Ten Rules to Live and Play By

I haven't given this out to the players in awhile, but will do so again this year. I stole some of these from Pat Summitt's Defnite Dozen from her book, Reach the Summitt. Coach Summitt is the all time winningest coach in college basketball, mens or womens.

I believe that these 10 things will help you to be successful in life as well as on the basketball court.

1. Respect: You must respect yourself which believe it or not, some players/people do not do. Whether it be that you are consistently making bad decisions in life or on the court, it can be because of a lack of self-respect. Respect others also. Most people in life have dealt with enough garbage and deserve some semblance of respect. On the basketball court, respect your opponent. We say often, respect everyone, fear no one.

2. Take responsibility: In my opinion, one of the worst things about our society today, and it seeps onto the court, is a lack of taking responsibility for yourself. It is always someone elses fault, or some unforeseen mystical force kept you from doing what needed to be done. It is better to say "my bad" and move on. But also take responsibility for others. If you are in a class, don't let your teammates or friends act in a way that is detrimental to the class, take responsibility for the group.

3. Develop and Demontrate Loyalty: Don't let the winds of popularity decide who is your friend. And on the court, all of your teammates are working and having the same high expectations thrust on them as is being expected of you....be a loyal teammate. Integrity above all else.

4. Discipline yourself and others will not have to: Do what you are supposed to do when you are supposed to do it and you will have very few problems on the court or in life.

5. Establish good habits: Get up early, be on time, word hard, work smart. Eat right, hang out with positive people, and get up and do it again each and every day. It is much easier to say than to do.

6. Put the team before yourself: In the summer, I understand that the self/family will sometimes come before the team, but if you play sports or work a job somewhere, often the team will come before you. You may have to give up some things that you enjoy doing during a season for the good of the team, we do it all the time as coaches.

7. Compete: Be persistent every day, all the time; never give up every day, all the time; and in all things, make the other team earn its victory. Do not just give up, go through the motions and lose. Scratch, claw, and fight!!!

8. Communicate: Probably one of the most important items on this list for a team and in any relationship is communication. Talk, if you are confused, ask questions until everything is perfectly clear. This will keep problems from occurring. If you get burned, get it in writing the next time, an email will suffice.

9. Accept change: Most people like how things are going if it is being semi-successful or comfortable for them. Accept change, accept losing playing time, or a starting position if it can help the team. Sometimes others do not display loyalty, and you must accept it because you will eventually get some type of reward. It may not be immediate, but it may be something that you have learned that will help you in dealing with another aspect of your life.

10. Handle success and failure the same: I believe that if you win, celebrate, have fun then move on to the next competition. If you fail, it is okay to be down, but never give up. Competitors do not see failure as the end all, but as a way to learn something or the beginning of something else. In the end, handle both, though, the same....with class. Win and shake hands and do not rub it in, and when you lose muster up your strength, shake hands, congratulate the victor and head to the locker room but do it with class.

You can't score, if you don't shoot!

At HHS, we also have 10 basic rules on offense. As with defense, they are rules that we look at often, redefine, and hopefully make better. Below are the 10 items, I think that are important to be a good individual offensive player as well as a good offensive team.

As in defense, we want our players to communicate, communicate, communicate. It never amazes me that kids who want to talk during school all day, want to enter the gym where we want them talking and won't.

1. Off the catch, triple threat: When we catch the pass, we want to go immediately into the triple threat position. That way you are prepared to be a threat offensively. It doesn't necessarily mean shooting, but driving and drawing two defenders and passing to the open man. Now sometimes we want to catch and rip immediately if the defense overplays the pass because the defense is at a disadvantage and scrambling.

2. Off the bounce, chin it: When picking up the basketball from the dribble, we want our players to chin the basketball. The defense through the years has been allowed to get away with more pushing, shoving, and slapping, fouling in general, and we want our guys to be strong with the ball. When working on this, I will tell them often to "check the air pressure" so that they think to be strong.

3. Without the ball, always put pressure on the defense: As an offensive player, we do not want to allow our defensive player be able to relax or take their mind off us. We want our players ready to make a cut, a backdoor cut, or a seal in the post if their defensive player falls asleep. Even if we run a set, I want the other guys not involved ready to be offensive. I will often say during practice "don't let the set keep us from scoring" because someone hasn't taken advantage of their defensive players lack of awareness.

4. Use your arms and body to get open: We try to teach our guys to be physical on both ends of the floor, but on the offensive end of the floor, if they will take advantage of a little arm bar push or dragging their man into a screen they can be more successful. But not only can they be physical with their defensive player, but I also want them to use their teammates. I want them to push and shove the screener in places to help bump their defensive player.

5. When the shot goes up, rebound. *Shooting % increases with each additional shot*: Never concede that a shot is going in, never, never, never. Also, pay attention to the coaches and live action to see where rebounds come off during action. Offensive rebounds can be a back breaker to other teams.

6. Minimize turnovers: The fewer TO's you have the more opportunities you have to shoot which increases your chance of scoring.

7. Take good shots: This is an individual thing. What is a good shot for one player, may not be a good shot for another player. However, if you have a good shot for you, our players must feel comfortable to shoot at any time....again, if it is a good shot for them. This is something that some people don't understand because one player may have the green light to shoot an off balance shot with 2 players on them, and another may not because it's a good shot for one player and not another.

8. Pass up a good shot to get a great shot: This is one of the hardest things for kids to understand. But it is something that can increase shooting %. This usually happens on a ball reversal or a drive and kick where someone passes up a good shot to get a wide open shot. Wide open shots for guys that can hit it are great shots.

9. Be unselfish, and it will come back to you: Kind of a Zen way of thinking, but most scorers from jr. high want to shoot, or pass it and get it right back. We try to teach our guys that the best way to get open for a great shot is to pass it and get away from the ball. By doing so, they create space and gives their defensive player a better chance of making a mistake. The game is full of hundreds of passes that lead to nothing other than maybe getting you or a teammate open in the future.

10. Throw the ball inside. Open 3's on reversals and inside out: Even if your post players aren't that great at scoring, you have to throw it inside so they can pass it back out. It is almost always going to happen, but some perimeter defensive player will help leaving somebody open, weakside will come to the help side even more leaving the opposite elbow open, or a pass out could lead to another pass to a wide open shot (see #9). Also, any perimeter who can hit a 3 point shot, if the ball is reversed quickly and they are open, have the green light to shoot.

If your posts can score, it makes your perimeter players even more dangerously open.

Defense! (clap, clap) Defense! (clap, clap) Defense!

At Henryville, we have 10 Basic Rules of Defense that we try to follow and incorporate in our daily practice plans. They are 10 rules that can make you a tough team to score against. But before you do anything on this list, the coach must pass onto the team how important being a good defensive team/player is to your successes. Probably an 11th rule should be added on both offense and defense and that is communication. Talk to each other.

1. No middle: We do not want the ball driven to the lane. Most kids will drive to the lane to score, if we can keep that from happening, we feel we can stop individual offense.

2. Jump to ball 1/2 step, then drop to defend drive: Kids have gotten so much better at penetration and we want to stop dribble drives. In fact, because of personnel, we do not teach to deny one pass away. For two reasons, 1. we find that getting back doored happens, creating offense, but 2. because the person is so good at penetration, if we deny, we don't help as well.

3. Close out with hands high: Depnding on how good the shooter is will decide for us through scouting if we want to close out tight, or shallow. But it is imperative to get your hands up, both of them. Stutter stepping while closing out to take away penetration. Now with that said, if we believe the player cannot shoot, we may not raise our hands giving them the shot.

4. Don't get screened: Screening and using screens has deteriorated, so we feel we should never get screened. If you are physical with your offensive player, they will not use the screen correctly, but also, if your teammates help you, screening won't happen because.....

5. Extend screens/ Bump cutters: By being a good teammate, you should help your teammate on defense by stepping out and extending screens. But if you are not going to do that, bump cutters. When an offensive player comes into your area, move into their path, bumping them or taking them off their line.

6. Go with the butt: Again, on a ball side screen we want to slip through the screen, but if you cannot, stay right behind your man. If you do that, you cannot be screened!

7. Affect shots, no standing 3's: No matter where someone shoots, affect their shot. Wall up in the post, hand up on 15 footers, yell, throw hands up, rotate, switch, do whatever you have to, to affect shots.

8. Take the charge: Be a good teammate and help, and when you do, take a charge. Then all other teammates should help that person up because of such unselfish behavior.

9. Look to help out: Depending on whom you are guarding, look to help out. Communicate, communicate, communicate.

10. Block out, or arm bar: Block out in the paint, and hold them, keep the offense from getting second shots. On the perimeter, we teach to arm bar, then roll to block out.

What? Where? When? How? Why?

With today's modern technology, the average fan shouldn't be out of the loop when it comes to Henryville basketball. We have a website at leaguelineup.com/henryvillebasketball, you can follow me on Twitter at CoachHunterHHS, I send out a news letter once a week during the school year (email me at phunter@henryville.wclark.k12.in.us if you want on the list), and you can access the schedule as soon as it is on Harrell's website at

indianahsbasketball.homestead.com/boys.html.

If you have made it to this blog site, you can access all of the above, except the news letter, from here. Hopefully, this clears up any questions that may arise at anytime pertaining to Henryville Basketball. Please contact me at the above email if you have any questions in the future.

"I do"

Today, July 19th, is my 6th wedding anniversary. I thought I would take some time and write about the person who is truly the MVP of my coaching career, my wife, Kristi Hunter.

We actually started dating 8 years ago and at that point I didn't know what direction to go in when it came to coaching basketball. I entertained the idea of getting into college coaching and I was frustrated with the position I was in at my high school.

She listened and gave very little advice, but the advice she did give was strong. Whenever I was totally frustrated with a specific situation, she asked me one simple question: "Are you coaching for you, or for the boys?". And it hit me like a ton of bricks, and I chose to stay where I was. I ended up assisting a bunch of guys who were highly successful and learning from the previous head coach.

Then when I took over, we had one child, and I didn't know if it would be too much for us. My wife played on a two time sectional champion at Silver Creek High School, and she knew the amount of time it took to be successful. Plus her high school coach, Lisa Cook, had been successful and she saw from that angle what someone might do if they coached.

So, we went for it. Since then we have had a son making mine and her job even harder, but it has been worth it. She is home when I scout, practice, go to jr. high games, in the summer taking care of our kids. Teaching them to read, be respectful, and to be good people. She has done a great job.

It seems that often men marry up and I certainly did. If we were to start keeping track of who was the nicer person or who most people thought the most of, I would lose in a landslide. My wife is truly a great person, great mother, and great wife. I couldn't do all I do without her support.

I tease her that she probably wanted to break up with me when we dated, but she didn't know how, and eventually I had a ring and popped a question. She never completely denies it. :) But whatever the reason, I am a very lucky man, and have had a great marriage since the day we said "I do".

Natural talent vs. Competitive work ethic

Why is it that the most physically talented players in my experiences have often been the ones who worked just enough at it?

They may do one of two things:
1. work very little, and still get by on their abilities in games, and at that time they do compete and play relatively hard. But, if they had worked much harder on their games, they would be able to take themselves and the team to a different level.

Or

2. put in more practice time than anyone else on the team. They work on moves, they lift, they run, they shoot, shoot, shoot, but yet when the game starts and the refs have the whistles, they don't take advantage of their hard work. They end up being the consumate "team" player when you just want them to take over.

Then you have the little guy, the slow guy, the not as physically challenged guy. He will work his tail off 110% of the time off the court. He is the guy leading in sprints, he is the guy trying to do everything correct in drills and practice. He is often the emotional leader, the soul of the team. He is the one who is talking and probably the Captain of the team.

But he is also the guy that no matter how hard he works, and no matter how much you as the Coach want it for him, he just cannot get it done to the level that you or he wants. He is the guy who would do anything to have the ability of the first guy, to be able to take a game over, to take the team to the next level, to possibly even play at the next level, but he cannot.

If you could somehow mix the two, the heart of the competitor with the physical ability of the athlete that is when a special player comes along. They are all special, and as coaches we often develop guys who can take your team to the next level.

But when the perfect storm hits in the body of the natural "star" what a wonderful sight to behold.