Former college player and high school basketball coach. My passion is to assist the next generation by helping them achieve their academic and athletic goals.
Pensacola, FL
Joined October 2023
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A.J. Ward retweeted
This is coaching GOLD. 🥇
“Just like anything else in coaching or teaching... you achieve what you emphasize.” - Kelvin Sampson
What matters most to you as a coach?
Can your players tell?
What you emphasize every day becomes your team’s identity.
A.J. Ward retweeted
Five lessons I learned about coaching basketball from my high school coach, Al McFadyen, many years ago.
1. Don’t be afraid to build with youth. Keep an eye to the future.
2. Do something a little different than the other teams in your league.
Continue ⬇️⬇️ for 3,4,5.
A.J. Ward retweeted
How do you encourage “Unselfish Play?”
You talk about it,
You encourage it,
You correct it when it’s not happening,
You praise it when it does happen.
Without it, you don’t have much of a chance to be the “best you can be.”
A.J. Ward retweeted
The 1st thing you need as a young head coach is a Simple & Effective Man to Man Defensive System.
That’s how you build a winning program. Start with Stops! Defense should be more consistent than your Offense ever can be.
Simple Offensive Scheme is next & build from there.
JMO
A.J. Ward retweeted
Before you choose your defense for this season, do this:
Go through your roster player by player and answer 5 questions.
What is this player’s best defensive skill?
What is their biggest defensive weakness?
What is the biggest threat to their playing time defensively (not always the same as their biggest weakness)?
What specific role could they own?
What does your roster have collectively: size, length, speed, IQ, physicality, versatility?
As coaches, we do this naturally on offense. We ask who can create, who can shoot, who can handle, who needs touches in the post...
Then we build our offense around those answers.
Defensively, too many teams do the opposite. They decide:
“We’re a Pack Line team.”
“We’re a Lock Left team.”
“We’re switching everything.”
Then they force the roster into it.
I’d rather work backwards. Evaluate the players first. Then ask:
Who can pressure the ball?
Who can contain but not pressure?
Who can chase shooters?
Who can guard bigger players?
Who can switch up?
Who can protect the rim?
Who struggles with awareness?
Who is physical?
Who can rebound out of rotation?
Now your scheme starts becoming a personnel decision instead of a philosophical preference.
And once you do that, ask one final question:
What is the ONE thing this group can become elite at?
Guarding pick-and-roll?
Rebounding?
Taking away the paint?
Creating turnovers?
Switching?
Disrupting sets?
That answer should shape a lot of what comes next.
Don’t build the defense you like most. Build the defense your team can become best at.
And if you need help, we spend 8+ hours in the Coaching Series working through identity, installation, development, scouting, and adjustments.
lockdowndefense.com/coaching…
A.J. Ward retweeted
THE PROCESS — like we’ve never seen it before. 👀
ESPN is set to debut “Saban,” a six-part documentary series on Nick Saban, Thursday, October 8th.
The series will feature hundreds of hours of never-before-seen footage from Saban’s legendary run at Alabama, while also diving into his life, philosophy and stops at LSU, the Miami Dolphins and beyond.
Saban. Ms. Terry. Former players, assistants and rivals. Behind-the-scenes footage that was never allowed out of the building during his coaching days.
What are you most hoping to see from the documentary?
A.J. Ward retweeted
Some good examples of “baseline push” and “base traps” in this montage.
#PressureManTips
A.J. Ward retweeted
🚨 Sticky Words Sunday 🚨
“Keep your learning ahead of your earning.”
Some of my favorite foundational coaching and personal development books are listed below.
Would love to hear some more recommended. 📝
A.J. Ward retweeted
Some coaches sell talent.
Dan Hurley sells work and toughness.
That’s the difference between a program and a roster.
That’s culture.
A.J. Ward retweeted
I like using a shot rating system.
9 = uncontested layup you can make 90% of the time
7 = in range, in rhythm, with room
5 = one of the above elements missing
The best way I've found teaching the system to my team is to play a 5v5 game called "7's for 70."
🏀 Points awarded based on the shot rating - 5, 7 or 9 - on a make OR miss (second chance shots off rebounds don't receive any points)
🏀 First team to 70 wins
🏀 Game must end on a 7 or a 9
As the season goes on, players ask if we can award points only if the shot is made. I'd suggest this only once your team starts taking only 7s and 9s and is holding each other accountable for shot selection. 😏
If a player(s) continue to take bad shots, require them to come off the floor and do 10-20 pushups while their team plays 4-on-5.
A.J. Ward retweeted
3. 2v1 Shooting (@BBallImmersion)
Get into groups of 3: 2 shooters, 1 passer/defender
Passer hits whoever she wants, and guards whoever she wants.
Shoot if open, move it if guarded.
Shooter becomes the next passer/defender.
So true! 3 on 3 is great for installing offensive and defensive concepts. Plus, it highlights player’s strengths, and shows their weaknesses. Play 3 on 3 every day in practice.
A lot of coaches treat 3v3 like something to throw in at the end of practice.
But coached the right way, it becomes one of the best teaching tools for 5v5.
Spacing. Reads. Cutting. Movement. Decision making.
The game gets smaller, but the lessons get bigger.
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A.J. Ward retweeted
What kind of coach are you?
Are you the coach who is always looking for the next innovation? The coach who wants to out-scheme opponents, find mismatches, and stay one step ahead of everyone else?
Or are you the coach who believes championships are built on fundamentals? The coach who keeps things simple, demands consistency, and gets players exceptionally good at the basics?
Now imagine if you could put those two minds together. 👀
A program that is fundamentally sound, disciplined, and tough, but also creative, adaptable, and innovative.
The best coaches aren’t forced to choose between simplicity and innovation. They master the fundamentals first and then build on them with ideas that give their players an advantage.
When discipline meets creativity, special things happen.
We’ve always emphasized the importance of offensive rebounding, but when a team switches from man-to-man defense to any zone defense as a change-up, we emphasize offensive rebounding even more. Crash the glass for extra scoring opportunities like this possession here:
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