Do your players know what is asked of them every time they step on to the court? Are they aware of how they can best contribute to the team? We as coaches can always do a better job of making sure that every player is constantly aware of how they are helping the team get better and ultimately, win games. It is best to have individual meetings with the players before the season starts to discuss roles on and off the court. An example of some players roles on the court may include:
1. Your point guards job is to attack the rim and find open players if driving lanes are shut down. You may also expect your pg to have an understanding of tempo, knowing when to push and when to walk the ball up.
2. You may have an athletic wing player, and you want him to hound the other teams best player. You should communicate to him that scoring is not priority number one. He needs to take great pride in defense and understand that great defense can win the team a championship.
3. Your 5 man is great post player but lacks an outside shot. He needs to be told that his role is to dominate the paint and not settle for jumpers. When he is taking outside shots he is hurting the teams shooting percentage.
You can see where a team might have problems if things like this are not discussed prior to a season. Most every player thinks he can shoot from deep and most every player thinks they should be the leading scorer. While these are great, positive ways of thinking, they are not realistic and will eventually lead to losses. Even the players that may never play have certain roles that they need to fill. They need to be encourager’s and also understand they are responsible for making the starters better everyday in practice.
A perfect example of players understanding there roles is in the NBA. Players like Nazr Mohammed and Ben Wallace have helped teams win championships because they understood there roles. Ben Wallace has never been a great offensive player and he never tried to be during games. He knew that by rebounding and getting his team extra possessions that he was impacting the game. If your players don’t understand what they need to do to help your program than is it really there fault for not contributing in a positive way? Coaches must be great communicators and make sure every member knows there job, even down to the managers and assistants. Being an assistant coach I find it much easier to put forth a consistent effort when I know how I can make an impact. While I was a head coach my assistant has told me numerous times how easy it was to work with me because he never had to guess what I wanted out of him. Communicating every ones role makes it much easier to put forth a focused and consistent effort.
BIO-Currently a Grad Assistant at Pitt St. 1 season at Indiana University Southeast as Assistant Coach. I have spent 4 years coaching at the high school level. I was a coach for Team Southern Indiana AAU. I have 2 DVD’s with Championship Productions. Installing the Dribble Drive Motion Offense, and Full Court Trapping System and Breakdown Drills. I have also completed a DVD Showcasing my own offense, The 4 Out 1 In Attack and React Offense, that will be released soon.
Twitter- Andrew Grantz @CoachAGrantz