Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Fast Five - Basketball: Where Do You Get Your Ideas?


Where do you get your ideas? According to author Neil Gaiman in MasterClass, "that is the question." Later, he says that the writer's job is to "get the bad words out." And so it is for coaches, to eliminate the chaff. "Make the sweat count." 

 Find your approach, which shouldn't replicate your coach or another coach. John Wooden said, "basketball is a game meant to be played fast." Ecclesiastes 3 says, "there's a time for everything." The basketball edition tells coaches, "there's a time to play fast (lengthen the game) and a time to slow down (shorten the game)." 

 The way to become a better coach is coaching. Give yourself away. If Phil Jackson's "basketball is sharing" is true, then coaches give themselves away. 

Each team writes a narrative. They need their own voice. Strong teams have their own cadence and jazz of individual instruments calling out to each other. How do the ideas fit together to achieve Anson Dorrance's "continual ascension?"  

 Some basketball ideas are universal. "Control the tempo." "Create and deny separation." "Find ways to wear down the opposition." "Spacing, cutting, passing." "Seek advantage in every action." "Find actions that are hard to defend." 

 Practice represents the proving ground to blend ideas into action. One, two, three. 

 1 - do you have the personnel for isolation? Do you have coachable athletes who translate box moves and wing series into basket attack? 

 2 - do you practice two-man actions? 

3 - how do three players create? 



DHO into secondary PnR


Triplets series with multiple options


 Triplets with backscreen option into middle PnR

 Ideas arise at every level of basketball and every day. 

Capture the symphony of ideas into practice and games. 

 Lagniappe: "No SNOWMAN defense. Snowmen play bad D." Coach Liam Flynn gives more specifics. 

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