Tool of the Day Archive September 2008

September 25 A DON MEYER IDEA His players yell "wolf" to alert a teammate who is dribbling that a defensive player is coming from behind to tip the ball away.

September 24 XAVIER HAS ONE TOO Xavier Men's Basketball has a newsletter too and it has actually been around for a couple of years.  You can subscribe to their e-mail list and/or you can take a look at their archives.
Xavier Men' Basketball Newsletter.

September 23 RULES FOR RAISING DELINQUENTS In my opinion, one of the best lessons in  basketball is how to handle the fact that you can work hard and strive to do the right things, but can still come out on the short end of the score if the other team does even just a little better than you.  Here is a handout that presents, in a sarcastic way, that not always getting everything they want is a good thing for kids to learn to deal with. Twelve Rules for Raising Delinquent Children

September 22 MARQUETTE MEN'S NEWSLETTER The Marquett men's program has a new newsletter.  To view the first edition, click here: Marquette Men's Newsletter.

September 19 SPACING ON A DRIVE We feel that regardless of your offensive philosophy and the system that you run, you must have a way to space the floor when you drive the ball to the basket.  It is not only important to space players into scoring spots, but to also have a player available to the ball if it is trapped or is in trouble.Today's Tool is a video showing one way of spacing on a drive from the top.  It is from Vance Walberg's dribble drive motion offense video, but drive and space principles apply to whatever system you use. Deep Elbow Drive and Space

September 18 ENCORE We received a lot of positive feedback from yesterday's Tool of the Day, so we are going to throw out one more set play from Coach Burns' newsletter. Power

September 17 SET PLAY A diagram of a set that can be run against zone or man to man.  We found it in one of Coach Creighton Burns' newsletters.  If you are interested in being on his mailing list, reply to this e-mail and we will see that you are added. Cincy

September 16 WINNING IS GIVING Today's Tool is a short poem that is a pretty good definition of winning. Winning is Giving.

September 15 FIVE OUT MOTION VIDEO This video sample is about 90 seconds long and has a couple of really good concepts about five out motion. Five Out Motion

September 12 CONDITIONING DRILLS FROM ALAN STEIN We are focusing on conditioning drills as many of you are either planning or conducting your pre-season program.  Today's drills are designed to strengthen the ACL in order to prevent tears.  The title of the DVD is that they are for women, but the drills are effective with boys and men's teams as well, but the fact is that girls and young women suffer more ACL tears.  Here is the link: Alan Stein Ladder Drills

September 11 CONDITIONING DRILLS FROM BOB HURLEY I received a phone call about a DVD that is being sold to raise money for St. Anthony's High School.  The link below has more information and a two minute interview with Coach Hurley with views of some of their practice and conditioning drills in the background.  The video is a YouTube video. www.shootingtouch.com

September 9 NEW BASKETBALL COACHING FORUM We have launched a new basketball coaching forum to give coaches one more community to discuss and pick up coaching ideas. The forum is brand new and we still have some work to do on the design.  But any threads that you would be interested in starting will help us to get this thing going and hopefully turn it into a useful resource for coaches. Once you to the forum, you will need to register a username and you will receive a password. HoopClinics Forum

September 8 PRE-SEASON CONDITIONING DRILLS Here is a link to a fitness routine that we have used as one part of a variety of drills in a pre-season conditioning program. I like it for the fact that it is a way to individualize the amount of reps that players at various levels of development get. I always generate ideas for my projects by seeing what others are doing. I hope this offers some food for thought as you work on how to streamline your pre-season program. Fitness Routine.

September 5 CRITICS It is not the critic that counts ... The credit belong to the man who is actually in the arena ... Who strives valiantly, who errs and often comes up short again and again ... Who, at the best knows in the end the triumph of the high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. THEODORE ROOSEVELT

September 4 MORGAN WOOTTEN INBOUNDS PLAY Here is a video of a sideline inbounds play that is effective when the defense is denying the ball inbounds Pairs.

September 3 CLOSE-OUT ONE ON ONE DRILL I like this defensive drill that I found on Youtube. The coach in the drill makes some excellent teaching points. With a little thought, we could probably all adapt it for our defensive drills and find other places on the floor to play it from. Close-Out One on One Drill.

September 2 THE POWER OF TEAMWORKHere is your Simple Truths movie for this month.  Make sure that your speakers are on for the full effect:The Power of Teamwork. In case you missed the others here are links to them:     

212 The Extra Degree
What it Takes to Be Number One 
The Power of Attitude
Rock Solid Leadership
The Dash
Great Quotes from Great Leaders     
Finish Strong