Strength Archives - Building a Winning Mindset

Player Progression

As a player develops, there are certain skills that need to be acquired at each level of play. This article will lay out the skills that would go into a player progression plan * from the middle school to varsity level.

Before we get started… Let’s have FUN !

Of course the underlying “skill” is enjoyment of the game and that needs to come first. In fact, most players self-select themselves for the sport based on their love of the game and some connection that develops very early in their childhood. As a coach, it is our responsibility to take players to the next level while fanning the flames of their love of the game.

** Coach Wheeler’s view only…

The player progression described below** is based on my coaching philosophy and the style of play that I like to use for my teams.

Another coach might have different priorities depending on how he expects his teams to compete. Having said that, there are probably a good amount of overlap and none of the skills mentioned will “go unused” by a coach, especially if a player becomes outstanding in that area.

Levels of Player Progression…

I originally tried to divide the player progression into 3 levels (Middle School / Frosh-JV / JV-Varsity) but, as you will see, there isn’t much “in the middle”. I think that is because many skills have a wide spectrum with lots of different levels along the way.

The difference between a Middle School player and a successful Varsity High School player can also depend on how that year’s team defines particular roles. In other word, someone might not have all the skills of a well-rounded varsity player but the ones that they do have (e.g rebounding or defense) could make them a strong role player for the team.

Let’s start by looking at the Middle School skills…

Middle School Level

Passing (strength / heads-up)
Catching (move to the pass)
Position defense (relative to ball / athletics)
Rebounding (box out / launch to the ball)
Layup Technique (footwork / angles)
Mid-range shot (touch / form)
Run the floor (full speed / endurance)
Triple Threat / Court Vision
Growth Mindset

Frosh / JV …

[this level is basically the transition to, and preparation for, become a varsity player]

Run the floor / Speed layups (w/contact, multi-angles)
Heads Up dribble (quick & strong)
Strong “set shot” – mid-range / 3 pt. / w/o thinking

JV / Varsity Level

Power Drive (standing / full-speed / Moves)
Strong Handles
Jump (touch rim / dunk)
Pressure M2M Defense (w/o fouls, w/o “Ole”)
Off-ball defense (steals / traps / help)
Signature Move(s) – Inside or perimeter (move/shoot)
Court Awareness (instant ball movement)
Mentally Strong *
Strong Role on Team

* Mental Toughness or a Champion Mindset is a large subject and it can take years to develop but, to start with, it means that a player “Practices Like a Champion”. A Mentally Strong player is able to “out perform” opponents through their understanding of the game as well as their willingness to do what is required to win. A mentally strong player makes the other team work hard on both ends of the court.

How does progress happen?

Some of a player’s progress will happen naturally as they grow from middle school age to high school age. As they say, you can’t teach height. For some people that is not great news but there is good news too!

The good news (especially for “height challenged” players) is that most of the skills listed can be learned, even things like jump height. A good coach can help a player learn various skills and there is no shortage of videos on YouTube to show players ideas for skill building drills.

Who is holding you back?

I see it every year. A player doesn’t improve over the off-season and they are passed by other players who have improved. The missing ingredient for most players is not an exposure to the skills but rather a lack of consistent off-season work on those skills. While playing other sports during basketball’s off-season might help a player develop athletically, basketball is very much a game of skill. And skills require practice if you want to improve. I heard a good quote on a recent podcast… “If you still have the same weaknesses as you had last season [and haven’t improved your strengths], you have wasted the off-season.”

Bottom Line…

If you aren’t getting better each year, there will be someone who passes you and takes your minutes at the next level. Basketball is a team sport but it is also very competitive. There are only so many game minutes at the varsity level and they go to the best players (as defined by the coach).

At the end of the season, every player who is serious about their game needs to lay out their Player Progression Plan by identifying their weaknesses and strengths along with the activities that will help them improve. Ideally, this should be combined with a review by your varsity coach to determine how you might contribute most quickly at the varsity level.

Coach Wheeler’s In-season Player Progression Plan

I believe that “What we work on EVERYDAY improves over time.” That is why there are some basic elements that will show up in every practice that I run…

Physical Challenges (running / defense / strength)
Shooting
[Perfections] which covers a number of skills
– Running
– Passing
– High speed layups
– Communication
Players should show progress in the first half of the season. By the time that we have played the teams on our schedule at least once, we should be ready to take our game to the next level. A tournament over Christmas break is always a good test to see where the team is in terms of player development as well as team cohesiveness and execution.

The second half of the season is focused on extending the team’s progress. We also want to do even better against opponents the 2nd time we play them. This approach is designed to get the team ready for the playoffs. If things go well, it also gives us a seeding that helps our drive for a championship.

All team success starts with the player’s progression and acquisition of skills. A coach can teach but the player has to take responsibility for their own development. If you show that you want to go the “extra mile”, most coaches love that attitude and will give you extra attention. As a player, you have to decide what you want. Do you want to be a key contributor at the varsity level? Or do you want to sit on the bench? You get to decide based on how you progress as a player. Hopefully this article gave you some ideas to work on. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions.

Player Evaluation

As the new season (and the new player tryout) approaches, I have been giving some thought to my Player Evaluation Drills Checklist. Every coach is probably looking for something different so it is likely that my evaluation protocol will be substantially different from other coaches. Plus, there are different skills needed for each team, the coach’s style of play or at every level of play.

Below are the basic qualities that I am looking for as part of a player evaluation. These fit with my style of play and the fundamental components that are needed.

Speed – full court
Passing skills
Moves – Drive to the basket
Layups (at speed)
Shooting form
Shooting- Perimeter, Game Conditions
Inside shooting / moves
Ball handling
Strength
Defense
Rebounding
Hustle

Aside from “Hustle”, most of these attributes are focused on quantifiable performance and don’t really address the intangibles and attitude of a player. Since this article is primarily about a list of drills to test players during a tryout, we will leave a discussion on how to evaluate the intangibles to another article.

10 Drills to evaluate players…

Mikan Drill. How many layups can a player make in 30 Seconds? Middle school players should focus on alternating hands and getting their footwork down. High school players can rotate through various forms of layups on both sides (overhand, across shoulder, reverse facing baseline, reverse with back to baseline).
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Perfections. This is our cornerstone drill and it involves full court layups (rt/lft), 2person passing across lane, 3 lines (rt/lft), 3man weave (wide/narrow). If an individual misses, they go again. Multi-person drills are to 10 in a row (or until the coach is tired of waiting for them to finish).
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One Dribble Drive with defense from the 3 point line. Track number of defensive stops / scores.
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Foul shots. # out of 20.
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Shot progression. 5 at each spot, 3 spots at blocks/center, 3 spots 1/2 way to foul line (middle/wing/wing). Track # of makes out of 30 shots. Max time limit…? One rebounder to assist.
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Sprint. Down and Back. Target = 10 seconds max. Depending on the setup of the court, we may finish at the blocks or foul line instead of the baseline so players don’t run into the wall or stage.
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Dribble sequence. Around cones spaced around court (up/back), various moves (crossover, pull-back, between legs, behind back, spin move). Track # of circuits completed in 30 sec.
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Jump Height. Track highest point, (NOT a player’s “net” jump. In a game, the ball does not care about your “net jump”).
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Shuffle Drill. Around the lane. Track total time.
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Beat the Pro. 30 seconds. Pro scores on any miss. Shoot game locations. Move “around the world”. First shot is foul shot (1 point).

What’s on your Player Evaluation checklist?

What drills should be added to this Player Evaluation checklist? Or should I replace one of the listed drills? For example, I had “Palming the Basketball” as one test but changed it out for another. I figured that there would be few players at the high school level who could do it (even though it can be accomplished even with relatively small hands by simply working on grip strength).

Bonus Download:

Check out Coach Wheeler’s Player Evaluation Clipboard Sheets on The Building A Winning Mindset Resource Page!

Building your inner / outer Warrior

No one is born a warrior.

You become a warrior. You train yourself. You learn from people you admire and respect.

You challenge yourself. You set a standard for your actions that is above average. “Good enough” is not good enough for you.

You focus on what is important. You are not distracted by unimportant things. You spend time with others who share your goals. You help them get better just as they help you improve.

You stand for your values. Your actions reflect a respect for the value of competition.

You are constantly learning and improving. You are open to new ideas and find ways to adopt the best ones.

You recognize that there is always room for improvement. You know that success is enjoying the journey toward achievement, not the achievement itself.

You never quit. No matter how tough it gets, you are tougher. You find a way to your goal or you make a new way.

You control your mind and emotions. You choose your reaction to circumstances. You are not at the mercy of your situation.

You take action on your top priorities. You don’t need external motivation. You are in charge of your life.

You know how your mind works and can find all the motivation you will ever need.

You are strong and getting stronger. You protect the weak. You challenge oppression.

You strive to be better than your past. You bounce back from mistakes and learn from each one so they are not repeated.

You see the best in others. You recognize the worst as an opportunity for growth.

You are an example for others. You are a beacon of possibility.

You are a warrior. You never give up on your dreams.

Warriors WIN.

– by Coach Dave Wheeler

Swish-Warriors Win

How to become a Top Shooter in Basketball

Become a Shooter There are 5 key parts to becoming a consistent, successful shooter in the game of basketball. They are simple to understand but only the very best players actually put in the work to become great shooters.

The 5 keys to become an excellent shooter are…

Proper form
Strength
Repetition / Muscle Memory
Game-like Practice
Mental Preparation

1. Proper form can be developed using a progression of shots from close to the basket to further out. You want to get your form correct before you worry about the other aspects of shooting. Below is a video to show you how one of the best shooters does it (notice how many shots he misses, or doesn’t miss)…

2. Strength is required to add consistency and range to your shooting. In basketball, the key muscle groups include your arms (biceps/triceps), chest/back and core muscles. Coach Wheeler has a simple workout routine that hits these muscles quickly and effectively. The key to building strength is consistency. Working with weights once in a while is not going to build your strength. In addition, lifting weights that are easy to life won’t be much help either.

3. Repetition, Repetition, Repetition. To get better as a shooter, you need to “put up shots”. This will build your muscle memory as well as the strength you need in your hands and your eye/hand coordination. How many shots are enough? 100 shots per day is over 36,000 in a year or 140,000 over 4 years of high school. That seems like a large number but there are players putting in 1000 shots per day, sometimes with the help of shooting machines like Dr. Dish or Shoot-a-way, which can add up to over 1 million shots in high school. What is right for you? It depends on how good you want to be. Check out this short video showing a 1000 shot workout…

4. Game-like Practice means taking shots in the style that you will be required to use most often in a game. Once an opposing team realizes you can shoot, they are unlikely to let you stand in one spot and shoot away. You are going to need to move to get open, perhaps make a move or two so you can get your shot off. This all needs to be part of your practice plan so that you are prepared for game situations. I like to see players incorporating either a move and one strong dribble before taking their shot or working on their catch&shoot as if they are coming off a pick. Whatever you are going to use in a game, you need to work on, and perfect, in practice.

5. Mental Preparation is one area that many shooters forget about. How are you going to perform when the pressure is on and you have to take the shot to win the game? Or more importantly, are you going to be able to hit every wide open shot you get? We see it all the time… someone is a good shooter but they are given too much time to shoot and they start thinking about how they “should” shoot. Their head gets in the way and they miss. Shooting, at least from a mental perspective, is all about trusting your training and just “pulling the trigger”.

Dr. Bob Rotella, an acclaimed sports psychologist, talks about the Trusting vs. Training mindset. The Training mindset is when you are practicing and perhaps fine tuning your mechanics or footwork. The Trusting mindset is what you need to use in a game since thinking about your form will only make it less smooth and less natural.

5 seconds left on the clock. You have the ball…

It is important to put as much pressure on yourself in practice as possible so that you can get used to high pressure game situations. The other mental trick when you get into a game is to fall back on all the work you put in and remember that you have proven to yourself, over and over again, that you can put the ball in the hoop. Just trust your training and make it happen.

Bottom Line if you want to become a shooter …

If you combine these five keys you will become an above-average shooter over time. The key is consistency of effort.

Here is BONUS idea # 1 which I picked up from Dave Hopla, former shooting coach for the Detroit Pistons. “Keep track of your results.” Dave tracks every practice and shooting demonstration that he does and it is a great way to see your progress both in your shooting percentage (Dave shot 98% the time I saw him give a demonstration) as well as the volume of shots you are putting up. It is also a great way to track your “streak” or number of consecutive days that you have done your shooting workout. Don’t break your streak and you will be amazed by how much you can improve over time!

BONUS idea #2 is from a player that scored over 2000 points in his high school career, Tom Brayshaw. He says that you must “Master the Mundane”. In other words, you have to do the little things that are sometimes boring or mundane, over and over again, if you want to become a good shooter. The way I like to think of this is you have to motivate yourself to get out on the court and put up the shots, even when you don’t feel like it. It is precisely those times that separate the OK or mediocre players from the shooting stars. If it helps, imagine that with each practice session you are passing one more player who didn’t put in the effort. You are one step closer to being the best. Will you be the best? You never know who you will encounter on the court so be sure to bring your best effort every day.

2016 Basketball Camp Completed

The first Score More Basketball Camp by InviteOnlyBasketball.com was held last Saturday at Keene State College and for all those who attended, it went over very well. Campers came from as far away as Rhode Island and each camper got a great looking, reversible practice jersey to take home.

Highlights…

Parisi Speed School presented the first session and showed drills to improve agility and explosive movement. Ben from Parisi also tested each camper for their vertical leap while providing pointers along the way. Each camper got a “Speed Pass” for a free session of Parisi Speed School at the Summit facility in Marlborough, NH and there loads of other prizes from Parisi during their highly energetic and engaging session.

Keene State Associate Head Coach Tyler Hundley helped out with the second session focused on shooting. Coach Hundley scored over 1000 points in his high school career and gave the campers insights into what it takes to become a scorer. He also gave each camper specific feedback as they put up 100 shots on Keene State’s Shooting Machine (aka The GUN).

Keene State Men’s Head Basketball Coach Ryan Cain, who himself scored over 1800 points in his college career, stopped by and spoke to the campers as well.

The shooting / scoring session included loads of shooting drills at various distances and against different challenges (defense, competition). In total, each camper must have put up over 500 shots!

Scoring Moves were also discussed including the 29 Signature Moves of some of the best NBA players. Here is the link to Coach Wheeler’s blog where he presents the list of moves along with a video showing clips of the moves. 29 Signature Basketball Moves

The final session, after a number of shooting contests, 3-on-3 and 1-on-1 contests, focused on the mental aspects of competition. Coach Dave Wheeler ran the campers through a “scorer’s meditation” which focused on the skill of mindfulness. Obviously one meditation won’t give you complete control of your mind, but it was a good introduction to a skill that will allow you to disregard distractions while being present for key experiences so you can perform at your best. The concept of visualization was also presented, combined with the relaxation process of meditation, as a way to improve your shooting while also resting your body.

The camp ended with awards based on the contest results and, as an added bonus, all campers got to meet Croix Sather, a friend of Coach Wheeler’s who had stopped by to help with the videotaping of the event. Croix is a keynote speaker and author who ran across the United States, from San Diego to New York City, doing 100 marathons in 100 days. He also spoke 100 times, mostly to at-risk groups, as he ran across the country. Each camper also got a copy of Croix’s book, “Dream Big, Act Big”.

Overall it was a great day with lots of great information, challenging drills and so much more. Keene State College is an excellent location for the camp and everyone involved was incredibly supportive. We are looking forward to doing it again next year !

What could have been better?

Attendance was lower than we would have liked but everyone involved got some great value out of the camp. The lower numbers also allowed us to give more attention to each camper and give everyone a chance to use KSC’s GUN. (Rated as one of the highlights by the campers.)

Marketing will need to be expanded and when we schedule the Fall Camp in 2017, we should be able to market via events throughout the Spring/Summer/Fall leading up to the November event. With the video of Coach Wheeler’s “Mindset” session, we may even be able to get speaking opportunities at other camps or events in 2017.

Expanded middle & high school connections and a longer, multi-point marketing program with the schools around Keene would also have helped. Coach Wheeler had a few connections but more will be developed through the 2016-17 basketball season.

Scheduling would also have been better if we were at least one weekend later. After picking Nov.5th (based on availability of the facility at Keene State), Coach Wheeler learned that there was one more AAU tournament on that weekend. Since AAU players are a prime audience for InviteOnlyBasketball.com, it would have been better to have the camp later, perhaps the second or even third weekend of the month.

Looking forward to next year’s
pre-season basketball Camp…

There will definitely be another camp next year. If you or someone you know would like to be part of it, be sure to apply for an invitation over at www.InviteOnlyBasketball.com. This way you will get “into our system” and we will be sure to let you know as more information about the next camp becomes available. Hope to see you at a basketball camp soon !

4 Reasons for a Player Journal

This is an idea that I picked up from legendary high school coach Bob Hurley, Sr. and have implemented with all my teams. The idea is for each player to keep a journal throughout the season and record ideas, concepts and information that they may want to reference at a later date.

Here are the four key reasons to use Player Journals…

Reinforce key learning points
By writing down key ideas and things they learn at practice, players are more likely to retain the information. It has been proven that the act of writing down an idea will increase retention of that idea or fact from days to weeks later. Writing down important concepts is also a chance for players to translate the ideas into their own words, which personalizes the concepts and makes them part of the player’s own thinking.

Capture statistics and personal records
By recording how they did in certain drills in practice, a player can refer back to this information and see that they are improving. Often, if it is not written down, old information is forgotten and it is easy to miss the progress that is being made as the season progresses. When the measurements and results are recorded, it is easy to see improvements that would otherwise be missed. Each new Personal Record (PR) is an opportunity to celebrate and add to the player’s motivation for further accomplishments.

Questions?
A player’s journal is also a place where they can record ideas of their own or questions that might come up outside of practice. It can also be a way for players to remember to bring up questions for the coach that their parents might be asking them. When they bring these ideas or questions to practice, they help the team better understand what we are trying to accomplish since if they have the question, it is likely that other players have the same thoughts.Sometimes the question(s) are more personal, such as, “What do I need to do to get more playing time?” and, again, writing in their journal will remind them to talk with their coach before or after practice.

Record The Experience
The final benefit of a player’s journal (or even a coach’s journal) is that you are creating a record of thoughts and experiences throughout the season. What challenges did you face? How did you overcome them? What lessons did you learn?Sports is a metaphor for life so it you learn what it takes to win on the court or the field, you can apply these skills and ideas to many other areas of your life. Having a player journal with the ideas (and your comments) is a great way to reinforce the most important lessons that are gained through athletics.

What is your experience implementing a player journal?

Have you used the player journal idea with your teams? What were the results? How did you ensure that the players brought them to practice? And took care of them? Leave a comment below to share your ideas with other coaches !

Moves – James Harden Veer

I am a big fan of the work they do over at Krossover.com and that is how I came across the video below that shows how to do the “James Harden Veer” move so that you draw contact on your drive to the basket and go to the foul line more often.

Quick note: Krossover has found that going to the foul line more often increases the odds that you will win basketball games.

“Finishing with contact is a key skill
that separates the good from the great!”
– Coach Dave Wheeler

I am also a fan of the Pure Sweat Podcast who hosted/presented this video about the James Harden Veer Move in association with Krossover.com. Subscribe to the Pure Sweat Podcast on iTunes !

Score More 2016 Basketball Clinic scheduled

The new date for the basketball scoring clinic has been finalized…

The Score More Basketball clinic / one day camp that was originally scheduled for July will be held at Keene State College’s Spaulding gymnasium on Saturday November 5th from 11-4pm.

ADDED BONUS…
Camp participants will also have the opportunity to stick around and watch the Keene State Owls Men’s Basketball team practice starting at 4:30pm.

This camp is produced by InviteOnlyBasketball.com. If you are interested in being invited to this camp, be sure to apply for an invitation at this link.