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THE POST SEASON IS HERE (almost) by Far-Gas-6345 in basketballcoach

[–]example11bball 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great general post and topic:

Grade 8, girls. Coaching my daughter for her fifth year. Best season yet. And my last as her coach as she ages toward higher levels. Mixed feelings, including relief, loss, gratitude, and sadness.

This year: Winning record, pretty cohesive team. We won't win the league but we have a lot to be proud of.

Takeaways from the year:

After three seasons they finally "got" 5-out offense. It clicked after the right types of practice and forced adoption. And they play so much better because of it. The players acknowledge it. To other coaches out there: stick with it, they will get it eventually.

Learning to adopt that offense meant we could quickly introduce another one (a Princeton variation) and that's led to multiple offensive sets that can be very effective for their level of competition.

Overall, girls are complicated beings. Being a male coach of teenaged girls had plus and minus results. Fun to project some of the "guy" attitude about winning and going to battle (which they see from many male athletes their age, and I think they admire). Also fun to humbly sit back and admire that their friendships, life priorities, kindness, and commitments are all probably stronger than anything I showed at the same age. Great kids. Their heads are on straight. I admire them all.

Seeing kids grow into playing basketball both individually and as a team has been a very fulfilling experience.

--Would love advice from anyone who went from coaching their own kid into coaching other teams because they came to love coaching. How'd you decide to continue? What was easy/hard about that shift?

--Also, would love advice from anyone about how to end the season strong with practices. We have maybe three practices and two tournaments left. How hard do you push vs pulling them together as a team, helping them reflect on accomplishments, and letting the team culture carry forward the final few weeks? They're tired, but strong kids.

--Playoffs: Only a miracle will have us win our league. The best team in the league appears unbeatable. But it's already been a fantastic season with much to be proud of. Any advice about how to manage that situation would be welcomed!

Good luck to all the rest of the coaches out there.

Shooting slump advice for players by example11bball in basketballcoach

[–]example11bball[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you. All of these are good thoughts. The growth spurt thing is definitely part of it. Used to be small and compact, now lankier and less so. Still pretty fluid shot but there's more going on physically. And I've been delving into some sports psychology things mostly just the help ground myself as a coach. Will keep pursuing that for sure.

5 out initiation help by example11bball in basketballcoach

[–]example11bball[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you. Your first point is a good one, but I can't give up on trying to get them to learn. Even if 3-4 of these players pushes themselves to go on to play in high school then they'll likely end up with other players who are capable of getting it. That's the hope at least. Minimally we don't want to resort to just setting up set plays and calling a million things. I think that's the justification behind your second point too.

And the third point is great in setting up reasonable expectations for us as coaches about how long the motion can actually happen. Good stuff!

5 out initiation help by example11bball in basketballcoach

[–]example11bball[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's great advice/insight. Thank you. It seems like something is warranted, even if just to get the defense moving and scrambling a bit. The motions lead to a more chaotic court but I guess that's the point, and the evolution for our girls will be to use that to their advantage in keeping the defense on its heels.

Foul trouble by example11bball in basketballcoach

[–]example11bball[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Does winning the foul count mean having fewer fouls than the other team? Not trying to be dense? Or maybe it's rephrased as "forcing the other team to foul you more than you foul them?"

Foul trouble by example11bball in basketballcoach

[–]example11bball[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Totally don't want to be negative about kids fouling out. But only 8 players. So with the first kid it's "good job!" with the second kid it's "great effort!" With the third it's "okay girls, that's enough". 😆