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26 results found for "Mike MacKay"

Mike MacKay: Developing World Class Basketball Players

This. Is. A. Coaching. Masterclass…! Seriously. It’s rare to observe basketball practices that have been mindfully designed to integrate the mental, technical, physical, social and competive constraints in a way that reads like a book. This is why we (affectionately) call Mike MacKay: Yoda Master MacKay. In his day “job”, he’s the Women’s High Performance …

X’s and O’s With “Master” Coach MacKay

If you’ve followed along with my blogs, you’ll know that I have often referenced Mike MacKay, Manager Coach Education and Development for Canada Basketball, in them (ad nauseum!). Well, he’s finally been brought into the millennium and is blogging his thoughts. Check out X’s and O’s with Mike Mackay. Well worth the invest of time, …

Impact of Coaching With a Shot Clock

How you coach the game with no shot clock is different than how you coach it with a shot clock. Here’s why this impacts player development.

8 Game-Like Situations

Every coach has been in the frustrating situation where their athletes don’t do, in a game, the things that they worked on during practice. There’s the common refrain bellowing from sidelines throughout the basketball world: “C’mon! We worked on that!” If you’re looking for a solution, start with you… Is This A Game-Like Drill? This is …

The Exuberant Animal: Fun, Functional & Fundamental

This might be outside the box for many of you, but there’s so much to discover once we get outside of our own sandbox to play. I stumbled upon The Exuberant Animal by chance. And since, have loved experimenting with their ideas and its application to player development. A lot of this may appear very …

Mario DeSisti’s Top-25 Teaching Points

The teacher-coach that I am now is substantially different from who I was in the 1990s and early 2000s. When asked recently why that is, the response comes easily: Mario DeSisti. Granted I’ve had a number of basketball mentors (see: Mike MacKay) who have had – and continue to have – a profound impact on …

Rebounding And Boxing Out Are Very Different Things

There are a lot of basketball coaches — especially those working with youth basketball players — that get upset at their team when their players don’t secure the rebound. To an extent, that’s understandable. A good coach knows the value of possessions and that offensive and defensive rebounding will have a huge impact on the …

How The Shot Clock Improves Player Development

One of the things that I enjoy about FIBA basketball is how skilled the players are. Since beginning to study and learn more about international basketball, the differences in style of play, rules, and player development structure, the one thing that jumps out is how the shot clock impacts how the game is taught, played …

That Was Your Tryout

Written by MIKE MACKAY (High Performance Manager, Women’s High Performance Program, Canada Basketball) As I travel around the country I often get asked by players, coaches and parents when tryouts are for our age group National Teams. In a country the size of Canada having a one day tryout is a very difficult thing to do. I …

A Study Of Olympic Athletes

I had to share this research summation that Mike MacKay passed on to me after he attended the Coaching Association of Canada’s 2008 Sport Leadership Conference which was held in Calgary (Alberta). The conference is an annual gathering of sport leaders from Canada and abroad. … Dr. Arne Guillich conducted a study of Olympic athletes. …