New Youth Volleyball CoachingTitles Are In!!

It is a big day for youth volleyball at Championship Productions!!

We have been working with Jenny Hahn, Executive Director of the JVA (Junior Volleyball Association) for the past several months to put together a collection of useful, innovative and fun drills and skills for mini and youth volleyball. In the past, we have done some excellent 'foundations' DVDs with Florida's Mary Wise and also a terrific youth series with Stanford's John Dunning.

These new DVDs will be welcome additions for any of you who coach from late elementary school ages to upper middle school and early HS ages.

Here are the links;
Junior Volleyball Association presents 35 Japanese Drills for Youth Volleyball

Junior Volleyball Association presents Mini Volleyball: Youth Volleyball Skills & Games

Enjoy!

Good article on Len Elmore @iHoops

Interesting article from the LA Times on iHoops.
Len Elmore's iHoops job is no layup - latimes.com

Note: Championship Productions supplies the training/coaching video clips on iHoops.

AAU and Positive Coaching Alliance to Train 50,000 Double-Goal Coaches

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/AAU-and-PCA-to-Train-50-000-Double-Goal-Coaches.html?soid=1101878809717&aid=kYTgnM3bJQE

This is an exciting development for the future of all kids who participate in a program through AAU - all coaches will be required to take the Double-Goal Coaching online course before proceeding to coach a team.

Instructional Videos From Top College Coaches @ iHoops

Instructional Videos From Top College Coaches | iHoops

As iHoops puts it:

If you're going to learn how to play basketball, why not learn from the best minds in the game?

Thanks to Championship Productions, iHoops now has an inside look at how top college basketball programs are able to win every season.

Whatever the program, these videos break down different basketball drills, tips and plays that these elite coaches use to be consistent winners. They're now sharing their secrets with the world, so you too can understand how a great basketball team operates.

iHoops is a terrific website full of excellent resources ... check it out!

Ray Lokar - Youth Basketball Coaching DVDs

Ray Lokar, lead trainer for Positive Coaching Alliance and a 30+ year basketball coach, recently shot two new instructional DVDs with Championship Productions. They are now in post-production, but having viewed the camera tapes, any coach who purchases these is in for a treat!

Ray Lokar's Building an Effective Youth Basketball Practice features Lokar's philosophies on every aspect of coaching a youth basketball practice; the only thing missing after watching it was the actual practice plan in a format that I could print out ... and ever the overachiever, Coach Lok soon thereafter submitted a PDF file of his actual practice plans + several other valuable files (fundamentals, drills, etc.) that will make this the best youth basketball practice planning DVD you have ever purchased!

Ray Lokar's Fundamentals Factory for Youth Basketball is similarly excellent, and also is now the most comprehensive collection of youth fundamentals on one DVD I have ever seen. It will be over 4 hours when completed ... and on 2 discs ... and every minute is just excellent instruction. Coach Lok's style of coaching and teaching will have you rooting for the players by the end of the disc and have you wishing he was the local youth basketball coach in your community. This is a group of players new to him at the beginning of the shoot (except for his son who is in the DVD) and by the end of the DVD, their transformation to a better performing unit is nothing short of amazing. Paired with his practice planning DVD, you will be a better youth coach after watching these DVDs. They are both due online at Championship Productions.com by late October.

L.A.W.S. of Coaching Youth Basketball

Early on in his new, yet-to-be-released DVD, Coach John Tauer shares an acronym, "LAWS of Coaching" that encapsulates some good 'rules of thumb' to share with your youth teams.

L - Listening: Every great player is a great listener.
A- Athletic stance: Always be in an athletic stance in every drill during practice.
W - Working hard: Players who want to be great have to take pride in giving everything they have during every drill in practice.
S- Selfless: Put the team above the individual self.

Look for Tauer's "Hierarchy of Youth Basketball Drills" DVD series later in September 2010 at http://www.ChampionshipProductions.com!!

Clarifying the Intuitive

Yesterday, I completed the online course, "Double Goal Coaching I - Coaching for Winning and Life Lessons" from Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA).

Following my 'final exam', I received a certificate of completion and a note of congratulations from the folks at PCA.

The image above is of Positive Coaching Alliance founder Jim Thompson, who founded PCA in 1988 at Stanford University where he teaches classes in coaching, leadership, sport and spirituality. He provides narrative at different times in the online module, along with several sports figures, including PCA's national spokesman, Phil Jackson.

The course is really well done and for me, it clarified the intuitive thoughts that I have long held about what is wrong and what is right when it comes to parents on the sidelines, athlete behavior at practice and during games, what is the proper way to start off a season, and on and on. Based on observations of good and poor examples, some training, some reading and video research, I have formed many opinions and strategies when I have coached youth teams.
The terrific packaging and clarification, all backed up with sound research and effective video examples, by PCA made the process of taking the course a complete joy. We have partnered with PCA's Ray Lokar on several youth basketball coaching DVDs (due out later in September) and he uses the 'double-goal coach', 'second goal parent', 'triple impact athlete', 'flushing mistakes', etc. terminology of PCA throughout his DVDs.

Having now read the books by Jim Thompson and now taken the course, I am pleased to recommend it for anyone coaching at any level!

Here is a link to one of Jim's books on our website:
http://www.championshipproductions.com/cgi-bin/champ/p/Youth-General/The-Power-of-Double-Goal-Coaching_YGB-00772.html

It is a terrific read!