Slappin’ Glass sits down with the Head and Associate Head Coaching duo for Florida State WBB, Sue Semrau and Brooke Wyckoff! The trio dive into the areas of high pressure communication, consistent staff messaging, teaching closeouts, and play a special version of “Start, Sub, or Sit?!”, covering the areas of Horns Action, Post Play, and Bad Screening.
Inside the Episode
It was a fun week on the podcast as we had our first “coaching duo” on the show when we welcomed the Head and Associate Head Coaching tandem from Florida State WBB, Sue Semrau and Brooke Wyckoff. We dove into all types of concepts on communication, closeouts, post play, and much more and enjoyed getting two different perspectives from the same staff, made more unique by the fact that Coach Wyckoff played for Coach Semrau back in the day. Here’s a look inside the episode…
High Pressure Communication and Consistent Messaging
“Communication isn’t telling, communication is teaching and getting someone to listen. It’s important that you know your audience, and it’s important that the person that is complimenting you knows you and your audience. It really takes a lot of work, and it really takes a lot of time coming together to know one another.” – Sue Semrau
At the top of the episode we dove into both coaches’ thoughts on high-level communication and how they keep their messaging consistent as a staff. Both Coach Semrau and Coach Wyckoff have different styles of communicating and we discussed how they use their differences to compliment each other and get messages across.
Another area of focus on this topic was on how much or little information Coach Semrau and Coach Wyckoff need/want when it comes to in-game communication. Coach Wyckoff took over as Interim Head Coach last season while Coach Semrau stepped away to care for a family member, and the duo discussed what they’ve learned after stepping into new roles for a year.
They both provided valuable and insightful thoughts in this area.
Teaching Post Play
After her playing career at Florida State, and before getting into coaching, Coach Wyckoff enjoyed a successful run as a player in the WNBA and Internationally. She thrives in teaching the subtleties of post play and we had a good discussion about how she teaches the tricky art of “post positioning”. One specific area we talked about was teaching the “high-low seal”.
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And the concept of positioning came up again with Coach Wyckoff in the way of teaching the proper angle of a perimeter DHO, specifically, in how to teach the offensive player to attack and dribble at the next defender to force either an “over”, “under”, or confusion on the DHO…
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Beyond these concepts, the episode is packed with great insights from Coach Semrau and Coach Wyckoff including:
- Teaching Closeouts: Technique, Philosophy, Angles, and More
- “Newlywed” Version of “Start, Sub, or Sit?!”: We put a new twist on our favorite segment and had a ton of fun talking Horns Action, Inbounds Pressure, and a whole lot more!
- Changing Perspectives: Some powerful insights from both coaches after a year in which Coach Semrau stepped away and Coach Wyckoff stepped in as the Interim Head Coach, as well as how they’ll use those experiences this season.
- Motherhood and Coaching: Coach Wyckoff does a tremendous job with her organization “Moms in Coaching”, and discussed the importance of creating an environment where women in coaching can thrive while raising a family.