I can’t imagine a coach that doesn’t want to find a way for her/his team to better be able to communicate. We are constantly encouraging our team to talk more. We want them to talk to each other on the court. We want them to coach each other in practice and games. But as coaches, we always seem to think we could be a better communicating team.
The concept of “echo yells” is simple, but highly effective. When a coach calls out a drill, the entire team must yell back the call. For example, if I say to the team, “5 on 4 with an open perimeter.” The team will reply in unison, “5 on 4 with an open perimeter.”
If a coach says “5 on 5 Post Exchange with no dribble,” the team will repeat that command. We want them to say it loud and say it in unison.
While I think this is very effective for getting teams to talk, I think an even more important factor is that creates an avenue to get them to listen to the coach better. After all, they have to hear what you say before they can repeat it!
