Advice to New Coaches

Okay, you probably got roped into this job because your son, daughter or a friend is involved. Well, you are in for the most difficult job in basketball: coaching inexperienced players and/or coaching without much experience and/or coaching without a lot of practice time. I think your job is even more difficult than a pro coaching job. However, this can be a great experience for both you and the players if you have sensible guidance.
First, I want to commend you for visiting our site, because this means you are really interested in the kids, the players, the real job of a coach. I'm going to list resources at the site, especially for first time coaches.
We have a ton of articles to get your head in the right place about coaching. You can read all the articles, but I recommend these first:

1. Seven Ideas That Will Make Your Season More Successful

2. What To Do If You Have Little Practice Time

3. Keys To Planning Practice

4. How "Winning" Can Make You a Big Loser -The negative aspects associated with a focus on winning games, instead of teaching basketball skills.

5. Basketball Coaching Myths and Reality - Widely held popular ideas that are opposite to what you want to do as a coach or player.

6. A Coach's Biggest Mistake and How To Correct It - Your biggest mistake prevents your team from improving. Correct it and soar onward.

7. What You Want Out of An Offense & How To Get It - Having offensive problems? Here is the information you need to improve.

To see a list of all of our articles and tips click here
Don't forget our Fundamental Notes Section which covers fundamentals noted or lacking in pro and college games.

What products to order?
1. The Basketball Coach's Bible--A comprehensive and systemic guide to coaching. Everything about coaching from individual skills to planning to strategy. Only order the other books if you want to share information with others. The players manual is valuable because the techniques are easier to follow since directions are given for only 1 or 2 players.

2. DVDs 1-4 -- The Basic Set  Or
DVDs 5,8,9,12 --The Starter Set

DVDs 1-4
These first 4 videos show high school and college players performing all the drills in the book. The practice planning videos show the exact drills to run in order in practice as well as a progression of drills for each slot. The How To Get More Out Of Practice video, video 4, may be the most worthwhile one because it explains how to streamline practice, keep all players involved, and how to assign basketball homework. The other videos in the series, Videos 6 to 15, go into more detailed explanations of the material in videos 1-4. Coaches have told me that videos 1-4 are a bit overwhelming.

DVDs 5,8,9,12
These videos show much greater detail than DVDs 1-4. So, you can probably teach each lesson shown without many problems. DVD 5 works on shooting technique, the first and most important step in shooting. DVD 8 works on dribbling a skill every player needs immediately. DVD 9 works on defensive movement, the first step in learning defense. DVD 12 works on offensive skills  that will eventually allow your team to play together.

Your comments are welcome.
Sidney Goldstein, author of The Basketball Coach's Bible and The Basketball Player's Bible, has successfully coached both men's and women's teams over a period of 15 years.