A blast from the past

Like I wrote in the last entry soon time for Lundaspelen and during the years it has given me lots of memories both bad, god and funny and sad.

I especially remember some things and here is one of them;
Its goes back to when I myself was playing for boys 77 of Lobas and in our first game that year, we where gonna play against a team from Latvia or Russia I cant remember the country or club, but this I remember.

We stod waiting to get out on floor and we saw the team we where gonna play against. They stod there in old jersyes and old old basketballshoes, do you remember these shoes?















But most of them didn`t have converse it was some other sheap brand and of course spoiled as we where we had our expensive shoes and "new" jerseys and shooting shirts.
We we entered the court we got our next chock they really smelled bad, like they hadn`t showered for days, weeks. But I could see that they where good players its pretty easy to see that in the warmups if you look for the right things.

Just before the game would start they came over to our bench with a pin for each one of us and we also got a thing representing their club. I remember how ashamed I felt, really much, there we where expensive shoes, clothes, from a rich country and they where giving us stuff.

Needless to say they absolutely killed us in the game and won by many many points after they game there was a new kind of respect and our hip expensive shoes didn`t mean a thing at that moment. But it was a wake up call I think to many of us to whats important and whats secondary for playing the greatest game in the world.

The only thing that we still can say is even after they hammered us and taught us a lesson in Bball. New respect was there, but I still I felt sorry for the next team playing them cause I think they used chemical warfair as a secret weapon, my good they smelled :-)

Happy New Year!

New Year Basketball

In the beginning of the new year for me as a bball lover from the south of Sweden its been a tradition for years to play or coach in Lundaspelen, which is one of the biggest youth tournaments in the world.

Its been called the danish championships since so many danish teams participate and many of them also win the tournament. Now I´m a swede living and coaching in Denmark, so I guess I will for the first time play the danish champioships.

Well, I coach boys 98 and we have 18 players and will play this year with two even teams, so this year its more learning to play tournaments and having a good time. We where one of the lucky ones invited to play the nordic champioships in Sødertælje in easter and thats great since all games will be very giving in educational value.e

Lundaspelen is to me winter, cold and great atmosphere in the playoffs. Especially of course in the finals where every year its a great setup and arrangement to get that exciting feeling in your body.
This year will for sure be winter, cold and also great atmosphere in the playoffs.

I hope that my 2 teams play as well as they can and learn a lot by playing and watching others play. Myself I hope also to see some great games, where I can enjoy great coaching and great players.

You can check out the tournament here LUNDASPELEN 2-5 January every year

I also hope to see and talk to old friends/players and coaches during the tournament and for the first time in 4 years I will not work in Lundaspelen as I did when I coached in Eos. To be honest thats very nice to be just a coach and basketball lover again.

But to the people behind a tournament like this I have nothing but the deepest respect since, I know how much work it is to make it this big and all the organazing to get all parts to go as planned.

And to my old players working their ass of in Lundaspelen next year, what are you complaining about!
haha :-) Feels good to be able to say that :-)

Small pieces of my history

Well, back to my hometown I couldn`t let that opertunity go wasted without getting some past memories on pictures for future lonely days to take a look back at and remember good and bad times.

As a little kid most parts of my life was already then sports I lived on the right in the picture and its was a big backyard with lots of kids living in the area.

Our backyard since it was the biggest of the housing complex in that area became the place to be. Every night and every day when we kids was free from school there was soccergames, wargames, tag or something else happening. We didn`t sit in our apartments very much it was always some activity going on.

My best friend at the time lived in the same building but to the left in the picture and we both played soccer in the local club and both of us ended up in Lobas Basketball club playing bball every day, every week for many years.

My first school was Karstorp south and my passion for basketball wasn`t yet born. 

On schoolbreaks it was soccer or hockey with plastic sticks (yes I´m not proud if it) or some other crazy activity.

In winter breaks it was "toughest on the hill" or last man/women standing, there was a small hill behind the school and to be superior you should be the only one standing on the top of the hill.

Its was fun until a new girl came and beat all of us boys :-)

After karstorp south where I went to grade 1,2,3 it was time for its bigger brother in Karstorps North 

and grade 4,5,6 and here my passion for basketball was born. The founder of Lobas Basketball was one of the gymteachers on that school, but before I got him I had a women that nearly destroyd my passion for sports. The only thing she liked was gymnastics, dancing and always had some stupid earcovers on her head. She couldn`t have liked her job it was clear.

She taught us that in Basketball you could take 3 steps just like in handball and when Jørgen Freiburghaus took over in the 5th grade he became 10 years older directly.

This gym was and still are my favourite gym for basketball and allthought its small it has lots of baskets and is perfect for teaching the foundamentals of the game.

My first basketball game was played here and it was a schoolgame between the classes on the school it felt very big then, but now you wonder how we could play on 4 courts at the same time :-)


Outside my classroom we hade this streetcourt and since most of us played basketball it was easy choice in breaks what was gonna happen.

Shooting around the clock or playing games or dribbling between the legs around the 400m track.

One in my team was the best until a girl came and beat us all and yes it was the same girl that was queen of the hill :-)

I remember sometimes (many times( we where a little bit late since we didn`t wanna stop dribbling or shooting or end the game without a winner. Good times!

After some years we moved from apartment to a house pretty close to where we lived before.

The house didn`t look exactly like this back then it was red and old, but the new owners made it very beautiful.

Basketball and tennis and for some strange reason skateboard was the big interests at this time. But skateboardning disapeared quickly from my life since a really sucked at it.

Time for grade 7,8,9 and new school once again in Pilang. The school has grown during the years and most of what you see in the picture wasn`t their back then and today its from younger grades also and much, much bigger.I got a new gymteacher and he is propably one of the best leaders I have had during the years and he had simple aproach to all the boring stuff in gymhour, do what you can do, try what you cant do and then do sometiing you wanna do. I shot a lot of freethrows :-)

Back then the "rule" in Lobas was the older you got, the more practises you got in the big gym Pilængshallen which was huge (thats what we thought back then).

I`m propably one of the people who has spent most hours in that gym after Jørgen Freiburghaus during my years as a player and coach. In summertime a had keys to open and shut the gym, so me and fellow basketball lovers Ted Cedermarker and Rickard Nilsson hooked up the stereo many many times and played 1vs1 and shot huge amonts of shots it was no accident that a was a really good shooter and yes I`m proud of that atleast I was good at one thing :-)




We moved from our house to a apartment close to the beach and here I spent my highschool years and by now basketball was if not 100% of my life at least 99%.

I went to Malmø Basketball Highschool, but it wasn´t for me at all I knew to much of the game already (how you should practise) and I ended it after one year.


When I was ready to leave the nest I bought a apartment in Lomma acutally the apartment that was responsible for me finding the greatest game in the world watching super channel at my great grandmother apartment and I bought it from her, when she got to old to live by herself.

This place was freedom and my basketball headquarters for some years before I left my hometown for other basketball adventures.

Lomma will always be in my heart and also Lobas Basketball Club allthought for many years I felt mostly hate after being treated very badly, by people without a clue about sports or basketball.

Any coach out there who recognize that haha, well I know we are many and I think its a shame that clubs dont treat there coaches better and at least try to be honest with their coaches.
Lying and misstreating coaches always bites you in the ass in the end and those wounds will maybe never heal. To be honest is the one of the few things that doesn`t cost anything and at the top of my life rules.

This was some history.....maybe not interesting for you, but for me and thats whats counts since its my blogg :-)

If I just was a little bit younger....

....I would stay up all night long and enjoy.

7:00 PM	ET		Binghamton vs Marshall	01:00	CET
7:00 PM	ET		Bucknell vs Loyola (MD)	01:00	CET
7:00 PM	ET		Fairfield vs Florida	01:00	CET
7:00 PM	ET		Kent State vs Morehead State	01:00	CET
7:00 PM	ET		Minnesota vs Wisconsin	01:00	CET
7:00 PM	ET		Siena vs St. Bonaventure	01:00	CET
7:00 PM	ET		Union Ky College vs Liberty	01:00	CET
7:00 PM	ET		Western Carolina vs North Carolina-Asheville	01:00	CET
8:00 PM	ET		Ball State vs Valparaiso	02:00	CET
8:00 PM	ET		Central Baptist Coll vs Arkansas State	02:00	CET
9:00 PM	ET		North Carolina vs Rutgers	03:00	CET
9:00 PM	ET		Providence vs Syracuse	03:00	CET
10:00 PM	ET		Pacific vs Cal State Northridge	04:00	CET
10:00 PM	ET		UC Davis vs Cal State Fullerton	04:00	CET
10:00 PM	ET		UC Riverside vs UC Irvine	04:00	CET
10:00 PM	ET		Philadelphia Flyers vs Vancouver Canucks	04:00	CET
10:30 PM	ET		Hartford vs California	04:30	CET
11:00 PM	ET		Long Beach State vs UC Santa Barbara	05:00	CET

Christmas silence has....

...been a big part of my daily life lately, just relaxing and visiting my family in Sweden and thats why My World Of Basketball has been taking very little of my time.

But I can never totally stop doing something with basketball, when I`m free from practises or work there are nobody that beautiful living to make me totally just be normal.

So I have been free since the 23th of december and I`m of course watching games on TV and online and searching the net for great basketball stuff. I have came across some great links and my digital library becomes bigger and better.

Watched the hyped game between Lakers and Miami and I have to say Dwayne Wade did impress me and he has done that in other games also this season. He is carrying that team and if he stays healthy they can make it to the final and maybe also win it, but I believe more in Boston, Lakers, Spurs to win, but liek I wrote if D-Wade stays healthy they have a chance, but if he goes down they are in deep deep trouble.

Lakers are just like Boston cruising the season along and waiting for the playoffs, but still I was very surprised that Lakers played like they did on the pick and roll that was just horrible. Zenmaster Phil maybe just doesn`t give a flying f*ck right now, but that was very ugly. I would be very surprised if thet try to go out in D-Wade again and "hedge", double or whatever they tried to do next game. Thats the wrong kind of player to do that as he proved in the game time after time. He sliced that PAR defense like Jack the ripper.....

Have watched some swedish league games since I came home and can come to the conclusion that tactically we are miles behind, talents are coming but our seniorlevel plays like they are their own coaches and run their own offenses. I`m not just talking about setplays but choices fo shoots, choices of passes and choosing the tempo, when to run and not, inside/outside game using the posts and reading the pick and roll are just some where we are miles behind.

In defense I cant really see somebody being a specialist and it doesn`t look like teams are trying to shut down a shooter on a team with that pain in the ass defense its more just straight up man to man or normal zon.
I havent seen all teams but defense is not trying to make offense change to something else it looks more like they are just accepting and reacting to what they do.

In offense I miss very much and I have written about that before and that are more plays for certain players if you dont have plays for some players you can as a coach make them totally useless since they are not creators, they need a play or somebody else to create for them. To get your players out of a set to do what they are best at....could be shooting, 1vs 1, pick and roll, inside and so on...why have insideplayers if you will not use them as a coach?

Why have the best 1vs1 player in the league if he/she doesn`t get to play 1 vs1 out of a teamconcept in games. Why have the tallest player in the league standing at the freethrow line like a statue, when she/he can only score close to the basket.
Why play fast when you are slow?, Why play slow when you are fast......

Why stay up when I should sleep :-)

Sitting and watching a NBA game

Sunday and its been a very calm day today. I started of today with watching danish U18 nationalteam practise and I have written it before, but there really are some very interesting players in that team.

Now some hours later after some well deserved sleep I´m watching DK4 and the game between Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Lakers and for the first time since jerebko`s last game I haven`t switched it off. A good game with great sequenses and of course class players like Kobe Bryant and Linus Kleiza.

But back too U18 team and watching their practise I shook my head a couple of times, when I see players not even trying to do what they are supposed to do. I get confused how these players are thinking when they do halfass pushups or dont take the dynamic streching seriously. Do they really think coaches dont see that?

Have they already decided that they will not make the team or are they just "talents" that always have cheated in doing things right, well they will wake up sooner or later and discover that the endstation for them will not be the one that they wanted to end up on and propably stop playing or blame all of their coaches.

And in some sense its their clubcoaches fault, since that attitude should be wiped of the planet, but many "talented" players get away with it since they score their points and do their stuff in youth levels, but there are basketball after youth basketball.

Once again I was alone watching the practise I think thats sad, but at least I had a good time :-)

USC vs Kansas Jayhawks

I watched most of the game today and the home winstreak of 64 games in a row by the Jayhawks was deaply threatened today byt USC, who should have won the game, but very bad choices by USC helped Jayhawks to come back and take it by 3 points.

USC had a great chance to win game with 6,3 seconds left and the had inbound at baseline, they took timeout and came out with the same inbound play as they had run before, I simply dont understand that when you know how well scouted the teams are. They had big problems getting the ball into play and when they did there player mad a totally silly misstake he stepped out of the court allthough he had plenty of space he still did it.

They fouled with 4,3 seconds left and Kansas made their first and missed there second and a lucky bounce of the rim left it in the corner and that took to much time of the clock for USC to get a good shoot of in time, theys till had a long throw which hit the backboard, but win 65 straight at home for the Kansas Jayhawks is a fact. Thats currently the longest activ winning streak at home in NCAA div1 basketball.

The game in whole was a blend of veyr bad basketball and great plays. What i dont understand if you are gonna play 2 million pick and rolls, why dont teach the players to use it and read it?

For us that have a cuople of hours a week the teach our players the game is har as hell, but now we are talking college ball where they nearly have umlimited time with the players during the season.
The game gave me another question if you dont have the players to play pick and roll, why play it so much?

My player of the game was Nikola Vujevic of USC, they didn`t use him well especially in the first half but in the second half it was a little more and he has skills.

This is one nasty dunk

Propably you have already seen it and if not you are in for a surprise :-)

Sometimes you give and sometimes you take

What?

I`m talking about energy this week I have been working alot and with a bad shoulder its not the most fun you could do, but necessery since money is needed there is no pardon.

Tires as hell I stopped work 17:30 today and had practise at 18:00 with boys 98 and if I didn`t have any energy before pactise THEY gave me energy and all of a sudden I wasn`t tired at all I was out there sweating and giving instructions and making them go harder in each drill.

Thats whats great about a team if you are out of energy the rest of the team can give it to you and there are always somebody with lots of energy and always giving. Normally I`m as a coach are always one of them, but sometimes since we coaches also are humans we need to get a energyboost frm somebody and today I got it from my team and it was 1½ hour of pure pleasure and we had a great practise once again.

Now home I´m so tired so I dont even know why a write this text, but I´m sqeezing the last energy out of my body and head to write this and I will soon find my bed and have nice dreams a hope.

By the way today I did something I have laughed so much at other for doing. I dropped my cellphone in the toilette...not good at all. :-)

Last sunday I had games with boys 98

....and we ha a classic game against one of our rivals in boys98 category from Væerløse basketball club.
It was a tight game where we after a really good 3 period took the win with 2 points, but thats not why I write classic.

We where not gameready and of course I have big blame in that since I saw what was going on in the warmups, when my team discovered that their best player wasn`t gonna play because of injury.
I saw how they relaxed and could nearly hear "this one gonna be easy", well I did like I started to do some years ago.
I didn`t have a talk with them about and by doing that maybe I would have gotten them back on track. I was of course still hoping for the win, but either way they where gonna learn their lesson by playing and hearing about it afterwords.
Nobody wants to play under their capacity and the boys did just that and they know that now. After the game we talked about and the lesson is learned........I hope :-)

I my early days I would take care if it a soon as I saw, but after some years I realized, by doing that I saved them from learning how important the mental aspect of the game is. By saving them.....they will have to be saved again, again and again. At least that how I see and I have tried both ways.

Learning to be ready to play our best in every game, regardless who we are playing and regardless of whick players are on the other team is not always easy, but we have to try to get the right mindset before every game and remember that we play to learn, develop, win and have fun....

Normally you have the most fun when you play well and you win.

Warming up the brain before games :-)

To do that we have to warm up our minds before games, its maybe more important than warming up the body in some cases, since the body is useless without the mind.

A great basketballsite for those who wanna learn

The Cross Over Movement
I have been following this site for several years and there are a lot of great stuff that gets you brain working.

The picture above is linked to a article about talent identification, enjoy your reading.

Last night I tried to watch.....

.......the NBA game between New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors on Dk4 and I got bored once again. Yes, some great dunks and blocks but I guess its just not for me.

Euroleague, Colllege or even the swedish or danish leagues I find more interesting to watch. NBA games there are of course some games if they involve Blake Griffin, Jonas Jerebko or Manu Ginobili then I find it interesting.

I used to wtahc the NBA a lot in my youth and my favourite player in Earvin "Magic" Johnson with his showtime basketball at the forum. The great Lakers team always played enjoyable basketball even when the lost.

Its by the way Magic`s fault that I started with basketball after seeing my first NBA game and he was just incredible and I had found my "hero".

Back in the day I had other favourite players also in;

Michael "Air" Jordan
Isiah Thomas
Charles Barkley
James Worthy
Hakeem "the dream" Olujowon
Larry Bird
Kevin "the man with a billion moves" McHale
Drazen Petrovic

Many players that are great never make it to NBA here is one of them in Raymond Lewis

To go for it or not ? Players that wanna take talk into actions

In all the years you have worked with sports, you propably often heard people say the following:
"Why do not that player try to be the best he/she can be!?"
"Why is he/she is not serious!?"
"Why doesn`t  she/he takes advantage of his talent!?"

Could write more, and many of them have been said by myself during the years.
(Whos fault is it? That I do not take up in this text). Many players say that they like to  go for it, but few  realize what the words meanings are and what needs to be done. Do not let yourself become one of them, take the opportunity to see how good you can be!
Here is some advice for thoose who are thinking about putting in the effort, to be the best they can be.
 
1.
You have to decide that this is what I wanna do.
Priorities must be done in your life. You have made up your mind and that means your life will be different. The few hours you have left in you days, goes to homework, family, friends, but everything except school and family must have priority if its in conflict with your training. That may mean that staying up late, going out to see movies and going to partys may be very rare.
2. You should tell your friends that this is something I really wanna do, so maybe they understand when you dont see them as much as before.
You will soon discover which truly are your friends, they are the ones which show a understanding with your ambitions. They are the ones who will call week after week even if you have said no to several invites for social things.
3.
Planning your weeks, month is must to get your new life to function and by doing that you give yourself a chance to succeed in your ambitions.
You dont have to go overkill like former swedish skistar Gund Svan, who timed how long it took him to shower and get dressed after training and then found out which way was the fastest to save time for rest after training. Its not much time he saved in  one training but in a year its was many hours.
 4.
You should set goals for what you wanna acomplish, both short and longtime goals. Otherwise you can easily reach an oneway street and get stuck. if you set your goals is more or less just to follow the signs and you will get close or reach your distination with hard, hard work.
5. The right training is very important and it be not be exactly where you live, you may have to move. Once a sat next to player who turned to me and said "I dont understand why he moved so far to train and play with them". He was talking about a players whom moved 60 swedish miles (10 hours away from his home) to get the right enviroment for him to succeed.
The players thats said that was very talented himself, but with him not understanding why the other had done this, was of course one of the reasons he never came even close to his real potential. The other player did.......
Just because you chose to go for it, doesnt mean all knowledge will fall upon you. The knowledge your environment doesn`t have, you must find to reach your goals..
 
Regardless, even if you are dealing with teamsports or individual sports, you can not depend on anyone else when it comes to your additional training. Although the of course is great fun, being with a friend on every workout. But it can easily become an "excuse" for not working out, if for example your friend does not have the time, is ill, etc. Perhaps it is just you in your team, who really wants to be something.

Dont misstreat yourseolf, you need rest and the right food to get the maximum of your body both physically and mentally. Its very important to get to know your body, so when it signals it needs rest, you relax a little, to go even harder after the rest :-)

 Have you read all of it, maybe you've got a little help on the way to success. If you can succeed depends on a lot of factors ... ... ... ....
... ... ... .. Dare you go for it!?

NO: A decision that one can respect
YES: What!, Reading Still, off to train with you :-)

Fire arena is back in business

Our homecourt has been out of function for several months, first due to renovation with putting in a new floor, with all the new lines. The day that was finished the city of Hørsholm had 18cm of rain in a very short period of time and guess what, that new floor was totally destroyed and they had to throw it away and also takeout the gyms original floor since everything was ruined by the water.

Today was the first day of use in the gym that know has a new floor once again. Our ladies team played their rivals  SISU and it was a lowscoring game where Hørsholm played better basketball than SISU in 1,2,4 period,, but the rim had closed for the day, meanwhile SISU put in their easy ones and Hørshom missed them.

Hørsholm lost the game with 10 points if I remember correctly, but to me as usual I wasn`t looking at the teams so much as looking at the players that catches my eyes.

Some years ago there was two great danish ladies playing ball in Tine Freil and Anne Thorius both where world class players and have the CV`s to show for it.

I was lucky to see both of them play ball and had a blast everytime I saw "magic" play, thats what my nickname was for Tine Freil, artist on court and with he same understanding for the game as Anne Thorius.

In Hørsholms 79ers ladies team there is a player that is mix of Anne and "Magic" in Gritt Ryder born 1992 (174cm)

Coach Enbom has an unpolished diamand in Gritt "the next one" Ryder, so if you didn`t know now you now. All elite teams in Europe and Colleges should keep a couple of eyes on this girl if they dont someone else will and "the next one" will make the others pay their penelty :-)

Camilla Blands in SISU was good as usual and she is always a plessure to watch.

Tomorrow I have two games with my boys 98 so I know already that sunday will be a great day :-)

Becoming a basketballcoach " Developing basketballplayers instead of teamplayers"

Maybe it sounds strange and too some it just crazy. At least thats how I guess some see it, when they only practise teamskills.

When you coach young players no matter if they play senior basketball or not, maybe a pure youth team or one 17 years old player at the seniorlevel, you have responsability to these young players to give them the tools to be the best they can be.

And as a new coach starting out its almost impossible withoput guidence and knowing what is needed. I have seen so many young players reach the seniorlevel very early since they hade talent, but once there almost all technical training stopped and development of the player only improves in areas like experience and playing fot the best of the team, sometimes also phsyicality they improve allthough veru rare in Scandinavia.

What do I then mean with the headline?
I have preached about developing individual players with understanding for teamplay and not teamplayers with a understanding for indivdual players.
YES, you will propably not win as much as the coach that is going for developing teamplayers, with tons of tactical stuff in eearly years, but you will win further on if you keep up the individual focus in practises.

YES, it will take a longer time for your team to play good basketball and get easy scores.

YES, it will be frustrating when you are playing that X and O`s coach who uses setplays with 3 backscreens and pick and roll in a very early age, but your reward will come, it just comes many years later.

I big issue for me is making the players think the game and of course then also understand the game. So my first offense is always a motion offense that I have used for many many years now. There are some rules in my motion offense, but it allows the players to create of the dribble, create from cuts, create from inside/outside game, using screens and I could just write all aspects of the game. Set plays will not do that, they give the player i solution and if that solution is denied by the defense, houston we have a problem!

If the player hasn`t learned the game before to advanced setplays, the will be very static and do many more turnovers and the offense will become like a traffic stop in Stockholm. Moving slowly, sometimes very fast, and if you are lucky you get a opening.

Back to the motion:

I use 9 positions in offense (corners, wings, point, lowposts, highposts)

The outsiderules are:
- If you cut to the basket you always cut to the weakside
- If you cut from the weakside, you continue to the strongside
- If you pass the lowpost you screen away

Insiderules are (there is no static center, but a insideposition)
- This players is the only ine who cans creen the ball
- If insideplayer moves outside with a cut, screen or spacning, he/she comes back in with a screen, cut:

Everytime a players comes to a new position hes/she has 2-3 seconds to make the best choice possible.

The best choice will always be:
Screen, cut or spacing (taking a new position without cutting to the basket)
One of these will always be the worts solution, but still it will not destroy the offense, like if somebody moveds the wrong way in a setplay.

How does offense start?
It can start in several different ways

In fastbreak
- PG`s can dribble the ball side, middle, diagonal to get the ball in play.
- They can fo course pass up the court also.

Halfcourt game:
- PG`s can dribble the ball to the wing
- PG can pass it and follow for handoff
- PG can start with dribble handoff
- PG can of course as most of the times just pass it to the wing.
- PG can call for wing players for a handoff at point.
- Insideplayer can come up and play pick and roll at the point to start the offense

Keys for developing a sound offense for youth as I see it are:
- Reduce dribbling, so its only used when neede
- Spacing, the most important as I see it
- Moving without the ball
- Reading and reacting or as some say act dont react (to me its the same thing, since you have to react, to act)
- Balltempo
- Creating one on one situations for the players

As the players get older screens become more and more common and learning the read the defense in screening situations is very important, but often forgotten, since its not needed so much in ages 0-16, if you set a screen it works many times without reading.

Once you get older the defense will have solutions fot that backscreen, donwscreen, staggered screen and now the players must be able to read the play and most cant, so they end up in the bench.

As a youth coach I think in the early years you should focus on spacing, moving without the ball and attacking from dribble or from basketballposition.

Note:
Attacking from the dribble doesn`t mean that every player who gest the ball, should dribble just because he can. I saw a game som days ago, where every players dribble the ball as soon as the got it in perhaps 80% of their offenses. It was TO´s heaven if there is such a place......and defense had a blast just standing and watching until they got the ball from a steal or a very bad shot.

Most new coaches have a superoffense that they saw at some seniorlevel or a offense they played themselves that they will start with and they see it work, so they dont see the problems with doing it.

They will to WIN makes us coaches do smart things but also very STUPID things and as have written many times as new coach you need someone to help you with experience so you get on the right track from the start.

There is that classic KISS
K= Keep I= It S= Simply S=Stupid and that a great law to follow in the begining of coaching.

But 95% will not if somebody doesn`t guide them.



Practises will be run from their setplays and they will become god at running THOOSE offenses, but do theese offenses really have all aspects of the game in them, well dont think so.

Coaches of seniorteams in clubs should be much more activ in getting the clubs youth coaches t do the right thing, since they need god players it should be a big priority, but moste times its not and that can only mean one of the following things:

- The coach doesn`t know what is needed, his team is doing OK and the players coming up is OK, so verything is OK......NOT! They should be the best they can be!

(If a club doesn`t have a skillplan for the players, HC`s need to act on it)

- The coach is just waiting for a new opertunity someother place

- The club doesn`t want him/her messing with the coaches, NO green light.

- He is afraid of conflicts with other coaches

- He is a seniorcoach, a maintainer, good with words and motivating players but knows very little of how to develop players. The same coach just plays 5-5, shoots freethrows, and shoots 2 and 2 even if he had 10 year olds as he would with seniorteam, maybe som waeve and some layups also :-)

In best cases technical drills without instructions and corrections.

Next chapter will be Developing basketballplayers


Chapter 1 - Becoming a basketballcoach "Empty book"

Chapter 2 - Becoming a basketballcoach "Doing wrong when doing right"

Chapter 3 - Becoming a basketballcoach "Will to win is to loud, the kids cant hear you"

Chapter 4 - Becoming a basketballcoach "Dealing with parents and players as a new coach"

Chapter 5 - Becoming a basketballcoach "Yearly plan and practiseplans, what to do"

Lebron James back to Cleveland....

...game today and it will not be a nice welcome back.

Havent checked yet what time the game is, but hope its not too late, since I too wanna see that welcome that Cleveland will give him.

There has been med some shirts in his honor:

.
Gonna be fun....and he deserves it BIG TIME, well if you talk the talk and then bail out first chane you get, you should be...NOT welcome :-)

Today I did some tests on my players

As some of you already know I coach a team boys born 1998 in Hørsholm Basketball in Denmark.
Today we did the first test for this season. Of course most of the are "happytests" since they are still growing and their bodies are devoloping in different speeds and so on, but the tests will act at this age more as a tool to motivate and "give" selfconfidence, because they will do better next time.

This is the first time ever I have done this with a young team like this, but to be honest this is the only team in this age that I have coached that have the mindset, so they can use this for their benefit.

First I checked "antro"

A)
- Height
- Wingspan
- Reach

Then physical tests
B)
- Jumping ability (best of two tries)
- 10 meters run from basketballposition (best of two tries)
- 20 meters run from basketballposition (best of two tries)
- Standing longjump (best of two tries)
- Pushups in one minute (chest touches fist of coach)
- Situps in one minute
(Hands on head, elbows touches knees, 90 degrees against the wall.)

And also som basketballtest
C)
- Freethrows - How many made of 25
(Shoots all 25 in a row)
- 2 pointers, 50 shoots (10 from each position) from side left, side right, bankshot left, bankshot right, freethrow line
(shot from pass, players shoots all 50 shoots in a row)
- 3 pointers, 25 shoots 
(5 from each position), corner, corner, wing, wing and point (all shoots in a row)
- Layups in 30 seconds
(One player is standing at the freethrowline, one players with ball, dribbles scores right laup, dribbles out with left hand around his friend, scores lefthanded layup, dribbles out with right hand around his friend and so on for 30 seconds)

To be honest most players are not ready to shoot 3 pointers, but the will be in May, so it will be success then :-)

Talented players: Jonathan Gilling Hørsholm 79ers

Born 1991, 203cm, Pos 1-2-3

You are one of the talents coming out of Denmark, what are you plans for the future?

My dreams and ambitions are to become the best player that I can be. Right now my plans are to go to college in the states, but if that doesn't succeed I don't really know what to do. I would really like to get away from Denmark next year, to see how far I can go with Basketball.

You are playing on Hørsholm 79ers and you get a lot of responsability, it most be great and being so young and feeling he coaches confidence in you?

Yes, I am playing for Hørsholm 79'ers and we definitely are lucky to have coaches that have unbelievable much knowledge of the game it is an honor to play for them and I feel really really privileged. It is always a great thing to feel that somebody believes in you and that definitely gives you a lot of confidence.

You have been with the youth nationalteams several times, can you tell the world a little bit of some great experiences playing international with the nationalteam?

Playing wise I actually haven't enjoyed playing with the national team because the teams I have played for has always lost. I think that the preparation to a championship is very bad here in Denmark, and it needs a lot improvement to be more successful. Friends wise it has always been a lot of fun. I have always had really fun teammates and that has been a really good thing, especially when you are struggling on the court :)

You come from a basketballfamily, tell us how come basketball and how many in your family are involved in basketball?

Yes I come from a big and tall family of 6. We are 4 siblings all playing basketball and doing really great on the different teams we are playing on. My mom and my dad are really involved in basketball too. My dad is a boardmember of 79'ers and my helps the club arranging the basketball camp every summer. So everyone in the family is really dedicated to basketball.

Quick 6 favourites
Favourite team in Europe?

Red Star

Favourite player in Europe?

Milos Teodosic

Favourite team in NBA?

Los Angeles Lakers

Favourite player in NBA?

Kobe Bryant

Favourite team in College?

I don't really have a favorite team, so ill pick a school I know: Siena College.

Favourite player in College?

I don't really know any players in College so i will go with a former 79'ers player: Maja Gerlyng

What tips would you give to other younger players trying to fulfill their dream in becoming a pro basketball player?

Im not a pro yet so I don't know. But work hard and be patient. I think that a lot of young players stop when they become seniors because they don't get the playing time that they are used to, and that is really bad for the future of Danish basketball - So be patient.

Any tips to coaches about handling young players that you can give?

I have been blessed with many great coaches and they have all done one thing that i am very thankful of. Even though I have been tall enough to play under the basket they have all let me play outside as a point guard. I think that every player in the age of 9-14 or something like that, should play as players handling and shooting the ball from outside :) Another good advice would be: Respect each of your players, have fun with them outside the court, but alsp let them know when you are serous and meaning business on the court!!

Triple header from the Swedish leagues

On Baskettelevision today, yes a triple header today.

14:00 Kvarnby BBK-Luleå Basket Womens league

14:00 Sallén Basket-Visby Ladies Womens league

16:34 Uppsala Basket-Sundsvall Dragons Mens League

Becoming a basketballcoach Chapter 5: Yearly plan and practise plans, what to do?

Most coaches in the world dont have the luxury to be employed and have a lot of time to prepare the season for the team and thats just a fact. For e new coach its even harder if he/she has nobody to turn to for inspiration and guidance on WHAT to do, WHEN and HOW to do it.

Often when you are a new coach you do a lot of drills in your practises and if you just asked yourself the BIG question WHY I´m I doing this drill, many of the drills would never been used by you since there should always be a reason why you use certain drills and their purpose should go hand in hand with you yearly plan and ages of your players. Ask the question!

Myself I think many coaches try to do too much with the yearly/weekly plans, and to much means that most will not be done. Instead I think especially as a new coach, you should follow a general rule in all areas of basketball and that is "as simple as possible" and do it 100% instead of 60-70% with championship papermateral with 34 pages and 56 diagrams, you see where I`m going with this.

Here is something from my early years;
I was told to take over a boys team and I had seen very little of the team, but my brain started to work overtime directly and a mad great plans for the team, almost made a little book with all the things we where gonna use/do and so on with the team.
I spent hours on this and was extremelly satisfied with my work, I think this was like my third year as a coach or something.
Satisfied with my work I went to first practise with the team and had my great "books" with me in my bag. After some minutes of the first practise, my "great" work was just a waste of time, they wasn`t even near the level I had made them up to be on the paper.........after the practise I threw all of the "books" in the garbage I had done to much and I´m very glad that I realized this is not for them, but here I think most coaches go ahead anyway and that shouldn`t be possible since all clubs should have somebody in charge of the quality of coaches and the teams educational plans for the players.

I have since some years ago myself started working from monthly plans that has general skills on what we will work on with the team, within that general skill, the drills can very and be stationary, to halfcourt, to fullcourt drills of course.

It could look like this:

September                              October                                                              

- Phys (MAQ, footwork)          - Phys (MAQ, footwork)                   

- Offense (1-0, 2-0,3-0)          - Offense (1-0,2-0, 3-0)                

- Defense (on ball, off ball)      - Indi skills (Basketball position)                    
- Teambuilding                       - Defense (on ball, off ball)                                

- Games (1vs1, 2-1, 3-2)       - Games  (1vs1, 2-2, 3-3)                  

* Indi skills= All offense skills done from basketball position.  
* MAQ = Muscle Action Quality my teams physical program (3 times a week with boys 98)

Here you can se the complete yearly plan for my boys born 98 season 2010/2011 (Its in swedish, but if you know that fys= physical, and Spel= games, you will understand)

Some coaches like to time everything in practises, how do you do it?

With a yearly plan like this in place its so much easier to plan the practises and so much easier to stop yourself from cheating in the educational plan for the kids. On educations sometimes this kind of yearly plans and other paperstuff becomes to much for many since its on the level of coaches with one job and that is to coach one or two teams as a profesional and that is not a reality for most living basketball addicts.

I have help many new coaches during the years with this kind of stuff and if you have any questions or need som help in any way just write me and if I can I will help you.

There are many books on the market wich say they can help you as a new coach, but most of them is really just there to make somebody rich and no matter how great they are if you dont have the skills to teach, they wont help much anyways.

Next chapter will be :  
Becoming a basketballcoach " Developing basketballplayers instead of teamplayers"

Chapter 1 - Becoming a basketballcoach "Empty book"

Chapter 2 - Becoming a basketballcoach "Doing wrong when doing right"

Chapter 3 - Becoming a basketballcoach "Will to win is to loud, the kids cant hear you"

Chapter 4 - Becoming a basketballcoach "Dealing with parents and players as a new coach"