Coaching Girls' Basketball Successfully - Jill Prudden

Coaching Girls' Basketball Successfully

by Jill Prudden

NEW, 232 pages

Get other Basketball books here

About Coaching Girls' Basketball Successfully

Learn to coach girls’ basketball from one of the most successful U.S. high school coaches. In Coaching Girls’ Basketball Successfully, veteran coach Jill Prudden explains the methods she has used to win more than 700 games and send dozens of female players to the collegiate level, including Olympian Jennifer Azzi.

Packed with insights, plays, and drills, this comprehensive book presents the tactics for leading an effective program as it specifically relates to girls’ teams. Not only will you find the skills and drills to help your team improve on the court, but you will also discover the foundational issues of developing a philosophy, motivating, evaluating, and communicating with players and staff. Sample forms, charts, and checklists help you organize and manage teams on a daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal basis.

Through Prudden’s expert guidance and compelling anecdotes, you will learn to identify and put into play the unique team dynamics of girls’ basketball. Coaching Girls’ Basketball Successfully will show you how to build a winning program and team, year in and year out.

About Jill Prudden

Jill Prudden is the head girls' basketball coach and assistant athletic director at Oak Ridge (Tennessee) High School and a physical education teacher at Robertsville Middle School. Over the course of her coaching career, she has won more than 700 games and earned 3 state titles, 5 state runner-up finishes, 18 regional championships, and 22 district titles.

Under Prudden's guidance, Oak Ridge has appeared in USA Today's final national rankings several times. She has coached 45 players who have received college scholarships, including Olympian and professional player Jennifer Azzi. USA Basketball and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) have selected Prudden for various coaching duties, including court coach for the 2001 USA Basketball Women's Junior National Team Trials and coach for the 1997 WBCA all-star game. She also served as the USA basketball coach at the 1998 World Youth Games.

A three-time Tennessee Coach of the Year and seven-time East Tennessee Coach of the Year, Prudden is a member of the WBCA, the USA Basketball Youth and Cadet Committee, and the McDonald's High School All-American Selection Committee. She was inducted into the Oak Ridge Sports Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame in 2002. In 1998 Prudden received the Sports Hall of Fame TSSAA Distinguished Service Award.

Prudden resides in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she enjoys jogging and golfing and is involved with compassion ministries.

Reviews

"Jill Prudden is one of the best high school coaches I have ever known. Her dedication to her athletes and to high school girls basketball, and her knowledge of the game and attention to detail has benefited many great collegians such as Jennifer Azzi at Stanford University and Nikki Caldwell at the University of Tennessee. This book will have tremendous value to a coach who wants to build a program the right way!"

Nell Fortner, Auburn University

"Coach Prudden helped lay the foundation for my basketball career because of her ability to teach the fundamentals and think through the strategies of the game. She brings out the best in her players as individuals and as a group by stressing teamwork, hard work, and the importance of conducting themselves with class at all times. As a result, she has gained a tremendous amount of respect not only for her team's on-court success but also in the way she runs her program as a whole. She is leaving a legacy that coaches only dream of."

Jennifer Azzi
WNBA, member of 1996 Olympic gold-medal team

About Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules. Basketball is one of the world's most popular and widely viewed sport.

A regulation basketball hoop consists of a rim 18 inches (45.7 cm) in diameter and 10 feet (3.05 m) high mounted to a backboard. A team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the hoop during regular play. A field goal scores two points for the shooting team if a player is touching or closer to the hoop than the three-point line, and three points (a "3 pointer") if the player is "outside" the three-point line. The team with more points at the end of the game wins, but additional time (overtime) may be issued when the game ends with a tie. The ball can be advanced on the court by bouncing it while walking or running (dribbling) or passing it to a teammate. It is a violation (traveling) to walk with the ball, carry it, or to double dribble (to hold the ball and then resume dribbling).

Various violations are generally called "fouls". Disruptive physical contact (a personal foul) is penalized, and a free throw is usually awarded to an offensive player if he is fouled while shooting the ball. A technical foul may also be issued when certain infractions occur, most commonly for unsportsmanlike conduct on the part of a player or coach. A technical foul gives the opposing team a free throw.

Basketball has evolved many commonly used techniques of shooting, passing, and dribbling, as well as specialized player positions and offensive and defensive structures (player positioning) and techniques. Typically, the tallest members of a team will play "center", "small forward", or "power forward" positions, while shorter players or those who possess the best ball handling skills and speed play "point guard" or "shooting guard".

While competitive basketball is carefully regulated, numerous variations of basketball have developed for casual play. Competitive basketball is primarily an indoor sport played on carefully marked and maintained basketball courts, but less regulated variations are often played outdoors in both inner city and rural areas.

The strategies also evolve with the game. In the 1990s and early 2000s, teams played with more "isolation". Teams that had one superstar would let one player, usually the point guard or shooting guard, run most of the offense while the other four offensive players get out of his/her way. Nowadays, teams tend to play with more teamwork. The "Center" position has evolved to become more of a taller "Small Forward" position. Since teams play more teamwork, ball movement has evolved with the game, and more jump shots have been taken as a result.

There are two main defensive strategies: zone defense and man-to-man defense. In a zone defense, each player is assigned to guard a specific area of the court. In a man-to-man defense, each defensive player guards a specific opponent. Man-to-man defense is generally preferred at higher levels of competition, as it is intuitively easier to understand and avoids mismatches between players who play different positions. However, zone defenses are sometimes used in particular situations or simply to confuse the offense with an unexpected look.

Offensive plays are more varied, normally involving planned passes and movement by players without the ball. A quick movement by an offensive player without the ball to gain an advantageous position is a cut. A legal attempt by an offensive player to stop an opponent from guarding a teammate, by standing in the defender's way such that the teammate cuts next to him, is a screen or pick. The two plays are combined in the pick and roll, in which a player sets a pick and then "rolls" away from the pick towards the basket. Screens and cuts are very important in offensive plays; these allow the quick passes and teamwork which can lead to a successful basket. Teams almost always have several offensive plays planned to ensure their movement is not predictable. On court, the point guard is usually responsible for indicating which play will occur.

Defensive and offensive structures, and positions, are more emphasized in higher levels in basketball; it is these that a coach normally requests a time-out to discuss.

Coaching Girls' Basketball Successfully