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Coach's Note Issue #5 Feb 2 2017

Coach’s Note – 

We are 1 – 3 since my last note.  On paper that sounds horrible.  In reality, I am happy with our progress.  Our 1 win of course came in a great game at Williamston.  It was a very exciting night for our program and probably the biggest win we have had this year.  Of the other 3 games, we had a terrible night against Fowlerville but competed and did some good things against Waverly and Jackson. The boys are developing a group confidence that is going to help them in the tournament.  Now that we are in the “meat” of the season and playing 2 games a week, I would like to address an issue that I play many roles in; the issues of helping your son appreciate the amount of playing time they are getting or trying to increase the amount of minutes they get on the court.

I am very aware that we all want our kids to play and it sometimes seems irrational or unfair that our child does not get into a game.  I have and am, part of that right now.  My son played for me and started as a sophomore at Olivet, transferred to LCHS and had to sit out a semester and then did not get much playing time his junior season.  Even in his senior year on a team that I was an assistant coach, Connor had 2 games during which he did not even get into the game.  Now he is playing at Dominican University in Chicago where he has started in a game and not played a minute in another.  He has been in games to hit game winning shots and also, has played in games and not taken a shot.  So please believe me that I understand and have empathy for any of you parents who would like to see your son play more.  The intention of this coach’s note is to help you enjoy the season more.

With that said I would like to thank all of you for your continued support of the program and appreciating the program for the opportunity it provides for our children.  I see a lot of very positive interactions between parents and sons. Nothing has happened and nobody has acted in a way that provided the catalyst for this note. I do know that at this time of the season, playing time has shifted and it’s really common to have questions and concerns about kids’ playing opportunities.

The following suggestions are meant to help all of us enjoy the games and season while also supporting the players.  A big part of educational athletics is developing a young person’s ability to handle adversity, build emotional and physical strength, learn about positive communication techniques and create a foundation of discipline that will serve the athlete in the “real world.” 

Coaches and parents are often overwhelmed by so many Little Pictures that they miss the Big Picture entirely.  How our children perform in a sporting event is a Little Picture.  Whether they win or lose, play well or badly, laugh or whine after the game – all Little Pictures.

What children take away from sports to help them become successful, contributing members of society is the Big Picture.  Whether they remain physically active throughout life, learn to bounce back from difficulties with renewed determination, discover how to support other people within a team context – these are the Big Picture.  - (adapted from the Positive Coaching Alliance organization)

With that in mind, here are some concepts and ideas that I have tried (with varying success ;-)) to implement with my own children and things I have suggested to other families.

• Instead of going to the coach to request more playing time for your child, consider any frustration they have around playing time as a teachable moment.  Explain what motivates a coach and encourage your son to focus on what parts of the game they can control and how they might earn more playing time.
• If your child complains about playing time, talk to them about what they can do at practice to get their minutes to go up during game situations. This might involve working harder or spending time outside of practice to work on a skill. 
• Encourage them to have an honest conversation with the coach.  Help them learn the style of conversation that will be helpful in this situation.
• From my perspective it is important for all of our players and children to earn their playing time and parents to understand that they can help their child by focusing on the skills necessary to earn the time as opposed to talking to the coach on the player’s behalf.
• Some advice for parents and players of athletes that get to play a lot of minutes. Be the biggest cheerleader of your teammates that get limited time! Be aware that many players would love the game opportunities that you or your son gets. Recognize that this is a zero-sum game; when one athlete plays; another must be taken out of the game.

If we support, search for and seek positive moments to cheer for each other, we will have created a positive environment where each athlete has the opportunity to develop to their potential.

Please note!  This is not a correspondence to tell parents that they shouldn’t or can’t talk to me or other coaches about your son.  We all want what is best for this team and will gladly discuss any topics with you.

Upcoming:  We play @ Eaton Rapids this Friday at 6pm.

Thanks for your time!

God Bless…

Coach Dartt

@coach_dartt

Coach's Note Issue #4 January 10, 2017

Coach’s Note – At the end of the last newsletter I mentioned that we are developing and improving with a “growth mindset.”  I am happy to focus your attention on the team’s continued improvement.  Sometimes we are outscored by an opponent but still are successful. On the other hand, sometimes we will outscore an opponent and fail miserably because we really did not improve or play as a group.  Our game against Portland was a success on many levels.  The players were challenged at half time to play with intensity and enthusiasm and not let the opponent come back.  We have a group of very nice boys that sometimes lay back a little if we are beating someone.  We want to be classy but also make sure we are getting better at different aspects of the game.  So, beating someone by 13 at half like we were at Portland is not good enough if our desire is to continue to develop into a team that can compete with better teams.  To their credit, your sons responded really well and ended up winning by 37 points by playing aggressive, selfless basketball.

What your son and our team have been working on:  We have been working on adding a zone press to our toolbox.  Our zone press is a 2-2-1 and is called “22.”  We will be utilizing this press in the next few games.  We want to be able to pressure our opponents into uncomfortable spots and force them to play at a pace at which they make mistakes. It may give them some easy baskets at the beginning of games (we will try to stop this) but if deployed properly, it will force our opponent to wear out by the end of the game.

Some of the concepts to look for when we are pressing in 22:

• ·         Keep the ball out of the middle: We will work to deny the inbound and then force the ball up the sideline.  If the ball gets thrown forward, into the middle, someone made a mistake.  We will also try to keep them from dribbling into the middle.
• ·         Transition to man-to-man (M2M) : Once the opponent has gotten the ball over half court into the scoring area and the ball is moved to the middle of the court you should hear our kids yell “Man, ” which triggers our transition from a zone press to half court M2M.
• ·         Trapping: You will also witness our use of our “bigs” at the front of the press.  This is to cause trouble for opponents.  Our up front traps are designed to force a bad pass or dribble that can be picked off.  The “bigs” can force these terrible passes that we may intercept.
• ·         Pace:  Mostly the purpose of the press is not to force turnovers but to force the other team to play at a pace at which they are not comfortable. You will notice that they will take quick early shots and miss them because they were going too fast.
• ·         Getting into and out of the press:  In our upcoming games against Ionia and Fowlerville we will be pressing with 22 on made baskets and dead ball situations and with M2M when we miss or turn the ball over.

Upcoming:  We play at Ionia this Friday at 6pm.

I hope that everyone is enjoying the season and watching your son improve. If you ever have questions or comments I would love to hear from you.

Thanks

Coach Dartt

@coach_dartt

Coach's Note Issue #3 Dec 20_2016

Coaches Note – That is better!  In our first couple of games we shot 27% from the floor.  We were getting decent shots but not “great.”  The last two games have been much improved.  We shot 36% on Tuesday and 44% on Friday.  We also wanted to improve our turnover situation.  We have improved our turnovers from an unacceptable 31 in game #1 to a more reasonable 12 in game #4.  I am SOOO impressed with your sons' ability to take constructive criticism.  It is not easy to hear that you need to change or focus on something different, yet your boys do a great job of it.

What your son and our team have been working on:  We have been working on improving our offensive movement and spacing to help get better shots and to reduce the amount of turnovers.  We have also worked to improve our assist percentage.  In our first two games we had assists on less than 50% of our shots.  Friday, against Eaton Rapids we had 17 assists on 21 baskets (incredible!). 

With all that said, I want to share the concepts or ideas that we have really tried to emphasize.

• ·        On the ball pressure defense: During the second half of our game against Lumen Christi and all of the game against Eaton Rapids we were able to put appropriate amounts of defensive pressure on the ball handler.  This really helps us turn their offensive game into a reactive game. When we pressure the ball, any good cuts by them do not get utilized and shots become very difficult.  We will continue to work on the fundamentals and the aggressive nature of defending the ball that is required to be successful.
• ·        Free Throw Attempts: Until this week, we were not getting many free throw attempts and our opponents were getting 25 or more.  Despite what my wife thinks, this is not because the officials do not like us ;-).  Instead it was because we did not attack the rim after we moved the defense and because we were trying to do too much in the offense one on one.  The other teams were shooting a lot of free throws because we were not putting enough pressure on the ball and our help defense was not quick enough to get proper position so they reached and got called for fouls. 

Upcoming:  We have a scrimmage at Grand Ledge on Thursday, December 22^nd then 3 days off for Christmas.  We then practice Monday 26^th through the 28^th to prepare for our game at Grand Rapids West Catholic on December 29^th.

Other: Early in the season we asked your sons to list 3 team and 3 individual goals.  We will work on how to write effective goals (S.M.A.R.T) later but I wanted to list some of what they had to say.

• ·        Make the team better
• ·        Play team basketball
• ·        Be the best defender
• ·        Everyone develop into better players
• ·        Develop a better jump shot
• ·        Become a close, cohesive group
• ·        Win & have fun
• ·        Become a better ball handler, don’t panic
• ·        Win a district
• ·        Be a leader, even if not voted captain
• ·        Win the league
• ·        Lead the team in assists and be the best teammate that I can be.

I am very honored to work with and proud of this group of young men.  We are growing and developing with a “growth” mindset.  It is a real pleasure to watch them develop and reach their goals.  Thanks for all the positive comments about this communication; I really enjoy talking to you about your sons.

Thanks

Coach Dartt

@coach_dartt

517.231.3113

coachd33@gmail.com

Coach's Note Issue #2 Dec 12, 2016

Coaches Note –

Well, well, well, that wasn’t exactly the start to the season we were working for. On the down side, we saw our team lose two games that we could have won.  On the up side, we witnessed our team improve in many areas and looked competitive on Friday.

What your son and our team have been working on:  Our team has a lot of diverse players that will ultimately make this a very good team.  It is our focus to figure out who works best and creates the most productive group.  We have shot poorly in both games so shooting is of course a focus, but more importantly, the focus has been on being disciplined in the offense to get great shots versus good ones and on limiting turnovers.  We have also been talking a lot about toughness.

·         Offensive Execution – We were pleased with the improvement from Tuesday to Friday regarding our half-court offense. Because of proper spacing, player movement and passes, we were able to get much better shots (open) than the previous game.  When we look at the shots taken in games, we are evaluating them on the following scale:

o   The best shooter should have the most shots and our worst shooter should have our best FG%(only takes lay-ups, wide open shots).

o   Cougar Rating System *adapted from Coach Don Meyer(We want most of our shots to be 3s or 4s.)

§  4 = Wide Open Lay-Up

§  3 = Wide open shot by good shooter

§  2 = Contested shot by good shooter or open shot taken by a poor shooter.

§  1 = Terrible shot(contested shot taken by poor shooter)

§  0 = Turnover (Poor decision, contested, little chance of success).

·         Reducing Turnovers – We had 31 turnovers on Tuesday (sorry to those who witnessed that!).  The good news is that we reduced that number to 22 on Friday.  There are many reasons for turnovers and reducing them in a contest is a real challenge.  To improve, we need to make sure we understand how to play basketball with each other.  We must know that given a certain action that our teammates will most certainly perform a reaction that makes sense.  The other component of poor passing is speed.  We are asking our kids to go faster than they have in the past.  This will cause more turnovers for us in the beginning of the season.  We will gradually see that number improve.  We should be able to get our turnovers to 12 – 15 per game maximum, by the end of the season. 

·         Toughness – Toughness in sport has many components.  Athletes need to be physically tough, going after loose balls, boxing out to get the rebound, sprinting the floor when their legs tell them “no”, etc.  They also need to be mentally tough.  Being able to listen to teammates and coaches in the heat of the battle and convert that information into something useful is challenging.  Athletes also need to be emotionally tough.  They need to be able to handle a bad call, a teammate criticizing them, a mistake made in front of their friends and families, or a coach correcting them.  We witnessed some real growth in the emotional part of our game from the first half of Tuesday’s game to the end of the Friday game.  We will continue to emphasize the importance of not reacting negatively to officiating or a teammate’s bad play.  Please help us with this part by applauding their emotional toughness when you see it.

Upcoming:  Second week of play is about to begin.  We play Jackson Lumen Christi at home on Tuesday following the 9^th grade and JV games.  On Friday we host league opponent Eaton Rapids at 6pm. 

Other:  We have shot a combined 26 free throws vs our opponents who have shot a combined 61.  We need to find ways to limit our opponent’s opportunities and increase ours from the free throw line. There is more discussion to come on this topic next week.

Thank You and God Bless!

Coach Brian Dartt

Assistant Basketball Coach - Lansing Catholic High School

Teacher - Olivet High School

Twitter: @coach_dartt

Mobile: 517.231.3113

coachd33@gmail.com