Basketball: from Candyland to "Talk Less, Say More."

"Talk less, say more" is a Wyoming slogan. How can terminology help us? Steal an idea today. 

Time is precious. Make communication efficient. 

1. Brian McCormick says, "three L's - no lines, no laps, no lectures." 

2. Get players into named drills quicker. Up the tempo. And it's better to have fewer productive drills than many mediocre ones. 

Speed layups for warm-up via the Lithuania team at the #JonesCup. I like it because most of warm-up IMO is about getting shots as we shoot more than we get layups in games...the other part is a short burst of energy & enthusiasm so this would take care of that. pic.twitter.com/UQXy7w1Ozg

— Chris Oliver (@BBallImmersion) July 29, 2018

3. On the whistle. Coach Ralph Labella practiced on the whistle expectations. On the whistle, he expected players to assemble within three seconds. 

4. Defensive alignment. I'm partial to a numerical system, the first number representing the type of defense and the second the extent, e.g. 4 = full court, 3 = three-quarter court. 14 is full court man, 51 is fall back 2-1-2. Why 5? The "5" die on Monopoly or Candyland looks like a 2-1-2. And they've all played Candyland. 

Or we could use color cards and eliminate words, good for noisy venues. 

5. Defend specific actions by winning the mental game. Associate specific sets with awareness of offensive intent.

- "Five out" or "Spread" alerts players to give-and-go and backcuts as teams test our fundamental preparedness (or lack thereof). Sometimes it triggers pass and screen away actions. Ideally, players drive the calls as player-led teams outperform via ownership.

- 1-4 High raises antennas for other actions. 

Wing backcuts vex the unaware. Whole-part-whole against defense and 3 vs 3 inside the split (initially without defensive communication allowed) are instructive. 

- Pick-and-roll calls should include the side and imply core philosophies, like "show" (hedge, "fake trap"), blitz (trap), drop ("through"), switches, ice ("blue") or whatever you teach. If I'm coaching again, maybe we're having written tests. 

Players, develop your internal data base, insight, and intuition.

Lagniappe: Body, skills, knowledge. Always warm up muscles before higher intensity exercise and plyometrics. Become an explosive athlete. 





Lagniappe 2: from the Playbook

GSW - Sequential screen into back screen (useful as SLOB as well)