In today's game, it is important that you have an open and sincere dialogue with your teams, but what is the line between what is good for your program and when you are giving up too much control? In this episode, we talk about how promises are different than negotiable topics and how to handle those situations.

We're really excited to have Brett Coultier, the Head Boys Basketball Coach at Princeton (MN) HS! In this pod, we dive deep into breaking an 87 year state tournament drought, using social media to enhance your program, playing at a high pace, off-season development, switching man to man defense and many more topics, including who we think we will Season 23 of Big Brother! Great conversation!

As coaches, it is important to have clear lines of communication with your players, but where does that communication start? In this episode of "Foundation Friday", we talk about our preseason questionnaire and how that can be used to get to know your players on a level other than basketball, while also giving you the opportunity to clean up possible areas of concern before they even start!

Really excited to have Liz Kay, the GBB HC at Wahconah Regional HS (Mass.) to chat hoops! In our conversation, we theorize about the smaller number of female coaches in relation to male coaches in the profession, having her best team ever but not having the opportunity to play for a championship, working camps, building a great culture, building a youth program and more!

As much as we would like to have ALL of our players get along and love each other ALL of the time, that is simply impossible. Conflict is inevitable, even in the best of times, so what are some things that we can and/or should do to help resolves these situations and keep your team on the right track.

We're back with another great roundtable discussion with Millard West GBB AC Casey Hall, Creighton Prep HC Josh Luedtke and Omaha Marian HC Tom Tvrdy. In this episode, we discuss the 2021 state tournament, off-season preparation, using the fall to get ready for the upcoming season and ways to minimize stress as you coach. Terrific discussion!

Elkhorn Mount Michael (NE) HC Derrik Spooner is our guest this week! Coach Spooner talks about a variety of topics, including the uniqueness of Mt. Michael, wearing dual hats as an administrator and as a coach, preparing for the season, developing a strong class, passing, practice planning and more. Alot of great information to mine from this one!

Although there are many coaches who run some sort of pressure defense, there are alot of different things and philosophies when it comes to pressure. In this pod, we discuss different thoughts and ideas on pressure defense; when to apply, why you would apply it, how to apply it, the positives that can come out of it, and when to pull back from applying full court pressure.

Tony Chapman of Striv Sports and Nebraska Preps comes on the podcast as a pinch hitter this week to discuss a bunch of great topics, including being a coaches kid, covering the historically great 2021 Nebraska Boys Basketball tournament, things that can be done to make youth sports better and great things that he sees in coaching while covering a wide variety of sports and activities. Great conversation; enjoy!

Our time as coaches is limited; probably for most of us, AT THE MOST we'll have 35-40 years to do this job, which is not that long in the big picture. Are you enjoying what you're doing? Are you taking an inventory every day of what is bringing you joy? Realize that our coaching careers are short, so enjoy every practice, every game and every season, and enjoy the ride from beginning to end.

As part of the "University" program, I've put together a series of videos on each one of these topics. Now, I've made them available for ANYONE to purchase; listen to this pod to get all of the details!

Excited to have Dell Leonard, the GBB HC of Mountain Home (AR), whom I met while at Snow Valley! Dell and I have a great conversation, including the importance of mentors, getting your team to peak at the right time, transition offense and defense, attacking pressure and we even throw in some "Top Gun" talk. Enjoy the conversation!

We all want our teams and our programs to have a great, tight-knit bond. Although we'd like to have that environment come about in an organic way, it is part of your staff's job to create opportunities and to have exercises to build that bond within your team. In this week's "Foundation Friday", we go through a bunch of team bonding and building concepts and ideas that have been good to us over the years!

Excited for "Quick Hitters" Volume #6!! In this episode, we have USA Basketball's Don Showalter talking about a "Coaches DNA" and what makes a great coach, along with Dick Lien, legendary coach who just published a book called "A Coaches Journey: It's in the File Cabinet". In the second half of the pod, Burwell (NE) Boys HC Adam Stolzer talks about the use of Hudl and how his program uses film to improve, we then wrap up with Craig Doty, Men's Basketball Coach at Emporia State (KS), where we chat about keeping balance and taking care of ourselves as coaches. Great information all the way through; enjoy!!!

All of us have an idea as to what we want our teams and our programs to look like, but sometimes we need a little help in laying out the road map to get there. Directly borrowing and inspired by Pete Carroll's "Win Forever", this is something that I put together to help me figure out my philosophy, my priorities and what I wanted to emphasize when I would get back into coaching. Enjoy!!

Myself, Tom Krehbiel, Doug Woodard and Marc Kruger sit down at Wine 121 in Omaha to chat about a bunch of different basketball subjects, including playing an underclassman above an upperclassman, fundraising, what you're doing to get ready for the season, organizing your staff on game night and much more! Great conversation with a great group of coaches and guys!!

After a couple of days at the Nebraska Coaches Association Clinic, there were quite a few things that I took from the discussions. Here's some things that I learned from Tim Cannon, Kelly Flynn, John Larsen, Jeff Ritz and Craig Doty. Enjoy the odds and ends from the last couple of days!

Last week, I FINALLY took the time to head out to Snow Valley Basketball School in Waverly, Iowa, and it did not disappoint!!! Dropping a "Foundation Friday" on a Monday, here are some things that I took away from Snow Valley, including skill development, camp design and other things. Thanks to everyone who I got to work the camp with!

In our latest episode, Dave Bollish, the girls basketball coach at Scottsbluff (NE), dives into his coaching career and philosophy. We discuss jumping from being an assistant to being a head coach in the same program, the slow build of a program, representing the western part of the state, pressure defense, attacking offense and much more!

Just a few updates for the coming week or two for "A Pen And A Napkin", including this week's interview pod, working Snow Valley, the Nebraska Coaches Association clinics and APAAN "University"

You can run all the plays you want, but if you don't finish the shot at the end of it, it doesn't matter. In order to become a great shooter, you have to have a routine that is practical and well-rounded, but also active and will get your players ready for practice. In this Foundation Friday, we go through our "33 Shot" Warmup; feel free to tweak to fit your program or your philosophy.

University of Illinois-Chicago MBB HC Luke Yaklich comes on the pod to discuss his career, starting as a high school coach before moving on to college ball. We also discuss the influence of Dan Muller, John Beilein, and Shaka Smart, as well as practice planning and the importance of preparation. Great conversation with one of America's best coaches!

Every coach, every off-season, looks at their schedule and their team, and it's human nature to try to anticipate what your record is going to be the next season. However, we often look at things from the perspective of "everything's going to go right" perspective instead of a realistic, analytical perspective. Here's a formula that I've used that gives you a pretty accurate predictor of where your team could/should end up this winter.

Here's our first week of APAAN "University"; let's get the party started!! As a bonus to everyone who has followed "A Pen And A Napkin", we're going to open up our first week, "Communication with Your Players", to ANYONE who wants to jump on for free! Here's a quick preview of the week!

We're excited to have on our first international coach, Brent Tipton, the U17 Men's BBall Coach from Guam! In this episode, Coach tells us about his journey, international coaches we should be studying, fundamental skill development, attacking pick and roll concepts and the two sided fast break. Alot of good information; enjoy!!

We're not coaching an Xbox game, we're coaching human beings, and sometimes the hardest part of coaching is the personalities that you have on your team. You're going to have players that are not content with their role, so how do you identify these players early, what are the warning signs and how do you handle those situations as quickly as possible? Here's some things to look for and some strategies to use to combat them!

A quick three minute pod on updates for this week, plus discussing updates to our "A Pen And A Napkin" University program!

We, as coaches, want to run great practices and workouts at all times. However, it is inevitable that we're going to have a bad practice at multiple points throughout our season. The key to this inevitability is bouncing back as quickly as possible and not allowing one bad practice to become two or three bad practices. In this week's "Foundation Friday", we take a look at strategies to minimize our bad practices.

In our last pod on Don Yaeger's "Great Teams", we take a look at the last pillar of what makes a "Great Team"; Mutual Direction. Getting your teams to move in the same direction is the greatest achievement of any coach or organization, and Yaeger gives us a lot to think about when it comes to what it takes and what we can do to get our team unified and moving together as one!

This week's pod is a "Quick Hitter" with three terrific guests! Chris Fore, the President of the California Coaches Association, comes on the pod to discuss the rights of coaches and what coaches should look for in their jobs. Jeff Morris, a retired girls hoops coach from Nebraska, chats about his career, while Casey Hall jumps on to discuss his active 2-3 zone and how to create chaos while protecting the basket. Great information that needs to be shared!!

Cracking zone defenses can sometimes be easier said than done. In this week's "Foundation Friday", we talk about attacking zone defenses, concepts and ideas for getting open shots, fundamentals vs. a zone, and one of our favorite breakdown drills for attacking a zone.

In our third part of our four part series on Don Yaeger's "Great Teams", we dive into "Activating Efficiency". In this pillar, Yaeger addresses conflict resolution and how to work through friction, mentoring, leadership transitions and how to run an effective meeting. As this book moves along, there's more and more information that apply to coaching your teams on a daily basis; take this information and run with it!

Holy crap . . . I designed a website! Today we're launching apenandanapkin.com, which opens up access to sign up for "A Pen And A Napkin University", your online coaching course where you can "hone your craft" to help you become the most complete coach that you can be! Details for both are in the pod, so enjoy and get fired up to get better today!!

In this week's podcast, we dive in with Dexter Goodner, the GBB HC from Ord (NE). In our outside discussion, we go through his career, bouncing back from a heart-breaking loss, the influence of Kansas basketball on his career, taking a stand on social issues, weightlifting, music in practice and summer workouts. Alot of great conversation and fun interaction!

We're kicking into high gear with our summer camps and leagues, and it's easy to get sucked into things like focusing on winning and losing. Although you never turn down a win, you need to focus on a multitude of things to ensure that your program grows in the direction where you are using. your summer activities to build towards the most important season; the winter. Enjoy!

In Part II of this 4-part Book Club series, we take a look at Pillar II of Don Yaeger's "Great Teams", which is Effective Management. When we look at our teams, we have to look at them from the perspective of their "boss", and the strategies and leadership styles it takes to get our players to "go to work" every day, build a great and deep staff and develop camaraderie!

A terrific episode on our latest podcast with Nate Sanderson, the new GBB HC at Mount Vernon (IA). In this episode, we discuss rebuilding programs, winning state championships, bouncing back from getting asked to resign, basketball analytics, practice design, communicating with your players and . . . wiffle ball!!!!! TERRIFIC chat; you're going to draw alot from this one!!

One of the key components of a high school program is running an effective elementary level camp in the summer to spark interest in your program. In this "Foundation Friday" podcast, we talk about suggestions that will make your camp better and to help run it smoother while also giving your campers a great experience!

In Don Yaeger's "Great Teams", we break down the essential qualities that a "Great Team" should possess to be considered great. These 16 qualities, broken down into four pillars, will help you figure out what you should be looking for to identify and/or build a great team, whether that is in sports or business. Over the next four weeks, we'll take a look at each pillar, starting with Pillar I, finding our "why"!

Most of our coaching careers are focused on the next job, but we often forget about what we should and should not be doing leaving our last job. Although I"m sure that I've made my fair share of mistakes leaving my current job, here are some thoughts and advice on what you should and should not do as you leave one job behind and transition into the next one.

This week's interview pod features Jason Isaacson, the head boys basketball coach at Council Bluffs (IA) Abraham Lincoln. In this pod, we discuss the keys to turning around his alma mater, developing players in the off-season, the recruitment process of a Power 5 player, practice set up, defensive philosophy and much more! Alot of great stuff to learn from this pod!!

Have you ever wondered what your impact on your former players was? Have you ever gotten a chance to sit down and ask about your players experience with them after there's been some time to reflect on it? Have you ever wanted to ask your former players what you did well and what you didn't do so well? This week, three of my former players (Laura (Speer) Dischler, Tara Cannon and Caley Barker) sit around at my driveway and we talk about coaching, the coach player relationship and much more in this unique roundtable podcast!

As coaches, we're always trying to "win on the margins", and here's another area in which you can help your team win; the timeout game. In this pod, we discuss timeout philosophy, organization, how to "steal" timeouts and what you should be teaching your team about your timeout philosophy.

If you couldn't make it to our coaches clinic on May 1st . . . no problem!! We taped every on court presentation, and they are now available to you at the VERY affordable price of $10 per video, or $50 for the entire collection! Over 4 hours of coaching information from some of the best in the midwest, with NO repeats when it comes to concepts and drills taught! It is truly a complete library that is going to expand your own knowledge of the game and help you hone your craft!

In a two-part interview, we have nationally renowed Bob Starkey, the new associate head coach at Auburn University, one of the preeminent assistant coaches in the country. We chat about his experiences with Hall of Famer's Dale Brown, Sue Gunter and Gary Blair, being the coach of TWO #1 overall draft picks from different genders, coaching Shaquillle O'Neal, his friendship with Don Meyer and "The Art of . . ." coaching series. In the second half, Babe Kwasniak returns to the pod, where we talk about his year off, lessons learned and how he's going to attack his new job at Cornerstone Christian Academy. A bunch of terrific stuff in this pod!!!

Execution at the moments of highest pressure is what separates many teams, and the comeback game is no different. Inevitably, your team is going to fall behind at various points of the game, so what is going to be the plan when that happens? Here are some thoughts and tips to look at the game with the end in mind and to put your team in a situation to be successful when it seems the most unlikely.

In an abbreviated but terrific version of "Quick Hitters", we have Kelly Kielsmeier, the Associate Head Coach at Quincy University (IL) coming on the pod to talk offensive actions and movement. The second half of our "Quick Hitter" is Chris Oliver from Basketball Immersion; we chat about all things basketball from the 30,000 foot view, including comparing HS coaching to AAU and European ball. Enjoy!!

In part three of our three part series on the mental game, we explore practical applications to the mental game, both for you and your players. Things like breathing, "Think Time" (borrowing from Kevin Eastman), cue words, phrases, self talk and more, here are some ways that you and your program can conquer the toughest opponent of all; yourself.