Hoop & Hustle E6 Preparation

Coach Emmett talks about how he prepares. It’s not just showing up to coach you need to be prepared. He will talk about practice plans, film, scouting reports, and making adjustments on the fly.

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Hello, everyone, and welcome to my podcast, Hoops and Hustle, a coaching podcast. I'm Coach Emmett. On this episode of Hoops and Hustle, we will be talking about preparation, organization, film, scouting reports, adjustments, and why all these are important to have success and to have a successful season as a coach. Transcribed by https: otter. ai Preparation. The action or process of making ready or being made ready for use or consideration. Being a coach comes with a lot of responsibilities. As a coach, to hold everything together, to be that glue, so to speak, you need to be organized and prepared in every aspect of the game of basketball. Preparation can make or break the season and players confidence in you as a coach. I'll take you through what I personally do to prepare or get ready for my seasons at my levels of coaching. Some can be over the top for the level that you may be coaching at, but these are useful tips and tricks, what have you, that you can take with you. Season planning as a whole, overall. Set those SMART goals, like we talked about in our goal setting episode. And define team and individual objectives for the season. Schedule. Create a schedule that fits your team identity and that will challenge your team, but also set your team up for success. Normally what I used to do when I coached high school was I personally learned what worked best was to schedule our preseason on what type of team I had, what the league was looking like, to either go 500 in league or 500 in non league. So the scrimmages that I'd set up would be challenging. What I did was one scrimmage against a private school. And two scrimmages that were either versus public or private schools, but at different pace levels, so I do different styles of play. So if one team did like a half court set and was focused on the half court set, I would like to play them. Versa faster paced team for my second scrimmage or vice versa. So the scrimmages should be challenging in different styles of play. Aau teams set appropriate level for your teams but also If you can or if you are at that level where you're a tweener division one or division two you should play up to help your players know where they need to be and where they stand. Budgeting, knowing your budget and managing your resources effectively for equipment, travel and training and other team needs. Setting up fundraisers as well. As to add on to your budget, we as coaches know the more money that we can raise, the better, and the better we can provide for our student athletes. Those were just some little tips for before the season planning. Now let's get into practice plans and organization. Having a detailed practice plan is essential. Coaches, please, please, please do not come up with practice plans on the fly or practice on the fly. Having a practice plan in place is crucial for this. I like to use the Google sheet organizer. So what I do is one side I'll have times going down the first column and then And then across, I'll have all aspects of the game. Defense, offense, situational, skill player development, etc. From there, what I like to do is specifically, I do this really specific. I'll write down what we're doing in the time slot. And it helps to get real specific because it breaks down the practice. And it breaks down a well planned out practice and it makes practice run smooth and effectively. It also is important to add variety to the practice plan as well, whether that is similar drills to the topic that you're teaching or working on and player development or scrimmage, just to keep things in practice, engaging, getting players feedback is also really key. Cause if the players feel like there's something that's valid and should be tweaked, us as coaches should listen and maybe incorporate that to make practice more engaging. And that's a little something on practice plans. Now, this is where I get really nerdy. Player development. So, it is important to have some plan in place for each player. And in order to do that, you need to evaluate the player's skill and create a personal, detailed development plan for that individual player. Integrate drills that are specific for areas of improvement for each player This seems like a lot of work, but if you want to be a great coach, And you want that player to be successful, it is well worth it. Also have all players regardless work on ball handling and form shooting. Those two aspects of the game are really important. And last but not least, at some levels, this may seem boring to players, but visualization and seeing film is a huge part of the game and player development. Both practice and game film, using footage to break down and use to teach and use as teaching moments for that player, players get better and develop from it. Now we have activated Coach Emmett's nerd mode, game prep. This is my personal favorite. All the game prep should be done far in advance, well ahead of time, well ahead of the game. Prepping for a game and other opponents is what I do best. The more you do, the better chance of an outcome you may have and the more advantage you may have on your opponent. Personally, I will look up the other team's roster, go into their stats, look up the team's stats, then I will go into player stats and mark down each individual's stats, who's a threat, who's not, who's a shooter, who's an interior post player, who's more effective and what, and then I'll move on to their bench players. So I'll mark all their starters first. Then I will identify if they're left handed or not. And then I'll break down the opponent's film. What I like to do is I like to break down multiple games. So what I do is I listen or look for the same sets and I'll watch coach's mannerisms to see if the coach gives off anything. I'll create a scout video off of that. Along with the scout video, I will make a scouting report and type in some game plans and strategies on how to break down the opponent's weakness. And what their weaknesses are. All teams have a weakness. It's just how hard you work as a coach. Do you want to work hard to find them? Going into game preparation, you have to have a backup plan. That should also be done and in place before the game starts. Making sure to make adjustments on the fly. Is also needed and having that mental in visualization and focus techniques can also be beneficial in your game day prep. In game organization. Substitution patterns. Develop a clear plan for substitutions to maintain your player's energy level and matchups. Timeout management. You're going to want to know when to call a timeout for tactical adjustments to motivate your players. Or if you see That a player's energy level is low And you need to rest them because they provide the best matchup at that time And you can't afford to take them out These are times when you should take a timeout play calling Be organized with your playbook and know when to adapt strategies during the game Know when to give the right play Know when to adjust And read the defense After in game organization, we go to post game evaluation. Now, post game evaluation, you want to give your review on the game. Watching film back, that might take time after the game, but you can send this out to your players. Highlight their success and identify areas of improvement. It is always good to provide constructive feedback to players and discuss team dynamics. Always making adjustments. Use insights from the game to refine practices and strategies moving forward. Learn from it, learn from your players, learn from yourself. Building that connection and support system. Now, assistant coaches delegate responsibilities and create strong coaching staff to cover different areas. Offense, defense, et cetera. Support staff involves trainers, statisticians, and analysts to enhance preparation and performance. Most coaching staffs at the younger level do not have all of these so the head coach has to take responsibility to enhance that preparation and performance So this Might be harder on the coach, but if you do it, you're going to get more from your players and you get more out of it and getting an advantage out of it. That is why building a staff and a support network is very important. And last but not least, I cannot stress it enough, communication is key. Communication is key. It is important to stay open and communicate with your team, both players and staff, so everyone stays in the loop. Hold team meetings to discuss goals, expectations, and strategies regularly. Have that open door policy for your players. As a coach, you want to foster an environment that players feel comfortable and speak their minds with concerns or ideas that they may have. It is also important to communicate via social media, email, texts, calls, et cetera. and inform family, friends, fans, and whoever may want to be informed about the team's schedule, progress, and information. On the next episode of Hutan hustle, I will be joined by a special guest for hoop talk. Stay tuned.