Tag Archives: coach

Bill Walton NBA Biography

Posted on May 5, 2011 by

Bill Walton NBA Biography, Interesting Facts, and Career Highlights

Bill Walton was a 6 ’11″ center with the hands of a surgeon, with the brains of a head coach, and the mentality of a point guard. For one spectacular season in the 1970′s Bill Walton’s star burned as brightly as anyone in the history of the NBA. He did everything a center could possibly do. He scored, shut down the lane, rebounded, and passed the ball with point guard type precision. At that time, Walton was hailed as the brightest big man in the game.

Bill Walton somehow managed to play for 14 years in the NBA, despite being riddled with injuries throughout his career. Even with all of his injuries that he sustained throughout his career, Walton was elected to the NBA Hall of Fame in 1993.

In order to truly appreciate the kind of talent that Bill Walton was, you would have to go back to the 1970′s. He was the first “hippie” to be a success in professional sports. After graduating from UCLA, Walton let his wild red hair grow into a ponytail and he listened to bands like the Grateful Dead. He dressed like a mountain man and gave up eating red meat. His diet ranged from rutabaga omelets to raw cucumbers. He even once called the FBI, “the enemy”. Afterward he was brought in for questioning after making those political statements.

When Bill Walton wasn’t playing basketball, he lived a unique and care free life. He would go out cruising around the country in his jeep, went white water rafting, and was an active participant in various political causes. However, when he was on the basketball court, Walton was all business. He brought an attitude of teamwork to the game and had a knack of turning his teammates around him into winners.

When he played with the Portland Trail Blazers, he took a team with seven new faces and with an average age of 23 to the 1977 NBA Finals. Facing the Philadelphia 76ers, Walton rallied his team from an 0-2 deficit to sweep the last 4 games and win the NBA Championship in a dazzling display of team oriented basketball. In the final game of the Championship series Walton scored 20 points, grabbed 23 rebounds, blocked 8 shots, and picked up 7 assists to win a breathtaking 109-107 game to capture the NBA title.

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Setting Volleyball Drills

Posted on March 8, 2011 by

A good coach knows that in all likelihood, every player on his team is going to have to have the ability to set the ball. Running good volleyball drills for setting will benefit the entire team, not just the normal setters. Because setting the ball is often the best way to recover a broken play, it is important to have the entire team work on their setting skills. These are some volleyball drills that will help everyone hone their skills to be beneficial to the entire team.

One of the volleyball drills that is a good jumping off point is known as the “Set to Box”. In this drill, have a player standing on a chair, or on a wooden box with their hands in the air. The coach will then toss the ball to the setter, who will then set it to the hands of the player on the box. The object of this drill is for the setter to work on their form, and be able to visualize the play with a stationary target. This is much easier to see than when working with a moving target. To add this to your collection of advanced volleyball drills, you can rapidly toss ten balls in a row to the setter so that she gets into a good rhythm.

The next example of volleyball drills designed to help setters will help the setter watch the blocker with her peripheral vision. Have a blocker stand opposite the setter, on the other side of the net. The coach will then toss the ball to the setter. While the ball is in the air, the blocker will take one step either left or right. The setter should then set the ball in the opposite direction. Once the setter has the basics down for this set of volleyball drills, make it just a little bit harder. Toss ten balls in a row to the setter, having the blocker move with each ball. This gives the setter much less time to be ready to set, so she is forced to use her peripheral vision rather than just turning her head.

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Improving Your Team by Attending Youth Specific Coaching Clinics

Posted on August 15, 2010 by

With the exception of working side by side for an entire season with the best youth coach in your area, coaching clinics are probably the best use of your time to help prepare you for next season. It always amazes me who I see attending early morning and late night sessions at coaches clinics. It isn’t the guy in last place who lost a third of his team to defections, it’s the guys winning National Championships and league titles. While their know it all competitors are at home in front of the television, these guys are burning the midnight oil to get every bit of knowledge they can for next season by attending every single clinic session they can. Lunch, beers with the buddies at the mixer, not for a lot of these guys. Now don’t get me wrong, spending time with your coaching staff and peers is time well spent and many a great idea has been hatched on a damp cocktail napkin.

The Best Attend Clinics

Sometimes I feel, how can a guy that has played in the Pop Warner Title Game the last 2 years in a row sit though 6 hours of my presentations? In December the AYF National Coach of the Year was the first in line to my Orlando clinic and sat through 4 sessions. His teams have won 5 National Titles in the last 6 years. Do the know it all guys sitting at home in front of the tube know more than these two guys? Have they won more games than these two? Are their kids and parents as satisfied as the kids and parents that were on these guys teams? I seriously doubt it. But that’s why guys like these two win every year, no matter what and others don’t. If you haven’t attended a quality coaches clinic with youth coaches that know the game and know how to make it work at the youth level, you are really missing out.

The best youth coaches have an open mind and a humility that says, “I can always get better, I don’t know everything, I can learn from others. I want my kids to have the best experience possible.” When I speak at the big clinics for Nike or Glazier, I attend every single session I can and take extensive notes, my kids are the winners when I decide to sit in on that 8:00 pm session. I picked up two great ideas listenung to a coach from Northern Colorado talk about program development and player motivation.

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