These basketball coaching clinic notes are from when George Raveling spoke at the 2014 Coaching U Clinic in Indianapolis. Coach Raveling has been a part of the basketball community for a long time and has a wealth of information and wisdom from his basketball coaching career. These notes were taken by Jacob Collins.
Basketball Coaching Clinic Notes
Creating a Great Bench
Kevin Eastman on George Raveling
- Thought leader
- Lifelong learner
- Mentor
- Confidant
“Seek wisdom from those who came before you.” – Kevin Eastman
Coach Raveling
- “Nothing in life is of any value unless you can share it with others.”
- The game suffers from overdoes of groupthink
- Absence of mavericks, basketball nerds, innovators, and characters
- Basketball coaches have 2 responsibilities
- Coach your team
- Lead your program
- What got you where you are won’t get you to where you want to go
- Make yourself more proficient as a leader
- Really educators
- Do a self-audit = who we are? What are we about? Why are we on Earth?
- Look at life through a non-traditional lens
- Learn things you don’t know but should know
- How do I maintain the necessary skills to survive?
- Why do we do what we do?
- Is there a better way?
- Do we have a system that allows players to see beyond limits?
- It has to be something that allows a player to see his/her own greatness
- Players will do what they have to do to make you happy (Compliance)
- Liberate them
- If you are not careful, you can coach a very good player into being average
- Be 2 things
- Servant coach
- Not about me. It’s about them
- Fundamental obligation to serve the needs of that player
- Free players minds (liberate them)
- Spend too much time on how and very little on why
- Spend more time on why and how becomes easier
- Servant coach
- Knight on basketball drills
- Explained why they did the drill
- Competitive
- Coaches voice is power
- Doc Rivers kept the Clippers together with intellect, words, and voice
- It comes down to “voices and choices”
- The voices we listen to determine the choices we take
- Create and develop a more productive bench
Bench
- Place for joy
- Place for pain
- The true personality of the team resides on the bench
- Developing a productive bench
- Ideal bench:
- 8 starters
- 2 specialists
- Practice players/ redshirts/ projects
- Must have a blueprint of what you want your bench to consist of
- Ideal bench:
- Bobby Knight on the Olympic team—“I’m playing 8 guys; let’s pick the last 4 based on attitude.”
- Have to live life strategically
- Do we celebrate success?
- Find as many opportunities as possible to celebrate success
- Accountability—need to do a better job
- Make players on your bench feel special
- Attitude on the bench—“We got your back.”
- Have to have an energy bunny
- In recruiting — look for leaders (energizers)
- Unique responsibility of coachers—coach players to be a winner in the game of life
- If you expect to achieve success, you must have an organizational structure
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- Strategy
- Execution plan
- Failure is not in the strategy; it is poor execution
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- You MUST establish what the expectations are of that bench!!!
- 2 questions you must ask of players on the bench
- 1) Why? & 2) What is in it for me?
- Set of statistics/matrix to measure performance
- Must have in place a system to measure performance
- 2 questions you must ask of players on the bench
- Vital Questions
- What is the purpose/objective of our bench?
- What value does the bench create?
- How do we achieve maximum performance?
- Do we have a “bench substitution patter?”
- Substitution philosophy?
- Why do we use our present seating arrangement?
- How to create added value?
- Roles
- In the absence of defining player roles, they will define their own (bad)
- A role can change game to game, week to week, etc.
- Roles change as circumstances change
- Not how many minutes you play, the quality of performance of minutes you do play
- “85% of all NBA players are role players.”—Phil Jackson
- Rarely do the 5 best players make the best team
- In the absence of defining player roles, they will define their own (bad)
- Goal: To consistently maximize the production and performance of our bench
- Vision: a position of distinction
- Bench: Liberate—Coach—Power
- Use the bench
- Strategic adjustment
- Rest
- Corrective action
- Enhance energy
- Personal foul protection
- Rhythm alteration
- Player rotation
- Role adjustments
- Turn the bench into a classroom!
- Assistants Role on Bench
- Protect
- Influence
- Teach
- Motivate
- Alert
- Observe
- Instruct
- Monitor
- Voice
- Monitor behavior
- Eyes/Ears/Voice
- Monitor fouls
- Confidence builder
- Players in the game—Physically participating
- Players on the bench—Mentally participating
- Concept—“Next man up”
- Be Ready
- Be Enthusiastic
- Be Smart
- Be Productive
- “If you want to find out how good a guy is, put him with 4 starters.”—Dr. Jack Ramsey
- Someone comes to his desk; he moves and sets beside them.
- If a kid comes in, are you going to listen? Give them a chance to speak.
- Players want to talk
- Listen to what he says
- Help him with what he needs to say
- Listen to what they DID NOT say
- What they didn’t say often reveals more about them than what they do say
- “The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow, do it anyway.”