Bass Ackwards

"Spartak can be summed up in one word: tekhnika (technique). Every moment, every resource is devoted to helping players with the most essential task: hitting the ball correctly. Or, to put it a different way, to building a reliable, fast skill circuit."

"If I ruled the world." Fun game. Fundamentals would take priority over game play. 

Swen Nater writes in You Haven't Taught Until They Have Learned, "assume that recent graduates are stronger on theory and concept than they are on practice and technique." Think about it. In most professions (e.g. medicine), a lengthy period of fundamental instruction (e.g. biology, physiology, anatomy, pathophysiology), precedes the actual practice (surgery, prescription, psychotherapy). 

But we have devoted, opinionated teachers (coaches) who advocate for game playing as the instructional method of choice vis-a-vis 'practice'. Which may explain why you can watch middle schoolers mindlessly jack up three pointers (amidst a healthy share of airballs) with coaches accepting if not encouraging it. I prefer the Bilassian "It's not your shot, it's our shot" mantra. 

Effective teaching demands priorities and emphasis. Almost every practice, I discuss core offensive priorities. "Basketball is a game of cutting and passing." Offense requires spacing, screening, cutting, and passing. Ergo, our offensive priority should be spacing and movement (player and ball). And our practice emphasis should be on activities (drills and scrimmage) that translate to that end. 

Our goal is player and team development. But most coaches assumptions that our players are stronger on theory and concept would be dramatically wrong. I would wager that if I ask my players (fill in the blank) of "basketball is a game of (cutting and passing)" that fewer than a third would answer correctly. But more might be able to demonstrate, because we often play half court (four-on-four) with no dribbling. If you do not move, then you will not get the ball. 

We need to help players 'see the game'. I believe that should involve didactics, film study, drills (with decision-making), and competition (scrimmages and games). But watching youth basketball convinces me that we can do a lot better.