Everything has its process—a beginning, a middle and an end or final result.

by Scott Jaimet

The author, Scott Jaimet, lives in Oregon. He grew up playing basketball in Indiana. He always wanted to teach his son to shoot but became very frustrated with the lack of knowledge on behalf of most coaches. They could teach the set shot and the bunny hop jumper but no one seemed to know how to teach the big time pull-up jump shot like he saw in the NBA. So he decided to figure it out. He knew that there must be some simple scientific principles that would apply, just as they do in all of the other sports.

Triangle defense describes the floor position of each defensive player in relationship with the player they are defending, with the ball, and with the basket.

The defender on the ball has only one rule and that is to maintain a body position that will block a direct path to the basket by the dribbler.  I call this “Ball-Me-Basket”.

The other four defenders’ floor positions can be described by two triangles.  These are:  “Ball-Me-Man” and “Man-Me-Basket”.

I am often asked about how to teach offense to 9 and 10 year-olds.  Those asking usually fall into two categories: 1) Those in rec programs and 2) Those in competitive programs.

While the former would like to win, it isn’t their overriding motivation.  They really want to know how to teach offensive skills and what kind of an offense would be appropriate for that age group.

The latter group cares more about having a winning offense and less about teaching the whole group offensive skills. They will usually verbalize something about preparing the kids to be successful high school players, but inside they really want a group of the best 9-10 year old studs/studettes they can muster.  After all, winning is their real motivation for asking my ideas about what kind of an offense to run.

A 42 game schedule for 9-10 year olds!  Tournaments every Saturday and Sunday where 9-10 year olds play 3 games on each day with 20 minute halves!

Did your jaw drop at these revelations?  It should.  These are 9 & 10 year olds playing in a tournament league, in games that are longer than 32 minute high school games and in a schedule that would test any college team.

I just moved back to Oregon, after 19 years living in Florida.  I was talking with an acquaintance here and learned that his ex-wife had just signed their son up to play in the league described above.  A couple of questions came immediately to mind—no, make that numerous questions.

Years ago, while at a UCLA coaching clinic, Coach Wooden stressed to us young coaches that our priorities should be conditioning, fundamentals, and then team play. The pre- and early-season plan must take that into account.

Do this by designing your drills for the dual purpose of perfecting a skill while building conditioning. Wooden told us that, “before working together as a team, we need to break every element of the game down into its basic parts, then begin to put the pieces together. Practice and perfect each part or the whole will not be successful. It requires hard work and repetition, always modifying, always correcting, until it all comes together. 'Practices are where championships are won'.” 

I get letters frequently from coaches who will be working with 9-11 year olds and who, on the average, have 3 or less years of coaching experience.  They mostly want to know what to teach when they only have one practice  session per week. So, let me ask you, what would logic tell you to do?  

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NEWS UPDATE August 15, 2008:  Friday August 15th giveaways are:
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For beginners, the most important teaching of use of the weak hand will be for teaching dribbling. Teaching how to shoot with the other hand, especially shooting the lay-up or other finishing shots at the basket, will follow with age and experience.

In teaching dribbling, the primary concern of the coach will be to make sure that whenever a player is dribbling, anywhere on the floor, that the dribbler has his/her body between the ball and the defender. This will require dribbling with the left hand when moving to the dribbler’s left and dribbling with the right hand when moving to the dribbler’s right.

For years, I have written and spoken about how sports are a great metaphor for life. The dynamic of how we deal with our participation in sports mirrors how we live our lives.

We are struggling as a society to make sense of all the changes we see all around in our outward lives. Our lives seem out of balance and with what is happening with the universe, time has been shortened. The resultant feeling is that we feel rushed, filled with angst and stress. This seems to manifest itself with the craziness we’ve seen in the news about aberrant behavior of coaches and parents.

Several years ago, I wrote in the “The Zen of Basketball Coaching”, that when I speak to coaches, especially young coaches, I counsel them to seek balance in their lives; Seek balance between all the different parts that make up who you are; Seek balance between the ego and the rest of your life. Become successful on all fronts. Remember, We’re about being and becoming, not just about what we do for a living.

Whenever I am speaking to a group of brand new or inexperienced youth basketball coaches, I will speak to the topic of “who is your mentor”. When a coach is attempting to put together a coaching plan of action, including how to teach, what to teach and when to teach it, I always point out that who they ask for advice should be of strategic importance to them.

When seeking investment advice, so often people will ask their neighbor, co-worker or a relative for some “how-to” or “what-to” type of advice. Does the person asking really know if the one being asked has investment success? If not, why would someone put their money on the line without having a mentor with a successful investment track record?