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qualified to teach it.

Upon graduation from college my first basketball coaching position. was at the middle school level and I found quickly that I needed more education.

During those formative years of my coaching I searched for as much help as I could get and found it from some of the most talented people of that era.

In the 1960’s, I fell in love with teaching basketball defense after reading a book entitled, “Mosquito Defense”, written by Al McGuire, Marquette University’s coach. I used his methods of swarming defense successfully for many years, at the junior high and then at the high school levels.

I worked hard at teaching myself how to coach basketball and each season I improved, but it was a slow process.

A few years later, and with some seasoning behind me, my journey to “teaching-coach” moved up a notch from just reading about basketball to becoming proactive--attending clinics, seminars and camps. Among the clinicians to whom I owe much of what I know about teaching defense was Bobby Knight. This was in the 70’s. Knight, at that time, was the acclaimed guru of defense. His approach to playing defense and how to teach it, was innovative and genius to this young coach from California. His man-to-man defense philosophy and techniques gave me the ability to teach individual defense and then be able to build this knowledge right into my team defense . What I learned from Coach Knight, combined with my early success with “Mosquito Defense”, enabled me to develop my own brand of defense and my “Giant Killer” defense emerged. Defense was to become my hallmark as a coach and later as an international consultant and lecturer.

These talented “mentors” inspired me to want to be more than just a successful
high school coach. I read what they wrote; took notes on what they had to say at coaching clinics; I participated as a coach in their camps; I even took my players and my small sons to listen to them speak, to attend the camps as players, and to watch their teams practice. None of these “mentors” knew my name or would remember me, but they influenced my early growth in becoming the teacher of the game into which I evolved.

Now I’m a basketball coaching mentor for others. Oh, certainly not like Bobby Knight, Abe Lemons, Pete Newell, or John Wooden. But, I bring my teaching DVD, e-Books, basketball coaches tutoring, monthly newsletter and more to a special niche market. My more than 50 years of basketball playing and coaching experience have been successful, by won-loss standards and in the number of coaches and players I’ve helped to develop all around the world.

My focus is on the niche market where new, aspiring coaches venture into the sport without much more of a clue than a 19 year old boy in California had in getting started. I work with these “newbie” basketball coaches, with coaches who have some experience but are still learning, and even with more experienced coaches looking for a splinter of information which might give them the help they need to get to the next level of basketball coaching success. I work with high school players, whose goal is to play college ball,and teach position specific skills to help them be successful. My goal—and my promise—to each coach or player I work with, is that I will take them to a higher level of teaching and playing than they were at when we got started together.

The role of the mentor is to teach and guide the student to a higher level of understanding and skill, no matter what the field of interest may be.

Are you looking for a higher level of success from where you are? Who is your mentor?

Coach Ronn Wyckoff has spent more than fifty years in basketball, as a player and coach. As an international consultant, his programs have reached hundreds of players and coaches around the world. In forty-plus years of coaching, he has coached from school levels to national teams, winning over 70%. Go to

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