Basketball: Steps to Success

Learning and teaching basketball skills and tactics can be challenging. Executing them in competition can be troubling. Mastering them can be a career-long quest.

Is it possible that a single book can provide all the instruction you need to conquer these basketball roadblocks? First you must know exactly how the skill or tactic is properly performed. Check! Then you need to attempt it again and again, with corrective advice through those trials until you get it right. Check! Next comes practice. Lots of practice, with drills designed to make performance of the skill or tactic efficient and effective. Check!

In Basketball: Steps to Success, Coach Hal Wissel covers the entire progression of technical and tactical development needed to become a complete player. From essential footwork to key principles of defense, this guide details the skills and tactics needed to excel in today’s game. Shooting off the catch and creating shots off the dribble, running two- and three-player offensive plays, and many more topics in the book will prepare players to succeed in every situation on the court.

Dr. Hal Wissel has a wealth of experience in the National Basketball Association as an assistant coach with the Atlanta Hawks, Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies, and New Jersey Nets. Hal was also director of player personnel with the Nets and scout and special assignment coach with the Milwaukee Bucks.

As a collegiate head coach, Wissel compiled more than 300 wins. He turned losing programs at Trenton State College and Lafayette College into conference and division champions, respectively. Wissel led Florida Southern College to four straight trips to the NCAA Division II tournament and three straight trips to the Division II final four (’80, ’81, and ’82), winning the Divi­sion II national championship in 1981. Wissel coached Fordham University into the 1972 NIT Tournament and also coached the Dominican Republic national team in 1975.

Wissel founded Basketball World and CoachWissel.com, instructional ventures featuring basketball camps, clinics, books, and DVDs. Basketball World’s highly succes­sful Shoot It Better Mini Camps are conducted worldwide for players from youth level to NBA and WNBA level.

Wissel received a bachelor’s degree from Springfield College, a master’s degree from Indiana University, and a doctorate in physical education from Springfield College. Wissel’s best-selling book Basketball: Steps to Success has been translated into eleven languages. Wissel is also the author of Becoming a Basketball Player: Individual Drills, which has been made into a DVD. Wissel has also produced five basketball shooting DVDs.

Wissel’s honors include being named Coach & Athlete magazine’s Eastern Coach of the Year in 1972; Sunshine State Conference Coach of the Year (’79, ’80, and ’81); and Division II National Coach of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches in 1980. Wissel has been inducted into the Florida Southern College Athletic Hall of Fame, the Sunshine State Conference Hall of Fame, and the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.

Hal and his wife, Trudy, reside in Suffield, Connecticut, and have five grown children and one granddaughter.