The game of basketball requires both effective and committed coaches to
impart their knowledge, strategy, and training to elevate their team's
competitiveness. A coach must therefore possess the skill and keen eye so he can
assist in developing the skills of not just the team, but also of every
individual player. He also needs to be able to lead and motivate the team so the
players can act as a team and not individually. The list below shows some
effective
basketball coaching ideas.
Building a Philosophy
When coaching, particularly when you are new to it, it is very important that
you build your coaching philosophy on knowing what your goal and priorities are,
such as what to do first or what drills or strategies to practice that may fit
the team. In order to gain an insight on positive coaching philosophy, you may
want to read books, attend clinics or classes provided by highly successful
coaches. This will enable you to learn how to focus not just on creating a
winning team, but also on how to impart lessons and values to your team.
Team Building
Coaches should always try to build a good rapport between team members and
one of the most effective ways of building this would be through team building.
If a team has a good relationship with each other, they would be able to
encourage and build expectations as well as accountability. One team-building
exercise that is very effective is the "Birthday Balance Beam." This exercise
requires a mat for each group of 10 and a low-standing beam. To start the
exercise, get your team to lineup themselves in any order on the beam. After
that, they should try to rearrange their position in order of birth. If any
member of the team so much touches the ground or complains about a teammate,
then the whole exercise should be restarted until it is completed without any
mistake.
The Zone
There are actually many ways to prepare your team's mental preparedness for a
game. Centering is one example of a mental technique and this can done before
practices and before games. To start the mental preparedness technique, have
your team stand with feet at shoulder width apart, guide them to inhale and
exhale deeply, and make them focus on their tension which gets relieved slowly
each time they exhale. Another technique would be developing the ability to
block external noises. This can be done by playing loud, irritating, and
distracting noises while they practice doing shots and free throws.
Drills and Games
In order to build your team's ability to work well with each other, build
important basketball skills such as shooting, passing, catching, dribbling,
rebounding, agility, stamina, and muscle strength, you need to perform drills
and games. One simple drill is the two-ball split-vision passing drill. To
perform the drill, have four to six of you player form a line. Then have a
player stand about 8 feet away in the middle of the line of players. Give a ball
to one player on the line and one ball to the player standing 8 feet away. Have
the player with the ball on the line pass the ball to the lone player while the
lone player tries to rapidly pass the ball among the players lined up. The
objective here is to improve catching and passing ability, particularly that of
the lone player.
Coaching Guy and Girls – The Basic Difference
Several decades ago, there were limited opportunities available for girls in
sports. However, in 1972, there was an amendment in the Civil Rights Act that
allowed the inclusion of all-girl teams in any sport. This helped increase the
number of female participants in athletic teams. Such increase meant that there
needs to be proper coaching needs and methods for male and female athletes.
It is important to remember that although the genders are different, the
sport they are involved in remains the same. However, since the movements of
girls are often more calculated, they are encouraged to play aggressively while
adhering to the rules of the game – a strategy that is useful when coaching both
males and females.
Biological Development
The biological development of boys and girls are significantly different. A
good example would be in height. Girls are usually taller during their early
stages and reaching the end of their growth spurt at an early stage as well.
Boys on the other hand tend to grow over a long period with an intense growth
spurt during their early teens. This is because as boys near these stages, their
testosterone levels become significantly greater which leads to development of
both growth and physical strength. The significant differences between
development rates of girls and boys means there is also a difference with
coaching strategies.
Gender Preferences
According to reports published in the Physical Educator in 2000, female
athletes are motivated to excel in sports under different reasons as compared to
male athletes. According to them, females find the participating in sports along
with other basic rewards of the sport as motivational, whereas men find winning
and awards to be the motivational factor. This means girls are likely to respond
differently to coaches who are entirely consumed with winning competitions.
According to another review published by the Montana State University, boys/men
usually rate the knowledge and skill of their coach as more important as
compared to how females rate their coaches.
Gender-related Obstacles
Females are the one who usually states that their success is attributed to
their obstacles along with their continuing participation in the sport. For a
coach, becoming aware of these obstacles will allow them to respond better to
the needs of their players. The obstacles the females usually encounter are the
gender stereotypes with favoritism shown towards their male counterparts on coed
teams, poor access to quality training equipment, poor coaching quality for
female-only teams, and hardly any high-level opportunities in the sport which
includes scholarships.
Similarities
Although there are a few differences between coaching males and females,
since the game is still the same, there are inevitably more similarities as
compared to differences. This would include their appreciation towards coaching
personality, caring and communication skills.
