a well-coached team

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays.  Please note the following statements below which describe a well coached team.

Well Coached teams are motivated:

Well Coached teams have good shot selection:

Well Coached teams have little or no game slippage from practice:

Well Coached teams players hold the ball when their coach speaks:

Well Coached teams have genuine enthusiasm because the are invested and bought in:

Well Coached teams don’t have to be coached on effort:

Well Coached teams players display proper techniques in fundamental areas of the game: They LOOK like players.

Well Coached teams have great spacing and timing on offense:

Well Coached teams don’t leave trash behind:

Well Coached teams execute set actions coming out of timeouts/quarter changes/halftimes:

Well Coached teams don’t lose their poise/composure others might become distracted: Time/score, home/ away, loud gym/silent gym, good refs/bad refs, slick basketball/flat basketball, slick floor/sticky floor, fan shaped backboards/wooden backboards, chain nets/colored nets… didn’t matter…well coached teams PLAY

Well Coached teams don’t react to calls that go against them or their teams:

Well Coached teams utilize drills in practice that emphasize many facets of the game:

Well Coached teams move on the air time of passes on defense:

Well Coached teams use different things in practice to condition than they do to punish/remind:

Well Coached teams have a sharp, crisp pre-game warm-up:

Well Coached teams can run 5 on 0 offense with players going game speed:

Well Coached teams players have positive body language:

Well Coached teams have a distinct “language” that they speak: Terminology is consistent from player to player and coach to coach. Areas of the floor are called the same thing. Screening actions have a vocabulary. Offensive actions are consistent. Consistent use of terminology breeds confidence and as a result performance levels are impacted.

Well Coached teams follow the game in general and respect it’s past, present, and future: we can all spot a basketball fanatic a mile away by the way they speak about the game. Well Coached players know their opponents by name and/or number, they know the historical significance of their former teams, and they know the history of the game they love to play.

Well Coached teams have players who take care of academics equal to athletics:

Well Coached teams make adjustments to what other teams are doing against them:

Well coached teams display qualities of passion, discipline, selflessness, respect, perspective, courage, leadership, responsibility, resilience, imagination:

Well coached teams have a consistent player rotation that always seems to place each player in a position to contribute effectively:

Well coached teams don’t foul when the ball is away from scoring area:

I want to focus on 2 of the statements. One is display proper techniques in the fundamental areas of the game and the other is having a distinct language that we speak.

It’s each individual players to understand our on-court vocabulary and be able to perform drills which emphasise execution of multiple fundamentals correctly, fluidly and instinctively.

Coach Dave and Coach Ryan are there as resources for all of you to ask questions during the week and get help on anything you don’t fully understand or we have pointed out to you that you need to improve on.

If you don’t understand our “language” and cannot display the proper technique then you are hurting not only yourself but most importantly hurting the team by slowing everyone down.  It is not my job to continually baby you or even be patient with you.  My role is to set a certain level of standard, ensure the coaches can coach you up to standard, make assessments and continue further development.  Team is about being responsible to each other and not wanting to let your teammates down.

Please note the attached document.  This covers basically almost ALL the vocabulary we use on the court.  Almost all of these things have been explained on the court.  Most of these, many times.  Please make sure you know it.  Again, the coaches are available to answer any questions.

Again, i wish you and your families all the best over the Qing Ming Holiday.

Best Regards,

Stanley