It’s the summertime, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, and it looks like a lot of coaches are busy with basketball even if it’s the off season.

We are obviously getting orders from AAU coaches who are looking to spice up their summer program, but also a lot of orders are coming in from American high school and college coaches who are already preparing for next season.

European coaches are also busy preparing for the upcoming season. Most of them starts pre-season practice in August or September so for them things are getting a bit more urgent.

For me it’s a time of change. Last season was amazing as we started out winning a European B-division Championship with our Under-16’s men National Team in August, qualifying for the top flight of European basketball. It was an amazing experience watching the Danish flag go to the top as we received our gold medals in Sarajevo.

That was also the last bit of real coaching I did last season as I stopped coaching the pro team and transitioned fully into the part of my job which deals with club management. Over the last three seasons we tripled attendance and last season half our home games were on live national TV.

At the end of the season, however, I decided to walk away and look for another job. I soon found one although it ended up being very similar to what I was doing before. at my old job I had to run pretty much everything at the club (including coaching the team for two seasons) while at the new one all I have to do is the internal and external communication, event making, marketing and making sure we get to be on TV a lot… Easy, right?

I’m really looking forward to it for another reason. We will have a lot of volunteers helping out with everything which should leave me with enough time to do one of the things i really love in life: coach basketball.

I don’t yet know which team I will coach as I’ll slot in where the club needs me – there are 500 members so there are a lot of teams to cover – but I’ll look forward to getting back into coaching after a year off.

Another thing I’m doing is that I’ve started looking at writing a new book. This time I want to write about defense as that is one of my great interests. A few years ago I coached a team where we got really creative with defense and at some point I’d like to share what we did with the world. Look for it in… Well, within the next couple of years, I guess!

Have a nice time, wherever you are!

For a long time I’ve been a huge fan of the way Dave Smart of Carleton University in Canada does things. He’s one of the smartest (no pun intended) and most demanding coaches around – and he is really big on fundamentals and sound coaching.

Now Grantland has given them some recognition in the US – this is a great post:
http://grantland.com/features/carleton-university-basketball-canada-syracuse-tyler-ennis-kansas-andrew-wiggins/

Below are the Dave Smart DVD-reviews I did a couple of years back – they are still extremely relevant:

There are very few coaches out there who are better than Dave Smart of Carleton University in Canada at developing and getting the best out of players. Coach Smart’s teams have won five straight Canadian University Championships, and have performed very well against US Division 1 schools with far better athletes. Coach Smart has turned down several offers to coach Division 1 in the US and I rate him as one of the best teachers in the game.

I’ll recommend his individual development and screening DVD’s to anyone looking to develop players. Especially his individual development DVD is excellent, and it has been a big inspiration for the fundamentals of the Dribble Drive book, although he doesn’t use the Dribble Drive himself.

In the individual DVD coach Smart covers his thoughts on shooting and how his team has become one of the best shooting teams at all levels in North America, he covers one-on-one moves to the basket, including the innovative “swim move” and he shows how he works on finishing around the rim, inspired by his work with Steve Nash. All of this is in a competitive setting with great drills.

The screening DVD is equally good. The level of detail covered in this DVD is something I’ve never seen in any other feature from any other coach. From the angle of screens to how the players should misdirect with their eyes, this DVD covers Down Screens, Back Screens and Pick & Roll.

This is a pretty old video I’d forgotten all about. It’s from the first year we ran the Dribble Drive, when I was in England. We were playing undefeated Leeds Carnegie, in probably the most perfect game any of my teams have ever played.

After the first quarter we had been called for 10 fouls and Leeds had only been called for one and we were down only 21-18. At the break I had a quiet word with the referees, where they didn’t get to say much, and things evened out.

At the end of the game we were down one, with Leeds having the ball, but also having to shoot before time expired. We blocked them twice in the key with 10 seconds to go (I don’t know why they shot the second shot), got the ball back, and a kick-back from point guard Simon Mitchell to shooting guard James Harris won the game.

It’s just a reminder that the fundamentals of the Dribble Drive can win you unexpected games.

Even if you run the Dribble Drive there are many reasons you might want to run two post players at the same time. You might have great size, or you might have two players who are not able to play on the perimeter, who you want to play together.

Playing two post players doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning your Dribble Drive principles, however.

On any entry into the post, when you have two post players, just continue using the principles of the Dribble Drive post player movement.

If O5 makes a move to the middle O4 relocates under the basket, just like a middle drive in the 4-out Dribble Drive.

This will either draw X4 away from the help or leave O4 open under the basket.

If O5 makes a move to the baseline O4 T’s up – just like on a baseline drive in the 4-out Dribble Drive.

Just catching up on the LINsanity? This site had him featured 19 months ago.

http://coachdribbledrive.com/2010/07/23/swim-move/

It’s January, it’s cold (at least in many places), we’re right between the start of the season and the playoffs. In short it’s probably the toughest time of the year for us coaches. I know it’s tough for me, at least.

I took over a 1-6 team a third into the season, and now we’ve won six of the last eight, are in fourth place of a very competitive 10 team top flight league in Northern Europe – and we could easily miss the eight team playoffs. We win by playing defence, but out of the remaining 11 games five are against the top three, who are all great offensive teams, and most of the rest are away games. In other words I worry a lot right now. Worry about being relegated to the league below. Worry about injuries. Worry about every game, every practice.

Then someone sent me a quote. Someone who knows me really well, who knows this time of year for a basketball coach. It reminded me that just going out there on the court – fighting for every little thing – is more than worth it. I hope it will get you some energy to get you through January too:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly.
So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt, “Man in the Arena” Speech given April 23, 1910 26th president of US (1858 – 1919)