Basketball Coaching Philosophy: Examples and a Template

A basketball coaching philosophy is a short statement of why you coach, what you value, how you teach and how your team will play. One warning is that new coaches often write a philosophy that is only technical, a list of plays, practice structure and weight training, and leave out character, leadership and the purpose of the sport.

This guide covers what a philosophy usually includes, real basketball coaching philosophy examples from head coaches whose programs are known for them, the questions where those coaches disagree, and a fill-in template built from the same elements. The rest of the program side is in the coaching section.

What a Coaching Philosophy Covers

A philosophy usually has the same main parts, though each coach adds his own:

• Why you coach. Separate coaches who trained for and want the job from coaches who were handed it because a school needed someone. A philosophy covers teaching style, team building, how the coach reaches players of different ability, and why the coach should be leading young people at all.
• Goals and priorities. Start with team goals and priorities before anything else and name the trade between winning and getting along as a team. A youth coach's top priority, playing time for everyone, differs from an AAU or high school coach's. Write separate team goals and individual player goals and share both with the players.
• Values. Start from personal core values, such as integrity, teamwork, hard work and respect, and let them shape practice and how the coach treats players.
• Your own style. A coaching style is usually an extension of the coach's personality, so the useful exercise is to name your best and worst tendencies, then stay yourself. Be yourself in temperament rather than imitate a coach you admire.
• Teaching. Coaching is teaching, of basketball skills and life skills. Commit to player development as part of the philosophy, with skills broken into drills players can track.
• Discipline and rules. Set rules, but not so many that the coach becomes inflexible, and get the full facts and the athletic director's input before handing down discipline.
• How success is measured. Measure success by effort, development and enjoyment, not only the record.

A team can only fully commit to about four or five points of emphasis, such as defense and rebounding, pressing, a three-point offense or a motion offense, so a coach has to choose.

Name your elements before you name your plays.

Style of Play

Style of play is a choice between "go" and "whoa".

• Go. A go style, with the fast break, a full-court press, a deep bench and lots of substitutes, fits quick, athletic, deep teams.
• Whoa. A whoa style, slower, half-court and lower risk, fits strong post players and a thin bench.

The style should fit that year's personnel, and a coach must be willing to move between the two across seasons or even within a game.

A go style. 1 pushes the ball up the middle while 2 and 3 run wide lanes.

A whoa style. A patient half-court possession, with the ball reversed from 2 to 1 to 3.

State an offensive identity, transition or structured half-court sets, and a defensive identity, man-to-man, zone or a mix, and explain the reasons to players. The systems themselves are on fast break basketball and basketball delay game offense.

Fit the style to this year's players.

Basketball Coaching Philosophy Examples

These are real philosophies from well-known head coaches, summarized in their own terms.

Pat Summitt: the Definite Dozen

Pat Summitt's Tennessee program used twelve principles:

• Respect yourself and others.
• Take full responsibility.
• Develop and demonstrate loyalty.
• Learn to be a great communicator.
• Discipline yourself so no one else has to.
• Make hard work your passion.
• Don't just work hard, work smart.
• Put the team before yourself.
• Make winning an attitude.
• Be a competitor.
• Change is a must.
• Handle success like you handle failure.

Beside them, the program's winning keys were pressure defense, control the boards, take care of the ball and take good shots, and its motto was play hard, play smart, play together, play with confidence and play with an attitude. Each principle with Tennessee's practice rules and game goals is on Pat Summitt's Definite Dozen.

Bob McKillop: seven points

Bob McKillop's Davidson program philosophy has seven points: seeing, communicate, details, balance, have an act (know who you are as a program and perform it with consistency), no fear of physical contact, and finish everything, which he capitalized and underlined. He adds "steal points": execute special situations so well that the points are stolen through better preparation.

Dean Smith: team unity

Dean Smith's unity principles at North Carolina include no teammate yelling at another, never substituting on a mistake, since a player who is trying needs encouragement, the bench standing to applaud team plays and substitutes coming off, sprints run for pride rather than punishment, and seniors bringing the coach problems, not names. Another rule is to acknowledge the passer by pointing to him. His model is laid out whole beside three others on program culture case studies.

Acknowledge the passer. 2 feeds 5 on the block, and after the basket 5 points back at 2.

Dan Hurley: four principles and three rules

Dan Hurley gives four core principles: Strength of the Pack (nothing you do or say can make the pack weaker), Consistent Improvement (daily process, not outcomes), Relentless Competitive Effort and Mindful Communication. Separate from those are three rules: no blaming, no complaining, no defending.

Eddie Sutton: a short list

Eddie Sutton's list starts with building a basketball philosophy and believing in what you teach so the players will too. It goes on:

• Set goals. Use seniors as lieutenants.
• Hire well. Hire people with good work habits, loyalty, honesty and class.
• Treat players like your own children.
• Define each player's role.
• Run organized shooting drills. Have managers chart them.
• Remember the players. Coaching can only take you so far without good players.

He calls defense the stabilizer that keeps a team in games when it cannot score, and he plays man-to-man about 95 percent of the time.

Man to man. Every defender guards one player.

Vance Walberg: attack and shot selection

Vance Walberg's Fresno philosophy lists "no excuses", an attack philosophy built on wearing the opponent down, and speeding up the tempo with defense. Shot selection is the first thing in his offense: threes or the rim, no midrange. The full system is on dribble drive motion offense.

Threes or the rim. 1 drives for a layup or kicks to 3 in the corner for a three, and the midrange is left empty.

Attitude and team

The attitude-and-team philosophy builds everything on two words, attitude and team. Its statements include:

• Conditioning is the base of discipline. An aggressive conditioning program.
• Discipline is the base of morale and unity.
• Sound defense starts team morale.
• Attack the basket relentlessly. For high-percentage shots.
• Dictate tempo.
• No moral victory. Refuse to accept one.

It defines success as working as hard as you can and doing it together.

John Beilein, Rick Pitino and Erik Spoelstra

• John Beilein hung a numbered constitution of about 20 items in the locker room, including be on time, treat people with respect, no turnovers, play unselfish, play harder, the value of education and be a good teammate. He later listed unity, appreciation, integrity, diligence and accountability.
• Rick Pitino's One Day Contract bans cynicism and ego (EGO is Edging Greatness Out), asks for kindness to everyone and makes the staff show the fitness it preaches.
• Erik Spoelstra's core values are together, tough, trust, and we are all peers in this. More on Erik Spoelstra's coaching philosophy.

More single-coach profiles are on Mike Krzyzewski's coaching philosophy, Gregg Popovich's coaching philosophy and Pat Riley's coaching philosophy.

Where Coaches Disagree

Same standard for every player?

• Yes. Fairness to the best and worst player alike (Steve Alford), hold everyone to the same standard (Tom Crean).
• No equal treatment. Nolan Richardson, as quoted.

Who enforces the standard?

• The team. One player errs, the whole team runs, and players talk to each other (Željko Obradović).
• One voice in the gym. The coach's.
• Self-directed questions. Each player asks himself.

Winning or teaching?

• A choice each coach must make.
• Never put winning ahead of the individual.
• Winning matters more. Winning matters more than saving a player's feelings.

Who makes decisions?

• Directive. Do what the coach says (Roy Williams).
• Shared. Players give opinions, help write rules or name the sets.

Substituting after a mistake

• Never. Dean Smith.
• Wait for a positive play. Wait until the player makes a positive play, so players do not fear mistakes.
• Sub for named breaches. Such as a midrange pull-up (Vance Walberg).

More on the daily habits that carry a philosophy into practice is on basketball team culture and basketball coaching styles.

Choose your answer to each question and put it in your philosophy.

Writing It Down and Using It

• Write it, then sell it. Write down your philosophy and then sell it, because players do more when they believe in the plan.
• Keep it direct. Say what you mean and mean what you say, and note that in a hiring interview much of the talk checks whether the spoken answers match the written philosophy.
• Be ready to say it. A coach should be able to state his philosophy at once when asked.
• Model it. Players read a coach's actions as the real philosophy, not the written version.
• Review it. Treat the philosophy as a living document, reviewed with feedback from players, assistants and parents. A style that is losing its effect should be re-evaluated, since the roster and the game change every year.
• Turn it into rules. The written philosophy feeds the team rules. More on basketball team rules, and the day-to-day habits are on basketball coaching tips.

Write it down, live it, and revisit it every year.

A Sample Basketball Coaching Philosophy Template

This is a fill-in template, not anyone's philosophy. Each heading is one of the elements named above. Fill in your own words under each one.

• Why I coach: ____
• What success means for this team: effort ____, development ____, enjoyment ____, the record ____
• Team goals and priorities: ____
• Individual player goals: ____
• Core values: ____
• My teaching style: ____
• How decisions are made (directive or shared): ____
• Offensive identity: ____
• Defensive identity: ____
• Points of emphasis (four or five at most): ____
• Rules and how they are enforced: ____
• Roles and playing time: ____

Questions Coaches Ask

More Guides From This Batch

• Spread Offense Basketball: Alignments, Rules and Versions
• Basketball Coaching Tips: Practice, Talk, Games and Parents
• List of Basketball Violations: Every Violation by Level
• 131 Offense Basketball: The 1-3-1 Set vs Man and Zones

Back to Coaching and Program and every Coaching page.

Keep Building

Related breakdowns

Coaching

Basketball Scouting Report Template and How to Fill It Out

A printable basketball scouting report template with team, offense, defense, player and game plan sections, the questions to ask and how to brief players.

Coaching

Pat Riley Coaching Philosophy and Culture

Pat Riley Coaching Philosophy and Culture

Coaching

Geno Auriemma Culture of Excellence Coaching Philosophy

Geno Auriemma Culture of Excellence Coaching Philosophy