Coaching is like a chess match between opposing coaches - moving players like chess pieces. A good coach will have an arsenal of moves to make and be ready to counter opponents' counter-measures. What I devised in 1973 was my way of dealing with other coaches' teaching methods.

Ronn Wyckoff

Breaking Down The Court For Calling Defenses

By Ronn Wyckoff 1 sec ago

Basketball

When I look back forty years, it seems pretty innovative for the times that I was calling defense for high school basketball - things like: 50A, 12 B, 13C, or 21D.

In 1973, I was in my second year as head basketball coach and athletic director at a small California private boys boarding school. There were 200 boys in the school and nine of them were on the varsity.

I was still young and capable enough as a player, so most days it fell to me, my team manager or a borrowed JV player to be the 10th player.

We had 75 minutes to practice, before I had to dismiss the team, in order to shower and dress in coat and tie and be ready for dinner.

Because there was so little practice time, I began to institute a number of ideas for getting the most out of those 75 minutes each day. We used the JV practice time for conditioning outside the gym and later for watching film from our games. As soon as the jayvees vacated the floor, we immediately went into a series of Station Drills (http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/stationdrills ) that utilized all six baskets in a variety of fundamental drills.

With a small team, in both numbers and stature (no one over 6 feet), and with the previous year’s experience, I knew that focus on fundamentals and defense was going to be crucial for our success. I also wanted to expand our challenge and scheduled early season matches against much larger schools - one with 3000 enrollment. I began to develop concepts and ideas that evolved into what I began calling our “Giant Killer Defense”, as we were actually beating teams with larger players and larger enrollments.

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