BOOKS
Practice Design
These books focus on designing better practices and individual workouts for players to maximize player and team development.
SKILL DEVELOPMENT
These books focus on the practice, development, and instruction of specific skills.
TACTICAL SKILLS & STRATEGY
These books focus on offensive strategy and skill development from a tactical perspective.
Long Term Athlete Development
These books are broad and general in topics and cover dozens of factors that contribute to talent development over the course of one’s childhood.
Brian T. McCormick, PhD is a professional basketball coach, consultant, and clinician. McCormick has coached professionally in Denmark, Ireland, and Sweden, taking a team to the finals in Denmark's 1st Division and being selected to coach in Sweden's Damligan All-Star Game. He has coached CYO, AAU, high school, junior college, and college basketball in the United States, and worked as a strength and conditioning coach for two junior-college basketball programs. McCormick has directed clinics in Canada, China, Greece, Ghana, India, Macedonia, Trinidad & Tobago, and throughout the United States, and spoken at coaching, strength & conditioning, and sports psychology conferences in the United States and Canada. McCormick completed his PhD in Exercise and Sports Science at the University of Utah, and has had peer-reviewed papers published in the International Journal of Exercise Science, International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching, and Strength & Conditioning Journal.
McCormick has published 20 books for basketball coaches, many of which have spent time on Amazon's top 10 books for basketball. The books have been well-received and recommended by prominent coaches such as Fran Fraschilla and Mike Dunlap.
McCormick has directed camps and clinics for players and coaches around the world, most recently in Jackson Hole, WY and Waddington, NY. He also has been a speaker at clinics for Basketball BC, Basketball Manitoba, and USA Basketball.
McCormick has coached youth, high school, college, and professional teams; he has coached boys and girls, men and women. He has coached in championship series, AAU National Tournaments, and all-star games. He currently is the head coach of a women's junior college team.
McCormick has consulted with numerous high school, college, and professional coaches and players on skill development, practice design, and strength & conditioning.
Latest news
Coach Education, Coaching Clinics, and Development
Every so often, a Twitter storm erupts about the need for mandatory coach education. There is a belief that coach education will solve every ill in basketball in the U.S. U.S. Soccer requires coaching licenses at various levels, including the Development Academy. Their coach education programs are further along than USA Basketball’s, but every complaint Read more about Coach Education, Coaching Clinics, and Development[…]
Developing a Successful High School Program
Originally published in Hard2Guard Player Development Newsletter, Volume 7. Subscribe here.
As I think about the realities of youth sports today, the most important person in the development of a successful high-school athletic program may be the elementary school physical education teacher. We know athletes specialize. We know athletes engage in less free or unstructured play. That does not appear likely to change. We also know this specialization has adverse effects in terms of basic movement competency, general physical literacy, overuse injuries, and emotional burnout. Read more about Developing a Successful High School Program
Steve Kerr and players running the show
Originally published in Hard2Guard Player Development Newsletter, 8.3. Subscribe here. Steve Kerr allowed Warrior players to run the huddles during their game against Phoenix last night. His decision has inspired praise from those who view it as empowering players and derision from those who view it as disrespecting an opponent or evidence that the Warriors Read more about Steve Kerr and players running the show[…]
How to play defense: No Fake Fundamentals
My friend and future NBA coach Jon Giesbrecht put together the above video on Oklahoma City’s Andre Roberson’s defense. Many consider Roberson to be the NBA’s best perimeter defender, especially with Kawhi Leonard’s persistent injury problems this season. As I watched the video, I noticed two things. More specifically, I noticed the absence of two Read more about How to play defense: No Fake Fundamentals[…]
Social Shift Pivotal to Next-Level Jump
Originally published in Los Angeles Sports & Fitness, Winter 2018. As a 6th grader dominated a camp that I directed, I asked the organizer to move up the player to the older age group that worked out later. He said that they had asked him to move up, but he wanted to stay with his Read more about Social Shift Pivotal to Next-Level Jump[…]
My 2017 Reading List
In the tradition of lists from 2014, 2015, and 2016, here is my reading list for 2017. The Athletic Skills Model: Optimizing Talent Development Through Movement Education – Rene Wormhoudt I admit that I have waited for this book for nearly 5 years and the authors are preaching to the choir. It is a very Read more about My 2017 Reading List[…]
The Via Negative approach to talent development
Originally published in Los Angeles Sports & Fitness, Fall 2017. My earliest sports memory is playing the Cosmos, another team from my soccer club in a downpour on a field that would make Tough Mudder competitors proud during my first season of youth soccer then I was in kindergarten. I played for a club linked Read more about The Via Negative approach to talent development[…]
Steve Nash on Mike D’Antoni’s Genius
When I presented for Positive Coaching Alliance working with Ray Lokar, he often said that coaches work in the fish bowl; everyone watches the coach from the outside, often without knowledge of the environment, but the coach always is in front of an audience. This pressure from the fish bowl shapes many of the negative behaviors that we see from coaches: I once watched a coach who would yell loud enough for everyone in the audience to hear him, “Player, we practiced that yesterday for 20 minutes. How can you make that mistake?” There was no information; in essence, he was saying, “Look, I did everything that I could at practice and it is your child who is messing up, not me.” I was appalled, but I see this behavior to some degree fairly often. Read more about Steve Nash on Mike D’Antoni’s Genius
We need to develop players like in Europe
People often discuss player development and European basketball with me. Often, I am told, and I read, that we (coaches in the United States) need to develop players like in Europe. I don’t necessarily agree with the premise, but I often will engage in the discussions. When I do, it seems as though the coaches want a magic potion, because every change based on my experiences that I offer, they dismiss as unnecessary or impractical. Possible changes based on my experience: Read more about We need to develop players like in Europe