The Baffled Parent's Guide to Coaching Girls' Basketball (Baffled Parent's Guides) [Paperback]

Sylvia Hatchell (Author), Jeff Thomas (Author)

Book Description

Series: Baffled Parent's Guides | Publication Date: November 15, 2005

"If you're serious about coaching girls' basketball, Coach Hatchell's book is a must-read."—Dean Smith, the winningest coach in NCAA men's basketball history

"Coach Hatchell covers everything you need to know about coaching girls' basketball."—Betty Jaynes, CEO Emeritus, Women's Basketball Coaches Association

OK, you’ve got the clipboard and the whistle, you’ve entered the gym, and twelve eager young faces turn to you. Now what? Even if you know little or nothing about the sport and even less about coaching, Coaching Girls’ Basketball will lead you step by step through a successful season, from meeting your players and organizing your team, through teaching fundamentals, to making crucial game decisions.

Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame coach Sylvia Hatchell helps you master the skills, drills, plays, and game-day tactics that will make you a great coach. She also helps you cope with important issues like treating players equally regardless of ability, unhappy parents, helping all your players experience growth and success, and recognizing the crucial differences between coaching girls and boys. Coach Hatchell shows you how to:

• Prepare for your first practice and first game
• Match drills to ability
• Promote good habits, concentration, and teamwork
• Learn what's unique about coaching girls from age 6 to 14
• Make practices fun, effective, and rewarding
• Improve your players and your team
• Reach all your players
• Be the coach your players will remember

"Learn from the best. Coach Hatchell knows basketball."—Charlotte Smith-Taylor, forward, Washington Mystics; 1995 ESPN National Player of the Year

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"If you're serious about coaching girls' basketball, Coach Hatchell's book is a must-read."—Dean Smith, the winningest coach in NCAA men's basketball history

"Coach Hatchell covers everything you need to know about coaching girls' basketball."—Betty Jaynes, CEO Emeritus, Women's Basketball Coaches Association

OK, you’ve got the clipboard and the whistle, you’ve entered the gym, and twelve eager young faces turn to you. Now what? Even if you know little or nothing about the sport and even less about coaching, Coaching Girls’ Basketball will lead you step by step through a successful season, from meeting your players and organizing your team, through teaching fundamentals, to making crucial game decisions.

Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame coach Sylvia Hatchell helps you master the skills, drills, plays, and game-day tactics that will make you a great coach. She also helps you cope with important issues like treating players equally regardless of ability, unhappy parents, helping all your players experience growth and success, and recognizing the crucial differences between coaching girls and boys. Coach Hatchell shows you how to:

• Prepare for your first practice and first game
• Match drills to ability
• Promote good habits, concentration, and teamwork
• Learn what's unique about coaching girls from age 6 to 14
• Make practices fun, effective, and rewarding
• Improve your players and your team
• Reach all your players
• Be the coach your players will remember

"Learn from the best. Coach Hatchell knows basketball."—Charlotte Smith-Taylor, forward, Washington Mystics; 1995 ESPN National Player of the Year

Sylvia Hatchell has been a college head coach for 30 years, and her University of North Carolina Tar Heel teams have won five Atlantic Coast Conference titles and the 1994 NCAA National Championship. Sylvia was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004.

Jeff Thomas, a long-time writer and editor, coaches high school and AAU girls’ basketball in Richmond, Virginia.

About the Author

Sylvia Hatchell has been a college head coach for 29 years and won the NCAA national championship in 1994. She is an inductee into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press; 1 edition (November 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071459235
• ISBN-13: 978-0071459235
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #293,564 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Basketball > Coaching

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Instructive Manual for Beginners, February 24, 2009

By 

Chris Wien (South Salem, New York United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Baffled Parent's Guide to Coaching Girls' Basketball (Baffled Parent's Guides) (Paperback)

Well-written book for first time coaches. Organized into chapters that correspond to each part of coaching girls basketball, including practice drills and organization, game prep, offensive and defensive. It's really geared towards intermediate girls play, so that was extremely helpful to me. I coach 5/6th graders. The "Ask The Coach" part was also a nice touch - made it a more interactive read.

3.0 out of 5 stars A decent starter book for youth coaches, January 7, 2012

By 

CeeJay - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Baffled Parent's Guide to Coaching Girls' Basketball (Baffled Parent's Guides) (Paperback)

This book is a decent starter book for coaches new to youth coaching. The explanations of basketball terminology and the basics of defense and offense are quite good. Coach Hatchell and Jeff Thomas has provided a good, quick primer on the basics of offense and defense, a thorough explanation of fundamentals, and some good sections on "special" game situations -- pressing and press-breaking, in-bounds plays, fast breaks and the like. Coaches totally new to the game may find her concise explanation of the basics very helpful.

Unfortunately, the drills are uninspired and under-explained (though most are so simple that very little explanation is necessary). I am new to coaching very young kids, but I've coached at the high school level before, and the drills I made up are, on the whole, more interesting and engaging to young players than the drill selection Coach Hatchell provides. Working with 2nd and 3rd graders, a coach needs to emphasize fun and active engagement with the game through his drills to maximize player interest and ensure that they will enjoy the game and stay interested in it. I was hoping to find fun and engaging drills like those featured in the excellent soccer coaching books in the "baffled parent's guide" series, but this book didn't deliver them. The drills featured in this book don't fit the bill for very young players.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to a coaching novice, but I will personally keep looking for a book to help me teach young players in a fun and engaging way.