Years ago, Bethesda Naval Chief of Cardiology Dr. Bill Baker told me a story about a conference at NIH with leading heart specialists. Chief Pathologist Bill Roberts showed heart angiograms (pictures) of coronary arteries. His Alabama drawl asked, "which one of these fellas had an-gi-na pec-tor-is (chest pain)? A cardiologist answered, "how can we know? We didn't talk to the patients." Roberts quipped, "Of course not. You were too busy taking the pictures."
We make that mistake, too, allowing a bounty of games to replace practice of skills, strategy, physicality, and psychology.
I share "impact winning" a lot. What does that specifically mean?
- Winners have more and better possessions than opponents.
- Winners make teammates better...improving possessions.
- Winners end possessions with scores (assists/screens/hoops) or stops (turnovers, violations, rebounds, charges taken).
- Coaches impact winning by "making every day about player development."
- Coaches teach players to "see the game."
- Coaches use strategy, tempo, timeouts and other means to win.
Ask players what makes possessions better. Expect a result-oriented answer (e.g. we scored) not a process-oriented one.
Ask for the process details. "What do you mean?"
These constructs ask details and then delve into the specifics of how as a player and a team execution follows. Then ask how defenses might disrupt or limit each of the above.
"Show me what you mean by good spacing."
"Describe what makes good cutting." That includes faking (e.g. setups and misdirection/slips) and footwork, screens (including "the screener is the second cutter"), and cutting while in the passer's vision to work toward "on time and on target" passing and receiving.
"Describe what makes a good shot for you and your teammates." Lean into their answers for range, openness, balance, and situational appropriateness.
Then, consider the truth machine (video) for analysis. Doc Rivers argued for no more than thirteen clips. How was the spacing? Did cutters cut urgently? Did they set up their cuts? Did screeners deceive and sprint to screen? Did cutters wait for the screen? What was the quality of the passing? How did they rate the shot selection, the rebounding position, the defensive conversion into defensive transition?
"But coach!" If we have to think, how will we play?" Restated, like the Cardiologists, we're too busy playing to worry about whether we're doing well.
Scrutinize everything.
- warmups (e.g. Villanova Get 50)
- core drills
- small-side games
- competition with conditioning
- strategic practice (e.g. defeating pressure, special situations)
Keep learning while editing and improving all aspects of training.
Lagniappe. Backdoor cutting...
Tight defense rewards backdoor cutting and screening. The back cut goes toward and then away from the ball. Always finish the cut to decrease errant passing.