CAREERS AND INNOVATION

COACHING CHALLENGE ACTIVITY SHEETS

SECTION ONE
INTRODUCTION, YOUR
CHALLENGE AND INITIAL IDEAS
NBA CAREERS: COACHING

NBA teams have large coaching teams which include NBA development, team practice, strength
and conditioning and also video and analytics. Below is an outline of NBA coaching roles, the
icons show the three most important skills for each role.
Skill importance rank

Creativity Numeracy Teamwork Communication Organisation

NBA Skills Development Coach

A coach who is dedicated to helping individual players develop their basketball
skills in dribbling, passing, shooting and defence.

NBA Team Coach

A coach who focuses on helping groups of five players or more to develop their
skills together and work at their best as a team.

Fitness Coach (Strength and Conditioning)

A Fitness Coach develops the fitness and strength of each player to improve their
performance and help them to avoid injury.

Analytics Coach
A staff member who edits videos of players’ training sessions for them to review
with coaches, and who provides key data about the team and players’
performances.

Which role might best suit your skills? Find the best match between the skill importance ranks above, and your own top three skills. Remember all these skills are important
in any job, but the ranking shows which skills can be slightly more important to each role! (Find out more about other careers at the NBA at: careers.nba.com/employees/) 3
OUR NBA INNOVATION

AGREE YOUR OBJECTIVE DEVELOP YOUR IDEA

Our challenge What makes our idea different and better?
Summarise your brief.

Our target audience

Who will use your innovation?

Our objective How we will market our idea to our target audience?
Describe what you want your innovation to do in one sentence.

DEVELOP YOUR IDEA

Key benefits for users
Summarise how your innovation will benefit users. How have we used the NBA values and our employability skills?

Key benefits for the NBA

Summarise how your innovation will benefit the NBA.
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COACHING CHALLENGE

Your brief Examples Things to think about

Outline a simple coaching programme or video series to help a player to develop their Skills coaching • Which aspect of coaching will your
basketball skills, fitness, a Positive Mental Attitude – or all. • Dribbling, passing, shooting or defence programme or videos support?
• Choose your session aim. Either: what basketball skill(s) you’ll develop – dribbling, drills and advice. • Who is your target audience, and why?
passing, shooting or defence OR what combination of fitness you’ll develop – strength, • Tips on technique and good form. • How will people access/use your ideas?
flexibility, speed OR what activities you’ll include to develop a Positive Mental Attitude.
• Activities to develop foot work and agility. • What will make your product easy, fun
• Your programme could be presented as series of videos or a booklet of activities. and effective to use?
Team coaching
Whatever you choose it should make it easy for users to track their activity and identify
• Tips on working as a team. • How will users be able to track their
how they improve over time.
improvement over time?
• Your idea will help the NBA to lead by example and support good basketball skills, • Drills to encourage players to always
move and create space. • How will you price your product, why?
physical and mental health across society.
To present your ideas, you need to create a simple programme outline and describe • Mini game ideas that improve team play.
how it will be provided to users. E.g. video outlines, example storyboard, or a table Fitness coaching
overview of your booklet. You should also plan how you will market your programme. • Exercises to build arm and leg strength.
• Drills for sprint ability and recovery.
Why is physical and mental fitness a vital part of the NBA’s success?
• Games and exercises to improve balance.
• Physical and mental fitness help teams to win!
Mental fitness coaching
• Successful teams are more attractive to fans and sponsors, which increases the
• Mindfulness and meditation activities.
team’s revenue.
• Physical fitness reduces injury, helping players to make the most of each season and • Tips to build a Positive Mental Attitude .
contribute to the team. • Goal planning activity, ideas to build
• Players are role models for their fans and their physical and mental fitness can inspire determination and resilience.
fans to take action to improve their own health and wellbeing.
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A COACHING PROGRAMME

Idea:
Positive Mental Attitude 30 day programme.
Audience:
Students
Objective:
Use basketball to inspire a Positive Mental Attitude in students. Video 1: NBA ’pre-game’ meditation Video 2: motivation from NBA coach
Benefits:
Helps students to be more positive and achieve to the best of

? ?
their ability.
Benefits for NBA:
Positions the NBA as a positive influence on young people.
Features and appeal:
Video 3: your choice Video 4: your choice
Short, inspirational morning video clip; daily challenges and
positive habits; ‘help’ videos with ideas for when things don’t go
to plan.
Marketing:
Advertise to schools and parents; Spotify ads for students.
? ?
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Video 5: your choice Video 6: your choice
A COACHING PROGRAMME

Idea:
Shooting skills! 14 day video series.
Audience:
Students
Objective:
Develop basics of shooting. Video 1: Inspirational NBA video Video 2: basics of shooting
Benefits:
Can use to practise solo at home, or use as drills in groups.
Benefits for NBA:
Positions the NBA as a positive influence on young people.
Features and appeal:
Short, inspirational clips; step-by-step break down of shooting;
Video 3: lay up high five drill Video 4: your choice
practise drills, exclusive top tips from NBA stars, can help you
build skills on your own, or practise with friends.
Marketing:
Advertise to schools and parents; Spotify ads for students. ? ?
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Video 5: your choice Video 6: your choice
SECTION TWO
DEVELOPMENT
DEVELOPING IDEAS
Use these questions to help select and develop your ideas.
WHERE… HOW…
...will people use this? ...will people use this?
...can we make this simpler,
easier, safer, more fun?
WHO… WHY…
… is this for? ...will people use this?
...would they prefer it to other
options?
Challenge: use these questions to help develop your marketing ideas.
PRODUCT PLACE
Can you easily describe your Where will people be able to
idea’s features, branding, buy your idea?
quality and benefits? Where will people use your
idea?
WHAT…
...benefits will this provide
...will we need to make it or
deliver it for users?
WHEN…
...will people use this?
PRICE PROMOTION
What will you charge for your How will you advertise your
idea? Or will it be free to use? idea?
Can you justify your choice? Where and when will your
adverts appear?
How does your advertising
target your audience? 9
SECTION THREE
PRESENTATION AND
SELF-REFLECTION
YOUR PRESENTATION

You have three minutes to present your idea, and one minute afterwards for questions. Your team will be
marked out of 30 as you present your idea! Mark the other teams as they present. Use the columns to award a
mark out of five for each element.
Our Team Team 1 Team 2 Team 3 Team 4 Team 5
Objective
Did the team create a clear objective that supports innovation?

Features and benefits

Can the team clearly explain their ideas’ features and how it benefits users
and the NBA?

Innovation
Is the idea new, different or better?

Marketing
Has the team thought about how they will promote their idea to their
target market?

Skills and NBA Values

Can the team explain how they used their five employability skills and applied
the four NBA Values (integrity, teamwork, respect and innovation)?

Presentation
Did the team give a clear, confident presentation?

TOTAL /30
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HOW WELL DID YOU USE YOUR SKILLS?

Name:

Rookie Starter All-Star MVP What I’m most proud of:

(Most Valuable Player)

Creativity 1 2 3 4

Numeracy 1 2 3 4

Teamwork 1 2 3 4 What I’d most like to improve:

Communication 1 2 3 4

Organisation 1 2 3 4

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