Developing a Warm-Up Routine

Posted by Eitel in For Coaches, For Players, Motivation & Health | 0 comments

Developing a proper warm up routine is absolutely crucial in any sport, and is especially important in high speed, high impact sports. It is utterly crucial to ensure that you are warmed up and ready to go for practices and games, as going into them could drastically increase your chances of injury, and can even result in diminished game play. Developing a healthy warm up routine that is tailored to your needs and that includes all the essentials isn’t that difficult and can be done in a very short amount of time. If you are unsure of exactly what needs to be included in the routine, then talk to the coach.

One of the most important components to a well rounded warm up routine are stretches. You can’t get away with just a few casual easy stretches either. You need to stretch each area of your body properly and multiple times to ensure that you are properly warmed up. This routine should be repeated daily, weather a game is happening or not, and weather a practice is happening or not. To maintain the physical requirements of the sport, you need to do your warm ups daily.

With your warm up routine, you can also implement some shooting drills that will serve not only to warm you up, but measure your shooting ability improvement in a way that you personally can observe. You can do this by shooting a foot from the basket, making that shot 3 times, stepping another foot back, and making that shot 3 times. Repeating this for 10 minutes and seeing how far from the basket you get, and seeing how often you miss. Without anyone paying attention, you will be able to measure your improvements easily.

Some light jogging around the court would also be a good way to loosen up and improve your conditioning. For the first week of your routine, just jog around the court once. Second week, increase that to 2 times around. Be careful that you do not overexert yourself. If you feel that 3 times is a safe limit for you, stop there and just continue around the court 3 times each day. If you cannot get to practice, you can jog around your yard, or even a local park. Just because you can’t get to practice, doesn’t mean you can’t find other ways to do your routine.

Dribbling drills are another important aspect of warm ups. Dribbling up one side of the court and taking a shot, the next time passing to someone, and shaking it up. This drill can be done in conjunction with a teammate and can also build team mechanics and get young and older players in tune with each other.

There are many more components that can be added to your warm up routines, but you are going to want to keep it simple. Include something in your routine that will help you build on a weak spot in your game, and get advice from your coach on ways to change your routine to best serve you!

Photo credit: Dawn – Pink Chick

Coach’s Equipment and Tools

Posted by Eitel in For Coaches | 0 comments

While a coach’s role has changed over the years, so has the tools and ways his job is done. A coach used to have a ball, a chalk board, chalk, and some film. That was it. Now these days you have all of that, the internet, a considerably larger sized fan base, as well as the popular professional aspect. Coaches have to not only deal with their team, but they now have to deal with the public relations aspect far more often than they used to. There have been new methods and tools developed over the years to help coaches and teams deal with these newer changes and tasks that face them.

The internet and its many uses have made their way to the spotlight. While a lot of junk is available on the internet, and a lot of crap is spewed by those that pretend they know everything from the safety of being behind their monitor, there is a lot of positive material online. In the right spots, coaches will be able to network with other coaches and gain valuable advice and tips. Coaches may also to just bang heads together with other coaches and solve problems that would otherwise escape them and cause unnecessary frustrations. As mentioned above you must exercise extreme caution when going online to find any materials.

Another internet usage for coaches is the ability to keep in touch with their team, and provide them with potential new work out ideas or other activities that they could do around the house to not only stay in shape, but to improve their game. Often the value of the internet is horribly warped and misrepresented when in today’s age; it has become a unique and hard to beat tool in the everyday coaching life.

Aside from the informational uses that the internet provides coaches, it also allows them an avenue in which they can shop around to obtain gear for their team. This allows a coach to shop literally worldwide in a matter of seconds, getting the best prices that are possible for what the team needs. Before the internet days, coaches were restricted to wholesalers and local vendors. While some people would say it is destroying local business, it is just going to force them to become more competitive.

Coaches also have the choice of practicing outside at a great many locations now with the boom in popularity of basketball. Parks, Schools, and various other locations are installing full basketball courts, and they are constantly in use. This also can be used as a recruitment tool by coaches as they can have their team out on display and show people that may think of playing at some point what kind of things a basketball team does. The level of personal interaction that it provides was often not accessible before because basketball wasn’t as popular, and people would just walk on past. Now when folks are playing basketball outdoors, people stop and look, and even stay for a time and watch!

Coaches have a full complement of tools available to them now, it is up to them to find which ones best fit their team and the needs of it, and get the ball rolling!

Photo credit: SD Dirk

Common Courtesy on the Court

Posted by Eitel in For Coaches, For Parents, For Players | 0 comments

Some people often are so wrapped up in the most advanced aspects of the game, that they forget even the simplest of things. While it would be easy to just say “Oh I Only Do That in the Heat of The Moment”, sometimes it is that sort of mentality that can rub players or entire teams the wrong way. When the smallest of gestures can have such a large impact, are they truly a “minor” aspect as they seem to be put off as?

Common Courtesy is frequently forgotten on the courts these days because of the competitive nature of sports. Is it the fault of a player, or a coach? Well really you could blame anyone, but in truth the answer is, it is everyone’s fault. Coach’s occasionally overlook good sportsmanship in favour of scoring that extra few points, or putting the opponent at a disadvantage. If you look around all sports and all levels of play you will find each league has specific players, and even teams and coaches’ that have been dubbed “goons”.

Sometimes these goons are a necessary part of sports, and when kept within certain guidelines are absolutely acceptable. However when your intent is to injure or cause harm/embarrassment to the other team, than it is nothing but negative all around.

Celebrations are another focal point these days. The lines between creative and tasteless are being blurred as big name celebrities will celebrate a big score or a huge win with a “skit” of sorts. Occasionally these skits can be aimed to mock or otherwise hurt other teams, and that is where it crosses the line. Being a sore loser and being a poor winner are no different.

These days it is almost hard to find a player that you would like to be a role model for you or your children. Sometimes a sports figure tends to forget that they are in the spotlight and subject to a higher standard of critique and judgement. As well as us the fans, coaches, and other folks that follow basketball need to also realize that the players are people too, and are prone to mistakes. No one is perfect and while sportsmanship is still a rare quality, fans also play a role in how a team and player react to certain situations.

Often it is forgotten that those people we idolize on and off the court, are people just like us. Held up and observed under a microscope the things that we as normal people can get away with will be reported online before they even get home that night.

Common Courtesy, and Sportsmanship are things that not only can be exercised and practiced by the players, but the fans in the crowd could also use a good lesson. Some parents and fans of recreational, or youth leagues can get out of hand just because they attempt to live their competitive spirit through another person. If fans, media outlets, and others just stopped for a second, and realized that most players are not perfect, maybe, just maybe they would be given some slack, and maybe just maybe, their attitudes, their games, and their overall stress and pressure situations would improve.

While I know a lot of people just assume that because a player is professional, he is perfect, that’s wrong. A professional player, or a player of any kind, suffers from a lot of pressure to do well, and to constantly perform. Often the arm chair players forget, and maybe fans and others need to just step back and leave the game to the professionals.

Photo credit: SD Dirk

Goals to Set and Achieve as a Coach

Posted by Eitel in For Coaches | 0 comments

There are many types of goals that you can set as the coach of a basketball team. Firstly you will have to observe the type of league you are playing in. If it is competitive your goals will differ from a league that is purely recreational. Competitive leagues will focus more on the winning and statistical aspect, while recreational teams focus on the fun and team togetherness aspects.

If you are in a competitive league, you also have to keep in mind the past history of your team. If your team is new, then you can disregard this. If you are taking over an already existing team, you will find that one of your goals may simply be to improve your win/loss record. While this is a simple goal, it requires many smaller goals to achieve it. Just saying you want to win more does absolutely nothing. To achieve this goal, a coach will have to study many hours of film, and be involved in every aspect of practice. In doing this a coach will be able to identify any potential problems, and will be able to suggest and implement some measures that will go towards improving the team overall. These changes could be simple as additional drills, or just shifting around the players into positions that they may perform better in.

In recreational leagues, the goal is to improve the skills needed to play the game, but without the sole focus on winning. The focus is on actual enjoyment of the game by all involved, and sportsmanship. This isn’t to say that competitive leagues do not have courteous and sporting players, it is just not as primary of a focus as it is in a recreational league. Some professional leagues like the NBA have strict guidelines to govern how the players act and ensure that they are professional on and off the court.

Focusing on the team is also another way to resolve many problems. Basketball is a team sport and if any aspect of your team is failing to function at the quality and level that you require, then you will have to make changes. Whether the changes made are to a single member of the team or to the overall team as a whole. Sometimes just some small team building or fun exercises will put your team in the proper mindset and remove any negative effects or doubts that previous losses or events have caused. Some people will need one on one time with their coach, and that is up to the coach in some causes to identify. Not every player is able to come up and ask for help as occasionally the mentality is that indicates weakness, and people do not like to admit fault. All a coach can do is offer an open door and any help possible.

While there are many large goals, and small goals that help towards them, these are simply a small sampling of the problems and remedies a coach encounters in their everyday responsibilities. You don’t just have a game to win; you have a team to look after, on and off the court.

Photo credit: Zach Klein

Off-Season Training Tips – Part II

Posted by Eitel in For Players | 0 comments

The basketball season for youths is one full of energy and learning. The young athlete may not have many coping mechanisms for stress. A child who experiences stress without coping mechanisms can lead to a lack of success for him or her. This may discourage the child from reaching towards new goals.

The off season can be the perfect time to help them manage stress levels. During the off season parents are able to help the child athlete build self-confidence and leadership skills which they can then bring to the court and their game. Many parents may be concerned that children will lose skills during the months when schedules become lax. There are ways that the athletic youth can gain skills, knowledge, and maintain core abilities while still being a child and having fun.

Although it is important for all athletes, no matter what your age, to maintain aerobic fitness and muscle tone all year long, one can take advantage of good weather and time off to do a myriad of new things which can help build leadership skills, manage stress, and help to keep a fresh outlook on what can be a monotonous routine. Many leading authorities today can testify to the fact that children learn at a rapid pace when their attention can be kept undivided on the activity at hand. By adding fun to the menu of learning ones child athlete can continue to excel at top speed all year long.

Part II: Youths
It is important for developing athletes to continue to work on the fundamentals of their particular game during the summer. Standard skills drills and strength training are integral to the upcoming season. Youth’s find that they grow over the summer months and being involved in inter-mural summer leagues are a great place to make new friends and keep up conditioning to overcome any awkward stages. This involves activities which the youths have to do during the regular season. To ease the monotony of the summer months and while improving the youth’s fitness they should also participate in novel activities. Here are examples of activities which young athletes can participate in and it will carry over to basketball training.

Martial Arts like Tai’Chi and Karate assist with balance and limberness while stimulating the mind. Youths will also learn coping mechanisms for stress which will assist in the regular season.

Youth camps sponsored by the NBA or other professional leagues where fun activities are designed around basketball drills, physical fitness, and healthy eating can also be ideal. The youths get to meet people they admire and keep up their fitness while learning important techniques to improve their athleticism.
Youth nutritional classes are designed to assist children in learning about good health through eating which aides in a stronger athlete.

Day camps can often be found at local community centers designed around swimming, intermural sports like Basketball, nature walks, team building exercises, and leadership games which build communication skills while maintaining physical fitness. As a bonus for parents these courses are often very inexpensive.

Photo credit: zenobia_joy