5 Basketball Coaching Tips to Help Your Players Advance

Responsibilities of a coach are many and varied. Many outside the profession watch coaches and think that managing a game is the only thing that coaches do. The more educated fan understands that there is practice as well. Few know about the personal commitments that are made off the court. There is the motivation, commitment to personal growth, the academic involvement that help make a coach such an influential force in a players life. As you move up in level, you can add recruiting, public relations, fundraising, etc. There are many facets of basketball coaching that even coaches are not acquainted with, until they enter the profession.

Regardless if you are a lower level coach, high school coach, or college coach, a big part of your responsibilities is to help your players advance.

Youth league to school team, school team to high school team, high school team to college team, and your influence as a coach can have a big impact on whether or not your players receive the consideration they deserve. If you are new to coaching, you will find that coaches with the best reputations and the best programs are the ones that have players go to higher levels and have success.

You cannot make decisions for other people but there are some things you can do to make sure your players get noticed.

• Run a consistent program – get to games on time, hold practices as scheduled, organize your practices so your players will improve. Your players will develop the reputation that they are responsible, hard workers and motivated. There is nothing that a coach hates more than to take time of practice to teach players things like the value of being on time or the value of practicing hard everyday. If they can get players that already understand those values they are more apt to consider them for their team


• Be open and visible – invite other coaches to your practice and games. Share basketball knowledge and experiences. Coaches will gain respect for your basketball coaching ability and for you as a person. They will be more receptive to your recommendations.


• Take interest in others – if you want others to be interested in your program, you have to show interest in other programs. Watch their games, make phone calls to the coach, and take your players to see what the next level is like.


• Be sincere – your recommendation has value. Recommend your players to programs where you feel he can have the most success. Don’t sell your players to anyone. Be honest about their abilities. If your players want to play above the level they are capable of, try to be honest with them. Be honest with the coach about his ability and more importantly about his character. Don’t assume the coach doesn’t want him the team. As you move up, coaches look for many different things. Your player may possess a quality that the coach is looking for.


• Arm yourself with information – know about other programs, have your player’s statistics available, if you can get film, keep game film handy.

Having a reputation for moving players on to next level programs will improve your team. You will find more and more players wanting to come and play in your program. Increased interest will create more competition for spots on the team. That will allow you to select better players. The better the player, the better coach you will become. As your team gets better, your players will move to better and better programs.

By helping your players move on to higher levels, you have started a cycle that will improve your coaching, your players and your program.