Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Basketball Movement: Know Where to Go and Where Not

Hamlet’s ‘To Be Or Not To Be’ Speech, Act 3 Scene 1

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;

"Basketball is a game of cutting and passing, of creating and denying space." 

If that is true, how do players learn where to go and not to go? Truths:

  • Movement destroys defenses. 
  • The ball is a camera, it can't find you unless it can see you. 
  • "Help your teammates." Sometimes you help by coming and other times by going.
  • "Spacing is offense and offense is spacing." - Chuck Daly
Return to the core of movement sports - spacing, player and ball movement, and the 'scoring moment'

As players, create advantage. Be specific.

  • Separation is advantage (e.g. dribble penetration into draw 2)
  • Mismatches (size, speed, or skill) are advantage
  • Creating space is advantage. Great players win in space. 

As players or coaches, our job is to help teams get scoring opportunities and to limit opponents' high quality scoring chances. Those are Pete Newell's dicta, "more and better shots than our opponents."

All movement is not positive. 

  • "Never cut to an occupied post."
  • "Don't get in the way of a driver." 

Players need to read defenders...setting up back cuts, lifts into space, and catch and attack options. I stole the slide below from Marc Hart's Zoom presentation on Dribble, Drive, Motion (DDM). 

Maintaining 'filled corners' pressures defenders into no good choices. 


Lagniappe.  

Lagniappe 2. Stop, shake, and bake. 

Lagniappe 3. My protege Cecilia continues to grow her game. The two-time All-Scholastic led her team to the state Final Four last season. She impacts defensive possessions with ball containment, help, altered shots, and rebounding and scores inside, outside, and in-between. She's only a junior and is the top student in her class. 

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