Jack Plus 5

I have many great memories of my coaching experiences with my players, in practice, on trips, and in games.  I began my first 12 years of coaching at the high school level.  I coached for six years at St. Johnsville High School (N.Y.), a small Class D school in the Mohawk Valley.  My next six years I coached at Class B Spencerport High School near Rochester, NY and for 20 years, I coached at Herkimer County Community College (N.Y.).  Regardless, if you are coaching junior high school, high school, or college players, the main thing that a coach has to have is good rapport with his or her players.  The players may not all love you, but they must respect you and want to play hard for you.

Coaches come in many varieties so coach the way you can coach the best and don’t try to copy another coach- establish your own coaching philosophy and style. A coach won’t be successful in teaching his philosophy of basketball to his or her players unless he or she really believes in it and are dedicated to it.  Treat your players like they are your sons or daughters.  The players must know that you love them and care for them as people as well as basketball players.  Coaches will have a greater influence on a player’s life than almost anyone else the player comes in contact with in school.  Pick players on your team that “love to play” the game.  The captain of my first team at the college level was a player named Don.  He was a Navy vet coming back to college after four years in the Navy.  Don was my point guard that ran my team, and even though he was an older player, he loved to play basketball.

There was a girl named Amy that enrolled at my summer basketball camp at the college when she was 12 years old.  She was big for her age, but she didn’t look like a potential basketball player.  Her father Jim was a 6’5” center on one of my early college teams.  Her mother Janet was a student in my physical education majors class.  She was a very aggressive athlete, field hockey being her best sport.  The family lived in Herkimer, where the college was located.  Amy came back to camp for a few years and then I lost track of her.

Janet called me when Amy was a sophomore in high school and asked me if I would work with her during the summer months. This I did in the summer after her sophomore and junior years.  Amy wanted to be a good basketball player and she loved to play the game.  Usually, most girls are easier to teach and coach because they have no egos and they are like blotters, eager to take in the teaching so they can improve.  Amy had some pretty good skills but she wasn’t as mobile as she would need to be in order to be a good player.  But, she was 100 percent receptive of any basketball information I could give her so she would get better.  She was a very “coachable” player.

I didn’t go easy on her and she wanted to be a good basketball player.  Each session was three hours in the sun on the hot blacktop on an outdoor court.  We started every day by jumping rope, stretching and going through fundamentals – ball handling, dribbling, passing, shooting lay-ups, jump shots, defensive drills, rebounding, etc. Amy never loafed, but put in three hours of work.  There were four people in the group, so after the skills were practiced we could play 2 on 2. As we played, I stopped the game to point out mistakes and skills performed well.  An example would be if an offensive player got the rebound, I would stop play and point out how her defender didn’t box her out correctly.

After working out her sophomore year, I went to see Amy play some high school games and she improved immensely and was averaging about 15 – 16 points a game.  When we worked in the summer after her junior year, she now had an excellent idea of how to play the game.  Now I could teach her certain moves to use on offense in different situations.  Amy was about 6’ tall and very strong, but she could also handle the ball and shoot well from the outside.  I explained to her if the center guarding her was bigger and slower than she, Amy should use a drop step and face her defender after receiving the pass.  With her dribbling ability and skills, she could drive by her defender for a lay-up.  If her defender was smaller and quicker than she, then she should post her up down low.  When receiving the pass now she would work her defender in toward the basket and shoot over her for a lay-up or baby hook shot.

One day when Amy was questioning me on what else she could do to improve her game and become a better player, I told her, and she was a girl that wouldn’t take offense, that she was too hippy.  What I explained was that any extra weight around the hips takes away a player’s quickness.  As I knew she wouldn’t, she took no offense to my statement, but right away asked what she could do to alleviate this problem.  I was a personal fitness trainer, so I told Amy that she should come to the gym with me and work on her problem.  I also gave her some sheets explaining what she should be eating for a healthy diet.

After our summer session was completed, Amy met me at the gym in the morning three times a week.  She worked very hard on cardiovascular, flexibility, and strength training work.  The gym was a half hour from her home, so this was somethi