Thomas Edison argued the qualities needed for invention were persistence, imagination, and analogical thinking. Assert those qualities as the essence of player development.
Persistence. John Wooden said of Bill Walton (above) that he never got bored doing repetitive fundamentals, especially footwork.
Relentless work ethic characterizes basketball legends like Jordan, Kobe, Bird, Isiah Thomas, and Bill Bradley.
Make a workout yours, like Steve Nash's shooting workout.
Imagination. Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Use constraints to elevate training. Add constraints including time and productivity to enhance workouts.
- Improve strength and conditioning with a weighted vest.
- Limit drill areas...e.g. dribble tag within the 3 point arc (six players). Add more difficulty by requiring non-dominant hand dribbling.
- Constrain number of dribbles per touch (at an AAU tryout the coach asked players to score on two dribbles from half court)
- During half court offense practice insist on a paint touch and ball reversal
- Use advantage-disadvantage drills like 5 v. 7 full court press break. Add even more difficult by disallowing dribbles.
- Practice "situational basketball" with low clock time and score situations so players are mentally and physically prepared under the bright lights
Analogy. Analogy borrows from one domain to inform another less related one.
- Brazil came to soccer prominence as street soccer (futsal) was played using small sides in small areas. Small-sided games allow for more touches and more area 'contestedness'
- David, meet Goliath. Women's and girls' teams scrimmage men. At UCONN, Coach Auriemma's 'opposition' understands playing hard but 'walking a line' to avoid injury.
- Chess grandmasters "chunk" information (mentally organize groups of pieces) to see strategy (below)
Lagniappe. Many basketball interactive sites see a lot of questions about what tactics or strategy serve a team best because of technical failures (turnovers, poor shooting, etc.). Sometimes a better question is "what does our team now?" Often, it's skill development. "Technique beats tactics." That doesn't mean tactics aren't valuable.
Consider studying the end of games to observe the technical and tactical landscape.
