HOW COACHING IS DIFFERENT THAN LEADING IN BASKETBALL?

TRAINING IS NOT THE SAME AS DIRECTING

Coaching in basketball is much more than just training. It seems obvious that being a team coach is a combination of preparing training sessions and directing games. But it is clear that being a good basketball coach is much more, whether in training youth categories ,or professionals, it doesn’t matter.

We found a definition for ‘coach’:

"The main responsibility of a coach is the formation and direction of a group of players (TEAM), through training and competition (BASKETBALL GAMES)".

You might think that this is a good definition, but to us we feel that this is a bit poor.

Being a coach IS and should be much more.

For example:

A coach must know how to control and direct his players (on and off the court).

You must transmit your knowledge of and not limited to: sports (of course), but also the "values" and other important aspects related to behavior, hygiene or even food and nutrition.

(It is hard for some to grasp and understand the amount of injuries that can come from poor diet).

We could say much more, but we are going to focus on what seems to be the most obvious:

The complicity between the coach and his players.

What some call CHEMISTRY.

This will arise as a function of the development of training sessions, talks and games. Ultimately this will definitely affect sports and personal improvement (both individually and collectively).

RESPONSIBILITIES AS A COACH IN BASKETBALL

Here we want to establish a boundary line:

A line that many young coaches have made the mistake of not drawing and not respecting and that has brought us problems in the future. The coach is the COACH and the players are PLAYERS.

The COACH: commander in chief and the group (the players) must follow you.

There are different ways of exercising this leadership. Through constant shouting (in the end this could end up losing effectiveness), or through an environment that is too permissive (the roles are confused and in the end it is not known who is in charge).

One situation is just as bad as the other. Try to find a middle ground.

The coach must be the leader and the players must follow him, and for this you must convince them that what they are doing during the week will make them better.

Ongoing punishments can work for a while, but like yelling, they will lose their effectiveness over time.

On the other hand, an atmosphere that is too relaxed can create a lack of demand that will negatively affect the sporting and personal progression of the boys.

How to become a better basketball coach?

How can you achieve all this?

It´s easy! You just have to work on it.

Prepare the training sessions, vary the exercises and keep things interesting. Be fair, make everyone participate and be sure everyone understands their role in the team, etc.

We have a very big responsibility and we must not leave anything to chance.

A coach must lead the team and for this we are going to talk about three essential points:

The direction of the group during the week (this is the most important part in formative ages).
The leadership of the group in the competition, that is, in the games.
The interpretation, analysis and development of results, statistics, classifications …

We will expand on these three points in future articles.

Do not forget: you are like teachers who spend many hours with these kids, and at an early age, young people look for guidance.

It is up to you as a coach whether this influence is positive or negative.

If you liked this article, you should check 2-3 Zone Defense.