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Tom, Dick or Harry?

Does anyone know who these three guys are?  I think we probably heard our parents say those names when telling a story when we were kids, when they didn't remember the persons name involved in the story. I had a coach in high school who use to come up with creative names for drills, plays and defenses, so that it was easy for us to remember.  Every drill had a name and a meaning for the name.  It was fun to hear the history of the origin of the play, whether is was a basketball story or from life or maybe even a movie.  So that way, when he said we were doing the South Carolina drills, we knew it came from Dick McGuire in the 50's and you wanted to know more about Coach McGuire.  Now that I coach girls, we have incorporated plenty of princess references!  So make it easy for you and them, and come up with creative names for all parts of the game.  One coach use to use red, white and blue for 3 forms of our pressing defense.  Another, would have a number series, so that you knew where the defense started (half or full) and weather it was man or zone.  Here is the best way I know this works long term.  Last week I went to watch 2 former assistants of mine play a game versus each other for the first time.  When it came time to run an out of bounds play, the coach yelled out, "Harry!", and the other teams coach started to laugh and I could here a kid on defense say, "Hey, they are running our play!"  By the way, Tom, Dick and Harry actually come from a very famous movie about World War II, do you know it?

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Bill Sniffen

My name is Bill Sniffen, and I have more than 20 years of experience coaching basketball at the high school and recreational levels.
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