Run to Win: The Mongoose System: Coaching Middle School & Youth Basketball - Softcover

Brock, Beau James; Kyler, Karen Recurt; Szekely, L. Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1483408825 ISBN 13: 9781483408828

Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services, 2014

Synopsis

The Mongoose System is not only a possible way to coach middle school and youth basketball, but the optimum way to coach at this level! This book has been written to teach you how to coach the System to middle school and youth basketball teams. Other books on the System have been organized for college and high school level teams, and we wanted to provide the lessons we have happily learned to you for your kids at the middle school level. We have written this book for you. You picked this book up because no matter how much you already know about basketball, you know there is more to learn. If you are a parent or teacher just starting out in coaching, you have picked this up to begin to learn to coach. If you have already coached for 5 years, you may be looking for a new approach to the game. If you have coached 10 years or more, you know that the more you know about the game, the more there is to learn.

About this title

From the Author

Coach Tommy:
I would like to dedicate this book to my father.  You taught me things in life that I could never learn from any book and the best part is that you never really had to say a word.  You were a great role model and a wonderful father, the very reason I take so much joy in coaching.  You will always be with me.  I would also like to dedicate this book to my two daughters, Katelyn and Madison, without the love I share with the two of you I would only be a fraction of the person I am today.  Your understanding of my passion and commitment to give back to others allows me to do what I enjoy.  To the two of you I say thank you.
2 Timothy 4:7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
 
Coach Karen:
            I want to dedicate this book to my family (especially my husband) for allowing me the opportunity to spend so much time away from home! To my daughter Kandace, who gave me the greatest joy, of coaching her this past year in four different league seasons.  Also, I'd like to thank Coach Beau for picking me to be the SRK, CD and GM! (Shot Record Keeper, Correspondence Director and General Manager) I truly enjoyed working with you and Coach Tommy especially when I taught you to duck, whenever I wanted to shoot you, both!!! But, mainly Beau ;-)
And finally, to our special group of girls, with their hard work and dedication to this team this journey would not have been possible. 
 
 
 
Coach Beau:           
I want to dedicate this book to my dad who was my first coach and taught me the love of the game, and ignited my torch of competition which I burn to teach others to live.  I love you, dad.  I also want to dedicate this book to Coach Chuck Scanlon, the "John Wooden of Minnesota soccer" who just retired after 30 years of successful teaching and coaching at Apple Valley Senior High, who taught me leadership and commitment to the team, first and always.  He gave me my proudest moment as a player in sport, the opportunity to carry him off the field, in victory.  Finally, to my three sons, who I hope will share my love of sport and the possibilities it holds, for the rest of their lives.

From the Back Cover

Run to win.  Not mine, again, but St. Paul's from his letter to the Corinthians.  Isn't everything in the Bible?  At least that's what my Baptist grandma taught me, even though I was raised Catholic by my parents.  And so, it gave me great comfort when I was watching (and later made my teams watch) the NFL Films classic video "Lombardi" originally aired in 1968.  In it, Coach Lombardi reached into the Bible for inspiration for the Packers during a critical stretch of his, what now seems to have been fated by someone above, three consecutive NFL Championship run.  Run to win. 
______________________________________________________________
Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win.
1 Corinthians 9:24                           
__________________________________________________________________  
By playing the Mongoose System in the middle school and youth levels, your team will be dictating the pace of the game and your team will feel in more in control whereas your opponents will feel hurried, anxious and disorganized. It does create an "organized chaos" on the floor to your advantage when your players continue to move.
Lightning warfare isn't a new concept.  It's not a 20th century concept, just ask the Mongols. But in basketball, this lightning warfare allows for maximum dividends in several areas of the game.  First, it deprives your opponents the chance to set up a structured offense.  By trapping all the way down the court, you force your opponents to find alternative methods for advancing the ball up the court and then attack your basket from different launch points which only add to their confusion.

The Mongoose System emphasizes athleticism, but you don't need ten "Amazons" or ten Presidential Fitness Award winners to be successful.  You need eight to ten, with ten being the best number (with 5 or 6 minute stopped time quarters at this level) young people who want to compete.  You need players who want to part of something bigger than themselves, and are willing to play with reckless abandon.  It emphasizes team "dance," in that, off-ball movement becomes more important than on-ball, and everyone is moving and participating on every play during the minute they are on the court.  They must not stop moving as the energy they exert serves to drain your opponents as none of it is wasted motion. 

Finally, the Mongoose System emphasizes personal courage and commitment regardless of size and strength.  Your players are required to believe in themselves and their teammates in order for this to work and while on the court on offense they will, to paraphrase Coach Wooden, be quick to the spot, but don't hurry the shot.  On defense, they will assume the role of whirling dervishes, and consume the spirit of your opponents and deny them the will to fight.

Edition details

• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1483408825
• ISBN 13: 9781483408828
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 136