Women’s basketball is usually classified as “below-the-rim” play. No dunks. No fancy oops. Just lay-ups and fundamentals. “Coaching Across Gender”, is an article interviewing Dave Stromme, the head coach at St. Olaf (MN) College (to read the full article click on the link). Stromme has coached in all division levels in college. He is very familiar with coaching women’s basketball teams. Here are some things that Stromme had to say: “You have to be more realistic with speed and size,” Stromme insists. “That lends itself to more concentration on fundamentals and execution. You can’t rely on athleticism to jump over somebody.” “I don’t think you teach them differently, but the timetable to expect proficiency may be a bit different between males and females.” Focus on fundamentals no matter who you’re coaching. Fundamentals are what win games.

Glenn Nelson, a writer for Hoopgurlz.com, says in his article, Coaching I, that “Men can be effective at coaching girls as long as they examine their own maleness and ponder its effect on their methodology.” Nelson brings up some problems when coaching a female team. I have to agree, these problems are true (read the article to find out). This is my only stipulation: any male who wants to coach a female team SHOULD NOT DO SO UNLESS THEY HAVE A FEMALE AS AN ASSISTANT. There should be a female representative somewhere in the staff. As a player, it’s sometimes easy to get by on a male coach. We have our female issues and sometimes we use them against the male head coach (happens a lot in high school). The female representative should be there to let the head coach know that the girls can play. Your time of the month is not an excuse (I should know. I’ve played intense games and have had intense practices during my time of the month. On the first day of it too). Eventually, the male coach would probably be able to tell these signs on his own. I still believe that a female representative should be present, especially in the locker room, to avoid other issues. I played at a Christian school. The athletic director always made sure that a female was present in the locker room at the minimum. It usually ended up being someone’s mom, or the wife of the athletic director herself.

None of this is to say that male coaches are terrible. There have been many successful male coaches who have coached women’s basketball. Take Geno Auriemma, the head coach of the Connecticut Huskies. Auriemma has won five NCAA woman’s titles and is the biggest male head coaches name in the college woman’s basketball scene. Van Chancellor, the coach of LSU, led the United States to a gold medal in the 2004 Olympics and won four WNBA titles with the Houston Comets. Michael Cooper, who coached the Lakers Sparks, led the team to five straight playoff appearances, three straight WNBA Western conference titles, and two WNBA world championship titles. I have no problem with males coaching female teams as long as there is a female present. I think that the female is able to coach the male on the do’s and don’ts of coaching women’s basketball.

Other Links:

1. Geno Auriemma

2. Van Chancellor

3. Michael Cooper

4. When Men Coach Women

1. Be yourself
2. Your teaching style
3. Be organized
4. Be open, learn from others

This week, we’ll focus on a couple more points.

5. Impact young people

You are by no means their parent, however, you are in a position to influence what they say and do. You must strive to be a positive influence on your players. Help your players develop priorities. The coach-player relationship is a vital cornerstone to successful coaching.

6. Communicate

Don’t leave the communication to your assistant coach. You should also set up meetings to talk to your players about everyday issues. These meetings can be done with the assistant coach. Before the season starts, meet with each player individually about goals, expectations, etc. Ask players for their input at halftime.

Some coaches like to have occasional team meetings. In my experience as a player and as an assistant coach, the team meetings don’t work. However, I’m not completely bashing the idea. Look at your players’ characters. If what you see in them tells you that a team meeting may be just what they need, then by all means have them. However, if not, don’t waste your time (and theirs) by holding useless team meetings. Figure out what works for your team and go with that idea.

7. Set rules and maintain discipline

Don’t have too many rules. At some point and time your rules will be violated. It’s the way kids are. Don’t set up so many rules that eventually the whole “team” consists of you and maybe your assistant coach. Never make a hasty decision. Find out the school policy, get both sides of the story, and talk to your athletic director before making your final decision on an issue. Remember, there are consequences for every action. What you decide will affect your players, fans, parents, and the community. Talk to your athletic director so that you will not make a decision that you will forget.

Here is a preview of what I’ll be dealing with in part III. This video discusses some practice planning tips from Hubie Brown, a basketball analyst. Come back for Part three next week!

• Be loyal to your head coach

• Don’t try to make people think that you are smarter than your head coach
• Keep an open mind and always be willing to learn

The most important point: YOUR JOB IS TO DO EXACTLY WHAT THE HEAD COACH WANTS YOU TO DO! Understand your role before and after the game, at halftime, and during timeouts.

This week we continue in the role of the assistant coach.

1) Interact positively with coaches, players, parents, and fans.

Respect and develop your relationship with the other assistant coaches around you. The assistant coaches can NEVER be at odds with each other. It completely messes up the system. Earn the respect of the players. Be a role model for them by demonstrating good values and principles. Teach them how to be a part of the team. Ask about their schoolwork and about other areas of their life. Always remember: when it comes to girls, it’s easy for outside issues to get into the game. A player who is having a crappy day will more than likely step on the court with a completely different attitude. This attitude will more than likely hurt the team. Let the players know that when they step onto the court, whether in a game or practice, any outside issues are left on the bus (or when the bell rings to get out of school). Provide some time for the players to come to you with issues outside of basketball.

2) Professionalism

Look and act professional. Be clean and dress neatly. Demonstrate good sportsmanship

Here are some specific tasks that an assistant coach would more than likely be involved in:

Communication with the scorer’s table… keep track of your time-outs, fouls, etc.

Pre-game player match-ups - while our head coach is visiting with the opposing coach and officials, from the scorer’s table get the opponent’s starters, observe them in warm-up drills, and create your defensive match-ups (assuming you play man-to-man defense). Review these with the head coach.

Pre-game drills - some teams seem to require an assistant under the basket barking at them to get them to work up a sweat in their pregame drills. Help get them ready to play.

Keep stats - the shot charts, rebounds, assists, turnovers, etc. You may designate your statisticians and coordinate their activities.

Scorebook -make sure the roster has been entered correctly, and that the scorer’s table knows your starters before each half begins.

Clipboards, markers -make sure you have them ready on the bench, during time-outs, and in the locker-room both pre-game and halftime.

Uniforms, towels - help keep track of and collect uniforms. Have a good supply of dry towels on the bench.

Water - make sure players have water available on the bench.

Medical, first-aid kit - make sure you have it at games and practices, and that it is well-stocked. Know where to find ice.

Forms, money - your head coach might want you to help collect medical forms, and forms/money for special camps or clinics.

Scouting - your head coach may ask you to help scout other teams.

Help with youth clinics - help your head coach build the program by running clinics for young players… the young players are your future.

Run practices - there may be times when your head coach is unable to attend a practice. Be ready to step forward and have a well-organized practice ready. Teach what your head coach expects you to teach

Communication -help team communication by keeping a list of all player and coaches phone numbers, and establish a “phone tree” for calling each other.

It’s fun being an assistant coach.:) Know the system and you’ll be able to enjoy it!

1. Loyalty

Be loyal to the head coach. Don’t try to take over. Do everything you can to learn the head coach’s system. Look for ideas that might help the team and convey these ideas to the head coach. Never discuss ideas behind his/her back with other parents or players. Be humble. Don’t try to make yourself out to be smarter than your head coach.

2. Keep an open mind

When I first began assistant coaching, I was prone to yell at the girls when necessary as the head coach would do.  In time, my head coach told me that my job was to be the “good guy”. I was to leave the yelling to him. I was there to further explain what he was yelling about. I say this to say: always be willing to learn. If you always have an open mind, you can learn something new everyday. Ask questions. Keep a notepad in practice and during games to jot things down. A good assistant coach is onw who is willing to listen more than talk. As a result, he/she becomes more and more knowledgeable each year.

Come back next week for part 2

1. Be yourself

It’s very important that whatever your style of coaching is, you must always be yourself. Especially when it comes to your temperament. If you are out-going, be out-going. If you are quiet, be quiet. If you are a screamer, scream (within reason). Don’t try to be like some famous coach that you idolize. Certainly, there may be many excellent ideas and qualities that you can and should learn from successful coaches(say….Pat Riley or Doc Rivers), but incorporate them into your own philosophy. Whatever your style is, be agreeable and, without compromising your principles, be someone that is easy to work with. As a coach, you have to interact and deal with a lot of people… players, administration, faculty, parents, assistants, opposing coaches and players, officials, fans, etc. We all like working with someone who is agreeable and easy to work with, and someone who follows the rules and is respectful of others.

2. Your teaching style

How do you expect to convey what you know to your players? Coaching basketball is teaching… teaching not only fundamentals, how to play the game, and team skills, etc., but also life skills. Be well-prepared for practices and games. Encourage players. Be positive. HAVE A PASSION FOR THE GAME!! If you are enthusiastic and upbeat, this will spill over to your players and everyone around you. If you are enthusiastic and upbeat, this will spill over to your players and everyone around you. Also, value each and every player on your team. This means that the 12th player on your squad should feel as important as your star player. This is all very important in developing your team spirit and chemistry.

3. Be organized

Everything must be organized… your practices, game routines, schedules, year-end banquet, team camps… essentially your entire program. Make sure practices end when they are supposed to. If you think practice is going to run a little late, allow extra time. Let your players know so that parents are able to get the information. Have your “paperwork” done… scorebook entries, stats sheets, your school’s athletic code of rules and policies, etc. Make notes and reminders so that you don’t forget to do things that you have promised to do. Surround yourself with good people… loyal, dedicated assistants who share your passion for the game.

4. Be open, learn from others

Everyone will have something to say about what you’re coaching style. Learn to weed out what really won’t help you. All great coaches have learned what they know from other coaches and players. Don’t take the attitude that you have all the answers and are the greatest coach to ever walk the earth. Be humble and eager to learn from others.

Come back next week for Part 2!!

Trinee Smith(TS): What made you want to coach in the first place?

Randy Smith (RS): I’ve always been into sports. I sort of was an assistant coach for Cumberland’s team in my daughter’s junior year of highschool. I told the coach that she should make a couple of changes. They ended up winning the championship. She left that next year. I looked forward to coaching the girls.

TS: What new things did you learn from coaching?

RS: It’s definetly not easy. I’ve been on the “parent” side as well as the coaching side. As a parent, I felt like
I could always do better than the coach. I saw things that I felt the coach should be able to see. What I realized is that it’s a different view from the bench. You have to focus your mind on more than one aspect of the game.

TS: How was it coaching your two daughters?

RS: That was exciting. You can’t play favorites when you coach. So I had to learn to give everybody a chance.
They never called me Coach Smith. It was always dad. I spoke with them alot about who needs to do what on the team. It worked out.

TS: What’s the most frustrating thing, in your opinion, when it comes to coaching?

RS: There are times when I wonder if the girls are really understanding what I’m saying. I get a lot of nods and yes-coach-I-understand. Then a game comes along and it’s as if I never explained anything. It can get very frustating. Especially after you’ve been constantly repeating yourself.

TS: How did you work with the girls in under-pressure situations?

RS: I brough in alumni players, including my daughters. When players go against other teammates, the defense can be kind of soft. Nobody wants to hurt anyone else. I brought in the alumni players so that there can be a higher level of defense.

TS: At one point, your brother, Kevin Smith, was the assistant coach.

RS: Yeah he was a really big help. It was my first time coaching. He has better eyes than me. He would point out facts that I missed. One time I called for a man defense. He pulled me aside and said I was better off playing zone. I learned a lot from him. It helped me even after he left.

TS: What would you recommend to other coaches?

RS: Definetly talk to other coaches. There were plently of times that I thought I was doing it right my way. Then I would talk to another coach and get a completely different reading. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didnt. But it’s always good to get someone else’s opinion. You can never have too much information.

TS: What are your plans for next season?

RS: Well I had three starters graduate. I’ve been checking the girls on the middle school team. It’s a matter of deciding what I should focus more on. I definetly plan to use try-outs as my fundamental practices. I’ll take it from there.

TS: How long do you think you’ll be coaching?

RS: I’m not sure. I have another job so it kind of depends on what happens with that. At this point I’m helping out my newphews. I do intend on coaching next season but after that it’s pretty much up in the air.
Coach Smith will be entering his 6th year as head coach next season.