2010 One-Time Holiday Special Offer

Here's A One-Time Special Offer:

For the 2010 Holiday Season, whenever you purchase the DVD separately
(The DVD sells for $49.95),
or the book separately
(The book sells for $29.99),
or the combo
(DVD and book for $20 off at $59.94),
you will receive a copy of the free throw book
FREE as my gift to you.

Read all about this Holiday Special at
http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/2010holidayoffer

Yours in Sport & Spirit,
Coach Ronn

Preparing for the New Season -- A Player’s Perspective

Every year I try to bring some information to my readers that can be helpful for them to get their early-season practices off to a good start.

This year I got a little different perspective by having a newly graduated player write about what he did to get ready for his season and that enabled him to be a star player.

The article was written by Kyle Ohman, a starting guard last year for Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. He averaged15.4 points per game and was ranked the 19th best shooter by Fox Sports as a

Senior (2009-2010).

Kyle is a gifted basketball motivator and communicator and will take his game to the professional level and then on to a basketball coaching career.

His story is at http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/KyleOhman

My Latest Ebook: How I Shoot Over 96% Free Throws

Well, it's done. My new ebook, "How I Shoot Over 96% Free Throws", is available now through both EbookOmatic.com and Lulu.com.

If you are one of those free throw shooters that is hit and miss...

If you are a coach in need of how to train your players to shoot better...

If you are a parent wanting to help your child become a free throw shooting whiz..

PAY ATTENTION!!!

Go to my web page to learn more about how you too can become a better free throw shooter!

http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/freethrow_ebook

How I Shoot Over 96% Free Throws

After maybe, 35,000 free throws taken, I finally got to a point where I can say I am consistent with my shot.

I was an inconsistent 80-90% free throw shooter and now I am consistently above 96%.

What I’ve learned about shooting is, it’s a process – as so much of learning is – where you start out crawling, and if you try to walk too soon, by trying to move too quickly, you abruptly fall down.

Well, learning to shoot a basketball free throw (correctly) is very much a similar process. I’m going along, what seems to be nicely, making series of shots and then –wham! – I miss with a shot that seemed to come from out of left field. I think, “Where did that come from”? Then, maybe I miss another one or two. Then, I am back, focused and making another series of shots. From what I have observed from many shooters, this seems to be a normal occurrence. The key, in case you missed it, is focus.

For the rest of this article, go to: http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/96percentfreethrows.html

My NEW 2010 Online Teaching Course

I have upgraded my mentoring course for novice or inexperienced coaches and reduced the price.

If you ever wanted 1-on-1 tutoring to help you understand how to teach basketball skills to kids, how to organize your practices, or just want to increase your skill and understanding for teaching certain aspects of the game, this program is for you. Check it out at....

http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/mentoring.html

Coach

Many (basketball) people are remembering John Wooden, with his passing at age 99 this past month.

I first met Coach Wooden in 1973, when I was coaching high school basketball in California. His influence on my coaching and personal lives have left an indelible impression. He also left lasting memories with my sons.

This month's article, Coach: A Coach’s Family Influenced By John Wooden, is my tribute and remembrance of of Coach John Wooden.

Read the article at http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/CoachWooden

NBSA In Oregon

A couple of months ago, I was looking for a place to shoot in free throw competition in my state. Living now in Oregon, I thought I would find some age group competition like I shot in when I lived in Florida. Nope – none! No senior games. No basketball competition at all in the State Games of Oregon. Short of creating my own tournament, so I could have a place to compete, I had to look farther afield.

I found that Washington state has a Senior Games and allows Oregon residents to enter, due to there not being a Senior Games in Oregon. That solved one problem, but I still thought something should be available in my state.

Enter the National Basketball Shooters Association, which has volunteered to run a free throw competition as part of the State Games of Oregon and offer a way to get basketball back into popularity in Oregon.

Read the rest of the story at http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/NBSA_OR

See you next month.

Yours in Sport & Spirit,
Coach Ronn

NBSA Beginners Free Throw Guide

Even if I wasn’t a founding member of the National Basketball Shooters Association, I’d still be amazed at the poor free throw shooting percentages being posted by teams at all levels.

Since perfecting any skill in basketball needs to begin with beginners, we need to look at who is teaching children and what is being taught about shooting free throws. Heck, if college coaches can’t get the job done, how can we expect a youth coach, who may never have even played the game, to understand how to teach the fundamentals of the game, much less teach the fundamentals of free throw shooting?

Recently, I teamed with a couple of free throw experts in the NBSA to put together a simplified, and hopefully easily understood, version of how to begin to teach free throws. The 7 steps we came up with are a guide to be able to begin teaching good free throw fundamentals.

7 Steps For Getting Started

On The Path Toward Free Throw Mastery

By Ronn Wyckoff,

with

Dr. Jim Poteet and Jim “Makevery” Schatz

To read this article, go to http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/7Steps.

Until next month,

Yours in Sport & Spirit,
Coach Ronn

Coach Ronn's Coaching Philosophy

Understanding the components to coaching success go beyond X's an O's. The coach brings success (or failure) to the team through his own belief system, attitudes, focus, communication skills and discipline.

Whenever I teach coaches or am speaking with a group of players, the first topic I will cover is philosophy. I want everyone thinking that attitude, focus, communication and discipline determine so much of a team's success. Without these things, how can there be a coaching philosophy that will hold up to the test of having players who play at their best level, the team playing at its best together, or enjoying the best season you can have?

My Philosophy On Conducting My Life: The right thing to do is to do the right thing.

My Philosophy On Playing The game:

To read the rest of the article, go to:
http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/coachingphilosophy.html

At The Youth Level - Teacher or Coach?

I've written about this before, one of the big problems in youth programs is that qualified teachers are rare. Often, youth team coaches try very hard to do the best they can with limited knowledge. They may have little or no playing or teaching experience. Our most skilled coaches, who could possibly be the most effective teachers, come into the picture later on in a player’s career. By then, many incorrect habits have been set and coaches don’t have the time, personnel or perhaps the desire to back up and re-teach skills.

Too often, youth coaches are not thinking beyond the current season while trying to make winners of the players he/she has now. No thought is given to the players’ development for the future. When a coach thinks like this, it is selfish and coming from pure ego. The child is not important – only the coach’s vision of success. This kind of thinking hurts the children in the program and continues to give youth sports a black eye.

To read the rest of this article, go to http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/Feb2010.html .

Until next month,

Yours in Sport & Spirit,

Coach Ronn

National Basketball Shooters Association: Become A Free Throw Master

A few months ago, I was asked to be part of a founding group of coaches and masters in the art of shooting free throws. We were all in agreement that there is a strong need for better free throw shooting at all levels of play, both in the USA and internationally.

The organization we founded is called, the National Basketball Shooters Association (NBSA).

If there was more emphasis put on free throw mastery in the NBA, would there be fewer close games?

Of course, answering that is pure conjecture, but most of us would agree that free throw shooting in the NBA is horrendous. Not much has changed, percentage wise at the free throw line, for most of 100 years. In the history of the NBA, only about 50 players have shot better than 85%, with the individual average being just over 70% for the 2008-09 season.

Until the basketball role models--NBA, WNBA and collegiate players and teams--make a concerted effort to improve their free throw shooting percentages, younger players are not going to take seriously the need for better free throw shooting. And, coaches will continue to be (as a group) less than adequately prepared and willing to teach correct free throw shooting technique. Whatever is done at the higher levels is emulated at the younger levels of play. One only has to look at the way youngsters copycat the dribbling techniques and 3-point shooting of the older players to grasp this. When free throw shooting percentages improve at the higher levels, youngsters will want to be better at the line too.

To read this article, go to: http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/NBSA.html

Until next month...

Yours in Sport & Spirit,
Coach Ronn