ROUND TABLE 60 – WHAT ARE ONE OR TWO CRITICAL ELEMENTS OF YOUR PRE-GAME PREPARATION ON GAME DAY? – EPISODE 885
Welcome to the 60th edition of the Coach’s Corner Round Table on the Hoop Heads Podcast. Each episode of the Coach’s Corner Round Table will feature our All-Star lineup of guests answering a single basketball question. A new Coach’s Corner Round Table will drop around the 15th of each month.
December’s Round Table question is: What are one or two critical elements of your pre-game preparation on game day?
Our Coaching Lineup this month:
- Jerry Buckley – Bishop Kenny (FL) High School
- Erik Buehler – Chatfield (CO) High School
- Joe Harris – Lake Chelan (WA) High School
- Jeff Huber – Elyria Catholic (OH) High School
- Bob Krizancic – Mentor (OH) High School
- Dell Leonard – Mountain Home (AR) High School
- Deronte Polite – Hood College
- Don Showalter – USA Basketball
- John Shulman – University of Alabama Huntsville
Please enjoy this Round Table episode of the Hoop Heads Podcast and once you’re finished listening please give the show a five star rating and review after you subscribe on your favorite podcast app.
If you are a basketball coach at any level please check out our Hoop Heads Coaching Mentorship Program. You’ll get matched with one of our experienced Head Coaches and develop a relationship that will help take your coaching, your team, your program, and your mindset to another level.
Be sure to follow us on twitter and Instagram @hoopheadspod for the latest updates on episodes, guests, and events from the Hoop Heads Pod.
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THANKS COACHES!
If you enjoyed this episode let our coaches know by clicking on the links below and sending them a quick shout out on Twitter:
Click here to thank Jerry Buckley on Twitter!
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Click here to thank Bob Krizancic on Twitter!
Click here to thank Dell Leonard on Twitter!
Click here to thank Deronte Polite on Twitter!
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TRANSCRIPT FOR ROUND TABLE 60 – WHAT ARE ONE OR TWO CRITICAL ELEMENTS OF YOUR PRE-GAME PREPARATION ON GAME DAY? – EPISODE 885
[00:00:00] Narrator: The Hoop Heads Podcast is brought to you by Head Start Basketball.
[00:00:21] Mike Klinzing: Hello and welcome to the 60th edition of the Coach’s Corner Round Table on the Hoop Heads Podcast. Each episode of the Coach’s Corner Round Table will feature our all-star lineup of guests answering a single basketball question. A new Coach’s Corner Round Table will drop around the 15th of each month.
December’s Round Table question is, “What are one or two critical elements of your pregame preparation on game day?
Our Coaching Lineup this month includes:
- Jerry Buckley – Bishop Kenny (FL) High School
- Erik Buehler – Chatfield (CO) High School
- Joe Harris – Lake Chelan (WA) High School
- Jeff Huber – Elyria Catholic (OH) High School
- Bob Krizancic – Mentor (OH) High School
- Dell Leonard – Mountain Home (AR) High School
- Deronte Polite – Hood College
- Don Showalter – USA Basketball
- John Shulman – University of Alabama Huntsville
Please enjoy this Round Table episode of the Hoop Heads Podcast and once you’re finished listening please give the show a five star rating and review after you subscribe on your favorite podcast app.
If you are a basketball coach at any level please check out our Hoop Heads Coaching Mentorship Program. You’ll get matched with one of our experienced Head Coaches and develop a relationship that will help take your coaching, your team, your program, and your mindset to another level.
Be sure to follow us on twitter and Instagram @hoopheadspod for the latest updates on episodes, guests, and events from the Hoop Heads Pod.
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[00:02:28] Devin Durant: Hi, this is Devin Durant, former NBA player and author of the book, The Values Delta, and you’re listening to the Hoop Heads Podcast.
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Let’s hear from our panel about one or two critical elements of their pregame preparation on game day.
Jerry Buckley, Bishop Kenny High School, Jacksonville, Florida.
[00:03:43] Jerry Buckley: Hi, this is Jerry Buckley from Bishop Kenny talking about pregame preparation. One of the main things we do typically every pregame is to meet every right after school. We usually get out right around 3 o’clock and just to watch 10 15 minutes of film on our upcoming opponent.
Typically we walk through some things and practice some things and practice previously getting ready, but it’s always good to Kind of get them refocused after a long day of school. Most of our games are typically at 7 o’clock at night, so we’ll meet briefly from 3 to 3. And just kind of review some things, whether it be clips from our own games, or also some things from our opponent that night.
I feel like that gets him refocused after, again, like I said, a long day of school to kind of get ready and start prepare for the game ahead.
[00:04:31] Mike Klinzing: Erik Buehler, Chatfield Senior High School, Littleton, Colorado.
[00:04:39] Erik Buehler: Hey what’s going on Hoop Heads, this is Erik Buehler at Chatfield Senior High, and this month we were asked what’s a critical element for our pregame routine. I would say just getting in the mindset of game speed, game reps, and reviewing what our assignments are, what offenses we’re running, what defenses we’re running, what sets we like for this game, and key players that we need to limit going into the game, but The probably the most important thing is that game rep, that just preparation of being ready to go full speed full contact, all out, competitive situations that you need come game time.
And that’s really hard to replicate. But, that’s what we try to do our best to simulate leading into the game, that warm up right before the game starts. Thanks for having me on again, guys, and I will talk to you guys later. Bye.
[00:05:35] Mike Klinzing: Joe Harris. Lake Chelan High School. Lake Chelan, Washington.
[00:05:42] Joe Harris: Hello Hoop Heads. This is Joe Harris for Chelan High School with this month’s roundtable question, asking us coaches what are one or two critical elements of your pregame preparation? I think having a routine is vital and I think that is, that’s where you start is that those coaches having a consistent pregame routine allows your, your assistant coaches and your players to get comfortable and to be able to focus on the job at hand.
We would keep the same routine all year long, whether it was game 1 or game 30, whether we were on the road or at home. Our routine started with getting to the gym early. There’s no rush around for any last minute details. It allows you to refocus if you were, had some distractions go on. It allows you to review your game plan with your assistants.
We would give our players 3×5 cards before they came into the locker room to put. Three team goals and three individual goals on if there was a game before us, we allow our players to come into the locker room, partly through the second half as coaches. We’d come in at the end of the third quarter.
When the coaches arrived, the players are all dressed and ready. Lastly we communicate our key points early in this pregame and in this talk about what. What we want to accomplish in tonight’s game and review our offenses and defenses with our players and any special situations or adjustments we felt like we had to make.
As we finish up in our pregame, we remind everyone what we stand for and to play together, play aggressive and play defense. We don’t come into the huddle and as a team we’d say team and then we’d take the floor. Thanks again for having me back on and hope that You can take something away from this today. Best of luck and enjoy the holidays.
[00:07:34] Mike Klinzing: Jeff Huber, Elyria Catholic High School in Elyria, Ohio.
[00:07:40] Jeff Huber: Hi, this is Jeff Huber from Elyria Catholic High School and this month’s round table question is, What are one or two critical elements of your pregame preparation on game day? Two things that stand out to me.
One is doing a game day card or a game day sheet. I found that trying to work through all the contingencies In real time can be challenging and sometimes lead to me overlooking things that I might have considered with a little bit more time for reflection. So to solve that problem I’ve taken to creating kind of a game day card that goes over kind of if this happens, then this is something we’ll try or different, different ideas to refer back to throughout the game to make sure that we’re either hitting on, on key indicators or that we’re trying different things if something’s not working and having that kind of done ahead of time has been really helpful as opposed to trying to do it all on the spur of the moment. And then I think a second thing is just exercise. You know, I think a lot of us as coaches wake up with a lot of energy on game day and I think that being able to work some of that out through exercising has been a valuable way for me to kind of Stay centered and allow myself to be sort of in the best headspace to do the best job that I can when 7:30 rolls around. So those are a couple things that I’ve tried that I think have been beneficial for me and hopefully for our teams. Thanks.
[00:09:02] Mike Klinzing: Bob Krizancic. Mentor High School. Mentor Ohio.
[00:09:09] Bob Krizancic: Coach K. Mentor High School. Two really important things in our pregame are, number one, have each of our players verbally, out loud, repeat exactly what their assignments and expectations are, so that we know that they know. Second thing is, right before the JV game, probably five minutes before that, the start of that, we watch a motivational film of one of our past big wins. I want them to be mentally and physically ready to play at the highest level. Best of luck.
[00:09:49] Mike Klinzing: Your first impression is everything. When applying for a new coaching job, a professional coaching portfolio is the tool that highlights your coaching, achievements and philosophies. And most of all helps separate you and your abilities from the other applicants, the Coaching Portfolio Guide is an instructional membership based website that helps you develop a personalized portfolio. Each section of the portfolio guide provides detailed instructions on how to organize your portfolio in a professional manner. The guide also provides sample documents for each section of your portfolio that you can copy, modify and add to your personal portfolio.
As a Hoop Heads Pod listener, you can get your Coaching Portfolio Guide for just $25. Visit https://www.coachingportfolioguide.com/hoopheads to learn more.
Dell Leonard Mountain Home High School, Mountain Home, Arkansas.
[00:10:46] Dell Leonard: Dell Leonard Mountain Home High School. Mountain Home, Arkansas. The two critical elements of our pre-game preparation on game day number one, we’re going to make sure we walk through the other team’s offensive sets half court 5 on 5, baseline out of bounds plays, sideline out of bounds plays, full court press offense.
We’re also going to make sure, kind of in that same category, that we talk about what presses that they’re going to be throwing at us and what kind of defense we’re going to see. And then we’re going to walk through how we’re going to attack that offensively. The last thing we want to make sure we do is get plenty of shots up on game day. Thank you.
[00:11:34] Mike Klinzing: Deronte Polite, Hood College.
[00:11:39] Deronte Polite: This is Deronte Polite, head women’s basketball coach at Hood College. Two just really important elements for us as it concerns our pregame. One is just the identity of your team, right? So who are we? Are we the really energetic team? That’s who we are. That’s what we need and we need to be that.
Are we the less outward energy, more in what focus team, that’s what we need to be. So it’s, I think that’s a big element of whoever you are. Like you have to be that in pregame. You can’t be somewhere else. Your mind has to be there. And if you’re the energy team, be the energy team.
If you’re the focus team, be the focus team. Whatever it is. The other element is just game actions. Especially between one another. I want to score via the assist. So it’s just those movements and those type of patterns that we want to just drive home so that they become just innate between teammates.
[00:12:46] Mike Klinzing: Don Showalter, USA Basketball
[00:12:52] Don Showalter: Hi Don Showalter here from USA Basketball. Just reviewing the question for this this time around is what is one or two things for pregame preparation? I think there’s a couple things that are really important that a coach considers. First of all what are your goals for that game? I think it’s important that you have your goals reflected very vividly and on the board for the players to see your turnovers, what you want, how you want to attack their defense. So just refresh them because you should have already went over this, these things in in the practice but on game day and then also I think just the mental frame of mind of the players has to be taken into effect, how you’re going to address certain issues that come up during the game or possibly before the game for players. Some players might be extra nervous about a big game or whatever and I think it’s up to you to kind of take that and give them some sense of confidence that they can get the job done.
[00:14:02] Mike Klinzing: John Shulman, University of Alabama, Huntsville, and the 720 Sports Group.
[00:14:09] John Shulman: This is John Shulman, head coach at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Question for this month is one or two critical elements that we do. On game day for pregame on game day. I’ve changed a lot through my years of coaching.
I think it’s really important for your team number one I don’t know how much film you want to watch, that’s your preference. Load them up with we used to load them up with how we’re going to guard everybody’s under OB play and every set here and every set there. We don’t do that anymore.
Just want to try to make sure that your team feels comfortable and confident about going into the game. Whether you’re eating a pregame meal at Chattanooga, we eat our pregame meals, white tablecloths and there was not one word said during pregame meal. If anybody giggled or laughed or grinned, they got in trouble.
This is a little different at Huntsville. I don’t know if it’s me or the kids. We eat pregame meal and we don’t take ourselves too serious. And we don’t get too tight. And then we go out and play the games. So I don’t, I think you can make your kids tight and nervous for games. I think they need to be confident and loose.
Whatever that means to you, whatever that means to your team. I think you still have to be in personality and that you have to be yourself. If you’re a serious stuffy guy and you try to joke around, they won’t understand it. If you’re a jokester and you be serious. That’s not of your nature either. So, I just think you have to be who you need to be.
And then and then just make sure you have your team confident and loose and ready to play. Whatever that means to you. Like, we shoot on game day and have a good time. Music’s going and I don’t talk to them a whole lot during that time. I just want them to be loose and confident.
And your confidence doesn’t come from game day. Your confidence comes from all the work that you put in before game day. Hope this helps. And I just try not to be too serious with them during that moment and get them tight. Once again, our goal is to not win the game. Our goal is to win certain parts of the game and win our non-negotiables.
And not worry about the result. Try to worry about the process. Hope this helps.
[00:16:40] Mike Klinzing: Thanks for checking out this month’s Hoop Heads Podcast Round Table. We’ll be back next month with another question for our all star lineup of coaches.
[00:16:52] Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Hoop Heads Podcast presented by Head Start Basketball.