How Is the Master Plan Prepared in Basketball Coaching Philosophy?

When coaching basketball, it is imperative that a coach have a master plan and learn how to implement it throughout the season and ultimately in games. Before implementing the plan, however, it must first be prepared.

  1. Function

    • The function of a master plan is to find a way to maximize a team's strengths, minimize its weaknesses and constantly evolving to reach perfection in mastering the specific game plan based on the master plan. If that sounds somewhat complicated, it is; but with careful time, preparation and attention to detail, it can be achieved.

    Knowing the Goal

    • Implementing a master plan starts with knowing the team and its abilities. A common coaching mistake is coaching to a particular plan or style and not to particular players and abilities. Each team will have different personalities, abilities and needs from the coach, who should understand the team and set goals accordingly. For a team that will struggle to score points and gets emotionally defeated easily, a reasonable goal would be to limit possessions and focus on teamwork rather than scoring a lot of points and relying on individual play-making. For a team that has a great deal of talent but not a great deal of teamwork, a reasonable goal would be to set an offense that allows for individual creativity while providing an outlet that leads to teamwork when the individual runs out of options.

    Disregard Your Opponent

    • Coaching legend John Wooden was famous for his idea and execution of not focusing on his team's opponent. He believed that because he had no control over what the other team was going to do, it was a waste of time preparing for them when he could be focused on preparing his team to do the very best of what they were going to need to do. Wooden won 10 NCAA national championships as a coach at UCLA and even had an 88-game winning streak at one point of his coaching career. Yet, still too many coaches focus on what their opponents do, therefore taking away from the execution of their master plan.

    Writing It Down

    • Even the most brilliant coaches keep detailed notes of everything from practice sessions to ideas. Oftentimes the notes serve as a reference point when fine-tuning the ultimate game plan for a team. Another bonus is not having to focus on remembering them, leading to an ability to think more clearly as the season gets closer.

    Execution

    • Once the coach understands the goals, knows his team and has a solid written plan of attack, it comes time to execute the master plan. This means communicating the ideas and plan to both players and staff before hitting the court for practice. Using specific drills, the players can correct mistakes and work on improvement. It is important to stay true to the plan even if it takes a while for the players to catch on.