Charting summer progress builds better players

To get your players primed for next season, you’ve got to make sure that they’re working hard in both the offseason and summer. During that time, they must know exactly what’s expected of them to improve as players.

The following charts and offseason plans outlines our system for preparing players for next season.

Postseason evaluation

With each returning player, we sit down and go through a postseason evaluation form. This lets our players understand their strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement. The form evaluates each player on shooting ability, driving, dribbling, passing, rebounding, perimeter defense, post defense, physical attributes and attitude (chart 1).

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Each player is graded first on overall performance in a category, then on a scale: 1 = poor, 2 = average, 3 = good and 4 = excellent, for specific characteristics such as “shooting form” or “passing off the break.” This evaluation is a great tool in preparing for a players’ summer program.

Summer workout card

We use this card in conjunction with our players’ summer weight-lifting and conditioning program. We adjust the weight program to suit each player, as we want post players working on different strength and skill areas than perimeter players.

Our coaches incorporate dot drills for quickness, jump-rope exercises for conditioning, sit-ups, push-ups and leg lifts for improving various aspects of a players game (chart 2).

Coaches can track progress with each players individual workout card. These also serve as attendance sheets to find out what percentage of summer workouts they attended.