Basketball Program Blueprint

Author Brian Tracy in his book, "Goals: How to Get Everything You Want--Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible," writes

"...identify the key result areas of your work. These are the tasks that you absolutely, positively have to fulfill in an excellent fashion in order to do your job well. What are they? In every job there are seldom more than 5-7 key result areas. These are critical tasks. You must be excellent at each one of them in order to do the whole job for which you are paid. You must be good at every one of these tasks..." page 143 e-book format.

Here are our "Key Result Areas" to stimulate your thoughts. What do you see as your five to seven areas, and more importantly, what are you and your staff doing to improve them in your program?

The Coaching Toolbox's Seven Key Result Areas for a High School Basketball Program. Each area has a tab above.

1. Commit your philosophy to writing and organize every aspect of the program around it
   
   
2. Develop individual player life skills, basketball skills, athleticism, and mental toughness
   
   
3. Selecting the squad
   
   
4. Develop, implement and teach systems for team play that fit your players strengths and abilities
   
   
5. Assign roles and adjust and keep the players within them as the season unfolds
   
   
6. Initiate intentional professional development for entire basketball coaching staff
   
   
7. Promote your program

• How do we motivate each player?
• What does each player do well?
• What are the areas of concern for each player?
• What will be his individual development workout?
• What does he need to add to bring to our program?
• What is the best use of the Individual Development Workout time for each player?
• What does s/he need to be able to do in a game to help the team?
• How are we going to track his/her progress?
• What scoring moves does s/he have?
• How can we improve those moves?
• What scoring moves does s/he need? 
• How can we help him/her develop these?
• What are the areas of growth s/he needs to make?

Click here for a pdf document to use when having a discussion with each candidate regarding what you see their role as and what s/he sees as the role.

The main objective for a program once basketball practice starts is to appropriately and successfully select the squad with the best interest of the team and also the student in mind.  Not only do the coaches desire to select individuals who can help the program, but also they select individuals who can be helped by the program.  The roles of the players and the levels at which the players will participate develop and change as the season unfolds.  Players are selected on the following basic areas:

1) Eligibility – residence, scholastic, age as regulated by the state high school athletic association and our school district
2) Willingness to follow rules of the program
3) Attitude
4) Skill and physical abilities (height, reach, weight, speed, quickness, jumping, shooting, shooting range, intelligence,dribbling, coordination, hands, competitiveness, leadership, followship, rebounding, instinctive moves, knowledge, and control.

There is a certain amount of subjective judgment that must be made by the coach; however, as much objective knowledge as possible is used in order to reach a just selection.  We measure our sensitivity to the students by the time we spend with and the interest shown in the students who are not selected for the team.  Each student who is not selected to participate (9-12) is told in person by the head coach.  In addition, if a student has been involved at the high school level during previous school years, his parents are contacted through a personal letter from the head coach.

The number of players selected to dress are not steadfast.  Factors other than eligibility and skill that reflect the numbers of participants are baksetball practice time, available coaches, and schedules.  Any player that is selected must be able to contribute to the program, offer potential, and is provided the opportunity to improve and benefit.  Basic maximum limits are 16 sophomores, juniors, and seniors to play on the JV and Varsity schedule.  However, it is our desire to offer the opportunity to as many deserving candidates as is possible.  Since the basketball season is four months long, many changes may occur.  Ability may improve.  Injuries may occur that change position over the course of the year.

The final line is drawn by numbers, attitude, ability, and selecting the best TEAM possible, after the eligibility and willingness to follow rules have been established.  There is some degree of speculation necessary at the Freshman and JV levels.  No person is eliminated on speculation but one may be added for that reason.

• What are our defensive and offensive philosophies?
• What are the strengths of our players and how can we best utilize those strengths while hiding their weaknesses?
• What is the optimal number of possessions per game for this group?
• Can we defend for that number of possessions at that pace?
• How is our ability compared to the best teams in our region of the state tournament? our conference? our area?
• How do we need to play to advance as far as possible in the state tournament?
  
• What is our depth like?
• How does our depth affect our style of play?
• What will our substitution pattern be?

Create a system your players believe in, that is consistent, and that you can evaluate to help your team's performance improve.

Once you have determined your objectives and goals for the upcoming season, then you will determine your specific offensive scheme and defensive scheme. The most important aspect of putting your team together is the way you plan and execute your basketball practice sessions.

• What roles will each player perform on this year's team?
  (This is different from who is best in each area)
• Who will be our leaders? 
• Who will be our captains?
• What projected playing time box should each player check? prospect sheet
• Which players will be the primary ball handlers?
• Who will jump center?
• Do we want our best player guarding their best player?
• Who is our best on ball defender?
• Who is our best block out guy to guard their best offensive rebounder?
• Who is toughest to shoot over?
• Who is our best perimeter gapper?
• Who is our best post gapper?
• Who is our best low post defener?
• Who do we want to get shots?
• Who are our best passers?
• What positions for our offensive scheme and defensive scheme should each player learn?
• What is our  inbounder order?
• Under?, side?, full?, game winner? Should they all be the same?
• What press o spot will each occupy? Inbounder? Ball Side? Opposite?
    Middle, Finisher?
• What shots can each player hit?
• Who are our best cutters?  best screeners?
• What set play (including in bounds and zone) spots should each know?
• Who is our designated defender/fouler if need be?
• What is the halfback order?
• What is the fullback order?

• What should be the expectations for our staff?
• How should we split up the responsibilities?
• What is our most effective way to communicate updates on responsibilities?

During the season, it is very tough to spend any time on staff development. We believe that just like you ask your players to work on their game during the off-season, the coaching staff also needs to sharpen their skills. We believe that there are five areas for each coach to work on and that coaches should have an individual development plan, just like players have an individual workout plan. The five areas to develop are:

1.   Technical Knowledge of the game of Basketball.
2.   Ability to teach the game of Basketball.
3.   Ability to build a team
4.   Ability to develop players to bring out the best in them.
5.   Leadership Skills

HoopClinics is a site that offers a great deal of free basketball coaching information along with online basketball coaching clinics.

Another great source for basketball coaching information for staff development is Coaching DVDs at Championship Productions. They have a huge selection of topics and presentors to choose from.