Practice started last night. Tabula rasa. A blank slate. Fresh faces, eager to learn. Make it simpler (usually) but the first night always overwhelms with tempo and introducing concepts...and learning names. It gets easier.
"Basketball is sharing." - Phil Jackson
"Basketball is eighty percent mental."
"Basketball is a game of cutting and passing."
"Basketball is a game of mistakes."
"Movement kills defense."
"Spacing is offense and offense is spacing."
Too much, too soon. I've got to dial back the number of drills.
Early observations.
- The enthusiasm and effort within the group excites me.
- I almost have the names and faces down.
- Never forget the age and inexperience of the group.
- Worst habit to break? Two-handed shooting.
- Their grasp of 'shell drill' was better than I expected.
Dribble the air out of the basketball.
Catch and immediately put the ball on the floor.
"Ecoutez et Repetez" (listen and repeat)
"Basketball is not a running game. It's a SPRINTING game."
"Basketball is not a contact sport; it's a collision sport."
"The game honors toughness." Toughness is a skill.
"Communication intimidates."
These are kids. Teach joyfully, encourage them to play with joy.
Somebody remarked about every book ever written, "someone is looking for something." What are we looking for?
1. We want players who make everyone around them better, better players, better people. We want commitment, discipline, and effort. These girls are too young to understand or demand sacrifice.
2. Eighty percent of offense is played without the ball. Help your teammates by doing your job both with and without the ball.
3. Spacing. "Spacing is offense and offense is spacing."
4. Relocating is pivotal to provide spacing. "The ball is a camera." It has to see you to find you. Move purposefully.
5. Layups, layups, layups. We're going to spend more time on this within the shooting segment.
6. Ball-you-man. Basket-you-man. Blank slate.
7. Individual moves. Where do you begin? "Good players need two dribbles, excellent players need one, elite players don't need to dribble." Klay Thompson scored 60 points in a game last year with TWELVE dribbles.
I'm sure that it seemed like a blur at times last night. Two hours seemed like minutes to me.
Notebook material?
What about BOB? Different formations, same baseline out of bounds action.
SLOB. First look at base sideline out of bounds play.
"Zipper".
Excellent teams are family. "We do what we do and we do it together."
