Building a Program with Communication

By Shane Dreiling

One of the common questions our staff gets when we speak at various coaching clinics throughout the country has to do with communication. How do we get our players to communicate with each other and with the coaches so well? As a staff, we pride ourselves on our communication level with our players and enjoy seeing them learn how to do so with one another. How does this work? For starters, we are constantly striving to learn new techniques from coaches across the country. We want to know what works for other programs and we try to take something from each coach and apply it to our own situation. Secondly, coaches who visit our practices and attend our notebook lessons will tell you, WE PRACTICE IT!!! Every day, we talk about communication. I believe that a team cannot be successful on the court or off if they simply don’t know how to communicate with those around them. In our program, we have several key strategies we use to help our team grow in our ability to communicate with each other.
Be in great physical condition, particularly versus man-to-man pressure.

Notebook / Handouts –
Each of our players keeps a notebook during the course of the season. Part of the notebook is made up of the usual fare. However, the value of the notebook is found in the handouts that are given out during the course of the week. These handouts range from motivational stories and poems to things that pertain only to our program. An example of the latter is the handout we give our players on our defensive anchors and our team terminology. Regardless the handout, our players know that we will discuss the handout the next day in our pre-practice meeting. We find that it is not enough to just pass along a good message found on a piece of paper. We follow up with conversation, which helps improve our communication throughout the program but helps the coaching staff relay to the players the values and principles we find are important to our program.

Show & Tell –
When the team first comes back after Christmas break, the players and coaches hold a Show & Tell day after practice. Every member of the program brings something from home that has meaning to him/her and each of us then explains the importance of the item that we are showing. Why? It helps us build communication but it also helps each of us to learn a bit more about those we compete alongside.

Thought of the Day (TOD) –
Before practice, I hang the practice schedule up on the locker room door. At the top of this schedule is our thought of the day. This thought can come from coaches, leaders, and poets…anyone who has a message that has value. Our TOD rarely involves the sport of basketball, but the message is one that is always applicable to our program and players in some way. Players are expected to have the TOD memorized before practice so we can discuss it as we go through our stretching exercises.

Terminology –
One of our handouts is a listing of our terminology. Our players and coaches take pride in our terminology. It is one of the many things that make our program unique. However, it also helps save time in practice and in games. For instance, a simple phrase like “high on the hip” lets our players know where they need to be defensively and where our help side needs to be without going into specific detail time and time again. During games, our players have started using our terminology in the game and on the bench…all in an effort to remind each other what needs to be done for our program to be successful.

These are some of the things that have allowed our program to grow in the art of communication. As stated earlier, our program takes a lot of pride in this area and it comes at a price…. a lot of work and attention to detail. I have found the results to be well worth that investment and I think you will as well