8 Attributes of a Good Rebounder

Posted by Eitel in For Coaches, For Players | 2 comments

Rebounding is very essential in our sports. Don’t wait for your opponent to make the shots before having the chance to handle the ball yourself. Rebounding enables your team to have a lot of extra chances for scoring and limit the opponent’s opportunity to get into valuable possessions. This disables them to make the easy points.
When a player shoots the ball it can either sink in or bounce off the rim. So, whenever a shot is made, this is the time for your players to get ready for the rebound.

A quick run-down of Food Tips

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

The other day I was talking to one of my players about the proper nutrition in these days. Inspired by this I’ve put together a quick run-down of elementary food tips:

Layups.com Video Blog – Episode #1: The Things in my Bag

Posted by Eitel in For Parents, For Players, Video Blog | 2 comments

In this video blog I’ll share some insights with you on what I take to practice in my duffle bag. I hope you’ll enjoy … and please excuse my German dialect. I promise to work on this! :)

He lost his temper, Ref!

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

In response to my article about when I would file a complaint against a ref, Coach Beez pointed me to a video on his blog showing a player who loses his temper. You can read a summary of what exactly happened here.

Coach Beez says that the refs must make sure they have full control of the game at any given time. This means that they should prevent escalations as soon as they arise. I can totally relate to this because I’ve been a ref for a couple of years now and had around a handful similar situations where players clashed with eachother. In these cases I always stopped the game, called both of them to me an warned them for a technical. There were times when this didn’t help and so I called a double foul. This helped and the game continued normally.

The point is, as referee you should know what normal and legal body contact is. Coach Beez mentioned it can be very helpful to decide whether it is a legal body contact or not when you have been a player yourself. This helps in deciding to make a call or don’t.

My advise is: For the sake of all involved (other players, coaches, spectators) … make that one call early enough and at the right time before things get out of hand!

In the end I hope that this player gets a reasonable penalty for attacking an official. Fights are such an ugly thing and each one of us involved in our favourite sport has the responsibility to uphold the sportsmanship and the spirit of the game.

What was your worst behaviour you have witnessed? Please let me know and share your experiences!

9 Tips on how to get rid of your Fear about Losing

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

One of the problems some players face is the fear of losing in basketball games. For example, fear can root from failure of achieving success in the past, pressure from expectations or just facing the shame of losing. Whether you like it or not, losing is part of the game, but when the game is not yet decided, you have nothing to fear about losing.

Here are some tips I’ve put together:

Outplayed vs. Out-Talented

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

I’ve read a great article of Wayne Goldsmith, who runs the blog The Sports Coaching Brain. He writes about the reasons why athletes and teams lose and brings it down to two basic aspects: You lose by being outplayed, rather then by being out-talented.

I like the way he sees it and puts it straight to the point. Let’s be honest: Who hasn’t said things after a tough loss like “They had better calls from the refs!” or “They had more luck than we did.” etc.