Jeff Rutter is the head men’s basketball coach at Arizona Christian University and has been a part of the program since 2012. Before coaching at Arizona Christian, Jeff also coached at Azusa Pacific. These basketball coaching clinic notes are from when he spoke at the NAU coaching clinic in 2013.
Basketball Coaching Clinic Notes
- Recruit tough kids
- Define toughness (expectations, standards)
“Toughness is doing the right thing when it’s very difficult”
- Lead courageously
- Responsibility
- Fight “passivity”
- Work towards greater reward
Next Play Mentality
Control what you can control
Monitor players emotional responses to things
Loves the word “Resilient”
Important people to learn from in regards to toughness:
- Spencer Wood
- Jon Gordon
- Jay Bilas
Chart toughness –screen assist, deflections, 50/50 balls, charges
- Dan Miles at Oregon Tech has a good point system
- The mile is all about how much pain can you endure?
Head coach and the best player cannot have a bad day!
Toughness Drills:
1) Triangle Pass
- One Player on FT Line, Block, Block
- 3 players on defense
- The player at the Free Throw line starts with the ball, no dribble – defender heavy pressure tracing ball
- The offense must pass around without turning the ball over, having it deflected, OR having their pivot foot move.
- The offense cannot raise up at any time
- If any of that occurs, they individually are out and move to the end of the line
2) 4 on 4 on 4 No Paint
- The defense must keep the offense from getting to paint
- The defense must also contest every shot, block out and rebound
- The goal is for Defense to get 3 perfect possessions with a stop in a row – Great Peer pressure and emotional response drill
3) 50 Pass Game – Don Meyer
- 1 point for every pass
- No dribble
- Any offensive player that passes off back foot or raises up away from defense (anything soft basically) = TO
- 5 second count = TO
4) Baseball
- The defense must get 3 “outs” to go to offense
- Keep track of score – “runs” = 2 or 3pt shots
- Go as many innings as you like
- They like each inning to be a different series, for example:
- 1st Inning, both teams, are running their Transition Offense
- 2nd Inning, both teams, are in Half Court Offense
- 3rd Inning, both teams, are in UOB sets time
- You can work on various situations or just play Half Court O the whole
One Response
The character attributes expressed in your clinic notes are great!
It speaks well to character and attitude attributes needed to be successful.
P.S. I am just a parent of a high schooler who is interested in basketball.