Basketball Coaching: COLLECTED WISDOMS

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

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.

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.

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

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?

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

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

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

"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