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Friday, February 17, 2023

Building Practice - Core Concepts into Specific Actions to Develop Players and Teams

"We hold onto regrets, we stay in the past." - Jurassic World Dominion

These were key quotes from a recent piece on skill acquisition from Dr. Alex Lascu. Coaches seek to discover the 'devil in the details'. Lacking a 'rosetta stone' each of us seeks a unique translation. 

Let's delve into specifics driving excellence. 

Protect that space/create the environment. Basketball's origins shouldn't be childhood's end. "Play."

By no means comprehensive, share ideas to build a teaching environment while allowing kids to be kids. Jumping rope conditions, dribble tag trains, and capture the flag teaches evasive movement. 

Fit pieces together (examples from Kirby Schepp). 


Teach players to get open using other players, coming off screens. 


Force movement within small spaces (e.g. volleyball backcourt) and then add screen assists. 

Enjoy the challenge. Love practice. Hate the game not the players? We get into the game because we love to play. Keep it fun while continually raising the bar. 

Compete against ourselves for our personal best. How many consecutive jump shots, threes, free throws can I make? How many can I make in two minutes? Track consecutive layups in high intensity layup drills to measure excellence. 

Key point: "Winners are trackers." - Darren Hardy, The Compound Effect

Group by skill level. Pros and cons emerge. Leveling becomes a challenge and controversy. Younger players get matched with older. Egos can fracture and disappointments arise. Wayne Gretzky shared that one season he scored only ONE goal as a six year-old. "But my teammates were eleven year-olds."

Emphasize decision-making. Use video of scrimmage and practice to reinforce what people saw and the choices they made. Sometimes that shows great decisions and success and others failed choices and the consequences. 

Intent. What am I trying to achieve? Pete Newell famously explained, "Tell them the WHY. They're not cattle." We're doing this drill to improve our lateral quickness and catchup speed because we're struggling to keep the ball in front of us. We're taking more free throws in practice because our percentage is hurting us in close games. Practice to impact winning. 

Go live with defense. One versus zero misses context. Drills like the Paul Pierce wing attack, Villanova wing series, or box drills are great. But without defense, they produce a false sense of security. Shell drill 'live' with pass and cut, pass and screen, and other variations forces choice. We're not playing against statues. 

Fun versus learning. Practice can teach and entertain, too. Vary drills, vary intensity, and consider having a written 'curriculum' of the individual (how to beat traps) and team skills (e.g. how to trap).

Pattern recognition. Chunking. Chess grandmasters see patterns in how the pieces are arranged. So do capable basketball players. 


Put the pieces 'on the board' and ask players to 'create' some options. Consider filming that. Then take a few minutes to diagram possibilities. Then repeat the exercise. 

Repetition without repetition. Random versus block practice achieves different ends. Players need to learn basic movements and skills. But advanced 'students' need to exceed "see Spot run" and "Spot danced across the floor" to "Spot's grace and beauty rivaled any ballerina." 

One-on-one and two-on-two teach foundational skills. 

Teach problem solving. Two simple examples are breaking the press and scoring against zone defense. I repeat that 'advantage-disadvantage' drills like 5 versus 7 change lives and demonstrate how screening the middle of the zone creates opportunities. 


Some players will struggle with advanced concepts and the volume of material introduced. Our three hours of practice a week didn't allow for complexity that would have overwhelmed players anyway. Strive for 'mature simplicity'. 

Translate core beliefs and concepts into execution. In the clips I showed yesterday, the player I coached for three years and countless offseason sessions separates herself. 

Lagniappe. Quarter-enders. 

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