Organization

As most of us begin our official practices this week, organization will be so important.  In this blog, I want to share with you my thoughts on what I  think about the importance of Organization:

1. Organization I believe allows you to build confidence and confidence allows for you to be more successful.
2. Organization allows for your thoughts to be clear and thus allowing a higher level of productivity.
3. Organization allows for the coach to wear multiple hats, primairly because we do not have the man power to accomplish all of things that we would like to make our programs the best.  However, we do have the brain power!
4. Organization is an indicator that careful, though and intelligent planning has taken place.
5. Organization may not win you a game, but a lack of organization sure as heck can lose games for you!

Here just a few ideas that my staff and I use to keep ourselves and our team Organized:

1. The coaches keep a running notebook that consist of: all the handouts, 3 monthly calendar of the season, and weekly and daily calenader.
2. Also in the notebook are the practice schedules, game schedules, travel schedule, transportation schedules, documentation of our players and communication sheet of important numbers: families of players, coaches and administration of the school.
3. The players also keep a “Basketball Notebook”.  Everything in this notebook relates to basketball. The players are required to have their Basketball Notebooks whenever we meet.
4. I assign an assistant coach to be the Director of Communication.  His job is to cultivate, maintain and grow all communicative relationships between: 1. The coaching staff, 2. The players, 3. Administration, 4. Parents, 5. The media both locally and internationally, 6. The school community.
5. Checklist for your program (area that you need to teach).  Below is the checklist for my program as an example.

To quote Steve Lavin of St. John’s, ” managing your time and being well organized are very important ingredients to being successful”!

 

Montverde Academy Eagle Basketball System Checklist

I.                    Introduction:

 

II.                 Defensive philosophy/system:

a.       Terminology

b.      Defensive goals

c.       Man to man

d.      Zone

e.       Presses – both man and zone

f.        Transition defense

g.       How to defend screens and handoffs

 

III.               Transition/Early Offensive philosophy/system:

a.       Terminology

b.      Transition Offensive Goals

c.       Alignments

d.      Name of Actions

e.       Different Actions on Makes and Misses

 

IV.              Man Offensive philosophy/system:

a.       Terminology

b.      Man Offensive Goals

c.       Motion

d.      Pattern offense

e.       Quick hitters/shot clock plays

f.        Naming of the actions

 

V.                 Zone Offensive philosophy/system:

a.       Terminology

b.      Zone Offensive Goals

c.       Motion – Gaps and Gaps motion

d.      Pattern offense

e.       Quick hitters/shot clock plays

f.        Naming of the actions

 

VI.              Out of Bounds play philosophy/system:

a.       Terminology

b.      Goals

c.       Naming of the actions

d.      Under

e.       Side

 

 

 

VII.            Late game situation philosophy/system:

a.       Terminology

b.      Goals

c.       Naming of the actions

d.      Use of time outs

e.       When and how to foul

 

VIII. Bench and Sub Philosophy/system:

a.       Terminology

b.      Goals

c.       When a sub comes out of the game.

d.      When you are subbed into the game

e.       When you are on the bench

f.        Timeouts

 

IX.              Roles of Assistant Coaches:

a.       Terminology

b.      During the practices

c.       Before the game

d.      During the game

e.       After the game

 

X. Scouting Philosophy/system:

a.       Terminology

b.      Goals

c.       Scouting of opponents

d.      Presentation of the Scouting Report to our team

e.       Self-Scout

 

XI.              Statistical Philosophy/system:

a.       Terminology

b.      Goals

c.       Stats for every game

d.      Divide stats into 8 categories:

1.      Team offense

2.      Team defense

3.      Positional

4.      Effort

5.      Starters

6.      Non-Starters

7.      1^st half/2^nd half

8.      Overall

e.       Stats must be broken down after every 4 games

f.        Cumulative stats must be keep on team and each player

 

 

XII.            Practice Procedure Philosophy/system:

a.       Terminology

b.      Goals

c.       Gear for coaches

d.      Gear for players

e.       Gear for managers

f.        Routine

g.       Filming practice

h.       Statistical Charts

 

XIII.         Travel Philosophy/system:

a.       Terminology

b.      Dress code for coaches

c.       Dress code for players

d.      Use of Electronics

e.       Buddy system

f.        Handling of legal Documents

g.       After the game

 

XIV.         Media Philosophy/system:

a.       Terminology

b.      How much access?

c.       Time frame for access

d.      Seminars for dealing with the media

e.       Website updates/stories