Top Basketball Coaching Tips

Think Fast Break

2011-10-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

Without the fast break, coaches must limit their teams to controlled movement up the floor to the offensive end. Doing this gives the advantage to the defense.

My preference, when on offense, was to seize the advantage by accelerating into a fast break from every offensive transition.

When combined breaking with my emphasis on defense, I felt I had a formidable recipe for fun and winning basketball. It proved me right for many years, winning over 75% of the time with US teams and 80% with international club teams.

I wanted my teams to break from any and every situation and take off running to the basket – from turnovers, interceptions, a rebound, jump ball, inbounds pass, etc. Every time we transitioned to offense, I wanted a break.

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

That's it for this month.

Coach Ronn Wyckoff

Defending The Dribble Entry

2011-10-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

When most offenses begin at the half court, it's the point guard who has to make it happen - passing, dribbling, penetrating.

Playing defense between the ball and the basket is only part of defending the ball.

Good position defense, coupled with influencing pressure, can help eliminate some of the dribbler's options. However, the first job of the defender is to buy time.

To read this article, go to http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/November1_2006.html .

New Thoughts On Teaching Shooting

2011-06-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

There are so many different ways shooting is being taught and while there is no one best way to shoot a basketball, obviously the best way is the one that goes in the most. However, the bottom line is, it’s not the rest of the body so much as the shooting arm that directs the shot and any resultant accuracy.
So all the foot placement, focus, and other stuff that's being taught is for naught if the alignment of the shooting shoulder, elbow, wrist and fingers is not correct.

To read more about this, go to http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/new_shooting_ideas.html

3 Reasons Youth Coaches Should Stress Fundamentals Over Plays

2011-04-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

by Keith Smith

Keith Smith is a youth basketball coach for boys and girls. He is the co-creator of “The Edge” and Best Youth Hoops. For more information, visit http://www.bestyouthhoops.com/blog and receive FREE Special Report, "TOP PRIORITIES FOR A NEW YOUTH BASKETBALL COACH"

When I first thought about the title, a quick story came to mind which put this in proper perspective.

During my first year of coaching, my team was playing a lower seeded team in the playoffs. It was a close game going into the 4th quarter when the opposing coach yelled out a play to his point guard.

The guard shouted the play to her teammates while we were set in our 1-2-2 zone (that’s another story… none of my teams play zone anymore). The guard shouted the play again, nothing happened. The players looked at her as if she was speaking a foreign language.

To read the rest of the story, go to
http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/teach_fundamentals

Basketball: Teaching Offensive Low Post Play

2011-03-31T23:11:00.000-07:00

How I teach low post play doesn't change much between beginners and older players -whether they're boys or girls. They all need to know how to move through the post, avoiding 3-second counts, having good balance and gaining good position. Once they have these things, they can begin to maneuver to receive the ball and work their way to attacking and finishing at the basket.

What I do now is contained in my article at http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/lowpost.html

I hope you find teaching points you can use.

See you next month.

Coach Ronn

How I Teach Defense

2011-02-28T11:53:00.000-08:00

Last month, I began a series of reprints of my most read articles which have been published at my website, Top-Basketball-Coaching.com and elsewhere on the web. At Scribd.com, these articles have now been read over 78,000 times since 2008.

This month, I bring back 7 of the most read articles I published on the subject of teaching defense. These are listed below.
1. Teaching Defensive Transition (6053 reads) Dec., 2007
http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/December_2007

2. Why Teach Man Defense (5491 reads) Oct., 2007
http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/whyteachmanD

3. Teaching Individual Defense, Part I (1387 reads) Sept., 2006
http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/September_2006.html

4. Teaching Individual Defense, Part II (1050 reads) Oct., 2006
http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/October_2006.html

5. Defending The Dribble Entry (1801 reads) Nov., 2006
http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/November1_2006.html

6. Triangle Defense: The Basis For Teaching Team Defense (1061 reads) Dec., 2008
http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/Triangle-Defense

7. Teaching Shot Blocking To Developing Players (889 reads) May, 2009
http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/shotblock.html

Feb., 2011 Newsletter

2011-02-11T12:36:00.000-08:00

My Most Read Articles

For several years, I have been writing and publishing basketball articles on teaching fundamentals of offense and defense, how to coach and how to motivate. These end up published in full on my website, www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com (see right sidebar – Basketball Articles) but are also published in my Spiritual Hoops newsletter and on this blog, Top Basketball Coaching Tips. My website, this newsletter and my online article publications are viewed in over 111 countries.

For all of my Feb. newsletter content, go to http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/feb2011

2010 One-Time Holiday Special Offer

2010-12-05T12:26:00.000-08:00

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

2010-10-25T19:21:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-23T21:57:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-31T21:31:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-30T21:43:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-09T23:41:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-27T22:08:00.000-07:00

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

2010-02-28T17:30:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-02-02T10:28:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-01T19:32:00.000-08:00

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

The New Theory Of Free Throw Targeting: The "Sweet Spot"/Bulls-Eye Target

2009-12-02T21:00:00.000-08:00

When talking about what should be the target when shooting a free throw, my guest author for this month's article knows more than a little about how to find that target. Jim "Makevery" Schatz is a free throw shooting master, shooting 96% or better in free throw competition and exhibitions.

What should the target be that the shooter focuses on while shooting a free throw? There are many ideas, but the author describes his idea for the "sweet spot"/target.

If you perform a Google search for “free throw” and click on some of the links, you will quickly find there is no agreement, even among expert coaches, in regards to targeting while shooting free throws. Some coaches say aim at the back of the rim, some say aim at the front of the rim, some say aim above the rim and I say, aim at the "sweet-spot"/bulls-eye target.

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

Happy Holidays!

Yours in Sport & Spirit,
Coach Ronn

How To Motivate In Youth Basketball

2009-10-31T20:38:00.000-07:00

Not only do we have to prepare well for the upcoming season, get through all the preliminary training of skills, systems and conditioning, accomplish a successful first game, but we have to be able to motivate the players--for practices and for games--all season long.

Motivating players is often harder for a coach than teaching all the various aspects of the game, because it requires special people-handling skills that can put a coach on a par with a sports psychologist.

I don't believe there is any one method for motivating. Players relate to different styles. Motivating begins with the coach and Coaching styles are all over the place, but bottom line--coaches must be true to themselves and must be fair and consistent in his/her dealings with their players.

To read this article, go to "How To Motivate In Youth Basketball".

How To Conduct A Parent-Child Clinic

2009-08-26T21:31:00.000-07:00

I spent several years administering youth basketball programs. Prior to each season I would introduce a Parent-Child Clinic for new players and their parents. I found this to be both a successful teaching method and a bonding experience for the participants.

Here is a way to introduce basketball skills, and how to teach these skills, to the parents. By using their children as the teaching vehicle, parents can learn how to perform and help their child with the skill learning.

To read this article, go to: Parent-Child Clinic

Yours in Sport & Spirit,
Coach Ronn

Youth Basketball: Teach Individual Basics Before Teaching The Team Game

2009-07-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

So many times, even experienced coaches rush into the team aspects of coaching--whether for lack of time before the first game or from a desire just to get going with the offense or defense.

Novice coaches at the youth level need to begin with teaching fundamentals, if for no other reason than they need to assess who can do what.

Every season should begin with at least a review of the player' skills and then teach what needs to be taught. Then, it's a matter of drilling these skills so the players are ready to use the skills within the framework of the team offense and defense.

The individual fundamental aspects of learning basic skills and honing these skills must come before working on team aspects. Players must know how to pass, dribble, shoot, rebound, move without the ball, move with the ball and to play defense on a player with the ball and on their player without the ball. Until players have these concepts and skills well in hand, it does no good to try to introduce a 5-on-5 situation....

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

See you next month.

Yours in Sport & Spirit,
Coach Ronn

Born Talented Or Hard Work?

2009-07-11T10:39:00.000-07:00

The off season is for building individual playing skills. The daily camp team games allow the player to work on those skills in game simulation and to meld their play within the team game with the other players. While these games go on, the instructors get a chance to see if the players are getting what is being taught during the daily skill sessions.

Just going with your school team to a team-type camp (it's the big thing, amounting to another season of play) doesn't build your playing skill. Sure, games help to hone the skills and to act as a proving-ground for your ability to use those skills. Games are fun and necessary to prove your game, BUT, just playing will not improve skills. If you have a fundamental flaw, and you continue to play with it, you will still be flawed.

Lots of off season time needs to be with the focus only on individual skill building. That's how players improve. For players to become great at the game, they will be disciplined to work on their game within every aspect of the game and pay close attention to the details of what they do and how they do it. Only through trial and error, making and correcting mistakes, will a player grow his or her game. Get in pickup or team games--absolutely. Then go back and work on yourself.

This is why I concentrate my website solely on individual aspects of the game. Plenty of coaches and plenty of sites will address offenses, defenses, special plays, etc. When a player or coach comes to my site, I want them thinking, "What can I do to better my teaching/playing skills"?

Check out my site--it's loaded with articles about improving you individual game. My ebooks, my hard cover book and teaching DVD are all about building player specific skills. Go to:

http://www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com

This month's featured article addresses some of the attitudes about becoming a great player. I borrowed it (with the author's permission) from one of the up-and-coming voices in teaching basketball, Brian McCormick. Last month he wrote an article that I thought would be very good for my readers to read and take heed.

Go here to read that portion of his article, I have named, "Born Talented Or Hard Work?".

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

Until Next Month...

Yours in Sport & Spirit,
Coach Ronn

Teaching Shot Blocking To Developing Players

2009-06-02T18:16:00.000-07:00

I spend a lot of time and energy on detail teaching. I find it pays off as a player develops. Too many times skill details aren't taught and the players just end up doing what they think they should do instead of applying any kind of logic or system to their play.

Shot blocking is one of those small areas that don't get much attention from coaches--especially in the early years. But, while shot blocking can be a small item down the list of things for many coaches to teach, teaching it early and correctly can play huge dividends as players mature.

To read this article, go to www.Top-Basketball-Coaching/shotblock.html.

See you next month.

Yours in Sport & Spirit,
Coach Ronn

Youth Basketball: How Much Offense and Defense for 8th Grade Girls?

2009-05-04T22:54:00.000-07:00

From the many letters I receive from coaches around the world, I chose to answer this one for this month's article--How much offense and defense should be taught to 8th grade girls?

So much depends on the talent and basketball savvy of your girls.

Let's say, your girls have played together for a year or more and have decent knowledge of the game and execution of basic individual fundamental play as well as team play.

To read the rest of the article, go to: http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/8th-grade-girls

Yours in Sport & Spirit,
Coach Ronn

Youth Basketball: Motion Offense for 6th Graders

2009-05-04T22:46:00.000-07:00

Coaches always want to know about offenses for age groups that really require very little in the way of offensive sophistication. So I asked a colleague of mine, Josh Stinson, if I could borrow an article of his that I read on his site, Perfect Practice.

As it turned out, the offensive set and moves in his article were very much like an offense I had used for years. I felt it was a good choice for grade or middle school coaches to be able to utilize.

I began using this offense in the 1970's at the high school level and then using it as a basic starting point, added more options when taking it to the international men's and women's games. It works well at it's most basic (where a coach should really begin when teaching it) and then when both coach and players are ready, it can easily be built upon.

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

Yours in Sport & Spirit,
Coach Ronn

Youth Basketball—Teaching Balance and Control

2009-03-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

You can't play basketball, or any sport for that matter, without it--Balance & Control.

This month's article assumes the youngsters in your charge know little or nothing about the game of basketball. Before we can run, we must pass through competency phases of crawling and walking. So, we begin at the most elemental level, breaking down information that must be assimilated along the long road to unconscious competency.

First, show them around the playing floor. Talk to them about the lines and places on the floor and what they mean. Explain to them that in every sport there are certain things which players must have in common. In this article we take the first step—teaching balance and control.

To read the entire article, go to: Top Basketball Coaching.

See you next month.

Yours in Sport & Spirit,

Coach Ronn

How Should I Teach My Child To Shoot?

2009-03-10T22:53:00.000-07:00

I have a guest author this month, Scott Jaimet. He is the author of, "The Perfect Jump Shot: The Science and Art of Shooting a Basketball".

Scott Jaimet, lives in Oregon. He grew up playing basketball in Indiana. He always wanted to teach his son to shoot but became very frustrated with the lack of knowledge on behalf of most coaches. They could teach the set shot and the bunny hop jumper but no one seemed to know how to teach the big time pull-up jump shot like he saw in the NBA. So he decided to figure it out. He knew that there must be some simple scientific principles that would apply, just as they do in all of the other sports.

To read his article, go to: Top Basketball Coaching.

Yours in Sport & Spirit,
Coach Ronn

Triangle Defense: The Basis For Teaching Team Defense

2009-01-07T22:04:00.000-08:00

Whether you prefer running zone defenses or man-to-man defenses, there are basic fundamentals to be taught that are common to both types of defense. The players need to be able to play on the ball, to be able to know how to properly double-team the ball (sealing the gap) and how to play off the ball.

Triangle defense describes the floor position of each defensive player in relationship with the player they are defending, with the ball, and with the basket.

The defender on the ball has only one rule and that is to maintain a body position that will block a direct path to the basket by the dribbler. I call this “Ball-Me-Basket”.

The other four defenders’ floor positions can be described by two triangles. These are: “Ball-Me-Man” and “Man-Me-Basket”.

To read the complete article, go to: http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/Triangle-Defense

Yours In Sport & Spirit,
Coach Ronn

Youth Basketball: Teaching Offense To 9/10 Year-Olds

2008-11-30T17:34:00.000-08:00

I have consistently stated that I think 9 and 10 year-olds don't need offensive systems. They need to be taught fundamentals--how to move without the basketball.

When one player has the ball, the other four teammates should be moving with a purpose without the ball. This means cutting to the basket for a pass, screening away for another player or moving to balance the floor. This is continuous motion, and when the player with the ball passes, that player also joins the purposeful movement. The player with the ball is looking to pass, shoot or attack the basket. On offense, it's an unending cycle of cuts, screens and floor balancing movement.

If you teach these things to a 9 or 10 year-old, with everyone moving purposefully, in unison, you have offense. Some coaches either don't understand this or still want to have a set offense.

So, quickly, here’s my idea about how to win at 9-10 y.o. basketball—and it doesn’t require much teaching of offense. Go to my December, 2008 article on my website and get all the info.

www.top-basketball-coaching.com/9-10offense

Happy Holidays,
Coach Ronn

Youth Sports: Are They Really For The Youth?

2008-10-30T21:48:00.000-07:00

There are still plenty of opportunities where parents decide what's best for youth sports and unfortunately, take the wrong direction.

There are places where parents think they are doing the right thing to prepare their children for varsity sports at some later date by creating elite youth programs where they hope their kids will become superstars now. Misguided as they are, they have missed all the documentation about how to create youth programs for the YOUTH-- not the adults. It's sort of like smoking. There is plenty of documentation about the ills of smoking but people still smoke--and even deny there is a problem.

This month I had to speak out again about how much is too much for small kids playing sports.

To read the article, go to: http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/youth+sports

Preparing Your Season—Leading Up To The First Game

2008-09-24T15:57:00.000-07:00

Every season presents new challenges, however the biggest challenge, especially for new or newer coaches, may be in preparing to teach everything that will be needed in order to successfully play the first game.

Years ago, while at a UCLA coaching clinic, Coach Wooden stressed to us young coaches that our priorities should be conditioning, fundamentals, and then team play. The pre- and early-season plan must take that into account.

Do this by designing your drills for the dual purpose of perfecting a skill while building conditioning. Wooden told us that, “before working together as a team, we need to break every element of the game down into its basic parts, then begin to put the pieces together. Practice and perfect each part or the whole will not be successful. It requires hard work and repetition, always modifying, always correcting, until it all comes together. 'Practices are where championships are won'.”

The identification and perfection of details in the teaching of fundamentals sets the teaching-coach above the average coach. Any coach neglecting details regularly attended to by the teaching-coach is practicing to be unsuccessful. “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Doing the little things well makes the big things work. This is probably the teaching-coach’s greatest attribute for success.

To read the rest of this article, go to: http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/Preparing-For-The-First-Game

Yours in Sport & Spirit,

Coach Ronn

FREE HoopClinics For Coaches

2008-08-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

Top-Basketball-Coaching caters to the beginner—the novice coach looking for how to get started and what to do in a sequential manner so the needs of the novice and less experienced player can be met.

I recognize that many of my readers and people who visit my site may be ready for more sophisticated information than I present. I am always on the look-out for a site that I think can deliver this kind of growth. I am proud to bring to you such a site—one I have recently partnered with.

Brian Williams and Josh Stinson contacted me and together we, along with a select group of other basketball webmasters, have partnered to bring HoopClinics to the world-wide web.

Go here to read all about it: http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/HoopClinics

I think you’ll be glad you did!

Coach Ronn

Teaching Youth Basketball: Using The Other Hand

2008-07-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

For many coaches of youth basketball , one of the key teaching points for beginners will be how and when to teach the use of the other hand--the non-dominant hand.

For beginners, the most important teaching of use of the weak hand will be for teaching dribbling. Teaching how to shoot with the other hand, especially shooting the lay-up or other finishing shots at the basket, will follow with age and experience.

To read the rest of this article, go to: http://www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com/using-the-other-hand

Revisiting F.U.N.C.T.

2008-06-27T21:24:00.000-07:00

It seems time to re-evaluate how we think and how we act, so we can live more spiritual lives.

For years, I have written and spoken about how sports are a great metaphor for life. The dynamic of how we deal with our participation in sports mirrors how we live our lives.

We are struggling as a society to make sense of all the changes we see all around in our outward lives. Our lives seem out of balance and with what is happening with the universe, time has been shortened. The resultant feeling is that we feel rushed, filled with angst and stress. This seems to manifest itself with the craziness we’ve seen in the news about aberrant behavior of coaches and parents.

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

Teaching Basketball Basics

2008-06-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

When a new basketball coach is attempting to put together a coaching plan of action, including how to teach, what to teach and when to teach it, who do they ask for advice? This mentoring should be of strategic importance to them. Do they really know how to teach what you need?

This is the message I bring for novice and inexperienced coaches in my June article, "Teaching Basketball Basics", which can be read at http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/teaching-basketball-basics.

While using your summer for planning, coaches could find the material needed for teaching the basics from the 28 products I have created and are showcased on my site, or the more than 40 basketball articles found listed on my home page, Top-Basketball-Coaching.com.

Yours in Sport & Spirit,

Coach Ronn

New Basketball Online Coaching Course

2008-05-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

As we move into the "off-season", there are still lots of amateur second and third season leagues underway. School seasons are done. The pros are just starting their playoffs, but this is the time of year when coaches all over the world begin to work on their plans, strategies and personal growth for next year.

For those novice basketball coaches, here's a new coaching course I have just become involved with. Out of Toronto, Canada, it's designed for the individual just beginning to work in youth basketball, with little or no coaching background.

Beginning May 19, 2008,

the Sports Learning Online website

will feature me,Coach Ronn Wyckoff,

teaching a course for novice coaches.

For more information, and to learn about a discount for my Spiritual Hoops readers, go to:

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

DEFENDING ON THE BALL: 1 on 1 Defense

2008-04-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

Last month I had a guest article by
by Jeff Haefner, owner of BreakthroughBasketball.com.
Here is another written by the same author.

So much energy is expended in developing game plans, working on skills, scouting opponents and trying to find an edge to be a better team and win more games. All of that hard work will go down the drain if you cannot defend on the ball.

The nature of American basketball these days is to create match-ups, isolate the match-up and then attack the defensive player. If you cannot play 1 on 1 defense, or defense on the ball, all your work and preparation will amount to nothing.

The author goes on to explain with text and diagrams some fun methods to teach 1-on-1 defensive techniques.

For the rest of the article, go to: http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/defending1on1

Basketball Coaches: How To Order The Book and/or DVD

2008-03-31T13:38:00.000-07:00

When someone purchases my DVD, Basketball On A Triangle: A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing, it comes with two free e-books. One of those e-books is, “Balance And Control”, which is Book chapter 6, corresponding with Chapter 2 in the DVD.

One of my list members wrote to me, having purchased the DVD, noting that the book went into more detail than the DVD for that chapter and wondered if that was going to be the case with all the book chapters. Actually, that chapter is probably the only one with which that happened.

Basketball Defense: Ways To Defend Someone Who Is Much Quicker Than Yourself

2008-03-30T20:25:00.000-07:00

This is a guest article written by Jeff Haefner, owner of BreakthroughBasketball.com

Trying to equalize a physical mismatch is certainly one of the more difficult aspects of the game.

The easy answer is, don’t let the quicker player get the ball. But, like most things in life, that is easier said than done. With all the responsibilities you have when playing defense off the ball, such as weak side help and rebounding, it is difficult to deny your man the ball without hurting your team’s overall defense.

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

"Basketball On A Triangle...", Now In Paperback

2008-03-17T20:07:00.000-07:00

The book that started the whole series of "Basketball On A Triangle..." products is now available in paperback.

Read more about what's in the book below...

To Order The Book at $29.99

CLICK HERE

...and Here's How To Order The Book With The DVD

To receive a $20 discount for ordering both the book and the DVD ($10 off the $29.99 book and $10 off the $49.95 DVD, when both are ordered at the same time), order each one separately and put in the discount code where called for, then click Apply Discount.

You get the book and the DVD for ONLY $59.94, PLUS the 3 FREE E-BOOKS shown below

Book Order
http://www.createspace.com/3338953 discount code LHFHT595

DVD Order

http://www.createspace.com/208070 discount code LHFHT595

(The DVD order comes automatically with 2 FREE E-BOOKS)

When the book and DVD are ordered at the same time, you will also receive another FREE E-Book,

Teaching Station Drills

which sells for $9.99

I will send this to you personally as an email attachment.

About the Book and DVD

The book came first. (See: The Book That Made The DVD ) The DVD (See: DVD/Video ) was created to complement the book, giving readers the best of both worlds -- the text (with hundreds of diagrams and photos) and the visual companion showing me, Coach Ronn, teaching everything I write about during a live coaching workshop.

While I was searching for a publisher, I began marketing the DVD through my website. From the success of DVD sales, 27 other products have been created to help coaches and players around the world learn how to teach and perform the basic fundamentals necessary for successful play.

Here's the Press Release That Went Out In Advance of Releasing the Book Worldwide Via the Internet.

Coaching Youth Basketball -- Basketball On A Triangle: A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing

The author doesn't just fill pages with theory and drills. He has provided over 300 pages chock full of usable content that break down every aspect of the individual game and demonstrate with text, diagrams and photos how to teach or practice the basic fundamentals of the game.

24/7 Press Release/ - Dec. 8th, 2007 - Coach Ronn Wyckoff has just published the most innovative basketball book for youth coaches and players on the market. If the DVD sales from this book are any indicator, "Basketball On A Triangle: A Higher Level Of Coaching and Playing", is going to be a major player in the "how to coach basketball" and "how to play basketball" niches.

He begins by chronicling his own rise from beginning coach to how he became a teaching coach to players and other coaches around the world. Along the way, he discusses changing teaching paradigms to include Zen/Spiritual approaches to many of the problems facing youth sports today. He discusses how to be a supportive parent, making 'right' choices, and what it takes to become a teaching-coach, rather than one who just moves players around like chess pieces.

In the "how to..." section of his book, Coach Ronn walks a coach, player or parent through the beginning game, from explaining the floor markings, to how the game is played, to how to stand and move. The veteran author always keeps it simple, using the plateau method of teaching. He goes from the most basic introduction of skills, overlaying new usages of skills previously taught, until he has reached the more sophisticated position specific offensive and defensive skills necessary to playing the game well.

Teaching-coaches, and players at any level, will find here the appropriate words and directives, along with specific drills, to teach and enhance whatever skill is being covered.

Before the book was released, Coach Ronn produced and released a 4-hour teaching DVD and Streaming Video version of all the aspects he teaches in the "how to..." section of his book. The DVD/Video has had tremendous worldwide sales, making this combination of teaching tools unique among youth basketball coaching authors.

With his more than fifty years in basketball, first as a player, then as a coach, and later as an international consultant and national team coach in four countries, Coach Ronn brings a rich and varied expertise to his writing. He weaves anecdotes about his own life and coaching experiences in with suggestions on how to take one's game to a higher level—skill wise and spiritually. Everything the author brings forth in his book is straightforward and simple, all the time relating to how to find a higher purpose for our lives and bring it into working with youth.

Coaching Youth Basketball: Teaching Progression Skills For 1-on-1, Part 2

2008-02-28T09:41:00.000-08:00

Last month's article about teaching progressions skills for 1-on-1 play concentrated on the offensive skills necessary to be able to move and to be able to dribble the ball well, under control.

This month, in Part 2 of this series, I take the teaching-coach to the defensive side of the equation.
**********************************************************************************

Teaching one-on-one skills to young basketball players requires time and patience. If the ball is introduced too soon, too much focus will be on the ball. The child must master balance and body control and be able to move well without the ball. When the ball is introduced, a lot of time must be spent on learning how to dribble and particularly, how to dribble under control. If defense is introduced to play on the dribbler too early, the dribbler will probably not be able to control the ball. Defense, without even understanding the rudiments of stance, sliding, position on the ball, etc., will almost always prevail.

My article in February, 2008, Teaching Progression Skills For 1-on-1, Part 1
http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/1-on-1-part1, spoke to the teaching of offensive basics for balance, control, ball handling and dribbling. If the youngsters are ready, now the defensive side of the 1-on-1 equation can be introduced.

Just as with offensive skills, the defensive skills must be taught from the most basic—meaning stance, balance and movement—before introducing a dribbler into the mix. A player must understand the role of the defender as being one of containment first, learning to play between the ball and the basket, without thinking about stopping the dribbler or taking away the ball.

For the rest of this article, please go to: http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/1-on-1part2

Until next month, Yours in Sport & Spirit

Coach Ronn

Coaching Youth Basketball: Teaching Progression of 1-On-1 Skills, Part I

2008-01-27T11:08:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago, I asked coaches from around the world what they’d most like to know in teaching the individual youth basketball game. The last couple of articles have been answers to some of those questions. This month’s article continues, as part of a 2-part series, about teaching 1-on-1 progression.

Wim C., from Belgium asked about how to teach youngsters progression in 1-on-1 skills.

When people think of 1-on-1 they usually think of an offensive player with the ball vs. a defender. Really, there are two situations to teach-- on the ball and off the ball. This article will only deal with on the ball progression.

Since there are more components in teaching offensive skills than in teaching defensive skills, I will begin with the offensive side of the 1-on-1 equation and cover the defensive part next month.

For the rest of this article, please go to http://www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com/1-on-1-part1

Coaching Youth Basketball: Teaching The Art of Using Screens

2007-12-29T19:56:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year

My wish, as in every year, is that in 2008 we will have peace in this world, we will find our global society coming back to The One, that we will wake up and realize the pain we have caused Mother Earth and begin to do our individual parts to help Her heal.

Deep Peace to you and yours!

This month's article is my reply to a coach named Wim C., from Belgium.

Coaches write to me with questions relevant to the age groups they work with and to their youth coaching experience. It doesn’t seem to matter where in the world these coaches write from, their questions are echoed by dozens, if not hundreds of other youth coaches around the globe.

In order to adequately answer the questions I received from Wim, who works with 6-10 year olds, I am going to need more than one article. Coach C. asks: “How do you teach the progression in one-on-one play, (in both) offense and defense?” He also asks, “At what age do you start using screens?”

In this article, I'll answer the easier question about when to start teaching screens.

Screens are not for inexperienced coaches and very young players. They are time consuming to teach correctly and drill, so they are best left to coaches who know the rules and functions for screens and for players with enough experience to quickly pick up the fine points of screening and using screens.

Probably, age 10 is too early for most players. First, they have to be made to understand the purpose of the screen and how it works for that purpose. They will need to be shown how to correctly set a screen and told what the rules regarding screens are--close screening, moving, etc.

The easiest screen to begin with is one made away from the ball.

To read the rest of the article, go to: Teaching Screens

See you next month, when I answer Wim's other question about teaching 1-on-1 progression.

JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS

2007-12-07T20:30:00.000-08:00

Basketball On A Triangle: A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing

JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS

The long awaited book is available for download now--

Buy It Separately or With The Streaming Video

By Coach Ronn Wyckoff

This is the book that launched the highly popular DVD and Streaming Video by the same name.

For More Information Go To

http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/B-O-A-T

Coaching Basketball: Teaching Defensive Transition

2007-11-27T09:21:00.000-08:00

I surveyed my Spiritual Hoops subscribers during November, asking coaches what their most pressing 'need to know' was right now. I was surprised by the number of responses from around the world, and I will begin to answer some of the questions with my December newsletter.

I will still entertain more responses from my readership and I encourage coaches to submit their questions.

Coach Anindya, from India, asked how to train his players to get back quickly on defense. I thought this was a question I should deal with as an article, because I have had this question asked before.

This is more of a team issue than an individual issue, and while I try to maintain my focus on only teaching individual aspects of the game, the transition issue relates to both the fast break and rebounding—areas I have covered in my e-books and DVD/videos. So, I decided to offer my thoughts on how Coach Anindya might help his players transition to defense more quickly.

If that is a concern for any other readers as well, the article can be read in its entirety at
http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/December_2007.

Yours in Sport & Spirit,

Coach Ronn

Bonus Book--Station Drills

2007-11-19T20:00:00.000-08:00

Hey, here's a bonus for you! Originally there was to be a chapter 15 in my book, Basketball On A Triangle: A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing. I took it out, and now there's an additional, stand alone ebook that just was published.

Basketball coaches everywhere bemoan the lack of practice time. Too, every coach seems to need more time for his/her players to practice fundamental skills. Because it takes up so much of every practice just to work with the team aspects, too often the individual skill practice time gets short-changed.

In this latest ebook, I give coaches a solution for this time and individual skill teaching dilemma.

Years ago, I devised a plan where in 15-20 minutes of practice time we could cover all the basic individual skills, so the rest of the practice time could be used for teaching the team aspects of the game.

To read more about this book, use this link: http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/stationdrills

For all my ebooks, mentoring programs, DVD/videos, and articles, please visit
http://www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com

Yours in Sport & Spirit,

Coach Ronn

Coaching Youth Basketball: Teaching Position Specific Skills

2007-11-07T11:46:00.000-08:00

Now you've got completion! This book wraps up all the other books by Coach Ronn that taught all the basic skills:
Balance and Movement; Passing; Dribbling; Shooting;Rebounding;
Moving Without the Ball; Moving With the Ball; How to Play Defense…

After you've taught the basics…

What Comes Next?

You teach: Position Specific Skills!!

In Teaching Position Specific Skills, you'll learn how to teach…

Offensive attacking and finishing at the basket;
Defensive specifics to the player position—positioning, over play/denial;
Specifics common to both inside and perimeter positions—shot-blocking, cuts, flashing the post, and moving with the ball;
Getting the right attitude for success;
All the position skill work necessary to take your players to a higher level of play.

Get all the information about this new book...AND, there's a video available too that covers all the action being taught.

For all the details, go to: Teaching Position Specific Skills

Coaching Youth Basketball: Why Teach Man Defense?

2007-10-28T18:55:00.000-07:00

Teaching man-to-man principles and techniques, starting with a basic stance, then movement, then playing on-the-ball and off-the-ball, before even considering teaching zone defense just makes sense. You have to start with the basics. Man defense is the basic.

There are a lot of reasons to teach zone defense. What I want to show readers here is how, by using man-to-man techniques while deploying zone defense, you can make your defense so much stronger and effective.

When starting out teaching defense, particularly at youth age levels, the basics necessarily require teaching man skills and techniques. This will include, and incorporate later into dynamic capabilities for individual defensive play, stance, sliding and movement, followed by 1-on-1 on-the-ball and off-the-ball techniques and rules.

Logic and good teaching procedure would use plateaus of learning, moving from individual lessons to 1-on-1, then 2-on-2, and so on, until reaching full team execution of man-to-man defense. It does no good to teach the team game before a child has been introduced to and hopefully mastered well enough the individual aspects of defense. When every player can play both on-the-ball and off-the-ball, the rules used in teaching these techniques will easily lead right into teaching team defense. It’s basically already been done at this point, because with five players following their individual on- and off-ball rules, they’ve got the basic structure for the team defense. Now it’s just a matter of teaching how to play and be effective as a group.

For the rest of the article, go to www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com/whyteachmanD

There are several articles and products, listed below, which I have created to help learn the basic teaching of defense. These can also be found at my website, www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com.

Teaching Individual Defense, Part I

http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/September_2006.html

Teaching Individual Defense, Part II

http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/October_2006.html

Defending The Dribble Entry

http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/November1_2006.html

Video: Teaching Individual Defense

https://freeiq.com/teachingindividualdefense

Ebook: Teaching Individual Defense

https://freeiq.com/ebookteachingindividualdefense

Coaching Youth Basketball: Teaching Individual Defense

2007-10-20T07:41:00.000-07:00

I just published a definitive work for teaching individual defense. Not only is it a teaching guide for novice coaches, but experienced coaches will find things here they can use to make their defensive play stronger. There are an ebook and a 55 minute video that shows me teaching everything I write about in my ebook. The ebook comes with loads of pictures and diagrams to illustrate what is being talked about in the text. Together, the video and ebook complement each other, so not only will you have the words but also the visual to bring home the strongest understanding of how to teach individual defensive techniques.

Below is the recently published press release for the ebook. At then end there are links for ordering both the ebook and the video.

TEACHING INDIVIDUAL DEFENSE

By Coach Ronn Wyckoff

IT’S HALF THE GAME…WHAT ARE YOU TEACHING?

“More than anything else, playing inspired defense

is a matter of will.”

Phil Jackson

Coach Ronn’s Defensive Truths

· We have to get the ball in order to play with the ball! Defense gets the ball! Period!

· In a thirty-two minute game, if both teams are equal, defense is fifty-per cent of the game.

· Defense is too important to just hope that players will get it. The coaches must teach it.

· So many times coaches don’t really believe in defense, relying rather on their offensive teaching skills.

· Or, perhaps coaches just don’t understand how to teach defense.

Once a coach knows how, it can then be taught easily enough, then drilled to perfection the same way we develop offenses—over and over and over, until it becomes UNCONSCIOUS COMPETENCE!

Coaches, even if you believe in using zone defense, do not expect your team to play good team zone defense if the individual players cannot execute good, basic man principles.

In my more than forty years of coaching, I have come to the following

realizations about defense:

1. There is often a lot of generalization rather than specific teaching being done;

2. Many coaches believe zone defense is easier to teach than man defense;

3. Defensive skills are easier to teach than offensive skills;

4. Creating a good defensive player is infinitely easier than creating a good offensive player;

5. A team can play good defense and win even when the offense is having an off game;

6. Defense has always created most of my offense.

Let me help you become an outstanding defensive teaching-coach. Good defense begins by teaching a stance that gets the player low, on balance, under control, and able to move quickly and efficiently.

From this 43 page e-book, combining text, diagrams and pictures, I’ll teach you how to teach stance easily and effectively. Then we’ll cover every aspect of teaching the individual, in each position…

§ how to move;

§ how to defend the player with the ball in different areas of the floor;

§ how to defend players off the ball; and

§ how to begin to put together the team aspect of playing “Triangle Defense”.

Don’t miss out on being able to teach half the game!!

Order Your Book Now!

A $27 value, ONLY $11.99

ORDER EBOOK

The video is a $24 value
for only $9.99

ORDER VIDEO

2007-10-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a mid-month update on what's new, as I move toward finishing all my work in progress for the last 2 1/2 years.

I hope all is well for you and yours. If you are coaching basketball this upcoming season, I know time is short to get all your plans in readiness. That's my purpose in writing at this time--to make available material to you that can help as you make your practice plans.

I have my 4 hr. teaching DVD available in hard disc and also in streaming video. So you have a choice, but now the two FREE ebooks that were only available on the discs are also available with the video. Every individual skill area of the game is covered in the DVD/Video.

BUT, it doesn't stop there. In case you may have had an interest in particular skill areas of my DVD over other areas, each individual chapter of the DVD is now available !!

AND, for each skill chapter of the DVD/Video there is now a corresponding ebook (except the last 2, Chapters 9 & 10, which I should have done next month). Now you can have the on-floor action showing on your screen while at the same time have the text, pictures and diagrams for that same skill available to study and get the words necessary to teach with.

Below is the order section taken right from my web site for the DVD/Video. Check it out. See for yourself if the offerings available now can work for your particular coaching needs.

CLICK HERE
to order the 10-Chapter video online

With 2 FREE Ebooks

OR...

Order Any Individual Chapter

Chapt. 1 Explaining The Game

Chapt. 2 Teaching Balance and Control

Chapt. 3 Teaching Passing Video

Chapt. 4 Teaching Dribbling Video

Chapt. 5 Teaching Shooting Video

Chapt. 6 Teaching Rebounding/Tipping Video

Chapt. 7 Teaching Movement Without The Ball Video

Chapt. 8 Teaching Individual Moves With The Ball Video

Chapt. 9 Teaching Individual Defense

Chapt. 10 Teaching Position Specific Skills

OR...

Order the 2-DISC DVD Set

CLICK HERE

All 23 video and ebook products are available to view

by clicking here:

FreeIQ

Wishing you all the best as you prepare for the upcoming season.

Yours in Sport & Spirit,

Coach Ronn

DVD Press Release

2007-10-07T19:20:00.000-07:00

Zip Code: 34232 - Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida

Release Date: July 25, 2007

New Basketball Drills DVD For Coaches & Players

(PRLEAP.COM) "Basketball On A Triangle: A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing", is a powerful basketball coaching DVD being introduced at http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/dvd.html .

This teaching DVD is being hailed by reviewers as one of the most highly detailed basketball teaching products on the market. It’s also been called the tool every youth basketball coach needs to have.

Available in both hard disc and downloadable versions, this powerful, 4-hour, 2-disc DVD is a "Virtual Basketball Camp" that may help any coach or player successfully overcome a myriad of dilemmas— learning what to teach, how to teach it, and when to teach it.

"Basketball On A Triangle…" is four hours of jam-packed "how to" information offering a variety of applications designed to help coaches better understand and teach the game and players to be better able to play the game. Every individual skill for the game is covered. All the tips and strategies for basketball play are highly detailed through straight-talking, targeted, step-by-step teaching, to enable any coach or player to take their game to a higher level. Coaches get the words and drills to be able to teach the basics, so kids get it right, right from the beginning levels of play.

Coach Ronn’s more than fifty years of playing and coaching basketball uniquely qualify him to teach coaches how to teach basketball and players to play better basketball. His programs have reached hundreds of coaches and players around the world with his simple but direct teaching methods, making this DVD a one-of-a-kind.

Coach Ronn is also the author of numerous basketball coaching e-Books that mirror all the subjects covered in the DVD. He also offers a 1-on-1 Mentoring program for coaches or players. More can be learned about Coach Ronn and his programs at his website http://www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com.

Whether a "newbie" or an old hand, anyone can learn from this teaching-training DVD found at http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/dvd.html .

Top Basketball Coaching Tips Press Release

2007-10-07T19:19:00.000-07:00

Zip Code: 34232 - Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida

Release Date: July 25, 2007

Top Basketball Coaching Tips

(PRLEAP.COM) Author, Ronn Wyckoff, also the producer of www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com and the author/producer of the book and DVD, “Basketball On A Triangle: A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing”, has brought a sensational basketball coaching E-Book to the market that can be any coach’s or player’s personal guide to basketball success.

There’s a new basketball coaching e-Book just released that is absolutely jam-packed with drills, tips, and teaching secrets that beginner and seasoned youth basketball coaches and players alike should have in their coaching library.

The e-Book, “Top Basketball Coaching Tips”, by Coach Ronn Wyckoff, offers readers 100’s of basketball tips that can personalize and even skyrocket their basketball coaching or basketball playing abilities. These tips and basketball drills for how to play basketball and how to coach basketball can help coaches cut through the mystery of “how to teach” and “what to do” to make sure every player is able to perform at the peak of his or her ability.

Every individual aspect of teaching and playing the game is covered in this 70+ page
e-Book. The book has just been introduced to the market and can be previewed at this site: http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/top_basketball_coaching_tips.html

This e-Book is filled with the exercises and drills Coach Ronn has used successfully for more than 50 years of playing and coaching, and in teaching other coaches how to teach the game. Over his long career, he has devised, borrowed, honed and tweaked the things he teaches so readers can become stronger teachers or players of the game. This experience uniquely qualifies him to compile this sensational basketball coaching e-Book that could be every youth basketball coach and player’s personal guide to basketball success.

Whether the reader has been coaching or playing for a while, or are just getting started, these top basketball tips can give anyone the words and knowledge needed to explode their teaching or playing game.

Here are some of the powerfully detailed tips found in "Top Basketball Coaching Tips":

Practice Tips & Rules; Tips for Individual Offense, including Offensive Rules To Learn and Know; Individual Defense, including Defensive Rules To Learn and Know; Team Skills; Tips For Getting Started, for new coaches and players; Tips for Moving Without The Ball; Position Specific Tips for Post/Inside Play, for playing Wing/Perimeter, and Guard/Perimeter Play; Tips For Teaching Balance and Control, Passing, Dribbling, Shooting and Rebounding; Tips For Teaching Individual Moves With The Ball; and Tips For Teaching Individual Defense.

Every individual basketball skill is covered here in an amazing array of tips and drills.
Everything is explained in detail and kept simple for the reader to understand.

More e-Books, Coach Ronn’s powerful 4-hour teaching DVD and information about his mentoring program can be found at his website, www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com

Press Release Sept. 30--Rebounding

2007-10-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

Zip Code: 34232 - Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida

Release Date: September 30, 2007

Coaching Youth Basketball: Teaching Rebounding

(PRLEAP.COM) Coach Ronn Wyckoff continues to turn out e-books for novice or less experienced youth basketball coaches. His latest one, “Coaching Youth Basketball: Teaching Rebounding”, will appeal to that coaching niche because he literally tells, and demonstrates through diagrams, every step for teaching beginning players how to rebound. And, then he takes what he has presented and applies it for more capable coaches and players, so there is something in Teaching Rebounding for every level of experience.

"Teaching Rebounding" can help beginning coaches cut through the mystery of ‘how to teach’ and ‘what to do’, making sure every player is able to learn this important basketball skill.

Every individual and team aspect of teaching both offensive and defensive rebounding techniques and skills will be found in this e-Book. The book has just been introduced to the market and can be previewed at this site: http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/teachingrebounding.

Coach Ronn addresses rebounding as one skill area that can make the difference between winning and losing close games. He suggests that players can learn to be good rebounders by learning to finesse into the best position to get the rebound. He teaches positioning techniques and body use skills that can enable average jumpers to become above-avarage rebounders. He states, that while jumping ability is a great attribute to have as a rebounder, not everyone can jump well. He goes on to say that jumping ability is greatly over-emphasized, while positioning and proper boxing-out techniques are more important, especially for young players.

Coach Ronn teaches the exercises and drills for rebounding from every position. He has used these teaching techniques successfully for more than 50 years of playing and coaching, and in teaching other coaches how to teach the game. Over his long career, he has devised, borrowed, honed and tweaked the things he teaches so readers can become stronger teachers or players of the game. His career experiences uniquely qualify him to compile all of the sensational basketball e-Books he has written. This library of work could be every youth basketball coach and player’s personal guide to basketball success.

All his e-Books, his powerful 4-hour teaching DVD, and information about his mentoring programs for both coaches and players can be found at his website, www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com.

New E-Book From Coach Ronn

2007-10-07T19:15:00.000-07:00

Here is a recent press release about my newest e-book release.

Zip Code: 34232 - Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida

Release Date: October 09, 2007

Coaching Youth Basketball: Teaching Moves With The Ball

(PRLEAP.COM) Right on the heels of publishing, Teaching Movement Without The Ball, Coach Ronn Wyckoff has brought his latest work, Coaching Youth Basketball: Teaching Moves With The Ball.

The two books were brought out nearly simultaneously in order to give players and coaches the basis for individual basketball play. Armed with the material in these two books, basketball coaches and players, especially those new to the game, will learn what the player with the ball should do, and at the same time, what the ball handler’s teammates should be doing to help and complement the offensive movement of the ball.

Coach Ronn points out that, on offense, if everyone handles the ball equally (which he also points out will never happen), players will spend about 80% of their time on offense without the ball.

His last book teaches how to move without the ball so a player can get the ball, and this book teaches the player what to do when they do have the ball.

Some coaches will want this book to perhaps reinforce what they may have known from earlier playing or coaching experiences, however, the new coach should find Teaching Moves With The Ball invaluable for getting the information to be able to teach young players what to do and how to do it, when the have the ball.

The author has used these teaching techniques successfully all over the world for more than 50 years of playing and coaching, and in teaching other coaches how to teach the game. Over his long career, he has devised, borrowed, honed and tweaked the things he teaches so readers can become stronger teachers or players of the game. His career experiences uniquely qualify him to compile all of the sensational basketball e-Books he has written.

This library of work should be every youth basketball coach and player’s personal guide to basketball success. The e-Book collection, along with Coach Ronn’s powerful 4-hour teaching DVD, and information about his mentoring programs for both coaches and players, can be found at his website, www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com.

Two New E-Books from Coach Ronn

2007-10-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

Here is a recent press release about my newest e-book release.

Zip Code: 34232 - Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida

Release Date: October 09, 2007

Coaching Youth Basketball: Teaching Movement Without The Ball—“Homework”

(PRLEAP.COM) Coach Ronn Wyckoff has just published his seventh e-Book in the basic basketball teaching series he has been writing for the past year. His latest book is entitled, Coaching Youth Basketball: Teaching Movement Without The Ball—“Homework”.

His goal in writing this series is to help both new or fairly new coaches and players be able to learn the fundamental aspects of the individual game.

While his writing is highly detailed, it is simply put so everyone in this novice niche can understand and practice what Coach Ronn is teaching.

In an earlier book he wrote about how to help young players get their bodies on balance and their movements under control. Now, he takes take these concepts into game action, covering moving without the ball, or what the author calls doing one’s “homework”.

Here, Coach Ronn covers what to do to get open to receive a pass, receiving the pass and then being able to protect the ball, and what the player who has just made the pass does next.

Complemented with pictures and diagrams, this book will help players to learn to move with a purpose, while trying to get open to receive a pass from another player who has the ball. "Movement Without The Ball", gives coaches the words and drills, in the highly detailed manner of teaching we’ve come to expect from Coach Ronn.

On the heels of this book, the author will very quickly publish the follow-up book to this one, in which he will detail what to do once a player has the ball. The two books together, when added to the basic skills of passing, dribbling, shooting and rebounding (which Coach Ronn has previously published), makeup what every player needs to know to be able to play the game.

The author has used these teaching techniques successfully for more than 50 years of playing and coaching, and in teaching other coaches how to teach the game. Over his long career, he has devised, borrowed, honed and tweaked the things he teaches so readers can become stronger teachers or players of the game. His career experiences uniquely qualify him to compile all of the sensational basketball e-Books he has written. This library of work should be every youth basketball coach and player’s personal guide to basketball success.

All his e-Books, his powerful 4-hour teaching DVD, and information about his mentoring programs for both coaches and players can be found at his website, www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com.

Beginning Basketball Coaching

2007-09-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

When I was first starting out as a wet-behind-the-ears basketball coach, I had no real guidance about what to do. I had a basketball coaching course in college. I had played most of my life, but had no real concept of what to do as a coach. Today there is a wealth of information available for the beginning basketball coach, however a lot of it is too advanced for someone who may be just getting started. Those men, women, or teenagers who will be coaching youth teams need to be fed information relative to their own knowledge and level of experience, and to that of the youth they will be coaching. They need to learn how, what, and when to do the things relative to that sport. Then, they need to be able to translate this information into meaningful teaching activity for the youngsters.

Teaching requires that learning is taking place. Just going through motions isn’t teaching. Just telling or directing traffic is not teaching.

Let me make something clear right here—(for the rest of this article go to: Beginning Coaching)

Coaching Girls Basketball: Teaching "L", "X" and "Z" Moves in the Post

2007-08-28T08:15:00.000-07:00

I find that teaching post play in basketball is a lot of fun and reaps great rewards for
the post players as well as the team. I find this especially rewarding when working
with players who would not be considered natural post players.

When coaching girls basketball vs. coaching boys basketball there is really
no difference in my approach. The strategies remain the same. Boys are stronger,
jump higher, move quicker and have usually a more diverse shooting arsenal. My
teaching methods remain the same, though, concentrating on fundamentals, defense
and discipline—the basis for my teaching philosophy found in my teaching DVD
and books—“Basketball On A Triangle: A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing”.

In teaching post play, unless a team’s strategy is to use a strong and fairly
stationary low post, I would have the post in continuous movement. I do this in
order to confound the defender and to constantly attempt to open up passing
angles. My “L”, “X” & “Z” patterns make it nearly impossible to hold a correct
defensive position all the time. This creates an advantage, or at least an equalizer,
for a smaller post player.

To read more of this post, go to Coaching Girls Basketball...

Youth Basketball Basics For Coaches and Players

2007-08-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

Before I got into the competitive marketplace for online basketball, I did a lot of research of the sites I found on the web. I found that there are millions of web pages dealing with basketball related topics. Which sites are right for an individual coach or player depends on what that person is looking for. It could also depend on the individual’s level of understanding and skill for playing basketball or coaching basketball. A coach with some longevity in the game will probably not be interested in how to teach basic basketball fundamentals, while a coach starting out teaching young boys or girls will not require the sophistication of material the more experienced one will.

Basically, basketball coaches and players will have to sift through a myriad of websites to find answers for their particular sets of questions. The problem with many of the sites that I have investigated is that they mostly market the same basketball videos and DVDs. While they may have some good content to their sites, there is also a lot of redundancy making a lot for searchers to wade through. Read the rest of the article at:

Youth-Basketball-Basics-For-Coaches-Players

Who’s Your Mentor

2007-07-06T12:46:00.000-07:00

July, 2007

I am always amazed that so many people try to take on so much for which they are obviously unqualified. If you can't play the piano, how can you teach someone how to play the piano. You'll need to learn first. Gonna' teach yourself? How long will that take? Wouldn't it be easier to hire a teacher-a mentor?

Whenever we undertake a new venture, be it coaching youth basketball, some kind of business startup, a hobby or whatever—we usually need help.

Most of us don’t have the luxury of having gurus at our beck-and-call. However, in this computer age, we are closer to being able to reach out for a mentor, anywhere in the world we may be, and anywhere in the world a mentor might be.

We can go one-on-one with someone who knows what we want to know without ever leaving our home.

I’m ready to retire, and want to have a renewable income source to keep me financially secure for the rest of my life. I decided to take everything I’d been doing for more than fifty years in basketball and market it to the world. This would have been extremely difficult for me in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, but now in the new millennium, I can accomplish this via the internet.

Upon graduation from college my first basketball coaching position was at the middle school level and I found quickly that I needed more education.

For your continued interest in reading the rest of this article, go to:
http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/July_2007.html

Basketball Coaching: Teaching Low Post Offense

2007-06-02T21:33:00.000-07:00

TEACHING THE DROP-STEP

IN LOW POST OFFENSE

June, 2007

Teaching position specific skills is my specialty. This article deals with taking a young post player and showing them how to begin to move and play in that position.

Whether I’m teaching post offense to a 10-12 year old novice boy or girl or an experienced 16-18 year old, I always start with the same technique tests from the low post.

I want to see how they move around the key as the ball moves around the perimeter. I want to see where they stand when they stop and what the path is they took to get to where they stop. I want to make sure they are facing the ball all the while, that their hands are ready to receive a pass and that their body balance is correct to protect the ball and to withstand defensive play. If they have trouble with any of these things, or all of these things, that’s where I begin to teach.

Moving

To begin this basketball drill, I want to see inside movement that mirrors the perimeter movement of the ball.

For your continued reading interest, the rest of the article may be found at:

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

Spiritual Hoops Newsletter

2007-05-12T12:41:00.000-07:00

“The Right Thing To Do Is To Do The Right Thing”

SPIRITUAL HOOPS

A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing

SPIRITUAL HOOPS is not about religion, nor is it about discussing team aspects of offense and defense.

SPIRITUAL HOOPS is about having a spiritual base for coaching or playing the game; it’s about promoting global good will through basketball; it deals with issues relating to individual fundamentals, discipline, and creating practice scenarios.

Your response to issues raised here and your sharing of questions are welcomed. All replies should be directed

to Coach Ronn via SpiritualHoops@cs.com.

A new SPIRITUAL TRINITY for the modern world:

1) We are all One;

2) There is no such thing as better (see #1);

3) There is enough abundance for everyone (if we’ll just share-see #1 & 2).

Coach Ronn's International Basketball School

2007-05-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

Sarasota, FL (941) 927-3330

For more information, please use this contact e-mail address:
BballOnATriangle@cs.com

Allow me to introduce myself:

I consider myself a teacher more than a coach and pay close attention to details in this teaching. My philosophy is "that a thing done correctly increases the chance of it being done well". Practice doesn't always make perfect. I believe that if we practice something incorrectly, we may get very good at doing that thing incorrectly. Instead, I teach that practice makes permanent. I feel it's very important to learn a skill correctly from the beginning and I spend a lot of time (with a great deal of patience) teaching young basketball players how to undo incorrect practices.

Learning proper techniques that can take a player from whatever level they are to the next level requires more specialization as a player matures. There may well come a time when the parent, youth league coach, or school coach doesn't have the time or the experience to teach proper techniques, be able to break old habits, or develop the player to a higher skill level.

My philosophy of paying attention to details, while teaching basketball fundamentals, defense and discipline, has served my players and teams well over the years. Most of my teams consisted of average players, but these teams' winning records were attained because we paid attention to details other coaches weren't teaching. Teaching the "HOW TO's" is my specialty.

I conduct basketball teaching workshops for coaches. I also conduct individualized workshops where I go to a school. There, I will individualize training for that program, where I instruct the coaches while using the players to demonstrate my teaching methods.

I do private tutoring of position specific skills for high school players focused on playing at the collegiate level.

I conduct Parent-Child clinics for youth organizations, where I have the parents going through the same skills as the players.

If you have questions about coaching or playing, feel free to contact me about my book and DVDs, "Basketball On A Triangle". Every aspect of the individual game is covered there.

COACH RONN'S PHILOSOPHIES

On Life: The right thing to do is to do the right thing.

On The game: The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win. Winning doesn't just happen. You must set goals. You must prepare. You must be in condition and be disciplined. You must be fundamentally sound and you must play good defense. With these things in place, only then will you be able to perform at your peak. This takes the right attitude and a determined focus. (Focus keeps you on the line and your goal in sight. Attitude determines your speed along the line in reaching your goal.)

We win, regardless of the score, when you play at your peak and execute those things well which you have been taught to do. No more can be asked than that you give your best in both practices and games. If the other team scores more points, and we have given our best, we have not lost. We have no control over how good or how well prepared the other players and teams are. We do have control over how we play and how well we prepare to play. It is a great test of character to have given your best effort and have lost the game.

Basketball On A Triangle

2007-05-12T12:28:00.000-07:00

Below, is a description of the book contents, followed by excerpts from different chapters.

By Ronn Wyckoff

CONTENTS

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Preface

Personal Pics

SECTION I (Preparing To Teach)

Chapter 1: Discipline/Fundamentals/Defense

Chapter 2: Building The Parent-Child Bond

Chapter 3: Being The Best You Can Be

Chapter 4: Becoming A Teaching-Coach

Handouts:

Skills To Cover Prior To First Game

Two-Hour Practice (Sample)

Varsity Handbook (Sample)

Letter: Varsity Boys Family Potluck

Manager’s Game Check List

My Philosophies

Pre-Game Acknowledgement

Rules To Learn And Know

SECTION II(Teaching Skills-This section contains over 200 photos and diagrams and follows the material presented in the DVDs)

Chapter 5: Explaining The Game/Team Interplay

Chapter 6: Teaching Balance and Control

Chapter 7: Teaching Passing

Chapter 8: Teaching Dribbling

Chapter 9: Teaching Shooting

Chapter 10: Teaching Rebounding/Tipping

Chapter 11: Teaching Movement Without The Ball: “Homework”

Chapter 12: Teaching Individual Moves With The Ball

Chapter 13: Teaching Individual Defense

Chapter 14: Teaching Position Specific Skills

Chapter 15: Station Drills

SECTION III (Winding Down)

Chapter 16: In Conclusion

Chapter 17: The 4^th Quarter

CHAPTER EXCERPTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the formative years of my coaching I searched for as much help as I could get and found it from some of the most talented people of that era. I believe that each person we interact with leaves a fingerprint on our life. Some leave such indelible prints that our lives are forever changed. I thank all the people who came through my life with some snippet of coaching, teaching, or living advice.

These talented “mentors” inspired me to want to be more than just a successful high school coach. I read what they wrote; took notes on what they had to say at coaching clinics; I participated as a coach in their camps; I even took my players and my small sons to listen to them speak, to attend the camps as players, and to watch their teams practice. None of these “mentors” knew my name or would remember me, but they influenced my early growth in becoming the teacher of the game into which I evolved.

All the coaches I ever coached for, with, and against each helped me to grow. Probably the most precious gift of learning, though, came from teaching and working with the hundreds of players all over the world, each of whom created a drama and carried a message for my growth throughout my career.

I am grateful for the blessing of Divine Guidance, which, more than anything, got me to where I am in my life, in the teaching of this game, and in the writing of this book.

PREFACE

As I sat down in the new year of 2005 to begin writing this book, I realized that the seeds for the material presented here were planted 30 years earlier on a coaching tour in Africa. Up to that time, I had been coaching school teams in California. In the summer of 1975 I became the National Basketball Coach for Rhodesia (which a year later was on its way to being renamed Zimbabwe). Asked by the People-To-People Sports Committee, out of New York, to spend the summer leading a national program was like a dream come true for a high school coach. By the time I finished my tour there, I had coached boys and girls teams from grade school to national teams. I had trained the men’s national team, set up programs, run national training camps for players and coaches, lectured, and otherwise done more than I had ever attempted in my career to that point. I left them with a syllabus for training, teaching and developing their national program. I had become the quintessential teaching-coach.

While the substance of this book has probably been ready for a decade, I wasn’t yet ready to embark on the commitment of time and discipline I knew it would take to do this the way I wanted to do it. Over half a century of basketball experiences, notes and memories needed to be waded through. I wanted to do justice to the premise I held in my mind that this should be simple, understandable and meaningful in reaching those coaches, parents and players who are ready in their lives and careers to receive what I most want to teach them.

It is my opinion, that in order to be the best we can be, in anything, we first need to find the purpose for being whatever it is we’re trying to be. Establishing that, we then need to be so focused as to be relentless in our pursuit of this purpose. My purpose now is to take this whole experience that has been uniquely mine and share it with coaches who would be teaching-coaches, parents who would like words and techniques to inspire and teach their children this game, and players who recognize there is a higher level they can reach if only someone will teach them how to get there.

Chapter 1: DISCIPLINE/FUNDAMENTALS/DEFENSE

The teaching of “Basketball On A Triangle” as a philosophy first came into my consciousness during my Rhodesia tour in 1975. Five years later, while consulting to the national basketball program in the island-nation of Barbados, I began to write about it and refer to it as my philosophy.

I had paid particular attention to the individual aspects of the triangle for years prior to this. I just hadn’t made the distinction as a philosophy.

To become the complete teaching-coach, or a complete player, one can’t ignore any aspect of development, lest one’s development be ‘incomplete’. If we don’t teach or play defense well, we’re only teaching or playing half the game. If we don’t teach offensive skills and rebounding correctly, how can we expect a player to play at his/her highest potential? We teaching-coaches have to be able to recognize even the smallest skill weakness and be able to break down the skill for the player to better understand and execute. Everything about successful teaching is about paying attention to the details! It’s the little things which are a part of discipline for both the teacher and player.

I believe that every player needs and deserves a teaching-coach in the early years. Each skill needs to be broken down into building blocks, where the level of difficulty can be raised as the individual grasps and possesses the skill before moving on. A coach can make a big mistake thinking that all players are capable of grasping the same lesson at the same pace as every other player. It doesn’t happen in the classroom so why would we assume the playing floor is somehow different? Skill teaching takes time and patience. Parents can be a big help here, reinforcing what the coach does and helping the child practice. I like to give a parent the words to use alongside the skills, to give them drills to practice each fundamental skill with, and teaching points to be able to reinforce. I want the parents to be able to encourage correct skill practice. (See Chapter 2, Building The Parent-Child Bond.)

The key to everything I’ve covered so far is the word ‘teaching’. If a player is to develop completely into their individual potential, as coaches we must teach every aspect of the game. We can’t expect players to do it on their own because they don’t know what they don’t know. We teaching-coaches have our own pyramids to build along the way too. We need to constantly challenge ourselves to increase our knowledge and abilities to understand the youth we work with and to teach them well in basketball and in life skills. So, we build together—coaches and players—on different, but parallel planes.

Chapter 2: BUILDING THE PARENT-CHILD BOND

Sports are a great metaphor for life. The dynamic of how we deal with our participation in sports mirrors how we live our lives.

Supporting the child is a very important parenting choice. Whether they are just beginning to learn the game or they are already on a team, the child needs a parent’s unconditional support. It’s not just about basketball either. It should be across the board for any activity a child shows interest in. It may not even be something the child seems to have any natural affinity for. The child just needs to know they are okay, that they are being given the opportunity to explore and expand, and that the parent is supportive and interested in whatever the child is attempting.

While the parent is watching and supporting the child, the child is “watching” the parent. The child has an awareness that records every action and reaction, every word of encouragement or discouragement. All the while, the child is measuring whether they are okay or not okay in the parent’s eyes

It’s not just the parents, either. Every adult in a child’s life offers profound opportunities for modeling behavior. The child’s choices, now and throughout life, are being formed and influenced by the adult behavior they hear, see and perceive.

Being there for the child, being excited, encouraging and positive are all examples of supportive qualities.

Chapter 3: BEING THE BEST YOU CAN BE

From “the Power of Kabbalah”, by Yehuda Berg, comes the following wonderful wisdom: “In any athletic contest, the goal is to win.” (From Little League to the pros, regardless of the sport.) “If you ask someone what they’re trying to accomplish, they will tell you it’s to win the game.

“So, can we really say that winning is the ultimate goal? What we really want from a game is risk, challenge—and even the possibility of losing. More than winning, it’s the test of our ability that makes it all worthwhile.

“The concept of losing against an opponent is what gives definition, existence, and meaning to the concept of winning.”

“Basketball On A Triangle” is a holistic approach to coaching and playing the game of basketball. It integrates the aspects of body (conditioning), mind (discipline) and spirit (will).

One of the most lasting points I carried away from the time I spent around Coach Wooden was that we don’t have control over how good or how well prepared the other team is, nor the skill level of their players. What we do control is how well we prepare. Remember: “The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win.”

Chapter 4: BECOMING A TEACHING-COACH

I think I would counsel young coaches today to seek balance in their lives: Seek balance between all the different parts that make up who you are; Seek balance between the ego and the rest of your life. Choices in the beginning of a career can set the tone for everything done throughout that career. Remember: We’re about being and becoming, not just about what we do for a living.

The way you were coached may be all you know. Even if it was very successful, try to find your own style—one that suits you, feels comfortable for you, and reflects the person you are being or trying to become. As you grow in knowledge and experience, if it suits you—change!

First, we have to teach by example. It’s more important than the teaching of the subject matter, because if your players grow into outstanding men or women of character, that’s really the only subject that matters, isn’t it?

Second, it’s hard to teach something you can’t do yourself. How do you correct a player’s shooting technique if you are a terrible shooter yourself? Don’t let a lack keep you from getting started. Do understand your limitations though, and what you are going to do to overcome them. What you need to know can be learned through teaching it. If you start with some weak areas (and we all do) and don’t learn and progress, your continued coaching is probably not in the highest interest of either yourself or your players.

MY PHILOSOPHIES

On Life: The right thing to do is to do the right thing.

On The game: The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win.

Winning doesn't just happen. You must set goals. You must prepare. You must be in condition and be disciplined. You must be fundamentally sound and you must play good defense. With these things in place, only then will you be able to perform at your peak. That takes the right attitude and a determined focus. (Focus keeps you on the line and your goal in sight. Attitude determines your speed along the line in reaching your goal.)

We win, regardless of the score, when you play at your peak and execute those things well which you have been taught to do. No more can be asked than that you give your best in both practices and games. If the other team scores more points, and we have given our best, we have not lost. We have no control over how good or how well prepared the other players and teams are. We do have control over how we play and how well we prepare to play. It is a great test of character to have given your best effort and have lost the game.

Chapter 5: EXPLAINING THE GAME/TEAM INTERPLAY

They may not say it, but every player, parent and coach new to basketball wants to know how it all works—how everything fits together.

The game moves so quickly, the transitions from offense to defense and back again can be a blur, and the interplay between the five members of a team can be an enigma.

If you’re the parent or coach of a child new to the game, please don’t assume that they understand the game. Take whatever time is necessary to ensure that each child understands the words that describe the game, the action and the rules. It will give them confidence to get started and keep their frustration level down. Remember that what one child may understand another may not.

So it is, that teaching is the basis for being able to understand and play the game. The coach must know and understand the game. He/She must be able to teach the individual skills and then the team game.

Chapter 6: TEACHING BALANCE AND CONTROL

There are a lot of subtleties in the game of basketball that are as important to playing the game as are dribbling, passing and shooting.

Usually, as a player grows in the game, balance and body control become less of an issue. But, for the young player, these things are very important, for without their mastery, the game will not be played well. Again, these things need to be taught.

Coaches, think for a moment about every active part of the game—dribbling vs. defense, shooting, cutting, pivoting, rebounding, moving without the ball, and playing defense—they all require the player to have good balance and control over the body.

A child without good balance will not be able to have control while dribbling or moving around the floor.

...we started at the most basic fundamental, the stance, and progressed through building blocks. Each new move built on what was learned in the previous move, and each succeeding move became more difficult than the one before it. We drill each part separately until it’s learned. Then, we take all the parts and put them together in our balance and control sequence drill. This uses the full length of the floor, up and back, performing each move for a full length. Before you begin the full sequence, have each player complete a length doing a move; critique all the players; send them back doing the same move, if necessary. Have them do the next move the same way, until all the moves can be done successfully for a full length of the floor. Then have them do all the moves, one after the other, without stopping. For beginners, this should be done daily. For more experienced players, we will move quickly into a more advanced sequence drill. Coach’s note: Instead of running line drills for conditioning or punishment (?), why not do something that is meaningful to the game, like the sequence drill. Most coaches don’t have time to waste, yet they waste time whenever they run a drill just for the sake of conditioning or punishment when it doesn’t involve game activity, i.e., dribbling, movement without the ball or defense.

So then, here’s the whole sequence.

1. Begin with the 1-2 stop. Alternating the feet they stop on each time, have each player go up the floor in a stop-and-go action every 4-5 strides.

2.They come back doing the stutter-step, again every 4-5 strides.

3.Go back up the floor combining the stutter-step with the open-step, alternating to the left and right every 4-5 strides.

4.Come back again using the zig-zag pattern, changing directions every 4-5 strides.

5.The last trip up the floor will be using the jump-stop-and-pivot with change of direction we call the pivot- and-go.

Chapter 7: TEACHING PASSING

From the beginning levels of basketball right up into the pros, what rankles coaches most are turnovers. These usually come as a result of a poorly thrown or poorly timed pass.

Teaching-coaches will spend the necessary time to teach and drill good passing in general and more specifically within their style of play. They will be rewarded with fewer turnovers.

There are more things to watch for, teach and correct with beginners. The more experienced player usually has the basics down. A good passer is made—taught and drilled. A good passer will have good eye-hand coordination and understand the mechanics of how to throw a ball.

There are four basic passes. These are:

1) Chest Pass—The most commonly used pass, from an inside player to an outside player; from an outside player to an inside player; and in passing around the perimeter.

2) Bounce Pass—This is an entry pass thrown from a perimeter player to an inside player or from one inside player to another inside player. Bounce passes are too slow to be used from the inside to the perimeter and around the perimeter. They are easily picked off, so teaching-coaches should always caution the use of this pass.

3) Overhead Pass—This pass can be used in any direction. The thing to watch for is that players have a tendency to bring the ball back over the head. When they do, it can be slapped away from behind.

4) Baseball Pass—This is the long ball pass, usually used in moving the ball up court as in a fast break where a stronger pass is needed.

Chapter 8: TEACHING DRIBBLING

These days, it seems every young basketball player wants to be a fancy dribbler. All the jukes, fakes, between the legs and behind the back dribbling are exciting for the players, and appeal to their egos. Young players are exposed to these techniques from every level, from street play to the NBA, and by the dribbling antics of their peers. Today’s players, regardless of size or position played, just wait for the chance to show off their ball moves. Not so long ago, those moves would have bought bench time, and who would have thought a player at 6-9 or seven feet would even be able to handle the ball the way they do today.

...I counsel players as to what I expect with their ball handling skills within their position and within the context of what our offense is trying to establish. Too much; too fancy; too bad! Over-dribbling and/or too fancy, and a player will have bought bench time.

Teaching-coaches must not allow players to dictate the style of play. That’s a discipline call for the coach. If something is not effective, don’t allow it. Don’t sacrifice team discipline for any one player’s ego.

While every young player starting out probably envisions themself as the next basketball super hero, they need to start with good basics. The skill of dribbling requires control over the ball while moving the body in a purposeful way for the position being played. Perimeter players need more dribbling skills than inside players do. Point guards need more dribbling talent than the rest. Dribbling skills, like passing skills, will determine a lot about the position a player plays at and the amount of playing time a player receives.

Chapter 9: TEACHING SHOOTING

Shooting, and hopefully making the shot to light up the scoreboard, is pretty much every player’s favorite part of the game.

A scorer is a specialist, just as rebounders, ball handlers, shot blockers, free throw shooters and great defenders are. Every player has a role to play within the system they are playing. Rarely would a coach be blessed to find one single player who can do everything well; however, lots of players can do several different things well. The designated shooters must be able to do more than score. Their teammates must be specialists at other things to bring balance to the team, but every player must be able to score when the opportunity presents itself.

In order to become accomplished at any level of scoring, a player needs a consistently effective shooting technique--one that would bring at least 50% positive results. This technique building needs to be started early in a player’s career. If not, it’ll become harder to break any bad habits with each season that goes by.

High scoring high school shooters don’t always become high scoring college players. High scoring college players don’t necessarily become prolific scorers in the pros. A player should not build all their playing hopes around being a top scorer. The whole game must be developed. Opportunities change at each level of play. Systems change. Coaches may want a player to be strong in a role other than scoring, for the good of the team. Playing time can change from one season to the next and from one level of play to the next. The higher one ascends up the ladder of competition, the better the other players are going to be.

I’ve found that every player likes to score, no matter what language is being spoken or which country I am in. When I coached internationally, it took a lot of convincing to get players and coaches to understand that there is much more to the game than just being a shooter and playing zone defense. I was usually somewhat able to mollify their offensive mentality by showing how all the other aspects of the game help to get a team the ball and stop the other team from scoring. Of course, for them, it still came back to shooting and scoring, so I emphasized good shooting techniques that would enable their teams to score more points. Hey—whatever works!

Chapter 10: TEACHING REBOUNDING/TIPPING

There are three areas that usually make the difference between losing or winning close games; Turnovers, free throws and rebounding. Turnovers and free throws have already been dealt with in previous chapters.

Rebounding is not so much about knocking bodies out of the way, as “crashing the boards” might suggest, as it is about learning to finesse into the best position to rebound.

Not every player has great size, height or leaping ability. Players with these attributes will please step forward. We’ll teach them to dominate the boards. The rest of us average-sized, medium-height, not-so-great leapers will have to make do with learning some very good techniques to be able to get our share of errant shots. Jumping is greatly over-emphasized. Positioning and proper boxing-out techniques are more important to good rebounding.

Good positioning is the key to good rebounding. If players are too far under the basket, the missed shots will go over their heads. Too far away from the basket and players in front will get to the ball first. Not all rebounds will fall within the area I will ascribe as being “a good place to begin”, but if a player is in a radius of 5 to 7 feet from the basket, that’s close enough. It’s probably safe to guesstimate that about half of all rebounds will be rebounded by players in this range.

Chapter 11: TEACHING MOVEMENT WITHOUT THE BALL-"HOMEWORK"

In Chapter 6 we talked about how to get our bodies on balance and our movements under control. In this chapter, we’ll take these concepts into game action, covering moving without the ball (“homework”). We’ll cover getting open to receive a pass, receiving the pass and protecting the ball, and what the player who has just made the pass does.

The most fun part of the game is playing with the ball. However, from a teaching standpoint, we need to use building blocks to keep the progression moving in a logical direction. All players need to have control over their bodies and be able to move well without the ball. If they do this, they won’t spend so much time tripping, fumbling and stumbling when they attempt to play the game.

Moving without the ball occupies most of an offensive player’s time—about 80%, if everyone was able to handle the ball an equal amount of time. When the player with the ball is looking to a particular player to pass to, he/she will only have about 3-4 seconds to make a decision. After that, the ball handler must make a move or look for someone else to pass to. Players without the ball must be in continuous movement to occupy their defenders. Then when the timing is right, the player without the ball must make a move quickly and decisively to get open. In “RULES TO LEARN AND KNOW”, #9 says, “If you are standing still on offense, the defense is also standing still. Keep the defender occupied. Keep in movement with a purpose."

If you are a player without the ball, and keep in motion, you make your defender think more about you than about what’s happening with the ball. All the time you’re moving, you must know where the ball is and where your teammates are. This requires that you keep your head up, face in to the middle, and maintain vision over the entire floor action. This can give you an edge over your defender who is busy watching you with his/her back to the action. If your defender loses eye contact on you, that’s an opportunity for you to make your move. Be ready to capitalize on any defensive lapse, perhaps going behind the defender to the basket or breaking quickly toward the 3-point line, ready to receive a pass.

Chapter 12: TEACHING INDIVIDUAL MOVES WITH THE BALL

In Chapter 11, we talked about moving without the ball. When a player has made the effort to get open to receive a pass, or has pulled in an offensive rebound, they now have to look to pass, shoot or attack the basket.

In general, then, any player securing the ball outside of the key, on the offensive end of the floor, is a potential scorer; either by shooting from where they get the ball or by creating a better shot by attacking the basket.

Note: Here’s a hint as to how to make the reverse without looking at the dribble. In Chapter 9, I wrote about reversing the dribble while maintaining eye contact with the defender. To be successful in keeping the defender in sight, the dribbler must know where the ball is without looking for it. To do this, the dribbler should be in a wide, low stance that allows the dribbler to only need dribble somewhere between the hip and the knee. Practicing a dribble at a constant height during the reverse will bring confidence. As the dribbler makes the leg swing and dribble hand switch, if the ball is at the practiced height, the other hand need only flow across that line to pick up the ball and continue the dribble.

An advanced version of the reverse is seen used more today than the one I have just been describing. The former is for beginners and those who cannot successfully and consistently pull off the one-hand reverse, or same-hand reverse.

This latter type of reverse is faster, does not require getting as low to the floor during the reverse, and requires less loss of vision with the defender. It is also more difficult, requiring better athleticism and ball handling skill. As the dribbler goes into this reverse, it is done more in a running style, spinning around the defender with the ball in the same hand. Only at the end of the spin move is the ball switched to the other hand away from the defender. This one-hand reverse requires practice for constancy of dribble height. (More about this spin move in Chapter 14.)

Chapter 13: TEACHING INDIVIDUAL DEFENSE

We have to get the ball in order to play with the ball! Defense gets the ball! Period!

Defense is too important to just hope that players will get it. The coaches must teach it.

Defense is so integral to the overall success of a program it cannot be afforded a cursory inspection, like I was doing in the first few years. Once we teaching-coaches know how, it can then be taught easily enough, then drilled to perfection the same way we develop offenses—over and over and over, until it becomes UNCONSCIOUS COMPETENCE!

In my more than forty years of coaching, I have come to the following realizations about defense:

1. There is often a lot of generalization rather than specific teaching being done;

2. Many coaches believe zone defense is easier to teach than man defense;

3. Defensive skills are easier to teach than offensive skills (Just look at the number of chapters it’s taken in this book to cover the various offensive skills);

4. Creating a good defensive player is infinitely easier than creating a good offensive player;

5. A team can play good defense and win even when the offense is having an off game;

6. Defense has always created most of my offense.

Throughout my career, at all levels of coaching, from the playgrounds in the beginning to national teams, we won nearly three out of every four games we played. I had some high scoring teams, and on only few occasions was I blessed to have any superior offensive players. My highest scoring teams were my best defensive teams.

I have mentioned numerous times that I believe in teaching by building blocks. We teach defense from the ground up, starting with the placement of the feet. With the first stage, we show the foot placement and stance. We need good balance and to be able to move quickly while maintaining good balance.

Defense begins with the individual. Team defense is only as good as its weakest player, so I look for players who have the will and desire to become defensive specialists. I want players who will take pride in their defensive play because they are confident in their skills.

Coaches, do not expect your team to play good team zone defense if the individual players cannot execute good, basic man principles. In man defense we live by an individual’s ability to play on his or her offensive player, whether with or without the ball. So, don’t send your kids out to play five-on-five and expect them to be successful if they haven’t got the individual skills to stop the flash, fight over a screen, front a cutter or be able to play “help” defense.

Chapter 14: TEACHING POSITION SPECIFIC SKILLS

There are lots of little details, that when paid attention to, can make a big difference in skill playing at any position.

Building a house requires a good foundation before beginning to build. It needs a plan and an adherence to the plan. The first skill we need in order to improve our play, is attitude—a positive attitude that fires a will and desire to work harder. A, “be the best I can be”, attitude. Oh, yes, attitude’s a skill. It needs working at and nourishing as much as any other playing skill. It may just be the most important life skill we can bring to this game. Without a good attitude, how can we build?

When I work with a player (or a coach), I can pretty much guarantee I will help them take their game to a higher level. We’ll do this through the application of detail work and a good attitude toward working hard to achieve the next level.

The ironic thing about improving one’s game is that most of the “details” we will be attending to are just good basketball fundamentals—all the things we’ve spent this whole book going into detail about. The reason for this is usually because somewhere in the player’s experience someone else didn’t pay attention to the details, and making sure the player got them and learned them correctly.

For coaches, it’s much the same thing. In order to be really good at teaching the game, one had to pay attention to the details as their career progressed. The teaching-coach needs to pay attention to all the finer points in every aspect of running their program, in developing their own attitudes, and in teaching skills to their players.

When I teach coaches, I teach details. When I teach players, I teach details. “Success is in the details!”

When a player or parent approaches me about taking a player on as a new student, I will evaluate their skill level in every aspect of his/her game. I also will evaluate their attitude. I will go to their games, if we’re in season, evaluating whether I can help this player. If I decide to work with them, I’ll set up a lesson protocol designed for what I feel that player needs to improve their game in their position. This program will contain all the position specific skill work necessary to take their play to a higher level.

Throughout this book, I’ve repeatedly asserted the necessity of having the right attitude for a player or a coach to be able to grow and the need for attention to details in order to build plateaus of development. If the reader has been paying attention, it should be recognized that I have made a great effort to detail the teaching of each skill. This same detail I transfer to any player or coach I tutor.

Chapter 15: STATION DRILLS

In 1972, I took over a varsity program at a private boarding school in California. The JV’s practiced right after school. We had one hour and fifteen minutes for the varsity to practice before I had to get the players off the floor, showered, changed into dinner clothes, and into the dining room.

Because I had the experience of limited practice time from the first year, in the ensuing years I was better prepared to be efficient and have time to cover everything I needed to cover in a daily practice. During the JV practice time, varsity players were running the stair course, jumping rope, watching our games on video (after the season had started--practically unheard of in 1973), having team chalk talks, did all their jumping to touch the backboard, and had done their stretching. When the JV’s left the floor, we went right into specific drills—no time wasted. I never used punishment or conditioning drills. Everything we did was part of the game. One thing that saved us a lot of time, while covering most all the basic skills, was to use Station Drills.

Chapter 16: IN CONCLUSION

Basketball, like any other sport, activity, hobby, or life-endeavor, will be as meaningful for the teaching-coach, parent or player as the intentions and choices each individual brings to the game. We’ve covered a lot of material in the fifteen chapters leading up to this one.

There’s a world of information, literally, available about basketball. I highly recommend getting all the information one can, and borrowing anything for oneself that may benefit one’s personal or professional growth.

Chapter 17: THE 4TH QUARTER

My life has had its good periods and down periods. Life is about accumulating experiences and growing from them—from the choices both good for us and not so good for us. The results from the choices continue to bring growth and change—a continuing evolution to who we are and who we’re becoming.

I’ve been an athlete for as long as I can remember. However, the irony of my early competitive years was that I could play sports as well or better than most kids my age, but didn’t function well on a team. I lacked the understanding of the interplay of the team members. No one ever made the effort to explain to me or show me what I needed to understand, in order to be the complete athlete I could have been.

I achieved much more as a coach than as an athlete. Much of what I learned from teaching my players early in my career enabled me to excel during the few years of competition that remained for me. Finally, injuries, aging and the inability to train properly took their toll, but at least I had some satisfaction before it was all over. I had become my own teacher.

The lessons learned and the experiences gained have filled my life with memories and given fuel to my coaching career. It was during my time in Sweden that I first began to write. I began recording my thoughts about coaching and further developed my philosophy of coaching on a triangle.

Basketball On A Triangle

Basketball Coaching: COLLECTED WISDOMS

2007-05-12T12:25:00.000-07:00

by Coach Ronn Wyckoff, Author/Producer

Basketball On A Triangle

"Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion." Rudy Tomjanovich

"The will to win is not nearly as important
as the will to prepare to win." Unknown

"Pay attention to the details and the big things will take care of themselves."
John Wooden

"The right thing to do is to do the right thing."
Thom Hartman

"Don't whine. Don't complain. Don't make excuses. Take responsibility for what you say and do." John Wooden

"If you're not happy with the result, you need only
change your choices." Unknown

"Life is about being and becoming. Who you are is more important to your growth than what you do. I find that practicing F.U.N.C.T. every day fills me as a spiritual being and is more rewarding than anything I have ever accomplished as a human being. I practice being:

Forgiving of myself and all others,
Unconditionally loving,
Nonjudgmental,
Compassionate toward all living things,
Truthful in all ways-especially to myself.
Ronn Wyckoff

**LIVE SO THAT WHEN YOUR CHILDREN THINK OF FAIRNESS, CARING AND INTEGRITY, THEY THINK OF YOU.**

**THE GREATEST TOOL FOR GOOD, THE MOST POWERFUL WAY TO CHANGE THE WORLD,
IS TO SECRETLY COMMIT LITTLE ACTS OF COMPASSION.**

**DO NOT BE CONFUSED BY THE 'REALNESS' OF THE HUMAN ILLUSION.
WE ARE NOT HUMAN BEINGS HAVING A SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE. WE ARE SPIRITUAL BEINGS HAVING A HUMAN EXPERIENCE.
WE ARE HERE TO LEARN AND GROW THROUGH OUR EXPERIENCING OF THE HUMAN CONDITION.**

MORE FOOD FOR THOUGHT...

Start your day saying positive affirmations to yourself. Smile and say something positive and be cheerful to everyone you meet. Give someone you love a hug!

Good, Better, Best, Never let it rest! Don't get complacent. Push yourself out of your comfort zone and set higher standards of achievement for yourself. Once you've achieved a standard of excellence, never let it rest-push yourself even higher.

Be hard on yourself and life will be easy on you. Be easy on yourself and life will be hard on you. Don't look for the easy way. You won't grow and you won't learn anything. Look for the right way and feel yourself soar.

If it is to be, it's up to me. Learn to depend on yourself. You are responsible for where you are in life. Don't blame others for your failures. Your choices have you right where you are. Change yourself and the world around you will get better.

Be 'Solution Conscious' not 'Problem Conscious'. Anybody can point out problems but the valuable person is the one who finds solutions and accepts the responsibility to implement the solution.

Be all that you can be. Always try to achieve your maximum potential.

What happens to you on the inside becomes reality on your outside!

GOD is in the details. Pay attention to the details!

www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com

BUILDING THE PARENT-CHILD BOND

2007-05-12T12:22:00.000-07:00

by Coach Ronn Wyckoff, Author/Producer

Basketball On A Triangle

“Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring and integrity, they think of you." Author unknown

Sports are a great metaphor for life. The dynamic of how we deal with our participation in sports mirrors how we live our lives. As an international basketball consultant, coach, teacher, lecturer and author, I’ve participated in, and been witness to, just about every representation of the human spirit—the Good, the Bad and the ugly!

While I’m writing about basketball here, I am also speaking about every youth sport or activity children enter, and the parental support necessary for the experience to be a positive one.

When I work with coaches or parents, I always encourage that they bring this positive role modeling and image creation into their work with the children. Guiding youth to be the best they can be requires that coaches or parents be aware at all times of how they’re being perceived.

John Wooden, the great coach of so many championship teams at U.C.L.A., once wrote that, "the person you are is the person your child will become." This can be a parent’s legacy or a curse. It all comes down to choices and the results we have from those choices.

Being there for the child, being excited, encouraging and positive are all examples of supportive qualities. If we make the choice for the child to play basketball, is it also the child’s choice? So many times parents, even when well meaning, push their children to perform. Perhaps the parent thinks the child would be good at the game. Maybe the parent is trying to fulfill an experience they didn’t complete and now wants to live it vicariously through the child. There are also parents who may have played well and enjoyed the experience and want the child to enjoy that experience too.

Whatever the reason a parent might have for getting their child into the game, the decision needs to be made with the child. Don’t force them into something they aren’t ready for or willing to work at. Talk about choices with your child. Do they want to play? Are they willing to do what it takes to learn the game well? Help them get started, if that’s what they want. Find a program like those at the YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs, recreation leagues, church leagues, etc. Many times, children are sampling activities to see if one resonates with them. Allow them to see if they have a fit with basketball. If they get started and find it’s not for them, allow the child to withdraw from the game with grace, without any negative feelings surrounding the decision. Be just as understanding and supportive here as you would be if they continued.

Here’s another important consideration. Who’s teaching the children, and how much do they know about the sport or activity? If it’s you, the parent, do you have the words and skills to teach the game correctly? Do you have the patience? Are you willing to commit to the time and energy it will take to teach the game skills?

Parents have the opportunity—the gift—to be able to help direct the child’s future. Before that can happen though, the parents must be willing to change many of their old beliefs. That’s not an easy thing to do. We resist anything that challenges our current beliefs and our established comfort zone, yet the only constant in life is change.

Positive change will require faith in a whole new shape-shifting for a future where children can come to accept that there is no need to feel superior to or need to be better than anyone else; A future where they recognize and accept the Oneness between people rather than separation; A future where we realize that there is enough of everything to make us happy and fulfilled; A world without the need to compete but where they can co-exist with cooperation and mutual respect. History shows that our only constant has been our collective behaviors and they haven’t made the world a better place.

Golly! Sounds really drastic, doesn’t it? What are the alternatives? Adults can continue the current way of thinking and acting where everything is about competition and to be better than others. We can continue this idea of separateness. Which kind of future sounds better for our children?

Years ago, in his book, Think and Grow Rich, Napolean Hill defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. Our formal education system presents a perfect example. The American Education Industry continues to foster differences and competition as they attempt to control and manage our children. This leads to more of the same—a sense of separation, frustration and even alienation.

Even the practice of assigning grades leads children to feel different, inadequate and incompetent. Comparisons and constant evaluations reinforce the sense of separation that dominates our disconnected culture and it follows them as they grow older and continue the insanity.

Separation is brought about by thinking we have to out-perform, be better, or be more than someone else. This escalates world wide, from local levels, to state and national levels, where governments perpetrate unspeakable horrors upon others, and even claim that God gives them the right.

Wouldn’t a sensible alternative be to introduce into our schools the concept that being the best we can be is enough? Do we want for our children what we were taught, what we inherited and what we have perpetuated? Isn’t it insane if we do not bequeath to our progeny a new and higher way of thinking, doing and being?

Children have so much pressure to excel, pulling at them from so many directions. The whole dynamic of self-worth is currently determined by the attitude of our competitive society that the child must be better and be able to beat someone else. Sadly, if they don’t measure up to our winner-take-all mentality, they are caused to feel that somehow they’ve failed. The loss of self-worth can last a lifetime.

If we can teach our children to celebrate our differences rather than to denigrate them; If we can teach them to live without hate, anger and fear by teaching them to come from a place of love, how might we change their future?

Yours in Sport & Spirit,

Coach Ronn Wyckoff

www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com

THE RIGHT THING TO DO

2007-05-12T12:16:00.000-07:00

by Coach Ronn Wyckoff, Author/Producer

Basketball On A Triangle:
A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing

In THE PROPHET’S WAY, by Thom Hartman, I first read, “The right thing to do is to do the right thing”. I have since taken that statement as a maxim for living my life. I will admit to not having perfected it yet, but I really try to live by this “rule” I’ve adopted for myself—everywhere, no matter where I find myself. (I find it especially important to live this maxim both when no one is watching and when they are.) I realize that I must practice, practice, practice it in order to polish it, but I plan to get very good at it. Like any new skill, some days I’m better at it than others.

How many of us know what is ‘right’? How is ‘right’ defined, and how do we define ‘right’ for ourselves? How is it measured, and who sets the guidelines, anyway? Ever notice how some people just always seem to do or say the ‘right’ thing and make , better choices than others do? How do they do that?

I have discovered through a new awareness that life is made up of choices. Lots of them! Our individual value systems, habits and levels of spiritual development seem to determine how and what choices we make. Much of our ability to determine ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ comes from our perception of how our parents, family, peers and other role models make their choices, and from our own relationship with GOD. And, these same role models acting out their own relationships with GOD often influence our relationship with GOD.

As adults, who are our role models? How have they affected our choices? And, now as decision makers and role models, how do our children perceive us? We are always role modeling for the next generation; SO, we are the figures our children will model themselves after.

The famous U.C.L.A. basketball coach, John Wooden, wrote, “Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating. Youngsters need good role models more than they need critics. It’s one of a parent’s greatest responsibilities and opportunities.” It is all of this, too, for all of those who, in addition to you, role model for your children. I have tried to bring this positive role modeling into my teaching and coaching of sports, but it is also a challenge at all levels in our community. Coach Wooden goes on to write; “…a parent can help direct a child when it comes to goals. Show leadership. Show discipline. Show industriousness. Have traditional values. The person you are is the person your child will become.” Re-read that last sentence. This can be a parent’s legacy or a curse. It all comes down to choices.

CHOICES. We all make hundreds of them minute-by-minute, daily, weekly which affect our lives in small to big ways because each choice carries with it a result. Think about anything we’ve done, and we can trace its ‘good’ results or ‘bad’ results back through a series of choices to the original choice that got us started on that path.

If we’re not happy with the results we’re having, perhaps reviewing our choices could put things into better perspective. I read recently, “if we’re not happy with the results, we need only to change our choices”. As Coach Wooden said: “Don’t whine. Don’t complain. Don’t make excuses. Take responsibility for what we say and do.” After the word, BUT… everything else we may say is just an excuse, a disclaimer, a justification.

According to Neale Donald Walsch, co-creator of the CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD trilogy, the first thought we have about anything is our ‘highest thought’ and it comes from our GOD SPIRIT. (This ‘highest thought’ will be based in forgiveness of ourselves and all others, unconditional love, our being non-judgmental, compassionate toward others and truthful in all ways.) Walsch says we can consider this ‘highest thought’ a ‘right’ thought.

Accepting responsibility for “who we are,” means examining our choices at every turn. The way we choose defines who we are in a given moment. We may start with a ‘highest thought’, but if we begin to rationalize, compromise, justify and excuse, soon we may find we’ve moved away from SPIRIT and are making choices from ego.

Teaching these concepts to our children will require our living by these same concepts. In order for our children to understand how the principles work in our everyday decision-making and relationships, we must be the models they see.

I find it interesting that we define in our consciousness who we wish to be by the choices we make at any moment. “Who we are” then, is seen in the results we manifest. And, if our ‘highest thought’ is love or peace, how might this change a result? How might it change our life? Our world? The future?

“CHANGE IS NOT MERELY NECESSARY TO LIFE. IT IS LIFE.”

www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com

Basketball: What Is Success?

2007-05-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

By Coach Ronn Wyckoff, Author/Producer

Basketball On A Triangle:

A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing

(This article is dedicated to the fathers and mothers, who like myself, had life circumstances that didn’t allow them to be around their sons or daughters as they grew up.)

We all have different ideas about how to define success, but most often it seems success is defined by our jobs and the amount of money we make. If asked, “what do you do”, we’d most likely answer about what kind of job we have.

For most of my life, my own ideas about success paralleled the above statement, and during my basketball coaching years would have been further defined by the won-loss record of what ever team I was coaching at the time, and by how long I remained in one job or in one relationship.

“Coach” probably described me better than anything else. It was who I was, in my own mind. Unfortunately, I was a coach who was out of balance in his life. Yes, I was successful as a coach, but I was also a husband, father and classroom teacher, that worked harder at being the best coach I could be without working nearly hard enough in those other aspects of my life.

I think I would counsel young coaches today to seek balance in their lives: Seek balance between all the different parts that make up who you are; Seek balance between the ego and the rest of your life. Become successful on all fronts. Remember: We’re about being and becoming, not just about what we do for a living.

In my early fifties, I began to have a spiritual awakening. I was never religious but I wanted to get to know and bring God into my life. Now, the student was ready!

My growth, my understandings of life and about myself were undergoing quantum changes. A whole new paradigm of understanding was opened up to me. I was ready to take a deep and honest look at myself, and everything about my life.

I know now that everything in my earlier life was about my personal and spiritual growth, getting me to the place where I would begin anew to discover and know myself and begin to understand my purpose in life. This shift in thinking raised my consciousness about success, that now incorporated who I was as a human be-ing, not as a human do-ing.

Yes, being successful in my basketball teaching is important, but it’s what and how I am teaching and doing for others that really defines my being. Now, my relationships with my wife, my sons and their families, with my brothers and my friends carry much more importance than earlier in my life.

John Wooden’s Pyramid Of Success

I often come back to Coach Wooden when I talk about success, because I was impressed long ago by his definition of success, which was illustrated in his Pyramid Of Success (see photo below).

I was first introduced to his Pyramid when my older son, Sean, then eight years old, was presented a plaque of the Pyramid by Coach Wooden himself. Sean had been allowed to participate as a camper at Coach’s summer camp, even though he was below the minimum age, because I was working the camp as a coach. He was the youngest camper there, but the coaches recognized him for being “most improved camper”, and for that he received the award from Coach Wooden. That memory probably is the single most indelible memory of his lifetime and one we discuss frequently.

click image for larger version

Sean is over forty now—a husband, father to two fine young people, a girl and a boy, both good athletes, and himself a coach for youth teams. He tries to incorporate into his life and coaching, the precepts so long popularized in Coach Wooden’s Pyramid Of Success.

Much of the successful longevity of Wooden’s Pyramid lies in the perpetuation of the principles being passed down through the generations. How many, like myself, have used Coach’s teachings, passing them on to our players, and having them passed on in their lives? I passed these teachings to my players and my sons and they are passing them on to their children and the players they coach. I hope that they will keep being passed on to my grandchildren’s children, and on, and on.

A Father’s Love...The Sons’ Respect

There were ups and downs in my marriage to my sons’ mother. During one separation, while we were overseas and Sean was in kindergarten, he stayed with me while my younger son, Todd, went back to the States and lived with his mother. This reversed four years later, when their mother and I separated for good, and Sean suggested (at the wise old age of ten) that perhaps Todd should have the same experience of getting to know me that he had had previously. Sean went to live with his grandparents and Todd spent his year in first grade with me.

Those two different years so solidified my love for my sons, they would become memories that sustained me through all the later years when we were apart. I never got to watch them as they grew, or participate in all the events that shaped their maturing lives, or to be their coach and have the pride of having them play for me.

For the next ten years, much of it spent coaching overseas, I was to spend time with Sean and Todd on only three occasions before Sean got married, at the age of twenty.

Now, Todd, three years younger than his brother, is married and has a son who is also an athlete. Todd has coached several sports and, like Sean works with his kids, teaches his son to be the best he can be.

My boys and I speak on the phone frequently and exchange emails. I am proud of the successes they have had in their lives.

When I was detailing for Sean what my new website was going to be about, he asked if he could write a testimonial for me. Then, Todd wanted to be involved too, and that’s how this article came about.

I was filled with a wonderful emotion that they would want to do this, and at the same time, was concerned about how my readers would view my having testimonials by my sons. I wasn’t sure how or if I could use what they might say in with all the other testimonials I’d received from people all over the world who had purchased my DVD or with whom I had worked throughout my coaching career. It was after some considered thought that I decided I would write this story, using their testimonials, and dedicate this article to my sons and to the many other fathers and mothers who may have had similar life circumstances that separated them from their sons and daughters.

Now, some three decades later, my sons and I continue to share a relationship based on love and respect. We have now what I always hoped we would have had , if we had never been separated—success together!

Here is Sean’s testimonial:

I have been pretty lucky to have Coach Ronn (my Dad) in my life for over 40 years.

The reason for telling you right off the bat that he is my father is because honesty is one of
his teaching tools. Throughout my life he has been a source of inspiration for me as a player, a
coach, and as a human being.

This past year I coached a 5^th grade team. We recently played in a tournament where we
competed against 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th graders. Due to my use of Coach Ronn’s teaching methods, we
prevailed as tournament champs. Our team was not the most talented team in the tourney. We were,
however, the best fundamentally sound team, and most importantly, the best defensive team. In four
games we allowed our opposition just over 16 points per game while we scored just under 33 points
per game.

I encourage any parent or coach wanting to learn how to improve their teaching knowledge,
in any aspect of the game, to use my Dad's DVD.

Thanks Dad.

Ronald (Sean) Wyckoff

And, here is Todd’s testimonial:

I can remember when I was a little boy, going to basketball practice with my father.
Reflecting on these times, I now realize how involved and genuinely concerned he was with the
development of his players. I will always remember him preaching defense to his players. Coach
Ronn, my father, has always been a defense-oriented coach, realizing that the best offense in the
world can't win without defense.

Over the 38 years of my life he has always reminded us that a good player is one who has
developed the basic skills of the game from a young age.

I was very involved in basketball when I was in school as a player and later as a youth
coach. I can tell you from experience that basic skills will get you a long way in this game. In high
school I played basketball all 4 years and utilized every ounce of knowledge that I had gained from
my father as a child. It seemed second nature to me to want to play defense better than everyone
else. I was voted Mr. Defense 4 years in a row. The defense that I played allowed me to be the second
leading scorer on my team, as my defense turned into fast break offense for me. As a youth coach, I
used (Coach Ronn’s) my father’s principles of teaching basic skills of defense before teaching
offense. I had very successful teams, ranging in ages 7-10 years old.

So, in real life it has been proven, at least for me, how important defense is to this game and
how much of what (Coach Ronn) preaches is dead on. I never realized how much I learned from my
father until much later in life, but all those years of attending his practices must have sunk in. I
believe I would not have been as successful as a player and coach without the involvement of my
father during my developmental years.

I will always be grateful to my father’s unknowing influence and dedication to this
wonderful sport of basketball. He is more dedicated to the understanding and development of young
players than anyone I have met in my life--that should tell you something by itself.

Todd Wyckoff

Wishing you continued success in your lives, this is for you, Sean and Todd—
my love and respect.

Yours in Sport & Spirit,

Coach Ronn

www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com

Basketball: Coach Wooden Wisdoms

2007-05-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

Wooden’s Wisdoms

Compiled by

Coach Ronn Wyckoff, Author/Producer

Basketball On A Triangle:
A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing

I’ve written on numerous occasions about Coach John Wooden and the influences his philosophies and coaching methods have had on the way I approach teaching basketball.

He has been called a “philosopher-coach” and a “master-teacher”. If you’ve been around him, read about him, or listened to him, you will understand he is all of that.

When I speak so often about coaches becoming “teaching-coaches”, I am giving homage to the “teaching-coach” of all time, John Wooden.

Because of his philosophies and teaching, I grew to become a teaching-coach myself and my greatest joys from teaching and coaching basketball are to enable others to become teaching-coaches.

A recent Sports Illustrated article and an NCAA Final Four containing a UCLA team, brought back a flood of memories from the ‘Wooden era’ at UCLA. I’ve several books by or about Coach Wooden in my library and I have quoted him often in my coaching career and in my own (soon to be published) book, Basketball On A Triangle: A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing. So I decided to revisit these works and re-read, for the 100^th time or more, his many sayings, maxims, aphorisms and borrowed wisdoms.

It really doesn’t matter who the original authors might have been, for he quoted many and often, however the real treasure lies in that he has shared these gems with us for so many years.

So, what I’ve done, is to take license and just share a lot of these collected wisdoms with my readers. Some of the books where these, and so many more, can be found, are: They Call Me Coach, Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations & Reflections On & Off The Court, John Wooden: An American Treasure, and My Personal Best.

Here’s a chance to be interactive, if you choose.

There are so many wonderful sayings and quotes abounding in sports that relate to basketball and to life (not just Coach Wooden’s), I couldn’t possibly put them all together for you. But, if you’d like, share some of your favorites here with us. If you know who said what, or where the words came from, share that with us, along with your name and where you’re from. There are many occasions, I am sure, in your coaching career where you have used, or have use for, some good motivational words. Send your contribution to: SpiritualHoops@cs.com.

From Coach Wooden

On Life

“Things work out for the best for those who make the best of the way things work out.”

“When you’re through learning, you’re through.”

“Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who’ll argue with you.”

“Wooden Family sets of 3’s”

Never lie. Don’t whine.

Never cheat. Don’t complain.

Never steal. Don’t make excuses.

“Balance is one of the most important things in basketball and in life as well.”

“Talent is God-given; be humble.

Fame is man-given; be thankful.

Conceit is self-given; be careful.”

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”

Coach’s Faith

“God never closes one door without opening another.”

“I am just a common man who’s true to his beliefs.”

“O’ Lord, if I seem to lose my faith in Thee, do not Thou lose Thy faith in me.”

From Coach’s Expectations For His Players

“Remember that you represent others who are responsible for you as well as yourself and your personal appearance and conduct should not reflect discredit in any way upon yourself or upon those whom you represent. Cleanliness, neatness, politeness, and good manners are qualities that should be characteristic of those who are of great influence on young people and you certainly qualify for that category. Be a good example.”

The Team

“The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.”

“The star of the team is the team.”

“No player is bigger than the team.”

On Being The Best You Can Be

“Don’t try to be better than somebody else, but never cease trying to be the best you can be.”

“Beating an opponent is not a goal, but a by-product of success.”

“Success is the peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming”.

“…acquire peace of mind by becoming the best that you are capable of becoming.”

“Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.”

“I am not what I ought to be, not what I want to be, not what I am going to be, but thankful that I am not what I used to be.”

“Success is not something others can give to you.”

“Anger prevents proper thinking and makes you vulnerable.”

“Motivation must come from the belief that ultimate success lies in giving your personal best.”

“You never fail if you know in your heart that you did the best of which you are capable.”

“We don’t control what the other team does to prepare. We can only control what we do to prepare.”

“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”

“Play to your potential.”

“A combination of personal qualities and values are intrinsic to making the effort to reach (a player’s) potential as a person. There is a direct relationship between what it takes to be a good basketball player and the requirements for being a good person.”

Practices

“The way you practice is the way you play.”

“Practice is where a championship is won.”

“End practices on a happy note.”

About Teaching Youth

“The greatest word in the whole dictionary is love.”

“Be slow to criticize and quick to commend.”

“Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating. Youngsters need good models more than they need critics. It’s one of a parent’s greatest responsibilities and opportunities.”

“The person you are is the person your child will become.”

Paying Attention To Details

“Little things done well is probably the greatest key to success.”

“If you do enough small things right, big things happen.”

“Be quick but don’t hurry.”

www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com

Basketball Offense

2007-05-12T07:57:00.000-07:00

Rules For EffectiveTeaching

by Coach Ronn Wyckoff, Author/Producer

Basketball On A Triangle:

A Higher Level of Coaching and PLaying

Every basketball player needs and deserves a teaching-coach in the early years. Each skill needs to be broken down into building blocks, where the level of difficulty can be raised as the individual grasps and possesses the skill before moving on.

Getting it right from the start requires that a player be taught fundamental basketball skills correctly in the first years of playing. A lot of habits have already been set by the time a player is a teenager. If they are incorrect, they can be very difficult to change.

To become the complete teaching-basketball coach, or a complete player, no aspect of development can be ignored, lest one's development be 'incomplete'. Defense is half the game. If it's not being taught well, or played well, half the game is missing. If offensive skills and rebounding aren't being taught and played correctly, how can a player expect to play at his/her highest potential? Teaching-coaches have to be able to recognize even the
smallest skill weakness and be able to break down that skill for the player to better understand and execute. Everything about successful teaching is about paying attention to the details! It's the little things which are a part of discipline for both the teacher and player.

Basketball On A Triangle

If you’ve been teaching basketball fundamentals correctly on the individual level, and you are ready to move up to the level of putting the team together, below are some offensive rules which may help you to be a more effective teaching-coach.

OFFENSIVE RULES:

1. IT IS IMPORTANT TO MAINTAIN GOOD BALANCE AND TO KEEP YOUR BODY UNDER CONTROL AT ALL TIMES.

2. GOOD OFFENSIVE FLOOR BALANCE RESEMBLES A

TRIANGLE.

3. GETTING OPEN OR FREE TO RECEIVE A PASS RESULTS FROM DOING OUR "HOMEWORK".

4. WHEN ATTEMPTING TO RECEIVE A PASS, WE SHOULD KEEP OUR EYES ON THE BALL AND GIVE THE PASSER A LEAD HAND OR TARGET TO PASS TO.

5. A PASS SHOULD BE THROWN TO THE RECEIVER'S HANDS OR TO HlS/HER NUMBERS.

6. AFTER RECEIVING A PASS AT THE WING, A PLAYER SHOULD THEN TURN AND FACE THE BASKET, READY TO PASS, SHOOT OR DRIVE TO THE HOOP.

7. AFTER RECEIVING A PASS AT THE POST POSITION, IF DEFENSIVE PRESSURE COMES FROM THE RIGHT OR LEFT, IMMEDIATELY DROP STEP AWAY FROM PRESSURE AND DRIVE TO THE HOOP. GETTING NO PRESSURE, THE POST PLAYER SHOULD TURN AND FACE THE BASKET, READY TO PASS, SHOOT OR DRIVE TO THE HOOP. TO HARD PRESSURE FROM BEHIND, DON'T TRY TO GO ONE-ON-ONE. KICK THE BALL BACK OUT TO THE PERIMITER.

8. THERE ARE CERTAIN AREAS ON THE FLOOR WHERE SHOTS ARE MOST OFTEN TAKEN. THESE ARE THE SHOOTING SPOTS WE PRACTICE FROM.

9. IF YOU ARE STANDING STILL ON OFFENSE, THE DEFENSE IS ALSO STANDING STILL. KEEP THE DEFENDER OCCUPIED. KEEP IN MOVEMENT WITH A PURPOSE.

10. THE THREE BASIC MOVES FOR A PERIMETER PLAYER AFTER MAKING A PASS ARE: FAKE AND CUT TO THE HOOP, SCREEN AWAY, OR FILL A VACANT POSITION ON THE TRIANGLE—USUALLY THE POINT.

11. 9 AND 10 ABOVE, WHEN DONE BY ALL PLAYERS WITHOUT THE BALL, WILL RESULT IN CONTINUOUS MOVEMENT.

12. WHEN SHOOTING FROM THE 1 AND 2 SPOTS (under, and to either side of the basket) ALWAYS USE A BANK SHOT.

13. THE DROP-STEP AND DRIVE MOVE IN THE POST IS CALLED THE POWER MOVE. THE SHOT WE PRACTICE FROM THE #1 SPOT IS THE POWER SHOT.

Yours in Sport & Spirit,

Coach Ronn

www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com

Coaching Basketball

2007-05-11T21:27:00.000-07:00

"The Will To Win Is Not Nearly As Important As The Will To Prepare To Win"

by Coach Ronn Wyckoff, Author/Producer

Basketball On A Triangle;
A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing

The title above comes from an oft' quoted maxim in sports. It holds special meaning for me, though, because it was often used in presentations by Coach John Wooden, when he was Head Basketball Coach at U.C.L.A.

In the mid-70's, at the beginning of each season, I used to take my high school teams down to U.C.L.A. to observe their practice and to absorb the practice ethic Wooden and his staff elicited from the players. Everything about each practice session was well planned, well choreographed and drilled to perfection. Coach had everything on a 3x5 card, with each minute planned. Not one minute was wasted and not one ounce of energy was expended that was not part of Coach's plan for the practice session and the next game. The influence of taking all this in for each of my players was like an epiphany of sorts for some and nearly so for the rest. I took my managers, stats keepers, the players and my young sons to "sit at the feet" of the guru of Division I basketball--the winningest coach of all time.

What we learned was, in a 'nutshell', that they were champions because they were talented, but even more importantly was that they practiced like they wanted to be champions. They exuded the confidence of champions, but worked like they were on a mission to prove themselves. They practiced the "will to prepare to win".

When Coach Wooden came over to talk with us, whatever he said was no less powerfully received than if Moses himself had brought the word down from the mountain. When he told the players to work hard to be the best they could be, by preparing like winners, and to listen and follow my (Me, Coach Ronn) plan to become the best they could be--well, that cemented my status in the eyes of our team. When my feet came back to the ground and my hat size normalized, I had a lot of work to do to live up to the responsibility and challenge Coach had tossed into my lap. For me, those lessons set the stage for the teaching-coach I was to become. (And, I have used 3x5 cards with my daily practice outlines for the 30+ years since then.)

Nobody knows any more about winning than Coach Wooden. No one coach has amassed the number of NCAA titles than Coach did while at U.C.L.A., nor as many in a row as his teams won.

Few people know that coach wooden spent nearly 2 decades coaching the Bruins before they began winning NCAA titles. So, the adage about 'willing to prepare to win' is underscored by all the years he spent preparing his teams to be winners. The maxim he so often quoted was one he had quoted for many years before his teams hit the big time.

When I came to know him, he was already through most of the winning years, and unbeknownst to all of us, was winding down his tenure with U.C.L.A. basketball. This was when Bill Walton was there finishing his collegiate playing career. In fact, they both finished together--Coach to retire, due to his beloved wife, Nell, being ill, and Bill because he was graduating.

None of my early basketball coaching “mentors” knew my name or would remember me, but they influenced my early growth in becoming the teacher of the game into which I evolved.

Their influence will be noted on many occasions within my soon to be published book, "Basketball On A Triangle: A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing", but none more than John Wooden, the winningest coach of all time.

Called the Wizard of Westwood, he fashioned U.C.L.A.’s ten NCAA championships over a period of twelve years. His philosophic approach to dealing with the young men he coached, more than anything else, gave me the foundation for later bringing spirituality into my coaching.

In 1974, the summer before Coach Wooden retired from U.C.L.A., I was working at his camp in Southern California and had the opportunity to ask him what other avenues I might pursue to expand my coaching horizon. I told him that good high school coaches were a dime a dozen and I wanted to be more than just a good high school coach. I knew that one pretty much had to have played college ball and/or have very good connections in order to break into the college ranks. Coach Wooden suggested that I look into international coaching opportunities. From that moment, a whole new era began for me.

Now, many years, games, countries and international miles later, I am the coach I always aspired to be. No, I'm not even attempting to be Coach Wooden resurrected; no one probably ever will be. But his example, his teaching, his philosophy gradually seeped into every pore of my coaching body, mind and spirit.

I am a teaching-coach. I strive to bring a spiritual basis to my teaching for each coach and player I work with, to be the best they can be, without having to be better than someone else. I teach that everyone needs to take responsibility for themselves. One has no control over how good another player or coach is, nor how well they prepare. Each individual does, however, have control over how good they are and how well they prepare. Winning is not about beating someone else. It is about preparing well and being the very best you can be, regardless of the score. If that sounds a little like Coach Wooden, well, I took notes from the master.

Coach Wooden was a three-time All-American player at Purdue U. Recently, their alumni magazine conducted an in-depth interview with the living legend. Here is where you can read the entire interview:

www2.itap.purdue.edu/periodicals/special/wooden/wooden.121006.transcript1.html

There are several sites you can click on, along side the picture of Coach Wooden, which I found to be very interesting, including an enlightening sidebar article written by Bill Walton.

www.billwalton.com/wooden.html

Thanks for sharing this space with me again. See you next month.

Yours in Sport & Spirit,

Coach Ronn

www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.Com

Basketball: Dribbling Drills

2007-05-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

by Coach Ronn Wyckoff, Author/Producer

Basketball On A Triangle:

A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing

I hope everyone has enjoyed a peaceful holiday season. Now, as we look at the New Year, what can we accomplish? What goals do we have in our personal lives and with basketball? Goals are the road map, giving us direction. Remember the adage: Failing to plan is planning to fail.

I was speaking with my older son during the holiday about practice planning for his 5th grade boys team. One issue we discussed was how to build confidence and train the young players to not dribble all the time with the strong hand. Also, many young players look way too much at the ball while they dribble. This is especially true when the player comes under pressure. This will most likely be accompanied by turning the back on their teammates while trying to keep from losing the ball.

While I don't have the space here, nor the capability for great diagrams and pics that can illustrate all this, here are some of the dribbling drills I teach. I will attempt to give as much detail as I can to give you a good 'visual'.

To preface these drills, if you at any time have a player finding it difficult to dribble with the off hand, or to keep from looking at the ball while dribbling, take them back to the very basics where you teach them "how" to dribble. This is where they can learn to dribble without looking at the ball and where you have instilled confidence and control with use of the weak hand. They must have a place that's comfortable to fall back to, when this happens, in order to then be able to work forward for success.

#1) Start with walking while dribbling the ball at hip height. Because of the distance the ball is off the floor, the ball is out of the dribbler's hand for this time/distance. It could cause their confidence to ebb, causing a need to look at the ball. Have them walk and dribble slowly, using the hand/elbow action they learned early on. (If they have too much trouble, take them down on one knee and continue to practice and build confidence there.)

As the player increases forward motion, the ball will have to be pushed out ahead of the dribble-side foot, even with, but slightly outside, the hip. Practice going around dribbling, first with one hand, then the other. Each time they change sides with the dribble, the ball should be dribbled slightly forward of the front foot and pushed slightly toward the other hand while the other hand comes toward the ball to continue the dribble.

By now, players should be able to jog easily, dribbling at hip height, pushing the ball slightly ahead of the ball side foot. There will be ball errors, but emphasize the coaching points up to this point. Don’t let them slap at the ball. Have them drive the ball with the fingers and the arm movement you’ve practiced. They should be able to dribble with either hand and minimize looking at the ball.

#2) Now, set up 4-6 chairs in a straight line. Explain to the players that when they approach a chair, to pretend it’s a defensive player and they must dribble by it using the hand away from the chair. Teaching Point: Always dribble with the hand away from the defensive player, keeping the dribbler’s body between the ball and the defender.

Have the players walk the dribble out to the first chair, passing to one side using the rule above. Have them touch the top of the chair with the near hand as they go by. This will make the player aware that the ball is being dribbled with the hand away from the chair. As they pass the chair, the ball is switched over (still on the dribble) to the other hand, so when they pass the next chair, they will do so on the other side, again touching the chair with the near hand.

#3) From the straight line of chairs, go to a ziz-zag set up. The angles approaching the chairs are sharper now and the players will actually be changing directions with each chair. Walk through first, then jog, then run. Touch each chair in the beginning to check the hand being used for the dribble. As they go around a chair, have them immediately change dribble hands for the next chair.

#4) Have the players line up on the end line. On the whistle, have them move slowly up the floor, on the dribble. On the next whistle, stop and assume a protective stance while continuing the dribble. On the next whistle, switch dribble hands and start again up the floor. At each stop, the player goes into the protective stance. On each start, the player will have switched dribble hands and go back to an up-right open court stance. This alternating action simulates having no pressure on the open court and then meeting the pressure of defense. Watch for balance, foot placement, body angle, correct dribbling hand for the direction heading, the angle of the back, and dribble height.

#5) Eyes Up Drill. This is designed to have the player protect-dribble all over the backcourt area, halfway between the mid-court line and the three point line. The coach, or another player, can move around anywhere below the three point line.

Never turning their back on the other player, the dribbler must continually change directions/dribbling hands in order to hold eye contact with the other person. When that other person raises their arm over-head, the dribbler must immediately make a good pass to the person with the hand up. The passer then makes a fake and then a cut to the basket for a return pass and layup.

This drill teaches keeping the eyes up, protecting the dribble, making a pass off the dribble and fake and cut to the basket.

A defensive player could be added to play on the dribbler. I would have them be passive at first, allowing the dribbler to move and pass freely. The more advanced the players, the more game-like this drill can be made. Don’t go live until individual defense has been taught!!

#6) Circle Dribbling. (King/Queen Of The Hill.) In the circle at center court, or if the free throw area has a full circle, have 4-5 players each go in with a ball. (Big kids use only 4 players.) On the whistle, each player begins to dribble, protecting the ball from the others while trying to knock the other balls away. For young players, you can go easy on the rules at first. No one may stop dribbling or dribble outside the circle, or they’re out. All players need to keep their eyes up to see what is happening and must dribble-protect while changing hands and directions and trying to slap the other balls away. Last one in is a winner. This is a fun competition drill at any level.

#7) Bumper Cars. This is an all over, half-court drill, where any and every type of skill and dribble may be used. More advanced players may go between the legs, behind the back and use a spin dribble. (This is the only free-style dribbling I allow at every practice.) Players must go after the other dribblers while avoiding having the ball taken away as they attempt to slap another dribbler's ball away, if they can. Eyes are up all the time. Dribble never stops. It’s time to practice all the skills, alternating between open-floor and protect dribbles. 10-12 dribblers within the confines of a half-court makes for a good avoidance/skill drill.

In my DVD, Basketball On A Triangle: A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing, and in my book, with the same title, due out in '07, I go into much greater detail about how to teach all the things mentioned above. http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/

Yours in Sport & Spirit,
Coach Ronn