2 Lessons on Toughness from Kelvin Sampson and #1 Ranked Houston

Coach ,

As Houston is headed into the Sweet 16 again under head coach Kelvin Sampson, more and more coaches are trying to figure out how he is able to consistently deliver results, year after year.

It is not a secret that he instills in his players extreme competitiveness and mental toughness. 

And even though he likes to recruit players who are naturally tough and competitive, he also spends a huge chunk of time each day in practice on developing that toughness, teaching them how to compete in every single play. 

Today, Coach Sampson will talk about some of the non-negotiables for his culture in practice, as well as break down his favorite offensive rebounding drill.

Standards

Coach Sampson explains that there are 3 people that can never have a bad practice:

1.) Coach

2.) Best Player

3.) Point Guard

Our best player also needs to be the most dependable. This is non-negotiable. Same thing goes for our point guard. When the rest of our team sees our best player and our point guard not giving 100% in each practice, things can go downhill really fast. Watch Coach Sampson talk about what it takes to set the right standards for our team: 

Standards

10 Point Game Rebounding Drill

This drill is amazing in teaching players to go hard for offensive rebound. Pay close attention to Coach Sampson teaching players the proper footwork of how to go after offensive rebound.

We want our players to fake going one way or another, and depending on where they are spaced out, we want them to attack their defender’s outside shoulder. Pay extra attention to how Coach Sampson breaks down his rebounding philosophy, and why he thinks you should always send all 5 players to crash the glass on offense:

10 Point Game Rebounding Drill

Once again, it is not the drill itself that is going to take us to the championship, it’s the attention to detail - making sure we are emphasizing the things we want to work on in each drill, and constantly teaching our players good habits.

Setting and keeping the standard of how you execute every drill will deliver consistent results and a culture of toughness, year after year. 

Never get out coached,

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