Facetiously, we said, "making little girls cry every day." Sport is a meritocracy. Fight for a spot every day. Varsity players forget that we taught them to fight for spots, roles, and minutes and that the next iteration of players gets the same or better teaching. The best players prove their value to the organization every day.
What are some drills that translated to separate contributors early?
1. Score from the three point line on one dribble. Quarterback layups.
We remove the defender in eighth grade to reduce the risk of violent collisions. We don't run the drill outdoors on asphalt with defense.
2. Penetrate/stop penetration.
Players flip the ball back-and-forth and offense chooses when to attack. Defense must stop penetration. Competitive drill teaching both offense and defense.
3. Survive extreme pressure... 2 on 8.
Apply and defeat pressure. Offense must traverse the four "quarters" of the court against eight defenders, two in each zone. The ball handler is constrained by one dribble per touch. Cut urgently and pivot well. Be decisive. The rotation is that defenders move up and the last offensive pair moves to the back zone.
4. Win in transition.
Condition within drills. Attack with advantage with a defensive chaser. Defense "shapes up," stops the ball, and delays attack to allow chaser to get back into play.
5. Score in the half court (individual and team)
Box drills and wing attack (e.g. drive, stop-and-pop, step back) initially solo and later against defense.
3 point shots off the catch, off the fake and side-dribble.
Pick-and-roll, pick-and-pop, slip the pick.
Learn to play fast, be decisive, and execute.
Lagniappe (something extra). Great concepts from Coach Hanlen, "Paint Game."
The Lombardi Philosophy - we do what we do, see if you can stop it. The alternative - figure out what we do and then try to stop it. It's not mutually exclusive but most people believe execution tops trickery.
Football defenses show a "pre-snap" look and afterwards there's reality. In high school, the first offensive trip we'd send a cutter through to see whether the defense followed him (man defense).
With a shot clock, momentary confusion might create advantage, producing late shot clock decisions. "Discomfort produces indecision."
Pros and cons exist. Are we confusing ourselves? Young players seldom understand offense or defense well. Yet, if they understand defense, they get a leg up offensively.
So where do we start?
"A good zone looks like a man-to-man, and a good man-to-man looks like a zone."
Have a clear philosophy like "no easy shots" and "no second chance points."
Good team defense begins with good individual defense.
Develop defensive stoppers to complement offensive stars.
The "simplest" disguise might simply be changing defenses. That covers a lot of territory, not just man versus zone. Changing defenses could include 'extended' defenses, pick-and-roll coverage, trapping, and hybrid defenses blending zone and man.
Limited practice runs the risk of being "jack of all trades" and master of none. Ask how many defenses can we run effectively? Playing one defense well is better than playing many poorly.
The initial alignment suggests a 2-3 zone defense, but it doesn't have to be so. A team could 'show' zone and play man. Or we see x1 and x2 'twitchy' or hear a call like 'fire' or 'red' and know a trapping defense is coming. Most young players do not feel that. And even so, do they have a quick adjustment (e.g. 5 cuts to the middle, a pseudo "short roll" situation)?
Alternatively, we could run a "triangle and two" out of the 2-3 set with a goal of limiting two perimeter players and having 'protection' underneath.
Much depends on our philosophy. As a middle school coach, I want to develop fundamentally sound players, emphasizing technique over tactics. The more we do strategically, the less likely we are to do it well.
Summary:
Execution tops trickery.
Create advantage.
Don't confuse ourselves.
"A good man to man looks like zone."
The simplest disguise is changing defense.
Better to play a few defenses well than many poorly.
Trapping and altering pick-and-roll coverage are simple changes.
"Show one defense" and adjust to another is also simple.
Lagniappe (something extra). Dale Brown quotes...
"Leadership is difficult. It is a lonely responsibility. The best leaders are servants. It is always about others."
"It’s not too late to become what you thought you should be or could be, you can do it."
"You must be determined to apply massive common sense in solving complex problems."
"In life, adversity only visits the strong. It stays forever with the weak. We have to decide whether we're going to be strong or weak." "No leader is exempt from criticism, and his humility will nowhere be seen more clearly than in the manner in which he accepts and reacts to it."
Lagniappe 2. Approaches to defending quicker players.
In Redbelt, author David Mamet summed up distractions, "A man distracted is a man defeated."
Every team faces distractions, which appear in limitless forms. Maintaining focus is a central task for coaches and team leaders. The best teams stay engaged and 'on the same page.'
Human nature makes it hard for us to find contentment. In the magnificent opus Sapiens, Yuval Harari writes, "When the mind experiences something distasteful it craves to be rid of the irritation. When the mind experiences something pleasant, it craves that the pleasure will remain and will intensify. Therefore, the mind is always dissatisfied and restless. This is very clear when we experience unpleasant things, such as pain. As long as the pain continues, we are dissatisfied and do all we can to avoid it. Yet even when we experience pleasant things we are never content. We either fear that the pleasure might disappear, or we hope that it will intensify."
Call our need for more distractions.
Pride. Pride manifests as overconfidence, taking an opponent too lightly, the "trap game." The opposite of pride is humility. You've all heard the adage, "stay humble, stay hungry." Benjamin Franklin wrote, “There is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility."
Humility was a core Don Meyer value, along with passion, unity, servant leadership and thankfulness. Basketball teaches humility - hard losses, injury, uneven performance - even great players have bad games.
Pride and humility relate to managing ego. Bill Russell had a mature approach, "my ego demands - for myself - the success of my team."
Envy. Envy relates to minutes, role, and compensation (including recognition). Madeleine Blois's outstanding book, In These Girls Hope Is a Muscle, reveals the rivalry between two star players that had to be bridged for success.
Envy occurs at every level of sport, from within and sometimes outside teams. You remember the extreme case of the Texas Cheerleader Murder plot. You've seen parents jockey for influence to elevate their child's role. Envy is as old as Cain and Abel.
Wrath. Anger is a 'pure' emotion. Where I grew up five decades ago, a disgruntled parent sought to have the coach replaced after his son was cut. In a town that had sent a championship football team to Bermuda three years earlier, suddenly for some it was about participation, not winning.
Sometimes another deadly sin (e.g. envy) morphs into wrath. Creating a straw man argument is one way wrath appears. Rather than attack a coach's competence an opponent may focus on a small part of the coach's approach to undermine them.
Wrath may get directed outside the team, such as at officials. But it lives within as bullying, sexism, racism, and other conflicts.
Sloth. Sloth is one of the deadly S's - selfishness, softness, and sloth (laziness). Sometimes sloth appears as complacency after success. Nobody misses the lazy employee who quits. "Don't cheat the drill." In ideal circumstances, the best players are the hardest workers and thrive with coaching.
Greed. Greed is about wanting more than is needed or earned. Players want more - recognition and money.
Beyond high scorers, Coach Dean Smith went out of his way to recognize other contributors to victory. Professor Adam Grant's book Give and Takeexamines how sharing credit often brings more to us than hogging it. "Givers code of honor is: A) show up, B) Work hard, C) Be kind and D) take the high road. Givers create psychological safety- a climate where everyone feels they can contribute and it’s okay to fall flat and fail or being judged or punished. Psychologically safe environments help people learn and innovate more."
In the salary cap era, concentration of payroll on one player creates weakness in a team's 'middle class.' Tom Brady took less pay than many other similar players that allowed for a better supporting cast...and championships.
Gluttony. Gluttony describes overeating. Some players literally eat their way out of jobs. Having the discipline to restrain our appetite and optimize strength and conditioning separates elite performers.
Nobody has uttered a greater truth.
Lust. In John McPhee's A Sense of Where You Are, he writes about Bill Bradley's Princeton basketball experience. As I recall, Coach van Breda Kolff wrote at a team meeting in big letters on the board, GIRLS, in smaller letters, FOOD, and in small letters, BASKETBALL. Teams fall apart over relationships of many different types.
Solutions. "Knowledge is power." How can we know? Communication with players is essential. Coaching girls, I've sometimes benefited from having female assistants who relate to players better. Parents may also share concerns about rivalries and conflicts. They are always present, whether we realize it or not.
Women are from Venus. Feelings matter. Share Maya Angelou's wisdom. Appeal to the players' emotions.
The elephant is in the room. Deal with it.
Lagniappe (something extra). Read the help, move the defense.
Effective fakes can be subtle and the game rewards explosive moves off the fake.
Lagniappe 2. Screening the zone (top, middle, or bottom) can create separation.
“The most successful coaches and leaders . . have put a lot of thought into what they believe in and how they feel that their team or their organization should operate."
“Sustained success doesn’t happen by accident . . you have to be intentional."
“Clarity must precede accountability. If you have not done a good job of defining exactly what it is that you need out of . . your player . . then I don’t believe . . we have the right to hold that player accountable.”
Lagniappe 4. Adam Grant. "The most meaningful way to succeed is to help other people succeed." Find something to take away and succeed.
"The director is the keeper of the story." - Ron Howard
Authentic or imposter? Does the message advance the story? Assess the message not just the messenger. Develop and share messages that work across our lives. When we tell players "when you do these things - focus, prepare, show high effort, maintain discipline, develop great study habits - they will translate into your family life, academics, and your career."
Don't blindly accept authority. Remember the Milgram experiments where volunteers were 'instructed' by authority figures to give progressively stronger electric shock treatments. Our voice has to stand on its own. "I was only following orders" will not protect us. But coach so-and-so did that. Denying water was standard practice once. It was stupid and dangerous but didn't get push back. Think for ourselves.
"First above all to thine own self be true."
Find our philosophy. Write it. Live it. Teach it. Assess the results. Adjust.
Steal and refine. If it were easy to copy success, everyone would. How many Warren Buffetts are there?
Execution is where the rubber meets the road.
What's your bird's-eye view? I wrote this years ago and meeting the standard isn't easy because finding twelve committed 'basketball players' is hard. I'm not saying everyone should love basketball over soccer, volleyball, or lacrosse. But results vary if you coach basketball players or soccer players playing basketball.
General:
TEAM comes first.
Our goal is to get more and better shots than our opponent.
Basketball success comes from executing fundamentals well...doing what we do a lot consistently well.
Good teams must apply and handle pressure. Every good team finds ways to apply pressure and defeat pressure.
Offense:
Movement kills defense. Passing and cutting beats dribbling and standing.
Fail fast. "The game is meant to be played fast." She who gets the most quality shots comes out ahead.
"Possession and possessions." Possess the ball. Have quality possessions; value the ball.
Execution is everything. “The game is about MAKING plays not RUNNING plays.” - Mike Krzyzewski (Duke coach)
Defense:
No easy baskets.
Pressure the ball. Attack, create chaos and discomfort.
Deny penetration, deny the lane.
Good defenses communicate. Silent teams lose.
One bad shot. Rebounding finishes the defensive stop.
I'm not telling anyone how to organize, implement, and revise their program. But without a defined philosophy, the game will look and feel disorganized. Kevin Eastman says, "success leaves footprints." So does failure.
Lagniappe (something extra). Another Eastman quote, "“Not everything we hear, see . or learn will actually fit us at this current time in our life or our career. So, that’s where you’ve got to really discern what can I take that I can put into what I do.”
"You can't fall up a flight of stairs." We don't study Shakespeare in first grade because we're not ready. And if we don't teach basic "movement" skills and finishing in youth basketball, no success follows at higher levels. One step at a time...
Consider the following:
Ball side there is wing entry and the post rolls down establishing a post-up.
With a slight delay, the weak side off-ball screen sets up a basket cut.
The screener is the second cutter. The grunt work rewards team play.
One key is the 5 whose options define the play - after wing entry
On-ball screen (wing ball screen)
On-ball "ghost" screen
Roll down
Screen across (or slip cross screen)
Wing entry and back screen for 1
Another key is the skill set of the players surrounding. If 5 is a dominant and multi-faceted player, she may draw doubles ("draw 2") allowing basket cuts with the wing or "inside-outside" action with open 3s for the wing. And those are just options off wing entry.
Key point 1. Remember the 95% of the time 'without the ball'.
"Do more of what works AND do it better."
Key point 2a. "Drag screens" in transition create separation.
Key point 2b. Screening with the back side allows the screener to see the play and cut to the open spot. This is a favorite point of Coach Obradovic.
Drill. Coach Calipari penetration and pass drills, everyone shoots (drive pass and cut)
Key point 3. "Movement kills defense." Pass and relocate.
Set play. "Five-out" initiates versatility. Coach Liam Flynn shares a DHO into a backscreen for a lob. "Great offense is multiple actions."
Creative way of getting into an Empty Corner Stack PNR out of 5 out spacing from the @ATLHawks@NBASummerLeague team. Love the misdirection pin down happening on the other side of the floor to get the weakside D's attention away from helping on the Stack PNR. pic.twitter.com/f5TKcLh9pN
Lagniappe (something extra). "Water the flowers." Coach Pete Carril says, "the quality of the shot relates to the quality of the pass." Great passes make three people happy - passer, shooter, and coach.
"No progress occurs without change, but all change is not progress." - John Wooden
Every team has ups and downs. Navigating the downs defines the victors.
All coaches have a plan. What happens when it fails?
Kevin Eastman says,
Do it better.
Do it harder.
Change personnel.
"$#%&, it ain't working." - We have to change.
There's no textbook definition of failing. Usually, the game coach "feels" a sudden momentum shift or a game slipping away.
Momentum shift:
Stock price charts provide a useful analogy. A tight "game" exists between bulls and bears between 60 and 62 dollars per share (in the box) from September to mid-October. Price can break out from a "base" and run (trend) or have a "false breakout" (left box) where price broke below 60 and reversed. Imagine that the "bear team" scored consecutive threes or transition baskets and the bulls' coach called a timeout to stop the run. During the initial breakdown, some "short sellers" will sell the stock anticipating a price drop.
This actually happens as the "sell side" intervenes with supportive announcements of their confidence in the stock. Or a company announces something favorable. When price reverses, new buyers jump in AND short sellers must "cover" (buy the stock back, taking a loss) accelerating the price rise.
Self-awareness is critical. Overconfidence in our team, our plan, or ourselves can cause delay or inaction when a timeout or strategic change (tactics, tempo, personnel) are needed.
What triggers change?
Losing seasons
Losing streaks
Score reversals (think Atlanta-Patriots 28-3)
Poor effort (a combination of coaching and people)
Change in management
Readily seen changes on large time frames (above) repeat on small time frames. And it's essential to reverse these in the short-term to avoid them on longer time-frames. Bad seasons come from the sum of poor possessions.
A granular approach, teaching to the possession (what we did well, what we didn't) offers the best chance of favorable long-term results. That's hard when the development structure is often based on volume of games played.
Lagniappe: Quicker release. Ball in the air, feet in the air.
Lagniappe 2. Defensive recovery. I think we have overemphasized sliding and undertaught "hip turn" and sprint recovery. The video mentions soccer defense. Think NFL cornerback play or stealing second base. Hip turn and crossover steps come into play.
Great coaching spreads leadership across an organization. It goes by different names - servant leadership, distributed leadership, culture.
What elements belong?
1. B+ (Be positive). Positive energy makes positive people. Jon Gordon shares positivity lessons in The Positive Dog and The Energy Bus.
2. Appreciate. Tip 1 - Shawn Achor's 21 day gratitude exercise. Write down three appreciation items at the end of each day. After three weeks, sixty-three gratitude statements assert themselves. Tip 2. Keep a "Jar of Awesome." Tip 3. Remember Don Meyer's five values - PUSH-T - passion, utility, servant leadership, humility, and thankfulness.
Having many successful players moving on in life is a thrill. A good meatless meatball recipe can find its way in, too.
3. Let it go. Have a short memory as in "don't sweat the small stuff." Or think about Ted Lasso's reminder to "be a goldfish" because a goldfish only has a 10 second memory. Goldfish carry no baggage.
4. And then some. Do what's needed "and then some." Unrequired work separates ordinary and extraordinary. Do Dan Pink's "five more." Five more calls, five more minutes, five more pages. Add lagniappe (something extra).
5. Have empathy. Put ourselves in the other person's shoes.
6. Build better habits. Do more of what works and less of what doesn't. As Walt Whitman wrote, "Be curious, not judgmental." Do more actions consistent with the person whom we want to become. Read more to get a broader world view.
7. Become our better version. When surveys are done about the division of labor in a home, the total contributions of the wife and husband sum to about 130%. In our home, it's less, because my wife would probably say she does 90% and I do 10%. A better version would boost my contribution so we'd reach that 130%!
8. THINK before we speak. It's hard not to respond. Consider the THINK acronym - is it True, Helpful, Inspiring, Necessary, Kind? Everyone slips up, especially when we're under life and time pressures. Remember Lincoln's "hot letters" (never signed, never sent) and the 24-hour rule to hold fire.
9. Help our teammate. Our family is our closest team. Step up and help more often and more willingly. We have teams at work, in our community, and of course in sports. Add value for teammates. "If you need something, let me know."
10. Share something great. Find small ways to spread more joy - a book, a movie, a song, a recipe. Here's an idea. Reread a great book and abandon bad ones.
Summary:
B+
Appreciate.
Let it go.
And then some...
Show empathy.
Build better habits.
Become our better version.
THINK
Help our teammate.
Share something great.
Lagniappe (something extra). "Every day is player development day." Study the footwork, the ball protection, reading the defender, balance, and the quickness into the shot.
Lagniappe 2. The primacy of footwork.
Lagniappe 3. A five step approach to decision-making
1. Question... do I want this job?
2. Research... what are the benefits, risks, and input from others?
3. Apply... what will the intermediate steps and end state look like?
4. Implications... what second and third order consequences occur?
5. Invert... 'what's the other side of the trade?'
Lagniappe 4. Offensive and defensive concepts from one of the best coaches in the world...the help and rotation are awesome
