4 out 1 in Sets

This week I choose 5 of my favorite 4 out 1 in set plays I have used in the past. These are from high school all the way up to professional but work extremely well when run the right way. Look out for the weekly resource on Monday which will include a full 4 out …

Teaching Set Plays Through Small Sided Games

This weeks topic will showcase how to teach your set plays in a way that is fun and competitive. As coaches we all have to take the time to put our plays in. However, this can sometimes be the most frustrating part of the season as players learn in all different ways and time periods. …

Constructing a Program: Freshmen to Varsity

The following is a philosophy that I have come up with and that I believe allows for the best construction of your program that will put an emphasis on Player Development and eliminate a lot of “playing time problems”. I would love any feedback on this or any information on how you run your program …

5 Out Offense

Below you will find 3 of my favorite 5 out plays and 2 Small Sided Games (SSGs) that can be used to introduce these plays and work on the scoring action and the defense against it in each play. Buckeye Full Play https://youtu.be/Y7b1ZTUrOfU Buckeye SSG 3v2 https://youtu.be/UCXpCWlLinc Buckeye SSG 3v3 https://youtu.be/4Pqfj40yOzI Nuggets Full Play https://youtu.be/BJ4jZROh0I8 …

Shooting (ft. Dave Love & Jefferson Mason)

For this weeks topic on shooting I decided to go directly to the best sources. Below you will see my interviews with NBA shooting coach Dave Love and Dr. Dish Basketball Trainer Jefferson Mason. In these interviews I tried to focus on what parents and players can do at home since not everyone has the …

The BEST Practice Planning Resource for All Coaches

This week I am very excited to share what I believe is the best practice planning resource out there for all coaches. I have had many coaches ask what I use to make my practice planner and the answer is Coach Matt Hower's Practice Planner. This resource has allowed for quick practice planning creations, keeping …

Defensive Video Breakdown

The following is a collection of some of our best defensive possessions from the last (Pre-Covid) season. I will include the notes and key part under each video segment. I hope you enjoy and as always would appreciate a shoutout on social media using the #ShareTheGame hashtag. Preaching Aggressive Mistakes https://youtu.be/SmrzEpBuq_U On defense we preach …

New Thinking on Development Training for Youth Players

This weeks post is a little different then past ones. I reached out to an expert in the field of development training for youth basketball players. His name is Mark Williams from the UK. The following information is his thinking on the topic. I hope you enjoy Mark Williams MSc CSCS ASCC Strength and Conditioning …

Substitution Patterns

This weeks topic is substitution patterns. Below is a copy of my substitution pattern chart. This is not something I live and die on, rather, I use it as a guide (especially the Varsity portion). The biggest thing for me is the Freshmen and JV levels. I believe strongly in giving anyone who made the …

In Game Call Sheet With Plays

This week I am going to share with you and example of my in game call sheet from my AAU season this past Spring/Summer. This is a pocket size card that has my go to sets in specific situations. Every play that is on this card is reviewed during our situations portion of practice so …

Introduction to Footwork

In an older post I tried to detail my Footwork Curriculum and I had a bunch of requests for video breakdowns, as the diagrams were a bit confusing. So here we go: For those of you looking for an easy resource to have your players practice daily, go no further. With my basic footwork 101 …

10 Great Horns Sets

This weeks blog we are going back to Xs and Os with 10 of my favorite Horns Sets. Below I will list these plays out and on Monday I will release my 42 page Horns Set playbook. This will be sent out to the #ShareTheGame Newsletter subscribers. If you have not signed up yet you …

In Game Assistant Coach Tracker

One of the biggest problems coaches run into is assigning assistants duties during the game. Who is tracking what? What should we track? What shouldn't we track? As an assistant in college I found that there was never a good enough stat tracker for me to use and it was always sloppy and a mess …

Coaching Portfolios

For this weeks topic I decided to share, in detail, what my coaching portfolio looks like. It is always a work in progress and I usually add/take away from it after every season. I hope you get some good ideas from this and that you also share your portfolio with me at coachhickey@ctphd.com so I …

Footwork 101

For those of you looking for an easy resource to have your players practice daily, go no further. With my basic footwork 101 we start at the very bacis skills and do them daily. As we progress through the process we can then add different moves. However, at the end of the day it is …

Building a Defensive Culture

One of my early blog posts was about some of my favorite drills to help build a defensive culture, you can check those out by going here. This blog is about two stages that we must focus on as coaches in order to build a solid defensive mindset and foundation. I hope this helps some …

Read & React: 11 Small Sided Games to Develop Your Players.

Step 1: 1 v 1  •X1 reacts to one of two cones •1 reacts to that movement and attacks basket to score •This should be done in both corners, wings, slots and top of key  https://youtu.be/c_iVJDpP2Jw Step 2: 1v1+2  •First part is same as step 1 •On the next level a coach either steps in …

Practice Plan Breakdown

This weeks blog I will be breaking down a practice plan I did this past winter where I used the Fix, Guide Follow Method, you can find here. The purpose of this weeks blog was to break down the practice plan in further detail. Start of Practice: First you have your regular items, date, time …

Share The Game

Below is a paper one of my former players, Aidan Harding, wrote about his basketball journey. I could not be prouder of the young man he has become and I wanted to share his words with the #ShareTheGame community. Growing up, I spent my days traveling all around New England to play in basketball tournaments for reasons …

“Fix, Guide, Follow” Philosophy

Over the years I have constantly battled in my head about when should I stop practice and go over something? When should I let it go and allow players to learn from their mistakes? When should I just sit back and observe? It is a very difficult thing as a coach to not stop and …

PREPARATION PHILOSOPHY

Having the will to succeed is not enough, everyone has that. What matters is having the will to prepare to succeed!             To me basketball is not just a sport. Playing the game of basketball is a tool that can be used in every young person’s life to better prepare themselves for their future. I …

Top 3 Box Sets

https://twitter.com/Coach_Hickey5/status/1386665421672169473?s=20 Results are in and this week you all choose "Box Sets" to talk about. In this blog I will share my top 3 favorite box sets and then I will release the playbook of them next Tuesday. "Pop" 2. Box Iso from Baylor Men's Basketball 3. U.S.A Be on the lookout on Twitter for …

Top Four 1-4 Sets

The overwhelming amount of people who voted on this weeks poll chose the 1-4 set option. This is not surprising to me as a lot of plays are moving in this direction at every level. Below I will share my 4 favorite 1-4 sets that I have run and been successful with. Later next week …

SMART Timeouts

Something that always has interested me is what teams are doing during timeouts, how they organized themselves during them and got the most out of the seconds that they are given. Below I want to talk about 3 things that I have seen/come up with that I believe are good ways of having efficient timeouts. …

Under Pressure

The poll was close this week but presses and press breaks won out. Below you will get some of my favorite press breakers that I have used in the past as well as 2 of my favorite presses. For me being good at one or two things is better than having a bunch of different …

Top Plays Of The First Round

What an exciting time as a basketball fan and a coach! After watching some incredible basketball, we decided to collaborate on our favorite plays of the first round on both the Women's and Men's sides of March Madness. We put this together to help coaches find some awesome plays that they can incorporate with their …

Sweet 16 Preview

#8 Loyola Chicago vs #12 Oregon State Loyola Chicago: Their 5 out offense is spectacular and beautiful to watch. It is a series of DHO with ball screens, stagger screen, back screens, they screen you to death. The whole thing runs through Krutwig who is a force. Defensively Porter Moser will have a game plan …

3 Simple Zone Plays

More and more zone defense is being played at all levels of basketball. Whether you agree with it or not your team needs to be able to attack and score on zone offenses. The biggest mistake I see teams make against the zone is taking really quick shots and not making the defense work. There …

Simple Motion Offenses

This week I wanted to share a few simple motion offense options that can be used to help your team. The diagrams below will show you the initial actions and then follow with a few reads that can be used once the basic concepts are implemented. The best part about motion offenses is the ability …

Teaching the Screen Game

Teaching the screen game is one of the most important things we can do as coaches. In my opinion the screen game needs to be started in the elementary grade levels. In order to do this it needs to be implemented in an easy and concise way. One thing I do with players is construct …

3 Simple Transition Basketball Reads

Before I dive into the 3 simple transition reads I use, I want to express my belief in the fact that ANY team can play in transition. Young teams, slower teams, etc. what ever it might be you can run in transition if you follow three simple things: 1) get ball to nearest sideline on …

3 S.L.O.B. to Win a Game

For me SLOBs (Side-Line Out of Bounds) plays are situational. I like to get the ball in and run a half-court set when I can but I think it is always a good idea to have a few sets in your pocket when you need them. Here are three of my favorite SLOBs that I …

Communication: The Universal Key

I would first like to point out that I am in no way an expert at communication. However, I have a Masters degree in Secondary Education and I have been teaching and coaching for the last 8 years. My knowledge of communication comes from research and the all-important life experiences. I could go on and …

Successful Practice Plans

Practicing planning is one of the most important things coaches do because we do it EVERYDAY! I believe a successful practice plan has 3 aspects to it. Practice Plans have SMART Goals Too often coaches have plans but have no real data to whether they achieved what they wanted to in a practice. For example …

Every Game Ends, Are You Prepared?

Every game doesn't just have one ending, there are multiple ending scenarios that if you have the right play for you can take advantage. No matter what level you coach, you cannot expect your players to be able to complete a play that they first see on a whiteboard during a high-stress moment like a …

Practice Drills

Practice drills, there are so many out there to choose from but how do you know which drills are the right ones for your team? The quick answer is, you don't, not until you have tried them at least. My philosophy is to try and find or come up with drills that are simple but …

BLOBs: Every Coaches New Years Resolution

What should every basketball coaches New Year's Resolution be? Find out here with #ShareTheGame

Player EvalYOUation

Player evaluation is one of, if not the, most important things we do as coaches. Evaluating a player does not just help you improve your ability to see things in players, but it gives the player a blueprint in how you believe they can improve. However, what if I told you there was a better …

Defense Wins More than Championships

Check out this week #ShareTheGame blog all about defense