Can coaching 3 different sports each year make that coach a better coach than just the coach who coaches one sport for 3 seasons? Can starting a new season with new players and a new culture 3 times a year make you a better coach than coaching the same core of players for 3  seasons? Can learning how to create a winning culture, developing relationships with new players…doing that 3 times a year be better than doing it once for a longer time?

To determine whether they will be better, we need to define exactly what “better” means. To help us, we need to look at how coaches identify themselves. Do they view themselves as, “I coach soccer or I coach basketball”? Or do they view themselves as, “I coach kids”?  So will coaches be better at coaching their sport or will they be better at coaching their kids?

Many multi-sport coaches have noticed similarities in coaching various sports. Sports such as basketball, hockey (both ice and field), soccer and lacrosse are known as “Territorial Sports” where a team is defending a goal (their “territory”) and the winner is determined by how many goals are scored. In these sports, the concepts of defense and ball movement are very similar.  Players are taught how to defend their player, play proper off-ball defense and be ready to cover and double the ball. Offensively players are taught proper spacing, switching the plan of attack and when to shoot or pass. The players learning proper techniques and tactics from one sport can easily transfer those skills over to the other sports. It is a huge reason why playing multi-sports can help players become better athletes. Coaching tactics and techniques also easily transfer over to other sports. Drills and activities used in one sport may be easily tweaked to apply and use in another sport. How many of you use the 3 Man Weave or Star Passing drills? They can be used in soccer, basketball and lacrosse. Any type of odd man situations could also be used in different sports. For these coaches, being able to apply tactics from their other sports will help them be more dynamic and forward-thinking. It is very easy to take some drills from basketball or soccer and apply them to lacrosse. Even the settled half court or half field offenses can be used for these sports. Perhaps they don’t have as strong of a grasp or background in the technical skills of a sport, but they may have the tactical pretty solidly covered. This lack of possible technical expertise is where the importance of the assistant coach comes into play. If the assistant coach can make up for the head coach’s lack of knowledge/expertise of the tactical or technical skills, the players can still become proficient in those skills.

In summary…Some Benefits of being that multi-sport coach include:

• These coaches have the opportunity to start over and try to do a better job 2-3 times a year. They have the opportunity to correct their mistakes from the previous season, start over and improve more often.
• They may realize the need for a pre-season parents meeting, or the need for a contract between parents and coaches.
• They may realize that they “goofed” the previous season in ignoring parent behavior during games.
• They may realize that they need to do  better job of picking their assistant coach who can complement their coaching deficiencies. Those things are hard to do when you coach the same sport and same core of kids for the entire year or longer as many coaches stay with these players as they move up in age groups.
• Get to know a wider range of kids and families
• If they have a challenging group of players or parents, they only have to deal with them for the short term, they are not stuck with them for the entire year.
• Most importantly, they learn skills and concepts from one sport that can be applied to other sports.

Some Challenges include:

• Starting over every three months.
• Learning and being proficient at teaching 3 sports.

On the other hand, a Single Sport coach can focus all of their time and energy to becoming very proficient at coaching that sport. While many volunteer coaches have time constraints, the need to learn new tactics and skills is much more manageable for the one sport. Seeing a group of players grow as a team over the course of an entire year is much more noticeable as well. The team has time to develop that deeper chemistry and support for one another. Teams that play together year-round have a more devoted core of players so the coaching ability of that coach will have to be at a higher level, both techniques and in tactics. This challenge may appeal to coaches. Year round teams also play at a more competitive level that can also add to the coach’s enjoyment. The administration of the team only has to be performed once with communication, equipment purchases and logistics.

Benefits of the Single Sport Coach:

• They have the ability to really know the latest techniques/trends/tactics for coaching their sport. They will know their sport on a higher level
• They may be able to attract the stronger players who are as committed to their sport as they are
• They have the opportunity to develop really deep/strong relationships with the players.
• They continue to grow as a team throughout the year, not just three months.
• They don’t have to start over every three months
• Less administrative issues.

Some Challenges for the Single Sport Coach

• Possible burnout
• Getting stuck with a difficult core group of players and families for extended time
• Focus on coaching the sport vs coaching the kid?

Overall coaches need to do an inventory of why they are out there coaching. Is it for the love of their sport? Is it for their love of working with kids and wanting to make an impact? Are they out there for the enjoyment of the kids or themselves? Are they coaching the sport or are they coaching the kids?

The art of getting open and playing proficiently off-ball is comprised of several other skills. Some of these are:

• Winning the foot war
• Change of speed
• Change of direction
• Cutting
• Setting screens
• Proper spacing
• Identifying the open passing lanes

These are skills that need to be taught and reinforced everyday at practice. The flow and speed of your offense will improve which will equate into more goals/points scored. Do you think that may be worth the extra attention to teaching these skills? Is it worth teaching some advanced shooting technique and spending lots of time in practice perfecting it if that player doesn’t know how to get open enough to ever get the ball in the first place? Got to get open before you can shoot. Let’s work on coaching players how to get open. So how do you get started?

For each of the needed skills in getting open, coaches should determine what drills and activities can be used to teach. Where do you find them? For starters, Kudda is loaded with these drills and progressions. Lacrosse and soccer coaches can watch the Randy Brown basketball series and be able to apply these drills to their sports. Coach Brown does an excellent job of modeling how to teach, how to drill it and then how to add competition to teach the tactical application of the skill. For example, Coach Brown teaches about the importance of winning the Foot War and how to get your feet in proper position relative to your opponent. This skill is also needed by attackman in lacrosse in order to get open and by soccer players looking for separation. Check out this series of videos on Kudda by clicking here.

Change of speed and direction is also applicable to territorial sports in getting open. Coach Brown has several series on the art of changing speed and direction. Again, even though this skill is being taught within the context of a basketball court, it can be applied to other fields.

After finding those drills and activities needed to teach this art form, organize them into modules or progressions. Which ones flow into the next ones? Are you adding opportunities to use this skill in competition? Once you have these progressions organized then the coach can start placing these into their practice plans and devote more time to teaching this neglected 90% of the game.

Teaching our players how to get open is the least coached aspect of any sport. Many coaches are not aware that they could be coaching this skill as they feel that it will naturally come about during play. Guess what? For most players it has to be taught to them. Many don’t know how to coach this and fail to realize the importance of this 90%. This is what separates the OK teams and players from the great teams and players.

Create those Practice Plans
This is the “parts”. Take the 3 segments of the season and start to develop daily plans that teach those skills needed for each segment. Keep looking at previous plans as you develop current plans to ensure logical progressions, reinforcing and adding new skills.
A few suggestions when creating plans:
1) Just like a teacher’s lesson plan, each practice should have specific objectives and a logical plan to meet those objectives and goals.
2) Stick to your plan. If you have allotted 10 minutes for an activity and your team just isn’t “getting it”, stick to your plan and go onto the next activity. Return to that drill the following practice and determine if the coach could do a better job of explaining/teaching that skill. Too often coaches will stay on the same drill too long and you risk boredom and frustration. Better to just keep moving and return to it later.
3) Schedule Water Breaks!!!
4) Make sure that each practice has new skills being taught
5) Schedule lots of competition, small sided games to teach the tactical applications of the skills.

Take those skills/activities/drills and start to place them into a calendar. When do you need to teach fundamentals of a press break? Proper shooting mechanics? Low Post fundamentals? To help coaches schedule the progression and priorities of the season, coaches should break their season down into segments.

Pre-season to first game
What are the essential skills you will need in order to compete in your first game? Do you really need 10 set plays or multiple presses? What fundamentals will your team have to have mastered by Game 1. Examples would include the following:

• Ball handling
• Passing
• Shooting fundamentals.
• On Ball and Off Ball defense
• Rebounding fundamentals.
• Motion Styled Offense
• Basics of a Press break

First game to mid season
What additional skills are needed to keep the progress of the team on track? How can you further develop your players’ skill set? Here is the time to reinforce and add new skills such as advanced footwork, low post or guard play specifics. Coaches can also add in secondary offenses/defenses and set plays.

Final part of the season
This is the toughest part of the season as the tendency is to keep doing the same thing; same offense, same drills. However this should be the time where coaches get deeper into teaching fundamentals. Really focus on the footwork and mechanics. Work on specific situations and scenarios. Take the foundation that has been established in the first two segments and build your players. Make sure you keep it fresh!

After creating a skills inventory coaches should then consider which activities and drills best teach those skills? Which drills will best teach ball-handling? Which activities will best teach ball reversal, footwork and improve quickness? Match these activities with the skill. Organize into progressions, how best to teach?
For example, two of the skills on the Basketball Skills Inventory is On Ball Defense and Off Ball Defense. The drills to teach these skills may be the Close Out Drill series with the progression as follows:

• 1v1
• 2v2
• 3v2
• 3v3
• 4v3
• 4v4
• 5v4
• 5v5

Go through your drills inventory and match up those drills that teach the Skills Inventory. Create logical progressions to best teach that skill. Determine if certain drills and activities require a “pre-requisite” of skills and drills. For example before you teach 5v5 defense you need to have already taught 1v1 and 3v3 defense.

     Before coaches can start to create practice plans for the season, they must first follow a series of steps to help keep them organized and to ensure that they teach all of the appropriate skills and tactics to their players. Taking a few hours and meeting with your assistants can be a productive process as well as an opportunity to make sure that all parties are on the same page. Coaches should use a “whole-parts-whole” approach to creating their season’s practice plans.
Step One is to look at the end of the season and determine which skills they want to have taught their players. This is the “whole”. Determine what level you think your players are at. High School players will have different needs than the 7-8 rec league players. Each will have their limitations and areas that they are proficient. Coaches should consider the various types of skills such as:

• Technical skills
• Tactical skills…how to apply those technical skills to games.
• Motor skills or Athletic skills

Coaches could develop a list of over 40-50 different types of skills. For example, in basketball some Technical Skills would be;

• Ball-handling
• Shooting
• Passing
• Rebounding

Some Tactical Skills would be;

• Ball reversal
• Spacing
• Competitive

Some Motor/Athletic Skills would be

• Balance
• Footwork
• Stance
• Quickness

Consider the Skills Inventory below. Pick and choose those skills that are age-appropriate for your team.

Athletic Skills

• Stance
• Balance
• Conditioning
• Footwork
• Flexibility
• Speed
• Strength

Technical Skills

• Pivoting
• Jump Stop
• Triple Threat Position
• Catching: Stationary
• Catching: On the Move
• Passing: Stationary
• Passing: On the Move
• Dribbling: Stationary
• Dribbling: On the Move
• Defensive Rebounding
• Offensive Rebounding
• Weak Side rebounding
• Form Shooting
• Catch and Shoot
• Dribble and Shoot
• Lay Up
• Scoring in the Post
• Screen Away from Ball
• Screen on the Ball
• Cutting Away from Ball
• Defensive Stance
• On Ball Defense
• Off Ball Defense
• Team Defense: Help Side Defense
• Footwork: Getting Open
• Footwork: Shooting
• Footwork: Shot Preparation
• Footwork: Rebounding
• Footwork: Offensive Moves
• Footwork: Post Offense
• Footwork: Post Defense
• Footwork: Individual Defense
• Footwork: Screening
• Footwork: Using Screens
• Footwork: Defending Screens

Tactical Skills

• Court Vision
• Getting Open
• Change of Speed
• Change of Direction
• Decision Making
• Reversing the Ball

Stay tuned for Days 3-8

The coach should also seriously consider what are their “Top Three”? According to Randy, coaches should emphasis 3 concepts/skills and they should be prevalent at everything that the coach does. For example, if the Top Three were defense, rebounds, and ball movement, then everything in every practice should reinforce, support and focus on that Top Three. Any coach should be able to see your practice and immediately determine what are your Top Three.

Coaches should also focus on how they can best develop skills and higher basketball IQ in their players. They need to focus on building a solid basketball foundation in their players before focusing on the X’s and O’s. Too often, coaches worry about their set plays, their offenses or special situations rather than in teaching the game of basketball. They are focused on having their team ready for the first game. Too often coaches go right into 5v5 full court without first teaching them 3v3and then 4v4. (See previous blog article on the importance of 3v3 in practice) Coaches need to teach proper fundamentals, take those fundamentals into drills and progress into some sort of competitive game, especially if it is 3v3, emphasizing those skills. Unfortunately coaches are limited to time constraints and feel that they have to have their team ready for their games. That means a focus on X’s and O’s instead of developing basketball skills. In the long run, their players will suffer. A different approach would be to focus on skills and in teaching the game in 3v3 competition. Once they master those concepts skills they can progress to 4v4 and eventually to 5v5. However this may take a few more practices and yes, their first game may not be as smooth as one would hope. However in the long run your team will have the skills and understanding to handle the X’s and O’s needed. That coach will have built a solid basketball foundation.

One of the tools that helps Randy is his “40 Skills Checklist”. He has gone through and written down all of the skills he wants his players to master during the season. This list will change depending on the age and skill level of the players but it helps to keep coaches focused on their task of skill development.

Lastly, coaches need to remember the most important lesson/skill they can teach. It’s not about the basketball skill or knowing X’s and O’s but rather how to be a great team mate; how to be a better person. What will you be doing to teach/reinforce these important life skills?

Coach Brown also shared a document where after just three passes in a 3 on 3 game, there are over 36 different skills that need to be taught. Skills such as passing, catching, getting open, the Triple Threat position all get broken down.
So what does this mean to youth basketball and even HS basketball. For HS basketball it means that a lot more practice time needs to have 3 on 3 incorporated as a teaching tool. It brings that level of competition that practices need as well as taking the skills and fundamentals into a game-like situation.

For the youth several thoughts come to mind especially for the U-12 age groups. Do we really need to have them playing 5 on 5 full court and have games end up 8-6? Are they really developing their skills? Or is it for the parents’ benefit, that their child is playing “real” basketball. Would the players’ skill levels be better served in a 3 on 3 setting? What are the chances of 3 on 3 leagues being formed instead of traditional leagues?

Just enter a name…MORE THAN 3 LETTERS… in the Guest Box and enjoy

There will be lots of videos shown, lots of handouts and templates, practice plans and other organizational tools shared.

This will be our first video conference as we plan do do more of these throughout the season. It’s completely free. Please loin Kudda and CoachRB Tuesday night at 8
Here is the link
http://1786359.videoconference.talkfusionlive.com/golive/m/d0gvkNpe5UnqcUik