BASKETBALL 360º

Even under stressful and threatening conditions, the coach must

remain poised at all times. This means to keep a calm, confident

look on your face, a neutral pitch in your voice, and uprightness

in your posture. Body language is a very important indicator of

confidence.

At the same time, over-confidence can kill your team, leading to a

lack of aggressiveness and initiative. By highlighting the other

team's strengths, and by giving the opposition their due credit,

you will remind your players that the competition is not going to

be easy. Basically, you want to arouse a fear of defeat and then

immediately provide the solution for winning.

If your team is the under-dog, its time to inspire them with

stories and profound language. You can even lookup some famous

quotes and say them out loud to inspire your players. Words of

encouragement and strength are needed in this situation, and let

your players know that the outcome of the game is in their hands,

not in the opposition's hand.

>> At Half-Time

Okay, so the game is underway and its half-time. Its time to make

some adjustments, but more importantly, its a time of relaxation...

Take 5-7 minutes for complete relaxation, without a word, without

any emotion. Let your players relax and cleanse their minds. Have

someone provide towels and water immediately, and set the

environment for relaxation.

Then, once every player looks to be settled in, start off by

encouraging them and pointing out the good things, and then go into

the negatives. At this point, explain the strategy of the second

half but only choose 2 key points and drive them home. Keep it

simple. Drill a couple of concepts in your player's minds and let

them focus on that. You may have 20 things in your mind, but your

players cannot handle that much information. Pick 2

things...Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize!

Remind your players at this point that no matter what happens, you

will judge whether they won or lost by their effort. If they play

hard and give it everything they've got, you should judge that as a

victory. Tell them to focus on the process, not on the outcome.

"Just Play" is the motto you need to drill in their heads at

half-time.

>> After the Game

Once again, right after a game, let your players relax for 5-10

minutes and clear their minds. You can only deliver the proper

message if they have come down from their emotional high. Once

they've relaxed, tell them honestly how they performed. If they

played well and lost, let them know that you will get the win next

time. If they played bad and won, tell them they got lucky and

there's a lot of things that need to be worked on.

Don't get into much detail right after the game, wait until the

following day or practice.

Now, as the coach, you should take notes right after the game and

write down everything you noticed about your team, strengths and

weaknesses...