Pat Colliton's Coach's Corner Fairfax, Virginia

This is Pat Colliton from Fairfax Virginia, where I have coached for the past seventeen years and I thought that I would post a few of my thoughts on the subject of coaching. I have coached at the AAU level, Travel Team level, House League level, and Developmental level, and with very few exceptions, my advice is the same at all levels. Make it fun and stress the fundamentals.

With three kids between the ages of 12 and 22, I can tell you this much about their generation. They come from the school of “Everything I learned about basketball, I learned on Sportscenter.”

As I mentioned earlier, stick with the two “F”s, Fun and Fundamentals and I promise you that you will have great success. This is true at any age from 6 all the way up to 18. If you can make it fun, the kids will keep coming back and then the game itself becomes the teacher. The simplest way to make it both fun and full of fundamentals is to make up games that stress the simple basics of the game. Almost every kid that is playing sports is competitive by nature (or their parents are) and they all love to “win” no matter what the game. By making up the games and the rules, coaches can keep everything even. I can’t tell you how many games that I have invented that have miraculously ended in a tie.

My next Blog I will talk about a little bit about some fun games and how a simple drill like lay-up lines can work on four fundamentals of the game.
This is Patrick Colliton signing off from 6528 Heather Brook Ct., McLean, VA 22101.