"These ideas made individuals and our team better." You should ask:
- What's the evidence?
- What's the disconfirming evidence?
- What are the activities?
Evidence. Individual player development - from two groups of a total of 25 players (3 years each), two earned Division 1 basketball scholarships. Samantha Dewey is a junior at Richmond (transfer from Illinois) and Cecilia Kay is a freshman at American, leading the team in scoring, rebounding, and blocks.
Team accomplishments of star players: Dewey won a pair of state championships in the prep school division at Brooks School. Kay was a four-time All-Scholastic, McDonald's All-America nominee, who played in two state semifinals, state final, and defeated last year's state title team twice. Her team was banned from the tournament last year because baseball team violations lead to a schoolwide postseason ban.
Disconfirming evidence. Neither of the top players remained in the local basketball program, leaving for private schools. Without the top players, the local program fell on hard times with declining participation, losing records, and athletes migrating to other sports like volleyball and soccer.
The activities.
- Individual offensive skill development - three level scoring
- Press-breaking - advantage/disadvantage - 5 versus 7 full court (this functions as a form of scrimmaging)
- Special situations practice - BOB, SLOB, ATOs for 15 minutes each practice, with 'three possession games" simulating close-and-late games (another form of scrimmaging, offense-defense-offense)
- Small sided-games (3-on-3) on one side of the midline
- Handouts. Wooden "Pyramid of Success" and Bilas "Toughness" traits
- Off-season training (May-October) offered Tuesday and Sunday p.m.
Three level scoring activities:
Basket attack.
Wing attack - Pierce series.
Don't work on everything to start. Pick a few like blow by and one dribble pull ups. Definitely don't invest time on step backs before players master basic attacks.
Box drills. Master footwork with drive or shoot off the catch.
