Basketball coaching has been part of my life for as long as I can remember.
And how I coach is always evolving.
I try new things, discard old things, make adjustments.
Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.
Sometimes I go back to the things I discarded last season because it turns out they were better than the new things I tried this season.
But coaching from the bench, what I find myself yelling to my players, seems to never change.
And it never changes because what I yell focuses on the basics of the game that I think are so easily forgotten when we get caught up in our next best strategy.
This is what I yell most often to my players on the court: 1.
Play defense with your feet! It doesn't matter if you are playing man to man or zone, defense is played with your feet and not your hands.
You have to be quicker or smarter than your opponent - get to the position before he does, get a hand and foot in the passing lane before the pass can get through, get between him and the basket the moment he starts to drive.
I'm usually calling this just after one of my players has been given a foul for reaching as his man passes him, or for sticking his knee out as his man goes around him.
If my player was quick enough, his man wouldn't have been able to get the ball in the first place - which always make it easier to play defense on him, and takes some of the stress out of basketball coaching! 2.
Get the boards! Usually this is yelled at the forwards, but most often I want everyone to crash the boards except for the point guard.
Consider the statistics - even at the pro level, the team with the best shooting percentage in the NBA still shoots below 50%.
Which means against the best team, every second shot that goes up will miss.
Against teams that aren't quite as good as the top pros, we expect even more rebounds.
To win this game, you need to win the boards.
3.
Good job! Or good shot, or good rebound, or good pass.
Give reward where it is warranted.
Don't be false, but you have to be positive, you have to encourage, you have to recognize the effort if you want to see it again.
Basketball coaching is as much a psychological game as a physical one.
As Yogi Berra said, "Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical.
" Basketball is the same.
There's plenty more that I say from the bench - I tend to talk a lot - but I think these three comments are what I say the most often and are the most important points to hammer home.