Tara Vanderveer has coached at Stanford for over 30 years. During her coaching career, her teams have won over 1000 games (one of only three D1 men's or women's coaches to do so), won two National Championships, and has earned PAC-12 Coach of the Year a dozen times. She coached the US Olympic team to gold in 1996.
Some call her the most underrated coach ever, because she's not much of a self-promoter.
Vanderveer was born in Melrose, Massachusetts...as was I.
Coaching philosophy. Coach Vanderveer has a secret weapon. Joy. But she also knows harshness, as while at Indiana, she literally studied Coach Bob Knight's practices, from the stands...with a notebook. Vanderveer said, "What I’ve discovered over the years is that success is rooted not only in confidence and hard work but in joy. Passion produces its own energy."
This converges with my belief that outstanding teams don't work basketball; they play basketball.
Great coaches share quality and qualities.
"Knowledge of the game is obviously key - the more you know, the more there is to know. You need passion for the game, organizational skills, and people skills. There is a lot of delegating. You work with a lot of different people in different roles: assistants, trainers, managers, administrators, and officials.
I think being really determined helps. You have to put a lot of time in. You really have to love basketball. I mean you put so much time into watching basketball, teaching basketball. I think it's helpful to be creative, to have new ideas, and to be flexible since you work with different groups, different teams every year. Stamina is big. You work hard every day, whether it's recruiting, whether it's watching video. You need to be open to a lot of new ideas all the time, ready to learn new things."
Coaching notes: via Wes Kosel
Stanford 3 line fast break drill - simple and elegant.
Multiple coaches clinic notes, includes Vanderveer and other elite coaches
1. Make your drills specific to what you do in your offense: no fluff drills
2. Make your practices more challenging than the games
Video:
Depending on how you deploy personnel, you could also use to set up post action or 'triangle' action. Vanderveer ran the Triangle Offense for over a decade.
