Fun and competitive shootaround drills designed to get plenty of shots up and get players’ bodies moving on game day. According to a 2014 article from SB Nation, Hall of Fame coach Bill Sharman “introduced the shootaround as a way to burn off nervous energy on game days and begin focusing on the task at…
12 Basic Practice Drills For Youth Basketball Teams
Simple, fun and effective drills for youth basketball teams and players to develop shooting, dribbling, passing, rebounding and defending skills. We may not give youth basketball coaches (or youth coaches of any sport, for that matter) enough credit. It takes patience, positivity and plenty of energy to instruct young athletes. Did we mention patience? Coaching…
Off-Season Development: Team FastModel Coaches Share Their Goals
The off-season is SEPARATION SEASON! Take a look at which areas Team FastModel coaches are aiming to improve and how this summer. Welcome to the 2021 off-season, aka Separation Season – where coaches are made. As coaches, we demand our players improve between the final game of last season and the first practice of the…
The Planning Fallacy And How It Relates To Coaching
The Planning Fallacy explains why human beings, including basketball coaches, are terrible at estimating how long something will take. In my work counseling coaches, my clients often ask how long I think it will take their teams to learn an offense, defense or engrain some fundamental habit. There is no way I can accurately answer…
Mental Biases and Coaching: Defeating Choice-Supportive Bias
Coaches: Is Choice-Supportive Bias plaguing your ability to make good decisions and move on from bad ones? Here’s how to spot and defeat it. Read more on Cognitive Biases and how they relate to coaching: Action Bias Pitfalls The Impact of Optimism Bias Avoiding Outcome Bias The Perils of Confirmation Bias Survivorship Bias in Coaching As…
Five Possessions: Villanova Fundamental Skills
#FivePossessions – Five curated possessions from the Villanova Wildcats where they demonstrate their exquisite brand of fundamental soundness. Powered by immaculate spacing, sweet shooting, a lethal drive-and-kick game and exquisite fundamentals, the Villanova Wildcats have captured two recent NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championships. A slightly different cast of characters won each of those two titles,…
Championship Mindset: Keys to Winning in the Postseason
Lessons on what it takes to win when it matters most – the postseason – from a coach with a track record of success. Every year, we prepare and plan to play on the last possible day in March. At Varina High School, where I spent six years building a program from the ground up, we made that an…
The Benefits of Developing a Rebounding System
A rebounding analysis of where the ball actually lands, and how to ensure your players are grabbing as many boards as possible. *Update: The latest episode of A Quick Timeout Podcast features Fran Fraschilla who discusses several rebounding points related to this article – click below to listen. 🏀🎧📲 On today’s podcast, @franfraschilla joins the show…
Goal Coaching: Turning Actions into Habits
The third post in our Goal Setting for Coaches series discusses the process of actions evolving into long term habits. In the last couple of weeks, I have been discussing goals. In the post, “Be Goal-Driven,” I started the conversation by discussing the importance of setting achievable, challenging goals. In last week’s post, “Be Action-Oriented,”…
Year in Review: The Top 10 Playbooks of 2018
We gave the people what they wanted in 2018, and they wanted playbooks. Grab our best ones here – if you haven’t already. Continuing with our end of the year review that began with the Top 25 Plays of 2018, we now present the top 10 playbooks of the year. We’ve produced a lot of…