Stop Waffling: How to Deliver an Effective Timeout

This article is all about delivering effective timeouts, so that we avoid serving up plain ‘waffles’ to our players. 🧇🧇

How does it look when we ‘waffle’ to our players?

1. We start talking as soon as players reach bench, and continues talking for as long as the referee allows us to.

2. We deliver a stream of generic and non-linked messages "we need to box out…we need to run our lanes…let's pick better shots…"

3. This is also known as "brain dumping" onto your players.

So, how do we avoid the Waffling Timeout?

1. First, assess the game situation.

   • Whose possession is it next?

   • From where - baseline, sideline, free throw?

   • What might the opponent do next?

2. Use the first 10-15 seconds to breathe and discuss with your assistant (if you have one). What do the team need in this moment?

3. Choose up to 3 key actions you want players to take in the next phase of the game.

4. Your tone of voice is important. Convey your belief in players, confidence in your message and accountability to team standards

5. Beat the referees to wrap your time-out. Your five players on court can always huddle together with the remaining time.

Here are two handy time-out strategies you can adopt to deliver an effective time-out:

#1 "Future-Focused Time-Out"

In this approach, we’re shifting the mindset from what has happened to the future (a ‘next play’ mentality).

1. Draw the next offensive possession (using whiteboard)

2. Change the team defence (e.g. half court match-up to full-court match-up)

3. Drive a cultural value you want to see

This is a good approach to reinforce a 'next play' mentality and model resilience to players during adversity, or to maintain their focus through a purple patch. The 'next offence' and 'next defence' segments should be ordered according to whose possession it is after the time-out.

#2 "Stop/Start/Keep Time Out"

1. We need to stop allowing them to drive middle

1. Start running your offence girls - let's run "Shakes" next play

2. Keep up your strong communication - it's setting a great tone for us tonight

This approach enables the coach to hold players accountable to a major on-court issue, but quickly shifts the focus back to the present and future whilst retaining players' confidence.