking with Lolita first. I remember the confused look on Lolita’s face, but she only said that we probably did need a time out. I remember we didn’t call her coach, just Lolita. I remember that Lolita never once raised her voice but that she was pretty strict with us during practice. I remember that there was one game that Lolita had to miss and a couple of dads filled in for her. I also remember that that game wasn’t nearly as much fun.

Recently my parents told me that some of the other parents weren’t completely excited about having Lolita coach us at first. She must have done a pretty good job though because she ended up coaching us again the next year. Thanks to her generosity I got to have my first taste of organized basketball. Lolita helped cultivate a love for the game of basketball that has stuck with me to this day. I will be forever grateful to her for the time she invested in me and my friends.

p.s. Let us know what you think of this post?

Just Getting Started

We thought we'd venture into the world of blogging. Court Vision will be our take on what's happening on the court, stories of success, coaching tips and whatever you think would be helpful.

How can Court Vision help you as a player, parent or coach?

In the meantime, here's some video from last week's 3rd & 4th Grade Boys Full Court Press Session.