As we discussed last week the first week of coaching is about implementing your system. The player’s will learn your style and your rules. It’s important to establish these in the beginning since this is your foundation of the season. But what do you do next. There’s a number of important things like putting in your offense, your defense, and transition game, but I think this is the first time in the season to evaluate what does your team need to be successful and win games.
You watched then for the first week. You rules are established and your players have been showing you there fundamentals. This is a great time to recap and plan the next week around some of your weaknesses. I agree you are only as strong as your weakest link. Other coaches will find this and exploit, so fix your problems now.
Identify and Attack
At this point in the season we are talking, athleticism, ground balls, or passing being your weakest point. Identify which it is and attack until it’s under control. Put extra drills in practice to focus on these elements. Lack of thleticism means another thumbs up practice. Ground balls or passing means more drills dedicated to these woven into your practice plans. There is also typically time before practice begins where players are walking around, shooting aimlessly, goofing off, whatever. These are great times to take advantage of and make yourself better. Maybe 100 GB’s or 100 passes before practice alone or with a partner. This way you know each player gets what’s important for the state of your team.
You will have team elements that you’ll need to focus on later so identify these basic skill deficiencies now and take care of them. Team offense and defense doesn’t work if you can’t run, catch, or pick up a ground ball.