Basketball Coach Unplugged (A Basketball Coaching Podcast)

How Do You Coach a Blowout (on the wrong end)

https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/

TITLE
What Do You Say When Your Team Is Getting Run Off the Floor?

SUBTITLE
The game is decided, there are twelve minutes left, and how you handle them says more about your program than the final score.

SHOW NOTES

Every coach gets one. Down twenty five, the other team is still pressing, and your bench has stopped looking at you. This episode is about what to actually do with the rest of that night: what to say in the huddle, what to say after, and how to keep a beating from turning into something your team carries into next week.

What we cover:

Deciding early that the scoreboard is no longer the point

What to give them to compete for when the game is gone

Handling the huddle without lying to them or crushing them

The locker room afterward, and the one thing not to do

Turning the film from a loss like this into something useful

This week's challenge: Decide now what you will say in that huddle, before you are standing in it.

Resources: Practice plans, drills, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/

https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/
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https://teachhoops.com/

What are you actually trying to find out at tryouts?

Most tryouts sort kids instead of
learning anything about them, and that is a choice you make before the first
whistle.

SHOW NOTES

Steve opens with a cut he still
regrets: a kid who had one bad Tuesday and went on to start varsity somewhere
else two years later. The problem was not the kid. The problem was a tryout
built to confirm what Steve already believed instead of teaching him something
new. This episode is about treating tryout week as an information event,
designing drills where the trait you care about cannot hide, and handling
everything that happens after you post the list.

What we cover:

•
Why sorting feels productive and teaches you nothing

•
Deciding your actual criteria on paper before you walk
in the gym

•
Full court one on one, watching kids off the ball, and
giving them more than one Tuesday

•
Ranking by role and fit instead of averaging every kid
into a six

•
Who belongs in the gym evaluating with you, and who
never does

This week's challenge: Before you run a single minute
of tryouts, write down exactly what you are going to say to the last kid you
cut.

Resources: Practice plans, drills, courses, and on
court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/

Recorded at the Fifth Quarter
Studios in Madison, Wisconsin.

EPISODE DETAILS

Runtime: 10 minutes 1
seconds

LINKS

https://teachhoops.com/

https://coachingyouthhoops.com/

https://heysammi.com/

What Are You
Actually Trying to Find Out at Tryouts?

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Fundamentals vs. Game Tactics

https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/

TITLE
Should You Be Teaching Fundamentals or Running Your Offense?

SUBTITLE
Every practice plan is a trade between the two, and most coaches get the ratio wrong without ever noticing.

SHOW NOTES

There are only so many minutes in a practice, and every one you spend on footwork is a minute you did not spend on your offense. Coach Collins works through how to think about that trade honestly, why the answer changes with the age group and the time of year, and how to tell from watching a game which side of the ledger your team is short on.

What we cover:

Why the fundamentals versus tactics question is really a question about minutes

How the right ratio shifts from youth to high school, and from October to February

The tell in a game that says your problem is skill, not scheme

Teaching fundamentals inside your offense instead of as a separate block

What happens to a team that only ever runs plays

This week's challenge: Add up the minutes in your last practice plan and find out what your actual split was, not what you thought it was.

Resources: Practice plans, drills, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/

https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

https://teachhoops.com/

Are You Punishing the Exact Mistakes That Would Make Your Team Better?Tryout week, the quick hook, and what happens to a player who learns that trying something is dangerous.

Show Notes

A quick hook feels like standards. This episode argues it is often just fear, and that the lesson a player actually takes from it is that trying something is dangerous. With tryouts here, it is worth asking what your sideline reaction is teaching.

What we cover:

Sorting mistakes of aggression from mistakes of selfishness, and why only one earns a seat

Telling players out loud what you want them to risk this week

The mistake budget, and using practice as a lab instead of a courtroom

Why your face coaches louder than your voice

Separating sloppy from brave, and why the player you will not trust in November is the one you need in February

This week's challenge: run one practice where you never stop play for a mistake of aggression. Let it go, then write down what you saw.

Resources: Practice plans, drills, courses, on court clinics, and the coaching community at https://teachhoops.com/

Recorded at the Fifth Quarter Studios in Madison, Wisconsin.
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https://teachhoops.com/

Are Your Players Hearing You, or Actually Seeing It?Why installation week moves twice as fast when you stop explaining and start showing.

Show Notes

Installation week always sounds the same. A coach talking, a group of heads nodding, and then total chaos the second the ball goes up. This episode makes the case that the problem is not attention. It is that most young players learn with their eyes and we keep teaching with our mouths.

What we cover:

Show it before you say it, so the words have a picture to stick to

Putting a screen in your gym, and why twenty seconds of clip beats two minutes of talking

One cue, then go, because when you stack four instructions they keep the last one

Letting players watch their own possession and coach themselves off it

Locking your vocabulary in October so you are not reteaching words in February

This week's challenge: install one thing using under thirty seconds of talking. Show it, run it, fix one detail, run it again.

Resources: Practice plans, teaching progressions, drills, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/

Recorded at the Fifth Quarter Studios in Madison, Wisconsin.
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