How To Work on Your Game This Summer (as a basketball coach)

Have you ever given your players a list of strengths and weaknesses?

A workout plan for the summer?

A list of camps to attend, trainers to workout with, AAU teams to join?

If you’ve been coaching for any amount of time, you’ve probably had these conversations with your players.

But what is YOUR plan for improving as a coach this off-season?

Here are a few simple ways to use this summer to improve as a coach:

1 — Subscribe to a few newsletters, Twitter feeds, and/or podcasts that post high-quality basketball content.

• The goal here is to give yourself access to different ways of thinking, keep up with the changes in the game, and hear other voices outside of your staff.
• Start with the big newsletters/accounts and branch yourself out.
• WARNING: You can overdo this. If you’re subscribed to 37 newsletters, follow 3,891 coaches on Twitter, and are getting notifications from 17 different podcasts…you WILL be overwhelmed. Then you’ll learn nothing.
• Some of the bigger Twitter accounts/ones I personally enjoy you can start with are Basketball Immersion, Radius Athletics, Marc Hart, John Leonzo, Mario Celebre, Michael Lynch, PGC Basketball, FastModel Sports
• There are obviously a ton of great follows I left out, but just following these accounts will eventually give you access to other accounts that may interest you.
• AGAIN — don’t overdo this.

2 — Choose one team that plays the way you’d like to play…and study them extensively

• You probably don’t have the players that Kansas has. Yes, you might be able to take some things from the Jayhawks that you can use in your program — but is that the best investment of your time?
• Choose a team that reminds you of your team/what your team could be.
• Watch 4–5 games (or as many as you can)
• Observe how they do things
• Pick a few simple ways to apply to your team
• HINT: Take a look at some smaller schools. Most of us would gain a lot more from watching D2/D3 basketball teams that play a little more below the rim than watching Duke vs. Kentucky.

3 — If you’d rather narrow your research, choose one team’s offensive scheme OR one team’s defensive scheme that you think would fit your team. Repeat the process from #2.

4 — Prune and simplify

• Sometimes the best way you can improve as a coach is to get rid of the things that you don’t need anymore.
• Go through your playbook and your drills.
• Eliminate anything that:
• Doesn’t serve your team/program any longer
• Is a “fluff” drill that doesn’t translate to game improvement (the definition of a “fluff” drill is controversial and, in my opinion, can be fairly objective — you know what is fluff in your program and what is not)
• Seems outdated
• NOTE: This may sound like the opposite of “prune and simplify”, but sometimes you have to really dive into information, process it, analyze/synthesize it, and THEN choose what you’re going to focus on.
• It can be difficult to simplify if you don’t take a look at some of your options first. Look at everything, choose what you think fits you best, and roll with it.

5 — Amplify and hone in.

• Choose something in your coaching that, instead of adding something new, you want to improve/amplify.
• This could also be something that you made the cut in your pruning and simplifying (see above).
• Maybe you run Princeton or the 2–3 or you play concept-based basketball.
• Whatever it is — think of ways to amplify and hone in on that.
• How can you adapt your drills to more fit your system?
• How can you get MORE from your drills?
• What variety can you add?
• Where can you steal more reps in your drills/practice plan?

6 — Create (or optimize) your coach portfolio/philosophy

• Begin to develop a document that details and aligns every aspect of your team and program.
• Put everything in writing — from your offensive philosophy to your academic policy to fundraising to off-season plans to coaching staff selection to program traditions — a comprehensive plan for how you are going to operate your team/program.
• I can help with this :)
• Create Your Coaching Portfolio Course

What are some other ways that coaches can improve this summer?

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