A weekly resource for coaches
by Coach Ashworth
Game Shots: You Don’t Have to Be Rich, Competitive Practices, and A Good 3 on 4 Drill
Happy Wednesday - Make sure you’re taking game shots.
Quote of the Week: “I want volunteers, not hostages”
The Opening Tip
You Don’t Have to Be Rich…if You Have Rich Friends
I once heard someone say, “You don’t have to be rich if you have rich friends.” It was meant to be funny, but there’s real truth in it. The same idea applies to coaching. You don’t have to be great at everything if you surround yourself with people who are great at the things you’re not.
Every successful program has that kind of balance. Smart head coaches surround themselves with people smarter than them. I recommend having assistant coaches who specialize or have talent in areas you may not.
Have an offensive guru who is great at drawing up plays and has amazing sets. Search for a defensive minded assistant coach who is tough and can teach defense at a high level. Have an assistant who is a logistic mastermind who can map out your schedule, plan events, have the calendar clean and ready before the season even starts. A head coach who surrounds themselves with smarter people creates an environment of growth, and also can ease the challenge and burden of trying to do everything on your own.
A great staff doesn’t just make your job easier. It creates a culture where everyone feels empowered, trusted, and valued. When you build a team of coaches who each bring something special to the table, you multiply your knowledge, but you also multiply your impact.
Question for you to think about:
Do you have people around you who make up for your weaknesses?
Are you trusting your staff enough to let them lead in their areas of strength?
If someone looked at your coaching circle, would they see diversity of thought and skill—or just a bunch of people who coach exactly like you?
The Huddle
Practice during the season can become monotonous, it can become difficult to keep players’ attention, and the same drills can begin to wear on your team.
My challenge for you as your start your season: try to make every single drill in practice competitive.
How can you make your warm up more competitive? How can you make FT’s competitive? What adjustments can you make to shooting drills to make them even more competitive?
But an even better challenge, is to hide the competition behind fun and engagement. Want the players to dribble faster under pressure? Do a relay race between two teams. Want your players to work on foot work? Have them do chase drills and defensive slide competitions.
The more you can disguise competition behind something fun that kids enjoy, then you get the added benefit of achieving the overall goal and outcome you wanted, while still keeping things fresh and fun for the players.
Questions for you:
Is every drills you do in practice competitive?
Are there drills you can eliminate or adapt to change this?
The Scouting Report
The Scouting Report is your weekly dose of resources that can help your coaching. Plays of the Week, videos, drills, etc. What’s the old joke? The best coaches are just the best thieves?
Plays of the Week: M2M Sets
Elevator Play
Shared Resources
A good 3 on 4 defensive drill:
I always thought this is a confusing drill, but once you figure it out and the kids get it down it can be an effective drill:
Crazy Parents of the Week:
We’ve all gotten that one message from a parent that makes you pause, blink twice, and say… “Did they really just send that?”
If you’ve got a funny, confusing, or just plain wild message sitting in your inbox, send it in to [email protected]. We’ll feature the best ones anonymously - names and personal info will be removed.
Let’s remind each other we’re not alone in this coaching journey.
That’s a wrap on Episode 15 of Game Shots. Thank you for subscribing. Truly.
My mission has always been, and will always be, to support coaches around the world who love the game and want to keep getting better.
