Basketball Friday shares concepts, drills, a set play, and more.
Coaches make mistakes and benefit from oversight. Remember that Boston surgeon Atul Gawande (author of Being Mortal and others) hired a senior peer to review his technique, just as top NBA players hire skill development coaches like Drew Hanlen.
Find ways to help players grow on and off the court.
Address five common problems that I own:
1. Never depart the basics. Great football coaches write themselves notes like - block and tackle. "The main thing is the main thing."
Basketball coaches could substitute: get great shots and don't allow them. Work on creating separation with the "Big Four" of spacing, cutting, screening, and passing. Screening is opportunity not grunt work. "The screener is the second cutter." And "overspend" on shooting practice. "It doesn't matter what we run if we can't run it."
2. Be more efficient. Dean Smith can say, "I don't coach effort, I coach execution." But young players need both. Brad Stevens remarked that tempo sets a Patriots practice apart. Tempo was the primary lesson I noticed watching Geno Auriemma put Breanna Stewart and company through at UCONN practice. We never got much practice time, punishing any inefficiency. Get more reps with organization and pace. Create a culture of high tempo and high expectations. Everyone needs at least 150 shots a practice.
3. Give and get more feedback. "What matters to you?" Nobody wants to hear criticism. It's better to hear about dissatisfaction. We had a small on big cross-screen action that we worked on for mismatches that benefit our bigs. But one was unhappy. Maybe she wanted a less scripted approach but she expressed general dissatisfaction with her role.
4. Match people with roles. Our players weren't experienced, so we practiced fundamentals, small-sided games (3-on-3 inside the split), defeating pressure, and a handful of BOBs and SLOBs during 'specials'. For one of our teams I abandoned any offensive sets because the girls struggled to execute anything. I'm suspicious that ADD played a role not DAD. We couldn't use multiple defenses. Trying to teach run-and-jump meant only frustration.
5. Unrealistic expectations. My last group was predominantly soccer players playing an off-season sport. That doesn't mean they don't care, only that they care more about soccer. They were in great shape, good kids, but most not 'basketball first' players. The problem was mine not theirs.
DRILL. Curry shooting drills from Coach Castellaw
SET PLAY. Celtics horns, cross screen, DHO, second screen.
Lagniappe. Using off-ball screens.
Lagniappe 2. Think and communicate better. Stephen King informs us how in "On Writing." "Avoid the passive tense. I’m not the only one who says so; you can find the same advice in The Elements of Style."
Lagniappe 3. Charles Barkley asks, "what's your NBA skill?" What catalog of individual and small-group offense do our players develop? Examples:
One-on-one skills...
- Drive and finish (off either and both feet, either hand, both sides)
- Drive and kick
- Drive and pull up (to shoot or pass)
- Perimeter shot, shot fake into drive
- Give-and-go
- Front (face) and back cuts
- Pick-and-roll (including slips)
- DHO and early offense "pistol" action (yes, pistol is a three-person action)
