Winning Hoops Blog

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   Michael Podoll is the associate publisher/managing editor of Winning Hoops and The Real AAU Basketball. He has been the face of Winning Hoops since 2000 and has been working professionally in the sports industry and as a writer and editor for over a dozen years.

   Big News: COACH & ATHLETIC DIRECTOR Magazine

   June 1, 2009 by Michael Podoll

   It’s not every day that I get to share exciting news with all of the great basketball coaches who follow Winning Hoops, but thanks to innovative electronic tools such as interactive blogs and Twitter, I can immediately report BIG, BIG NEWS in the world of athletic coaching and team-sports publishing.

   Lessiter Publications, the publisher of Winning Hoops basketball coaching magazine, has acquired Scholastic Coach & Athletic Director magazine from Scholastic, Inc. The acquisition is effective immediately. Coach & Athletic Director resumes its publishing schedule with a blockbuster September 2009 “Back To School” issue.

   The same editorial and design team that provides basketball coaches with the award-winning X’s and O’s that you’ve come to love in Winning Hoops, will be applying the same type of hands-on care and technical precision to Coach & Athletic Director magazine.

   Merging together the 78-year history of Coach & Athletic Director with the 23-year history of Winning Hoops makes for an exciting time in scholastic athletic publishing and team sports management. We’re also aggressively working on a major revamp of the Coach & Athletic Director website.

   Focused on providing coaches with timely and successful information to use immediately within their programs, as well as clear and detailed X’s and O’s, we, the editors of Winning Hoops plan to bring this formula to Coach & Athletic Director while keeping with the magazine’s rich history of touching on all topics relevant to every member and coach of an athletic department.

   Other quick facts of this major news includes:

   • Coach & AD  will still be published 10 times per year. The same schedule as before with September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May/June and August editions. (No changes will be made to the Winning Hoops publishing schedule and that publication will remain as-is.)

   • Subscriptions will be carried over and all current Coach & AD subscribers will have each issue of their subscriptions completely fulfilled. In other words, they will get every issue they paid for. If a subscriber had signed up for 2 years, for example, he or she will receive all 20 issues.

   • Coach & AD magazine will continue the same format with articles to help coaches and athletic directors build winning programs. Popular features such as A.D. Ministration By David Hoch and Powerline By Ken Mannie will continue in every issue!

   • Other NEW features include The Sports Medicine Spotlight (injury prevention and training) and The Winning Edge By Jeff Jannsen (featuring motivational and team-building techniques applicable to every sport) will be added to the book every issue.

   • In-depth coaching Sports Strategies will continue to be the main focus of the book with coaching articles featuring sports such as football, baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball, lacrosse, swimming, track & field, wrestling, cross country, softball and much more!

   The Coach & AD September 2009 Issue Includes:
   – Lane Kiffin, University of Tennessee. Football, exclusive cover story on Lane Kiffin and his mission to restore the Tennessee Volunteer football program to national championship glory.
   – Kevin Sutton, Montverde Academy (FL). Basketball Drills & Program Building
   – Rusty Taylor, Bentley HS (CA). All-Time Winningest Soccer Coach in the nation
   – Profiling the tactics of the Nation’s No. 1 ranked Volleyball team.
   – Winning Cross Country Strategies
   – PLUS regular issues features A.D. Ministration By David Hoch, Powerline By Ken Mannie, The Winning Edge By Jeff Jannsen, and The Sports Medicine Spotlight and other valuable articles for coaches & A.D.s.

   

   To Subscribe to Coach & Athletic Director……please call:

   Toll Free: (866) 839-8455 (U.S. & Canada Only) or (262) 432-0388

   Questions? E-mail Michael Podoll at: mpodoll@lesspub.com

   Coach & Athletic Director Subscription Rates:

   1-Year (10 Issues)………$19.95

   2-Years (20 Issues)…….$34.95

   3-Years (30 Issues)…….$49.95

   It’s the great fans and supporters of Winning Hoops who have made this acquisition possible. Without the support of the basketball-coaching community over the years, this new era of team-sports coaching magazines wouldn’t be possible today.

   Thanks again for being a part of the Winning Hoops family of coaches and we welcome you to try out the NEW Coach & Athletic Director magazine!

   And please tell ALL the coaches you know who coach other sports…that Coach & AD is back…and it’s in good hands!

   Michael Podoll
   Associate Publisher/Managing Editor

   Coach & Athletic Director Magazine
   Winning Hoops Basketball-Coaching Magazine

   Lessiter Publications
   P.O. Box 624
   Brookfield, WI 53008-0624

   Office Phone: (262) 782-4480 Ex: 416
   Fax: (262) 782-1252
   E-mail: mpodoll@lesspub.com

   Coach & Athletic Director: Strategies For Winning Athletic Programs
   Winning Hoops … The World’s No. 1 Basketball-Coaching Magazine

   

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2. The Lost Art Of Outlet Passing

   March 30, 2009 by Michael Podoll

   The outlet pass is an unheralded weapon for any basketball team. The ability to control the defensive rebound, chin the ball with elbows held high, pivot or power dribble away from the opposing player and snap off an accurate pass to the proper outlet player, not only starts your fast break, but it allows your other players to read the situation and get into their proper lanes. It all starts with the outlet. Yet this essential skill remains and under-emphasized and under-taught skill.

   ESPN’S Jay Bilas often regales viewers with a story about the former UCLA sensation and current Minnesota Timberwolves rookie, Kevin Love. Bilas explains how the Bruin coaching staff had Love demonstrate the power of his outlet passing skills to the ESPN crew after a team practice. The 6-foot-10-inch, 271-pound post player stood on the baseline and threw a crisp, two-hand chest pass the length of the court and hit the opposite backboard with a dead-on bullseye.

   Bilas said that he and his co-workers stood in stunned silence as the UCLA coaches then explained how Love’s penchant for strong two-hand chest, two-hand overhead and one-hand baseball-outlet passes had given their team fast-break opportunities not seen at the school since Bill Walton roamed the pivot for the Bruins. See a few examples of Love’s college outlet-pass handiwork for yourself…

   This story of outlet-pass glory will immediately remind some old-school coaches of NBA Hall of Famer, Wes Unseld. Unseld, an undersized 6-foot-7 center, who played for the NBA’s Washington Bullets (now Wizards), was known as perhaps the game’s greatest outlet passer.

   Bob Ryan of the The Boston Globe, once wrote of Unseld “The Hall of Fame should have a perpetually running tape machine showing Wes Unseld zinging one of his unmatched two-hand outlets to a cheating teammate for an easy two points. Surely, no man in basketball history ever began more fast breaks with a 50-foot outlet pass than did Wes Unseld.”

   As Kevin Love brings Unseld-like production back to the outlet pass, Pete Gaudet, the long-time assistant coach at Ohio State recently outlined an easy-to-run  outlet-pass drill in his book Practical Post Play (which is available at Sysko’s Sports Books at www.syskos.com).

   “Stand a player in front in front of the backboard with a ball and have him or her pass the ball off the glass and secure the carom to simulate rebounding a miss. The rebounder immediately locates a teammate moving between the foul-line extended to half-court.

   “The rebounder must pivot outside and fire an outlet pass to the outlet player. At times, the coach can make a defensive move toward the passer to stop the outlet. Here, the post player should respond with a power dribble along the baseline, before making the pass.”

   

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3. The 5 Most-Important Minutes Of A Game

   March 25, 2009 by Michael Podoll

   This is the time of year where the most gut-wrenching losses occur. In tournament play, only one team ultimately ends up the winner and goes home happy. And for some high school and college players, this may be the last game of organized basketball that they’ll ever play.  For returning players and coaches, this is a critical time of year where “the end” sets the tone for next season. For the basketball coaches who lead AAU teams, their season of spring and summer adventure is just beginning and they are mapping out their team itinerary.  So whether your season is coming to a close or just kicking off — you need to help parents become aware of the 5 most-important minutes of a basketball game.

   Before each season begins, Bill Salyers, holds a players’ parents-only meeting. In this meeting, he covers the normal introductions, expectations, results from the previous season, upcoming season goals and outlines his coaching philosophy. To wrap up the meeting, Salyers asks the group of parents, “What are the most-important 5 minutes of any game?” He then lets the parents (mostly dads) offer up their guesses. Most common answers from parents usually include the “end of the first half,” “end of the game” or “half-time.” (more…)

   

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• Authors:
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