Long time basketball coach JD Barnett developed a well deserved reputation as being an outstanding defensive coach and mentored both Tubby Smith and Tom Izzo.

Here are Coach Barnett’s Defensive Rules given at a coaching clinic when he was at the Uniiversity of Tulsa:

1. Contest every shot
2. Retreat quickly to the ball line which is the line parallel to the endline at the point of the ball
3. Allow no penetrating passes lower than this line
4. Allow all non penetrating passes
5. Always see the ball and your man
6. Try to intercept any lob or bounce pass
7. Jump to the ball on every pass
8. Maintain proper weakside position
9. Always trap the ball in the low post
10. Keep pressure on the ball at all times
11. Never foul a man who is not an offensive threat
12. Do not give up layups
13. Do not give up second shots

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I cannot think of many things worse than players getting comfortable and complacent with their game! I have noticed that many players become complacent midway through the season when they believe their spot is solidified and playing time is guaranteed. In order for everyone on your team to reach his full potential you must all adhere to Coach Christensen’s 7 Standards of Success:

1) Discipline: Doing the things that have to be done, when they have to be done, all the time no matter the situation

2) Commit to Being Excellent: There are very few things in life that are guaranteed. One of the things that is guaranteed is that life is not easy, especially the quest to become a champion! If you have your heart set on becoming the best you must commit to accept nothing less than
excellence!

3) Be Happy: There are only a few things that you can control. One of them is the attitude you bring every day. The glass is either half full or half empty. How you view the glass is up to you!

4) Be Accountable: If you wish to be successful you must learn responsibility and accountability! Before pointing the fingers at others, you must first hold yourself accountable for your actions, and especially your mistakes and weaknesses!

5) Be Prepared: Like a Boy Scout, always be prepared! Be prepared for class, be prepared for practice, and be prepared for life.

6) “It’s the Parts that Make the Whole”: Nothing great has ever been accomplished without paying attention to all the small details. Make time each day to focus on the small details and the whole will take care of itself.

7) Expect Nothing But Greatness: If you work like a champion, think like a champion, and persevere like a champion then you can expect to become a champion!

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Is it possible to have too much talent on a team? It is if everyone wants to be “the go-to guy” and won’t willingly accept any other role. In an article titled “A Will to Win; Rick Pitino on Motivation” on Allbusiness.com, Coach Rick Pitino talked about the importance of not only accepting team roles but embracing them for the good of the group.

I had one of the greatest college teams of all time at Kentucky in 1996. On that team there were seven guys who went on to play in the NBA. I started the five best players and we lost the second game of the season because it wasn’t a group that was cohesive. And then I took a walk-on point guard and made him a starter.

He was totally willing to sacrifice for the good of the team and worked to make the other players better. He didn’t care about scoring; he didn’t mind doing the dirty work. He just wanted to make the other people better. The other player who became a substitute still played the same amount of minutes and I made him understand that this was just about making the team better – it has nothing to do with your significance to the team.

We didn’t lose another game until the end of the season and we won a championship, all because that young man accepted his role.

I’ve written many times that I believe that there are guys (and girls) who play basketball and then there are basketball players and there is a HUGE difference between the two groups. Someone who gladly accepts and magnifies his role for the sole reason of helping his coach and his teammates is the ultimate basketball player!

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Few people in the country get to see as many college basketball games each year as television sportscaster Jimmy Dykes. Before getting into broadcasting Dykes was an assistant coach at several major college programs including Kentucky, Arkansas, and Oklahoma State and so he definitely knows his basketball. The following are some his thoughts on the game:

1. Coaches want ‘everyday’ players. (Play hard every possession, Go to class every day, Do the right thing all of the time)

2. Coaches must look at themselves first after game. (What did I not get done to prepare?)

3. If you are not tough, you will not win consistently!  (Get loose balls, Refuse to get screened, Don’t let one mistake compound)

4. If you can’t talk it – You can’t execute it.

5. You must score consistently from these three areas: 1. Free Throw line 2. Around the basket 3. Open shots

6. Quality of our shots vs. quality of our opponent’s shots determines Wins vs. Losses

7. Cut with a purpose. Cut like you are going to get the ball!

8. Must shoot 30% or better from the 3-point line. (Shot selection, Who is taking the shots?)

9. It’s not the number of plays you run, it’s how well you run them that matters. (Execution is everything!)

10. Great players embrace contact and get through it. They make plays regardless.

11. Protect against straight line drives to the basket. (Guard your yard)

12. Contain the ball in middle third of the floor.

13. Communicate on all ball screens.

14. Any form of selfishness must leave. It can’t be tolerated! (On the court and off the court)

15. Substitutions (Trust their effort, Trust their memory, Trust their talent)

16. Emphasize who you are every practice and every game. (Create and maintain an identity!)

17. Everything in your program is either taught or it’s allowed.

18. Fix problems immediately. Don’t let something small turn into something big.

19. Work them as hard as you are willing to love them.

20. Hold everyone in your program accountable for everything they do.

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The following practice outline is attributed to Coach Lisa Bluder at the University of Iowa. Coach Bluder has been named the Big 10 Coach of the Year three times.

10 min – Stretching, conditioning

5 min – Ball handling and passing

5 min – Full court drills (work on passing, shooting, running the court hard. set the tone for the rest of practice)

10 min – Rebounding

35 min – Defensive drill work

10 min – Free throws/Drink

15 min – Shooting

20 min – Half court scrimmage, and/or new plays

20 min – Full court scrimmage

20 min – Extra time to work on press, press break, special situations

15 min – Film

30 min -Weights and or conditioning (2-3 times per week)

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People all over the world are making New Year’s resolutions to raise their fitness level and to get in better shape. Maybe you’re one of them. If not you should be! Coaching can be an extremely stressful profession and it’s crucial that we don’t get so caught up in competing and helping others that we sacrifice our own health and well being. In a recent P90X  Newsletter, Chalene Johnson, the creator of the TurboFire Fitness Program shared 20 fitness tips that should be read and implemented by all basketball coaches:

1. Keep a water bottle with you at all times and drink from it often. Water should always be your drink of choice. To kick things up every once in a while, try adding lemon, lime, cucumber, or a few berries to liven up the flavor without adding significant calories.
2. Look at exercise as a pleasure and a privilege, not a burden or chore. Think positively about the changes regular exercise will produce. Rather than obsessing about your next meal, get excited about your next workout!
3. Eat well-balanced meals and remember that excess calories, even if they’re from food that’s fat free and high in protein, will turn to excess weight. No matter what the latest fad diet says, extra calories equal extra weight!
4. Limit caffeine and exposure to even secondhand smoke.
5. Focus on short-term fitness goals with an emphasis on completing daily exercise.
6. Keep a daily log of what you’re actually eating. This includes every time you grab ahandful of chips here or eat the crust of your kid’s sandwich there, and ALL of your snacking.
7. Enjoyan occasional (once a week) “unhealthy” treat, but never an unhealthy week or unhealthy vacation.
8. Enjoy contributing to the health of others by having a partner or friends to exercise with, as well as recruiting others who want to feel better and have more energy. Have a neighbor who’s sitting on the porch every morning when you walk by? Ask him or her to join you on your walk!
9. Avoid monotony by taking up new forms of exercising, or using things that keep you motivated and inspired, like new shoes or great music.
10. Subscribe to fitness magazines to keep focused on health as an overall way of life.
11. Invest in the right tools—good shoes, a portable MP3 player or iPod^®, fitness equipment, a new series of tapes, etc.
12. Makeit your goal to do some form of exercise 6 or 7 days a week. If some days you exercise once in the morning and once in the evening, even better! If you’re eating right, exercise will fuel your energy level!
13. Don’t compare your body to others’. Instead, work to be your personal best.
14. Ifyour diet is unbalanced, take daily vitamin and mineral supplements for total
    health.
15. Work to take your exercise to new levels of intensity.
16. Create an exercise schedule the day before instead of leaving it to chance or waiting to “find” the time. If our last three Presidents of the United States can make time to work out every day, you can make time too!
17. Move beyond the boundaries of weight loss and into total fitness. Measure success by the way your clothes fit, not some number on a scale.
18. Stick with eating plans you can maintain indefinitely. Remember that no matter how hard you’re working out, if you’re consuming too many calories, you’ll never see the muscles that lie beneath layers of fatty tissue.
19. Get adequate amounts of sleep, but remember that people who exercise regularly fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly.
20. Limit alcohol intake to special occasions.

www.beachbody.com

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Mike Dunlap is the Associate Head Coach at St. John’s University and has taken a much larger role in all aspects of the program as Head Coach Steve Lavin recovers from prostate cancer. He has won two NCAA Divsion II National Championships at Metro State and has also coached at Arizona, Oregon,  and with the Denver Nuggets. The following is a list of 10 items that Coach Dunlap feels are often neglected or overloooked by many coaches:

1. Take time to explain what we want from our players.
We must strive for clarity first.

2. Demonstration after we tell our players what we want; there must be a demonstration each time.
We need to give our players a picture demonstration before we get into repetition.

3. Building blocks are the only way to develop a player.
For example, if we do not address a players feet and be specific about how we want him to pivot then it will cost us down the road. Do not rush your teaching. We should do one thing at a time.

4. Teaching your team to be physical takes technique, sequential instruction, and patience.
It is easy to call a player a “nutless wonder” without considering that most players have never been taught the finer points of hand to hand combat. If we would spend a little more time with football coaches we would figure out how to teach our team to be physical.

5. Be objective about an all out effort.
We demand that a player go at 100% effort. What is 100% effort and has there ever been a player who knew what that meant. Probably not? For instance, put a heart monitor on a player and measure their heart rate. The instructor can be more objective about individual effort this way. Yet, we talk and sometimes yell at our players about going “all out” all the time. What a stupid statement when you really think about it. How can a player read and think? For example, a good offensive player must learn how to changespeeds with cutting and ballhandling. This requires that the offensive player control his body and NOT play at 100%. Too many times we buy into the myth of the 100% effort and forget about going after a player’s intellect before asking for a quality effort.

6. Demanding perfection.
What a bunch of crap! The more a person chases perfection the less they can enjoy each act. How can a perfectionist be happy with anything? The least enjoyable person to be around is the perfectionist; I find a lazy dog to be just as unpleasant. Demand that people do the right thing, yet do not fall into the trap that nothing is ever good enough. If you are always chasing perfection then how can you teach a player to enjoy a job well done? As Coach Wooden stated, “A man must find balance, be it emotional, physical, spiritual, or intellectual.” Why is it that certain coaches will say that they were devastated by the loss at the end of a 33-1 season? If you believe in your preparation and teaching process then how can any loss devastate you? In other words, losing is part of sports; you learn from it and move on. A disciplined mind comes in many different forms and being mentally tough also requires that you must accept the brutal reality that no one is perfect and a quality effort is a joy in and of itself regardless of outcome.

7. Follow through.
If you want discipline in your organization then follow through with consequences for actions. Our discipline breaks down when we do not quickly punish the transgression. How come so many coaches fall prey to this area? Because it could hurt the outcome of your season if you lose a certain player. My experience tells me just the opposite. For example, George Gwoldecky, head hockey coach at Denver University, benched his best player for the national championship game. Coach Gwoldecky made a statement for all time- period.

8. Take care of ourselves first.
Whether it is our mental and physical health (i.e eating, exercise, prayer, reading, etc) daily schedule, finances, family, and other personal matters, we need to address those things first. Why? Because if you are not in order how can you fully give to your team, staff, and school? You cannot.

9. Apologize.
We demand so much from others and we want them to see their mistakes and fix them. In short, we set ourselves above our own vulnerabilities; we should openly admit our errors. Once you have done this in front of your team it will be much easier for them to acknowledge their mistakes. This is an imperative act by the head coach if you want quality communication.

10. Allow for failure.
Part of learning is the margin of failure and sometimes you just have to let the players fall flat on their rumps. This is difficult but necessary.

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We all know that basketball is a great vehicle to teach and reinforce impoortant life skills but it can also provide an opportunity to identify some personal qualities and charactersistics. In his book Values of the Game, Senator Bill Bradley, a former NBA star and champion with the New York Knicks, shares a great example of this truth in action.

I can learn more about people by playing three on three with them for 20 minutes than I can by talking with them for a week. I once hired a new director for my US Senate offices. I liked him but it wasn’t until I played basketball with him that I knew I’d made the right choice. I found out that he was a hard worker (he went for rebounds), competitive with a fierce desire to win (he played tight defense), and unselfish (he screened away from the ball).

Just think about your own team for a second. The players who work the hard on the court generally work hard off the court as well.  Players who are selfish on the court also seem to be selfish off the court. Motivated self starters in the gym are usually motivated self starters in other areas of their life too. I guess whoever said Basketball doesn’t always build character but it most certainly reveals it was exactly right!

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I read somewhere that NBA legend Larry Bird once said that he worked so hard because he was convinced that somewhere, there was someone who was working out at that very moment. And If they were to ever meet on the court, Bird didn’t want that “someone” to have an advantage over him.

Along that same line of thinking, the following comes from Alan Stein of DeMatha High School.

He got up early. You slept in. He trained with purpose. You did a few push-ups. He made 500 shots a day. You played H-O-R-S-E.

He watched his diet. You went to Burger King. He worked on his weaknesses. You ignored yours. He studied film. You watched Family Guy.

He went to bed early. You stayed up all night. He took notes. You just doodled. He craved the uncomfortable. You enjoyed the warm & fuzzy.

He put his heart into everything he did. You just did enough to get by. He dreamed of success. You feared failure. He wanted it. You didn’t

He won. You lost. He is a champion. You are not. He left a legacy. You are left with regret

I sure hope this doesn’t describe YOU! You have to DESERVE success and EARN success to HAVE success. Winning doesn’t happen by accident.

You can choose between the pain of discipline and the pain of regret. Which will YOU choose? Don’t let ‘him’ beat you!

Being a competitor is a lot more than just battling the guys in different uniforms on game night. Sometimes being a competitor means battling guys you can’t even see. Sometimes being a competitor means battling yourself.

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Still looking to buy a last minute Christmas present for your “favorite” basketball coach? Then by all means consider subscribing to Basketball Classroom! (Especially if your favorite coach is you!)

Basketball Classroom is the first of its kind in terms of coaching programs. It’s no nonsense, straight to the point information produced by real coaches for real coaches and is presented in several multimedia formats to accommodate all learning styles – just like a real classroom. The program contains dozens of videos, special reports, audio files, charts, diagrams, interviews, and animated plays. It doesn’t matter if you are just starting to coach your first team or if you’ve been pacing the sidelines for years, you can benefit from the information in Basketball Classroom.

Some Christmas gifts lose their value almost as soon as they are opened. The benefits from enrolling in Basketball Classroom can be career changing and will last forever! The best part is that you can check out the first module absolutely free at www.BasketballClassroom.com.

Check it out – you and your players will be glad you did!

Merry Christmas from your friends at HoopSkills!!

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