Basketball Coach Unplugged (A Basketball Coaching Podcast)
This Podcast will discuss basketball coaching with Coach Steve Collins. Coach Collins will do this with interviews and on topic discussions. (Discussion will revolve around basketball topics such as: Offense, Defense, Motivation, Team Building, Youth Basketball, High School Basketball, college basketball and much more...) We will publish weekly shows at 6:00 am..... Please check out our site if you like our podcast. www.teachhoops.com.
How AI Won Me Back 20 Hours a Week
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ai-sports-coach/id6831782683
Welcome to Episode 1 of The AI Sports Coach with Steve Collins, recorded at the Fifth Quarter Studios in Madison, Wisconsin.
Steve coached high school basketball at Madison Memorial for 27 years, winning three state championships and fourteen straight conference titles. Today he runs TeachHoops, helping more than 200,000 coaches around the world. In this launch episode, he explains what this show is about and why every coach, in every sport, should be using AI right now.
In this episode:
The question every coach should ask about...Do You Foul or Defend When You're Up Three With Eight Seconds Left?
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You're up three. Eight seconds left. Their ball. Do you foul or do you defend? Coach Collins figures a room full of coaches would split right down the middle, and honestly, he's done both. The real point of this episode isn't the answer. It's that you can't find the answer in the foxhole. If you haven't decided it before the game and repped it in practice, your players won't pull it off when the gym is shaking.<...
Are You Counting the Right Turnovers?
https://teachhoops.com/
Not all turnovers are the same, so sort the brave ones from the careless ones before you react.
Some of the best turnovers Coach Steve Collins ever saw his teams make, he would make again tomorrow. And some of the worst ones were the kind nobody in the gym even noticed. For years he went straight to the turnover column after every game, got mad before he reached the bus, and ran ball handling on Monday that was really punishment in disguise. The number went down, but so did the drives, the...
Do Your Players Shoot Free Throws in Practice the Way They Shoot Them in Games?
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Pressure, fatigue, and a routine that holds up when the gym gets loud.
Coach Steve Collins once had a team that shot seventy six percent from the line in practice and fifty eight percent in games. The players were not the problem. The practice was. Ten in a row, fresh legs, a quiet gym, and nobody watching had trained a skill his players would never actually use on a Friday night.
In this deep dive, Steve rebuilds free throw practice from the ground up for the opening weeks of the...
(Part 3)What Do Two Coaches Talk About When Nobody Is Keeping Score?
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Some of the best coaching education never happens at a clinic. It happens in a hallway after practice, in a parking lot after a tough loss, or over a cup of coffee when two coaches finally stop talking about plays and start talking about the work.
That is what this episode is. Steve Collins sits down with Coach Sebert for a real conversation, coach to coach. There is no script and no agenda here. Just two people who have spent a lot of hours in a gym, comparing notes on what they have l...
(Part 2)What Do Two Coaches Talk About When Nobody Is Keeping Score?
https://teachhoops.com/
Some of the best coaching education never happens at a clinic. It happens in a hallway after practice, in a parking lot after a tough loss, or over a cup of coffee when two coaches finally stop talking about plays and start talking about the work.
That is what this episode is. Steve Collins sits down with Coach Sebert for a real conversation, coach to coach. There is no script and no agenda here. Just two people who have spent a lot of hours in a gym, comparing notes on what they have l...
(Part 1)What Do Two Coaches Talk About When Nobody Is Keeping Score?
https://teachhoops.com/
Some of the best coaching education never happens at a clinic. It happens in a hallway after practice, in a parking lot after a tough loss, or over a cup of coffee when two coaches finally stop talking about plays and start talking about the work.
That is what this episode is. Steve Collins sits down with Coach Sebert for a real conversation, coach to coach. There is no script and no agenda here. Just two people who have spent a lot of hours in a gym, comparing notes on what they have...
Can you make practices better?
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Making practice better. Can high school coaches and youth coaches make practices better? Let us know at [email protected] about what you need or what you're looking for in terms of practices, practice planning, and practice drills.
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Are You Ready for the Last Two Minutes?
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Late game situations, up three or down two, and practicing the moments you will face in January.
Early in his career, Coach Steve Collins did not really practice the end of games. He figured his team would deal with it when it came up. Then it came up: January, on the road, down two with nineteen seconds left and no timeouts. Five kids looked at the bench, and he looked back with nothing to give them.
That night changed how he used October. The last two minutes of a January...
The First Thirty Days, Part 2: Parents, Rotations, and the Day Thirty Audit
TeachHoops.com
Thirty days into the season, the hard conversations start. In Part 2 of The First Thirty Days, Coach Collins covers the first parent email, how to settle your rotation, what to cut from everything you installed, and how to take care of the one person on your team nobody is coaching.
In this episode:
The first parent email and why you should never debate playing time over textSettling your rotation with practice scores, film, and clear rolesThe Keep, Drop, and Save for January audit for your playbookCoach the coach: your staff, your family...Ep 2056 The First Thirty Days, Part 1: Setting the Tone
TeachHoops.com
The season has started and it already feels like too much. Too many things to teach, too many kids who need something from you, and a practice plan that fell apart by the third drill. In Part 1 of The First Thirty Days, Coach Collins walks through what matters most once the season tips off, and why the answer is not doing more.
In this episode:
The one question every coach should be asking right nowWhy your first three practices set your standards for the whole yearHow to have the role conversation before...Things players do at practice
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Things that basketball players need at practice. Simplicity wins practice. Everything you need to know to become a better basketball coach today and tomorrow. Let me know if you have any questions. At [email protected]. #BasketballCoach #Basketball #coaching
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How Do You Talk to Officials Without Hurting Your Team?
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What your players learn from how you treat the referee, and how to ask a question that actually gets answered.
Four minutes left in the opener, down three, and the whistle goes the other way. Coach Steve Collins knows that feeling in your chest, and he knows the moment that comes right after it, when every kid on the bench turns to see what the head coach does next. Early in his career he thought working the officials was part of the job. Then he watched film of his own bench and...
Who Gets Back When You Miss?
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Transition defense, the first three steps after a shot goes up, and the easy baskets you are giving away.
Coach Steve Collins once had a team that was excellent in the half court and kept losing close games anyway. So he sat down with a stack of game film and a legal pad and asked one question about every basket his team gave up: was our defense set, or not? The answer was not even close. Far more than a third of the opponent's points came before five defenders were back.
<...Can a Coach Change the Way They Lead? Dr. Matthew Raidbard, Part 2
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Lead Like a Pro, finding the toughness and leadership in a crowded gym, building relationships that transcend basketball, and the advice he would give his younger self.
In Part 2, Coach Steve Collins and Dr. Matthew Raidbard dig into how a coach actually changes the way they lead. Dr. Raidbard explains what his book Lead Like a Pro walks you through: figure out the style you are really practicing, decide whether it matches your values, then learn from real coaching stories and practical tools how to grow into the leader you want to...
How Do You Know What Kind of Leader You Really Are? Dr. Matthew Raidbard, Part 1
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From a 24 hour drive for a Division II job to Dartmouth, Chicago State, and a study of 200 college coaches who did not know their own leadership style.
Dr. Matthew Raidbard did not have a relative in the business, a friend in the business, or a practical degree. He had a history major, a resume full of travel team experience, and a habit of following up one more time than anyone asked him to. That relentlessness got him a Division II assistant job in Silver City, New Mexico, and started a college coaching...
Why Is Your Gym So Quiet?
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Teaching players to talk on defense, and why a quiet team is usually a confused team.
Walk into almost any gym during the second week of the season, close your eyes for one defensive possession, and listen. Sneakers. A dribble. Maybe a coach. Five kids guarding the ball and not one of them saying a word. For years Coach Steve Collins treated that silence as a toughness problem, stopping practice to yell "Talk!" and getting about two possessions of noise before the gym went quiet again.
What finally changed his...
What Should You Say in the First Five Minutes After a Game?
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Win or lose, why the postgame talk should be short, and what to save for tomorrow's practice.
The longest talk Coach Steve Collins ever gave a team came after a win. Twenty two minutes in a hot locker room, kids still in their jerseys, parents waiting in the hallway. He could not remember one thing he said, and when he asked, neither could his players. That night became the starting point for how he learned to handle the first five minutes after the horn.
With openers right around the corner...
What Is Your Bench Doing When It Is Not Playing?
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Keeping the eighth through twelfth players locked in, ready, and part of the team, not a row of spectators in warmups.
Picture the third quarter of a close game. Your starters are grinding, and down the bench one kid is retying a shoe that does not need it, two are whispering, and your twelfth man is staring at the scoreboard. Then a starter turns an ankle and you have to call one of them in. Coach Steve Collins opens this episode with the moment every coach dreads, and the early career loss...
Are You Calling Timeouts or Just Stopping the Clock?
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When to burn one, what to say in thirty seconds, and why most timeouts send players back out knowing less than when they sat down.
Coach Steve Collins has a confession. For his first five years as a head coach, he called timeouts mostly for himself. He was frustrated, the gym was loud, and he needed it to stop. One night, down six in the third quarter, he talked fast and loud for a full minute about everything, and his point guard walked back onto the floor and asked, "Coach, what are...
What Does Your Team Do in the Hour Before Tip?
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The pregame routine, the warmup that actually warms them up, and the locker room words that matter in game one.
It is forty five minutes before tip. The music is too loud, two players are on their phones, and the point guard is retaping an ankle that does not need it. Coach Steve Collins spent his early years running game night on a vibe instead of a plan, then trying to fix everything with a speech four minutes before tip. His teams came out flat in the opener three straight years.
<...Are You Scouting Your Opener, or Just Guarding Ghosts?
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Why the best game one scouting report fits on an index card, and what to do when last year's film lies to you.
The best scouting report Coach Steve Collins ever handed a team fit on an index card. The worst one was eleven pages long, stapled by hand, and built on film of three starters who were not even on the floor that night. His team spent the first quarter guarding ghosts and lost by nineteen.
That loss changed how he thought about game one. The opener is the...
What Would Happen If You Cut Your Practice Plan in Half?
Simplicity at Practice
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TITLE
What Would Happen If You Cut Your Practice Plan in Half?
SUBTITLE
Subtraction is the most underrated move in coaching, and almost nobody is willing to try it.
SHOW NOTES
Every year the plan gets longer. Another drill, another wrinkle, another coverage, and somehow the team looks less sure of itself in February than it did in December. Coach Collins argues for going the other direction: fewer drills, fewer words, one teaching point at a...
you built a conditioning plan for them, so where is yours?
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A retired coach on the difference between the November version of you and the February version, and how to keep them closer together.
SHOW NOTES
After thirty seven years, Coach Steve Collins can finally see the thing he could not see while he was inside it: he planned five months of conditioning for his players and nothing at all for himself. This episode is an honest look at what actually empties a coach's tank, which is almost never the games, plus a practical energy plan for a long ...
Interview with Coach Raidbard ( Part 2)
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TITLE
What Are Coaches Actually Asking When Nobody Else Is Listening?
SUBTITLE
A look inside a Teach Hoops member call, where real coaches bring the problems they are living with this week.
SHOW NOTES
This one is a recording of a Teach Hoops member call. No prepared topic, no script, just coaches bringing what is actually going on in their gyms and working through it together. If you have ever wondered whether the thing you are dealing with is normal, th...
Interview with Coach Raidbard ( Part 1)
https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/
TITLE
What Are Coaches Actually Asking When Nobody Else Is Listening?
SUBTITLE
A look inside a Teach Hoops member call, where real coaches bring the problems they are living with this week.
SHOW NOTES
This one is a recording of a Teach Hoops member call. No prepared topic, no script, just coaches bringing what is actually going on in their gyms and working through it together. If you have ever wondered whether the thing you are dealing with is normal, th...
Do you have three defenses or one really good one?
Do you have three defenses or one really good one?
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Why most preseason defensive installs try to cover everything and end up covering nothing.
SHOW NOTES
Somewhere in your league there is a team with almost no defensive scheme at all that is going to beat somebody good this winter, because they guard the ball. Meanwhile most of us are carrying three or four defenses and are not actually good at any of them. Steve walks through the order of operations for installing defense in preseason, starting with...
How Many Reps Did Your Players Actually Get Yesterday?
Making Practice Better
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TITLE
How Many Reps Did Your Players Actually Get Yesterday?
SUBTITLE
Practice quality is a number you can count, and most coaches have never once counted it.
SHOW NOTES
Coaches judge practice on how it felt. Felt sharp, felt flat. Coach Collins makes the case for judging it on something harder and more honest: how many real repetitions each player got, how much of the gym was moving at any moment, and how much of yo...
Are you picking captains or just holding an election?
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Why the team vote usually crowns the most popular kid, and what to ask of a captain once you have actually named the job.
SHOW NOTES
The best captain Coach Steve Collins ever had averaged three points a game and never started. In this three part episode, Steve gets into how he stopped letting the team vote, why your leading scorer is often the wrong choice, and the three specific things he asks a captain to do. He also handles the part nobody plans for, which is what...
What Happens When One Coach Gets an Hour on His Own Program?
Teach Hoops One-on-One Call
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TITLE
What Happens When One Coach Gets an Hour on His Own Program?
SUBTITLE
A Teach Hoops one on one call, where a single coach brings his actual situation and we work through it out loud.
SHOW NOTES
This is a recording of a Teach Hoops one on one call. Different from the group member calls: one coach, one program, and enough time to get past the surface of the problem to whatever is ac...
What Should You Actually Be Watching in Your First Scrimmage?
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What Should You Actually Be Watching in Your First Scrimmage?
The score is the least useful number in the gym, so here are the three you should write on your card instead. SHOW NOTESYour first scrimmage is the best information you will get all preseason, and most coaches throw it away by watching the ball and worrying about the score. Coach Steve Collins walks through how to decide what you are hunting for before tip, why you should let your team...
What if you built your first two weeks backwards from opening night?
What if you built your first two weeks backwards from opening night?
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Most coaches plan practice forwards and run out of calendar, so here is how to start at game one and work your way back.
SHOW NOTES
Ask most coaches how many practices they have before their first game and you get a guess. That guess is exactly why the Thursday before the opener turns into a panic session where you cram four installs into ninety minutes. In this two part episode, Coach Steve Collins builds the...
What Does a Great Assistant Coach Actually Do?
Being an Assistant Coach
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TITLE
What Does a Great Assistant Coach Actually Do?
SUBTITLE
Nobody hands you a job description, most head coaches never write one, and the assistants who figure it out become impossible to replace.
SHOW NOTES
Being an assistant is its own craft, not a waiting room for a head job. Coach Collins talks through what the role really asks of you: how to disagree with your head coach the right way and at the ri...
Do you have standards, or do you just have a lot of rules?
Do you have standards, or do you just have a lot of rules?
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Why three things you will stop practice for beat twenty things nobody enforces after Thanksgiving.
SHOW NOTES
Most programs walk into the first week of practice with a handbook full of rules and not one real standard. Coach Steve Collins breaks down the difference between a line you cannot cross and a level you hold, and why the long list actually teaches your team that you do not mean what you say. This one is...
What Are Coaches Actually Asking When Nobody Else Is Listening?
Teach Hoops Member Call
https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/
TITLE
What Are Coaches Actually Asking When Nobody Else Is Listening?
SUBTITLE
A look inside a Teach Hoops member call, where real coaches bring the problems they are living with this week.
SHOW NOTES
This one is a recording of a Teach Hoops member call. No prepared topic, no script, just coaches bringing what is actually going on in their gyms and working through it together. If you have ever wondered whether the thing yo...
How do you cut a kid without cutting him badly?
https://teachhoops.com/
How do you cut a kid without cutting him badly?
The roster number is a philosophy, the conversation is a skill, and neither one gets easier after thirty seven years.
SHOW NOTES
Twenty two kids in the gym, fourteen spots, and four of the five kids on the bubble are basically the same player. Steve has been in that room more times than he can count, and he never once slept well the night before cuts. This episode is not about evaluating. It is about the...
Are You Running Up the Score Without Meaning To?
3. Blowing a Team Out (on the right end)
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TITLE
Are You Running Up the Score Without Meaning To?
SUBTITLE
A thirty point lead is a coaching problem, not a victory lap, and garbage time can be the most useful stretch of your week.
SHOW NOTES
Winning big is more complicated than it looks. Press too long and you are that coach. Call everything off and your bench players learn that their minutes do not count. Coach Collins talks th...
Who Is Going to Tell Him the Truth About His Role, You or the Scoreboard?
https://teachhoops.com/
TITLEWho Is Going to Tell Him the Truth About His Role, You or the Scoreboard? SUBTITLEThe four minute conversation every kid on your roster has earned, and the cowardly answer most of us give instead. SHOW NOTESEvery player on your team already has a role, whether you named it or not. Coach Steve Collins tells the story of a senior who invented his own role and spent two months fighting the wrong battle because nobody would sit him down. This episode is about the coach to player conversation itself: how short it should be, how...
What Should Your Off-Season Actually Look Like?
Off-Season Practice Planning
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TITLE
What Should Your Off-Season Actually Look Like?
SUBTITLE
Nobody is watching and nobody is keeping score, which is exactly why this is where programs separate.
SHOW NOTES
The season ends and most coaches take a breath, then look up and it is October again. This episode is about building an off-season with an actual plan behind it: what to evaluate while the season is still fresh, what to hand each player to work on, ho...
What Do You Say When Your Team Is Getting Run Off the Floor?
How Do You Coach a Blowout (on the wrong end)
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TITLE
What Do You Say When Your Team Is Getting Run Off the Floor?
SUBTITLE
The game is decided, there are twelve minutes left, and how you handle them says more about your program than the final score.
SHOW NOTES
Every coach gets one. Down twenty five, the other team is still pressing, and your bench has stopped looking at you. This episode is about what to actually do...
