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by Ashley (Crash) Riley

Hi! I have been playing basketball since fourth grade, and just started ninth grade two days ago. So why am I writing this forward for my dad? Because he asked me to write about what I've seen from a youth player's point of view. I didn't want to do it, but he bribed me. I now have a CD burner in my bedroom, and you coaches have to listen to a fourteen year old girl because of it. That's a deal for me, wouldn't you say?

Here is my description of the average coach I have seen. Normally it's a man, and he is usually very loud. When one of his players makes a mistake in a game, they are benched immediately. Most of the time, the coach will start screaming at the guilty player. A lot of coaches will curse at them. Remember, we are 10 to 14 year old girls being cursed at. Stupid and idiot are two words that are also used a lot.

Maybe I would think that this was almost OK if I hadn't seen the other good coaches. The good ones I've seen will pull their player to one side and tell them what they are doing wrong. Then they will tell the player how to do it right. You don't have to do all of this with a smile on your face, but I promise you, you don't get great results when you scream at them.

When an inexperienced player makes a mistake, she may not even know what she did wrong. This is when you should tell her what she did wrong, and how to correct it. When a true player makes a mistake, they usually know what they did wrong. We make mistakes because we are trying too hard, or being too aggressive, or because of attitudes. If you want to be a good coach, you need to figure out which of the three is our problem , then try to correct it. But you won't get any results by screaming at or cursing at a us. We will ignore you, or get so upset that we couldn't make a layup if we had to.

Have you ever thought, "I sure wish she would listen to me?" If you have ever thought this, then your player shut down and is totally trying to ignore you. Rather than yell even louder, find out what the problem is. Be a coach, not a Nazi.

For years my parents and I would talk on the way home after every game, and most of the time we talked about how badly the other coach acted. Finally my dad said he was thinking about writing a book about how not to coach. We talked about it for a while, and he decided to write a book about how to coach and act instead.

So now you know why he wrote book 1. My mom and I have had to put up with him on the computer. Sometimes we think his computer is his best friend. But sometimes he lets us read the e-mails from people who have read his book, and it reminds us of why he spent all of this time away from us. So you coaches had better pay attention and learn, because I have done without him at times because of these books. Make it worthwhile for all of us, and try to be the best Coach you can be. Basketball should be fun, try to make it that way.

Dad didn't say I had to write a lot, so I hope I made my point even though it's not very long. As you can tell, I'm not like my dad. My mom says it takes him two hours to watch 60 Minutes. I don't like the show, so it only takes me one minute to change the station. Thank you for listening to me, and thank you for the CD burner.

Oh, by the way, we normally crush the teams that have screamers and cursers for coaches. I wonder why so many losers want to be the center of attention by getting that loud? This is one of my dad's saying, but it sure makes a lot of sense to me.

If you want anything else written, I sure could use a DVD player in my room, DAD!

by Steve Jordan

Last year, Ed Riley wrote a very popular primer for new coaches of youth basketball teams. His engaging style and down-to-earth explanations made the seemingly daunting task of taking on a youth basketball team seem possible, at least, if not downright fun. Hopefully, thanks to Ed, many more parents will be stepping forward in this worthwhile cause. And, best of all for the kids, those volunteer coaches will be much better informed than their predecessors. If you have not yet enjoyed Ed's writing, try his first work, Coaching Youth Basketball. Its on this site in its entirety.

by Ed Riley

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water!

A little over a year ago I started a project, a booklet. It was a simple book, not very long, and easy to read. It was a book for first year YOUTH basketball coaches. It was written for the mom or the dad who got drafted into coaching their kid's basketball team. It was written for the beginner who didn't have a clue where to begin. I tried to take them from the first moment they volunteered, through their team selection, to what to teach their team, and I even told them what supplies they would need for their first practice. I tried to make this so simple that even a simpleton like me could understand it. And the name of the book? Coaching Youth Basketball For Simpletons Like Me.

Was the book a success? That depends upon your definition of success. If we define success by the number of people who read it, then it was successful beyond my wildest imagination. Three different websites carried the book. Just on PowerBasket's site alone, I've been told that 300 people a day read this book. Add the people who read it on all the other other sites, and umpteen thousand people have read the book. Using this as a definition, yes it was a success. But that's not my definition.

I would like to use a different barometer as my measure of success, did it help the beginning coach? I receive over 40 e-mails a day from beginning coaches saying it did, then asking for more help. This is how I judge success, by the # of actual readers who say thanks. So some of you folks got the message, and I truly succeeded.

So why am I tooting my own horn here? I'm not! This is Booklet 2 and if you haven't read Booklet one, then reading this one is as useless as ...

So here's what you need to do, go to any of these websites and read Coaching Youth Basketball For Simpletons like Me. It's free, it's easy to read, and Book 2 won't make much sense to you until you read Book 1. Ok, for you Doubting Thomas's out there, here's one for you. How much sense would Star Wars parts 5 or 6 have made by themselves, unless you saw the original Star Wars? OK, maybe that didn't make sense. But you need to go to any of of the following sites and find my Book 1. If you don't read it, a lot of this will not make sense to you. READ IT - THEN COME BACK TO THIS.

Steve Jordan's site, aka Alaska Coach, is www.alaskalife.net/sjordan/ Go to Coaches Notebook and look for Coaching Youth Basketball by Ed Riley.

Coach Larry Dean Jackson's site is www.geocities.com/ljacksonesc5/acoach.html Scroll down until you hit articles, and there's the book. This site also gives you lots and lots of plays.

Powerbasketball is www.powerbasketball.com Look to the right hand side of the page and you'll find the book.

OK, I've got my stopwatch out. You have two hours to get there, read it, and get your butt back here. It's one lap for every minute you take over two hours, so ....... On you mark - Get set - Go!!!

Humm te dum dumm, tra la, ho hum. I'm sorry, I got kinda bored waiting for you folks to come back. Ah oh, someone cheated! So when I use the term LS you are going to know what I mean, right? Yeah, sure. Now get outta here until you've read it, OK?

All righty then, welcome back everyone. I promise not to preach, as much. Here's a little of what you can expect from "Surviving Your 2nd Year," a whole lotta common sense approaches to the game and teaching the game. I am going to go into a few more advanced things, like plays. Wouldn't that be novel for me, an actual play or 2? I'm going to go into off-season ball and starting your own club. I'm going to go into teaching individual moves that will help the player, thus helping the team. And I'm going to answer the #1 most repeated question from Book ! = How do I set up my players when I start my offense?

What else can you expect, well - I have some friends that may help me in this endeavor, Steve Jordan. Steve's net name is Alaska Coach. Steve is much more of an advanced coach than I. Where I can associate with your 4th or 5th graders and what they are going through, Steve can relate to older kids. See, he is more advanced than I am. And there will be some other coaches that will help out along the way.

In reality, I am not an advanced basketball guru. I know my limitations and to go much further means I need help. I have turned to a few of the coaches from Chalk Talk, a website. These are the coaches I turn to when I need help, so I know they can help you, as well as me.

One thing I do need to point out, the chapters I write do not necessarily reflect the other coaches point of view, and the opposite is also true. But we all agree, LEARNING THE BASICS IS A GOOD THING!