Featuring Coach Rich Stoner – 6 Straight State Playoff Appearances!

Rich Stoner has been a very successful high school basketball coach for the last ten years. Coach Stoner was named 2005 Coach of the Year by the Home News Tribune and the Star Ledger and 2006 Blue Division Coach of the Year by the GMC Coaches Association. Since taking over at Metuchen High School, his teams have qualified for the state playoffs six years in a row after having only qualified once in the previous 17 seasons. They have advanced to the state semifinals in two of those years. Coach Stoner also runs his own basketball specific training business called Elite Basketball Training, LLC and is a USAW certified Sports Performance Coach. He has coached and trained multiple college athletes including five at the Division 1 level (Marqus Blakely, University of Vermont basketball; Dejuan Miller, University of Oklahoma football; Dallas Oanu, Villanova Basketball; Nick Macaluso, University of Stanford football; and Knowshon Moreno, Denver Broncos).

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Online Coaching Clinic

What’s Included with the Rich Stoner Online Clinic?

Component #1 – 31 Minute Video Clinic

In the video you will learn:

• Great Defensive Drills & Tips That You Can Use With Your Team Tomorrow
• 4 Close Out Drills
• Situational Drills That Will Improve Game Performance
• Defensive Disadvantage Drills To Improve Communication and Rotations
• 2 Transition Drills
• Implementing 3 on 3 Drills To Improve Your Team

Component #2 – 42 Minute Audio Interview

In the audio recording you will learn:

• How he took a high school varsity team that had 17 straight losing seasons and turned them into a state qualifier and contender year in and year out!
• Extremely effective ways to develop strong team chemistry, loyalty, and a family atmosphere.
• Unique pressure defensive techniques and effective methods to force turnovers.
• Half court and full court defensive systems, drills, and strategies.
• New types of defensive presses you’ve never seen before.
• Unique game strategies and tactics that will give you an edge on the competition.
• Youth and middle school coaching strategies.
• How to control the tempo of the game.
• Unique strategies to develop effective youth development / feeder programs.
• And much, much more!

Component #3 – PDF / eBook Downloads

To supplemment the audio interview, you’ll receive a 19 page PDF transcript of the entire audio interview. You’ll also receive a 17 page PDF eBook that was developed from the audio interview. It’s a useful guide for reference and to build upon the tips on the audio interview.

Component #4 – Diagrams & Video Clips of Drills and Plays

In the clinic, you’ll get diagrams and written instructions for all the drills that Rich covers in the audio and video. These are some of Rich’s favorite drills. The videos also allow you to easily navigate to a specific part of the clinic video.

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Online Coaching Clinic

Are There Any Requirements?

In order to watch clinic videos online, you’ll need high speed internet access. In other words, the videos won’t work on Dial Up internet. If you don’t have high speed internet, you could watch the video at a friend’s house, the library, or possibly at your work place.

Can You View The Video More Than Once?

Yes. If you purchase the clinic, you can view the video, diagrams, pdfs, and audio as many times as you want whenever you want.

How Much Does it Cost?

The price for the online clinic is $24.95.

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If for any reason, your purchase is not what you expected, just send us a message and we’ll give you a full refund. No questions asked.

Purpose of the Drill:

The purpose of this drill is to pressure the basketball by zig zagging or turning the ball handler and then close out on a live dribble.

Instructions

• The defensive player should zig zag or turn the ball handler as many times as possible going from sideline to sideline.
• Try to stay between the top of the key and half court.

• Once the two players have reached the opposite sideline, the defensive player sprints and touches the baseline and closes out on the ball handler who is sprint dribbling around a cone at half court and then attacking the basket.

Points of Emphasis:

Offense:

• Make the defender have to work while guarding you by changing speeds and changing directions.
• Attack the rim aggressively with one move and as few dribbles as possible.
• Explode past the defender after making your move. 

Defense:

• Be aggressive on the ball and turn the ball handler as many times as possible.
• Sprint to the closeout.
• Close out low, aggressive, balanced, and under control.
• Keep the ball in front of you and force the ball handler to take a shot outside of the lane.
• Box out to finish the drill.

In the video you will see the drill that I refer to as one-on-one around the chairs.  The players playing against each other will line up on either end of the baseline.  One player will have the basketball and the other will not.  There will be chairs set up out near half court.  When the coach says go, the players will sprint or sprint dribble around the chairs and then play a live game to one.  The player without the basketball should beat the offensive player around the chair and give himself a legitimate chance to defend the player with the ball.  These games are usually ability grouped but it may be beneficial to have your bigger players compete against your guards in order to creat a mismatch that you may see in a game.  By creating this mismatch smaller players can work on beating and finishing over bigger players and bigger players can learn to use moves against quicker guards.  The benefis of this drill and other one-on-one basketball drills are endless and their use should be encouraged in practices more often.

The concept of transferability first came to me last week at one of my basketball training sessions.  The player that was training had a fantastic workout!  She made significant advances in the areas of ballhandling and attacking off the dribble and the catch over the course of the hour.  Whether she was creating space with a dribble move or with a jab step, her moves were low and aggressive and for the most part, that had not previously been the case.

At the end of the session I challenged her with a game called “Beat the Pro.”  In this game, you are essentially playing one-on-one against a fictitious pro of your choosing.  You must spin the ball to yourself and then make various moves off the catch and the dribble and finish off with a shot (I usually make them take jump shots since layups are easy and they should never lose if they take layups). Score is kept by giving yourself one point for every shot made and giving the pro two points for every miss.  Given how great her workout was, I was really curious to see how she would do in this game. 

This is where everything became interesting.  Over the course of the game, she did not use any of the moves that she had done so well with during that session.  Thus the teachable moment presented itself.  I asked her why she did not use any of the moves that we had been working on over the last hour.  Her response was, “I don’t know.”  So this became the opportunity to explain that the drills that we do were not just drills to kill time and that they all have a purpose.  She was so excited by this revelation that she immediately wanted to play “Beat the Pro” again and correct her mistakes.  I allowed her one point that she executed successfully, and when we played the game again after her next training, she did do much better.  She took all that we had worked on over the hour and transferred it to the game.  This is what I refer to as transferability. 

The concept of transferability had never really crossed my mind too much prior to this.  It was always just assumed that the players would realize that the drills that we worked on over the hour had a purpose that transferred to the game itself.  However, the more that I think about it, the more I realize that players may only see drills as drills and games as games.  This can only limit success. It is imperative that as coaches, we use drills that are a part of the big picture.  So in the case of the girl mentioned above, who is a point guard, this would include drills that allow her to create space off the dribble, attack and finish off the dribble, get into gaps and make successful passes, etc.  For those of you coaching a team, make sure that your drills go along with the offense and defense that you are trying to run.  This will make transferring them to a game situation significantly easier since they at least have a purpose relevant to your game plan.  Then have the players apply those skills and drills that were worked on in practice in a live but controlled situation at the end.  In stoppages explain to the players where the drills that you have used apply.  Make an effort to do this frequently enough to help the players understand the purpose or goal.  In doing so, this will help ensure that your players know that drills have a purpose beyond just killing time.  This will help ensure transferability.

A good way to start to develop your weak hand in ball handling is by working out with two basketballs at once.  To start, keep it simple with some two ball pounds and then as you progress add some of the other dribbles that can be seen in the video below.  Try to be creative with this and challenge yourself with new dribbles and moves, and if you come up with any others that are not seen in the video feel free to let me know in the comments section.  Thanks and enjoy.

Dynamic Warmup

Basketball Specific Warmup: I usually start each workout with ball handling so my players usually go through a series of pound drills with either one ball or two.  Each specific dribble (crossovers, between the legs, inside outs) takes about 25 seconds.

Full court ball handling (w/ one ball or two balls): This usually consists of various full court ball handling drills that incorporate the different change of direction moves (crossover, between the legs, behind the back, spin dribble, etc.)  as well as changes of speed.  This is also meant to work on the player’s game specific conditioning, so rest between reps is often limited to 30 seconds or less.  Beginners usually perform one up and back per move at 75% of their max speed and two up and backs per move at full speed and I encourage you to add to that as the player advances and their conditioning increases. 

The next series of drills usually consists of weak hand development drills.  These drills incorporate passing the ball with your weak hand either on the catch, off a pound, out of a change of direction, or in a half court situation off the dribble.  For these drills, the player usually performs two drills that are stationary and two that are done while moving with the dribble.  During each drill, the player completes 8-10 reps per set with about 30 seconds rest in between sets.

My players will then get into their jump shooting or finishing drills or both depending upon the length of the workout.  If the player is focusing on finishing around the rim, they will start off with one or two warmup finishing drills like circle layups (which consists of continuous finishes off the catch).  Upon completion of the warmup, we will get into a series of finishing drills that incorporate creating space off the catch (like a side angle step across or rip through series) or finishing off the dribble (like a six cone attack drill).  Throughout both drills, it is important to incorporate various ways to create space and/or change direction.

If the player is working more on their jump shot that day, they will start off with a series of form shooting drills. We will then get into different shooting drills that allow that player to get shots off the catch and off the dribble.  All the while these drills must be done at game speed, from game spots.

With the finishing and shooting drills, the reps are usually determined by a number of makes.  In other words, the player must make 10 shots during a set or 50 shots during the workout.  It should be noted that if the focus of that workout is on jump shooting then the player will take considerably more jump shots in the hour or hour and half session. 

At the end of each set of drills the players are challenged to make a one and one free throw situation.  If they miss the front end, it is 10 pushups.  If they make the first and miss the second, it is five pushups.  If they make both, they do none.   

Often times, the players will finish with some sort of competition shooting game that puts pressure on the player to make shots consecutively.  For example, the Bird Drill is a five spot shooting drill that gives the player two minutes to see how far they can get around and back.  The key is that they cannot move from one spot until they have hit two jumpers in a row.  This is a challenging but fun drill that the players really enjoy.

This workout, is a template for some of the workouts that my players go through.  It can and should be modified to fit the player’s needs.  There is no one generic workout, that can be given to players because all players have their strengths and weaknesses that they need to work on.  However, there are certain apsects of the game that should be worked on in each training session, and I have tried to lay them out for you here and in my previous posts , The Six Keys to Basketball Skill Development and 10 Keys to a Shooting Workout.

School has probably started up for some of you, I know it has for me.  That means basketball season is right around the corner…I have already attended my first fall clinic! I always say that players are made in the off season.  Elite Basketball Training’s Skills and Drills Clinics and the Elite Basketball Bootcamp are guaranteed to improve your game and make you into the player that you have always dreamed of.  For more information, a registration form, and a free video on both go to the following pages Elite Basketball Skills and Drills Clinics and Elite Basketball Bootcamp.

 And because of the holiday weekend, I am extending my offer through Labor Day Monday.  So, anyone who signs up by September 7th can deduct 10% off the total price of their registration fee and they will automatically receive a FREE Gatorade Hydration package, which includes a squirt bottle and free Gatorade for the duration of the clinics.  

So don’t waste any time and take advantage of this special offer before it is too late.

See you on the court! 

 Rich Stoner

Elite Basketball Training, LLC

Ps. For information on individual or small group training for strength & conditioning and/or skills training click here .  Thanks!

Pps. The clinics are not just for athletes, if any coaches would like to attend and pick up some new and exciting drills for the upcoming season or ideas on how to train their players for strength and conditioning please feel free to contact me.

In this video, this ballhandling  drill forces the player to be low while exploding by his defender off the dribble.  During the drill, the player will start at half court, dribble at the chair (his defender), and as he goes by the chair, he must pick up the tennis ball on his way to the basket.  This will help him get low enough where his shoulder is almost at his defender’s hip height.  By being this low, it will make him more aggressive as he beats his defender and allow him to explode up toward the basket when he finishes. 

The atmosphere that night was Intense and most importantly, FUN!

There was a natural progression from one skill to the next that allowed us to cover so many topics in the two and half hour clinic.  We even went a little bit over in order to get in our finishing body weight blast!  That was crazy!

I was fortunate enough to capture some excellent photos of the event that can be viewed on the Elite Basketball Training Flickr Page.   And there will be great video footage of the event coming very soon. 

Once again, thank you to everyone that was involved in the Coaches Choice, USA and Elite Basketball Training basketball clinic.  For more information on Elite Basketball Training’s camps, clinics, and training go to the Training and Clinics page, and be sure to follow me on Twitter and join us on Facebook as the Elite Basketball Training community continues to grow.

See you on the court.

Rich Stoner

Elite Basketball Training, LLC

www.richstoner.com