Core Skills

A look at some skills & drills that I installed in my first year as a head coach.

Now that my first year as a head coach is over, I want to start sharing the development, details, and leadership lessons I have experienced so far and continue to learn from. Previously I ran an offense and helped in skill development but as every coach should have, I had my own beliefs on how I wanted my team to play and the skills I wanted them to develop. In this breakdown, we are going to look at those skills and I will explore and explain how we worked on them in practice and moving forward how we will continue to improve the finishing and decision-making. One of the biggest priorities for our offseason development is to try and go live against a defender for a finish or a read as much as possible - part of this is to also examine that and anything you can possibly add as well.

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2 Foot Finishing

One of my biggest influences as a coach was Jay Wright at Villanova and how fundamentally sound and under control they were when attacking on offense.

Their ability to play off 2 feet was always impressive and is the number one thing I implemented when taking over our team this year.

Attacking and playing off 2 meant that we would be able to finish at a higher level and under control when going full speed.

This also allowed us to read the game easier when help comes in the lane. Adding footwork for reverse pivots, front pivots was important to be able to hand pressure and find shooters.

Drill: “Sticks” Warmup

As a part of our warmup we would go to spin-outs and then reverse/front pivot into a 2 foot finish.

Drill: “Sticks” Live Contest

I have made it a priority for us to try and do as many drills we can with live defenders or a decision. One way we did this was to add a defender on the spin out and when they stick at the free throw line they touch and then contest. Offense can only finish off 2, defense has to reach for the lights on the contest.

2 Foot Game Finishes

Going forward I am going to do a better job of getting our players to make reads to finish off 1, 2 or spray (kickout to 3’s). For this I have come up with simple reads for them where if they are shoulder to shoulder then it can be a 1 foot/stride finish, if they see chest they play off 2 & look for the spray. Would love thoughts on if anyone has worked on/found success with this.

Stride Stops