3 Tips for Creating a Successful Off-season Program as a Basketball Coach

The off-season is arguably the most important time developmentally for young basketball teams. It's where gains are made and growth flourishes. Let's break down 3 tips for a basketball coach looking to develop a successful off-season program for their basketball team.

1. Focus on skill development

One of the most important pieces to a successful off-season program is the skill development of your players. This is where the growth occurs and where your players can master strengths and also focus on sharpening weaknesses.

Before skill development programs begin, make sure to take a look at the structure of your offense and truly understand the type of players that would fit into your system. This is your only time of the year to mold players into what you want them to be before the season starts. Once that first game comes it's very hard to change players or add a ton of additional skill.

After establishing your style of play, incorporate those skills into the program you build. One easy way to do that is with a Dr. Dish basketball shooting and rebounding machine. This equipment allows for coaches to build workouts, programs and drills for players while allowing them to track stats to see growth.

As a coach we can hold our players accountable and make sure our development is structured how we want it to be. Remember that shooting is a premiere skill and any style of play will benefit from having multiple shooters on the team.

2. Include Competitive Play

During the off-season players are competing in other sports and enjoying some well-deserved free time. It's important to help captains organize competitions that include 1v1, 3v3, and 5v5 play. Coaches may be limited depending on the rules in their state but try to be as involved as you can be.

Player development flourishes from competitive play. The more competitors you have on your team, the better chances you have for growth and winning next year. Utilize your Dr. Dish shooting machine to create leaderboards for drills and shooting competitions to promote competition. Players won't be able to deny the work others are putting in and no one wants to fall behind so this is a great way to get your players in the gym to work hard!

3. Observe the Analytics

Off-season growth is something that can be very hard to track and understand with limited time with players. I remember having paper packets when I was young and I remember always lying about how much I was doing because I wanted to impress my coach. These packets were used to hold me accountable but also help the coaches understand what and how I was doing. Today, technology has advanced  -  Dr. Dish shooting machines allow players to create their own individual profiles to track their progress over time.

Coaches can create and send workouts/drills to players and see how they are doing from every location on the court. There’s no cheating! Coaches can also use this system to establish thresholds players need to hit during every part of the year to keep them from backtracking and becoming unengaged with hoops. This piece of training equipment will help take your team's success to another level.

As you start to plan your off-season, above all, stay organized and be clear on what you want from your players. Then, develop a plan to get the skills needed out of every player in your program while promoting hard work and accountability. Be sure to get your off-season program formatted before the summer so players know what to expect and there is ample time for their growth.