How Can Basketball Coaches Support Players During the Offseason?

The offseason provides players with endless  growth opportunities through AAU teams, captains practices, individual training, camps and more! While there are restrictions on offseason practice for most high school and college teams, there are a few ways coaches can actively assist with their players' development.

Check out 4 ways coaches can support their players during the offseason below!

1. Consistent communication

Establishing consistent communication between your team, other staff, and parents is key to making sure players take advantage of the offseason and understand the expectations for the upcoming season. 

Make sure all the coaches and players have a chance to talk, and let everyone know about deadlines, events, and what your plans are going forward. Another easy way to stay in contact with your team is through emailing, texting, and occasional one-on-one meetings. Players will take note of your efforts and will trust their coaches if they see genuine interest in their activities in the offseason. 

2. review previous season/discuss upcoming season

The offseason is a great time for coaches to reflect and review the previous season's stats, game film, and complete player evaluations. It’s important for coaches to have statistics and discussion points ready so players know what they did well, what to improve upon, and what to expect for next year. Understanding the areas of growth needed for the team and individuals will help guide tryouts and expectations for the upcoming season. 

Starting off with your team’s strong points is encouraging and sets an optimistic tone, but addressing areas for improvement is important too. If rebounding was poor, that aspect of the game merits special consideration.

Also, don’t forget the "why".

Maybe your team had strength, but positioning problems were largely the result of poor performance on the boards. There’s room for analysis. Statistical knowledge is important in looking toward a bright future, but after that comes discussing why those statistics exist, correcting bad habits, and capitalizing on what worked well.

3. promote accountability

Sharing opportunities with players and parents is a great way to hold players accountable with their training. Players can participate in camps in-person or virtual and share insights via email or a tracking sheet.

Recently, our team at Dr. Dish found that players who took 10,000 shots every month for three months (30,000 total) on average increased their shooting percentage by more than 10%.  Players can track their progress this offseason with our shot tracking worksheet.

Be sure to check out the resources Dr. Dish is sharing all summer long to help players maximize their offseason training.

4. Utilize technology to enhance training

Technology is changing the way the game of basketball is played. Coaches and teams have access to game film, detailed analytics, and other tools to improve their game. This offseason coaches should take advantage of the technology available to them and share opportunities and insights to their players.

At Dr. Dish, technology is at the forefront of everything we do. With our shooting machines, coaches have the ability to create and assign workouts to their players through our Training Management System (TMS), create team leaderboards to increase competition, and share detailed analytics after every workout. 

Check out 7 other features that you might not have known a Dr. Dish machine could do below!

While it is important to rest and reflect in the off-season, it's also important to stay involved and keep your program headed in the right direction. Communicating clearly with your team is essential and we at Dr. Dish are happy to help your program in any way we can!