Ideas, like currency, differ in value and utility. Nobody would accept "Beanie Babies" as an alternative currency but bitcoin feels about as durable yet flourishes.
All ideas are not created equal. Watching basketball, we see a rise (analytics, three-point shots) and fall (stall ball, post play) of certain ideas. "And "knowin' what to throw away and knowin' what to keep" are two of our prime commandments.
To get better results than the basketball masses, we need better ideas, more effective personnel (!), or better execution, which likely combines the first two.
For example, consider packline defense. Taking away direct drives with gap help and contesting perimeter shots without fouling aren't novel. Virginia did it better than most, and enjoyed the spoils (national championship) and suffering (one seed first round NCAA defeat).
I started Dubner and Litner's When to Rob a Bank, a springboard to fresher thinking. Freshness attracts us, but doesn't guarantee quality. Drinking fresh hemlock tea can kill you. My college organic chemistry professor quipped, "if you're going to take cyanide after this test, take it with orange juice to improve its absorption." I doubt he'd use the same language today.
What ideas might become fresh or (referencing Tan France) style that comes back around again?
Post play. The "next great post player" will come around again. The question becomes whether officials will call fouls when she inevitably gets hacked.
Offenses designed to counteract sellout defense against the three via pass and cut will find higher points per possession.
"Welcome to your interview, Coach. We reviewed your resume and your packet. The committee has only one question. This is a turnaround situation with limited resources. What is your edge?"
Coaching isn't a monolith. Sport fosters lifelong relationships. In a recent Zoom conference with Harvard classmates, relationships stood out. Several recalled a teammate who would yell "weakside help"...on the streets of Cambridge. Relationships build loyalty, trust, and respect. Build those bridges.
It continues with superior organization and clarity to implement philosophy, culture, and identity. To do your job you must know it and "pursue excellence daily" (Jon Gordon) to surpass expectations at every level from the managers, the entire roster, and the coaching staff.
Our philosophy is that our play reflects our life. Life requires positive habits, preparation, and attention to detail. Be fired up and ready to go every day. Bring energy and energize your teammates.
Basketball rewards symmetry. Offensive separation creates quality shots; defense denies them by forcing one bad shot.
Coaches succeed or fail based on the available talent. The ability to recruit or to develop talent creates edges. "Every day is player development day." Four former players particularly stand out at this point whose results reflect THEIR hard work:
SD - Brooks School, reclassified junior, center, at least four D1 offers, led her team to Independent School State Title last year
KS - Mystic Valley, senior, point guard, all-league 2020
AC - Melrose, senior, shooting guard, all-league 2020. Scored 16 points in her club's only game so far
CK - Arlington Catholic, freshman, forward, averaging 22 points, 14 rebounds in four games this season
Ability to ask better questions. Self-assessment of strengths and weakness allows editing.
What does our team need now?
What are the hardest actions for opponents to defend?
How can we do more of what is working and less of what isn't?
How can our team play longer and harder?
How can we separate ourselves using special situations?
What can we steal from others to improve?
Lagniappe. Stealing every day. "NBA actions on steroids."
Here a clip from the video of an "ELEVATOR" variant.
Lagniappe 2. What is your 'favorite' book and why? Erik Spoelstra recommends, "When to Rob a Bank" by the Freakonomics guys. The book "borrows" from the Freaknomics blog, which is exceptional. For example, which is more dangerous - motorcycles or horseback riding?
My daughter's dog has a bigger wardrobe than I do. Steal from every relevant discipline. Tan France's MasterClass on Style has a wealth of coaching tips.
"Style Coaching is not one size fits all...this is a lifelong process." Learn every day.
"Don't be lazy; try new things." With continual study, we edit our approach and results.
"Continue to invest in your style coaching." The Internet has tons of free stuff but it invaluable resources come from pay sites as well.
"I never want it to become stale." Players love freshness...e.g. dribble tag with constraints, e.g. non-dominant hand dribbling inside the arc.
"I don't have to embrace every trend." Are we wearing bell-bottom jeans and shooting twenty threes with twelve year-olds?
"Incorporate one or two (trends) as you feel comfortable." How should we use analytics, like the Four Factors?
"Mix it in with your regular (wardrobe) capsule wardrobe." Adding elements doesn't mean abandoning what worked.
"Who do I want to be?" Be yourself but keep reinventing.
"Is this (trend) really new?" Study = re-search.
"Trends always find a way to come back around." Coaches who study Bee, Wooden, Newell, Smith, Knight, Chaney and others cultivate an edge.
"You will make mistakes...you were going through an evolution." Push through.
"Don't try to be somebody you aren't." Authenticity has value...unless we're an authentic jerk.
"If you're not making any mistakes, you're not doing it right." Higher performance means leaving our comfort zone.
Lagniappe. Production is our ultimate coaching goal, high performance against tough competition.
Mallory Pugh with the "first cap, first goal" achievement for the USWNT.
Lagniappe 2. "The Playmaker's Advantage..." how do we help players and teams get where they cannot go alone?
1. Recognize and cultivate special talent like Mia Hamm.
2. Embrace developments in "cognitive neuroscience." What we say and how we say it matter objectively.
3. Promote sportsmanship, teamwork, and accountability. Joy is the outcome.
Lagniappe 3. Who knew getting stops could propel you forward?
Ball pressure, contesting without fouls, drop coverage, and more.
Basketball Friday shares concepts, drills, and a set play.
Elite performers find edges. Zaichkowsky and Peterson examine raising performance in "The Playmaker's Advantage."
Execution arises at the interface of technique (skill), tactics (strategy), physiology (athleticism), and psychology (emotion). Coaches and trainers align these most favorably.
Peak performance happens when players and teams enter into flow and clutch states. Flow states take players outside distraction as confidence reinforces actions with a positive feedback loop.
Experimentally, distractions that force subjects to focus on their mechanics degrades performance. They hypothesize that "choking" in response to pressure correlates with athletes focusing on technique.
The 'choking' hypothesis.
A comprehensive training program will include:
- Skill building (decreasing the cognitive load on working memory)
- Personal training (endurance, strength, speed) to enhance physiology
- Tactics (sport-specific IQ building)
- Space-time decision-making with intense practice and software
Note: yelling at children from the stands disrupts their working memory and may degrade focus/performance.
Playmakers rely on pattern recognition (like chess masters) during their search-decide-execute model. This helps account for the value of video study.
The problem is how to develop practices to link the physical, mental, tactical, and technical skills. That's a challenge that we have to confront to improve the learning curve.
It's a book for geeks. But the video distills it well, twenty minutes to invest.
"Drills." What kinds of actions might help? Drills that produce mental and physical fatigue with high level decision making might fit. My favorite is 5 versus 7 (advantage-disadvantage) with constraints (e.g. no dribbling). Small-sided games also apply.
Set Play. Many NBA teams use ZIPPER action to enter the ball. But the goal shouldn't just be ball entry but attack. With the pandemic, Massachusetts High School basketball eliminated BOBs and the default entry is from the foul line extended during SLOBs.
Lagniappe. Screening the weak side of the zone via @CoachBrotherton
"Buster" has been a staple set for us, when attacking a 2-3 zone. Inside ball screen, with a shooter sliding behind a weakside screen. Again, I love the energy from our bench! There is no crowd. Listen to our team's reaction. Awesome!#XsAndOs#ServeCoaches#GrowTheGame🏀 pic.twitter.com/2IBAGkxogB
Brief message today after yesterday's national day of shame.
Don't let our program be the place where common sense goes to die. Ego and career advancement above all is dishonorable. "Don't send Jimmy Olson out to do Superman's job."
Don't die on the hill of individual agendas. "Agendas crush teams." We have a litany of euphemisms - one voice, "one band, one sound," being on the same page, "circle the wagons."
Don't drown in the pool of "wrong things." We learned right and wrong as children but many forgot.
An ICU PA asks "what life advice do you have for an ambitious young man or woman?" Let's find answers that clear the decks for success.
Adopt winning habits. James Clear's Atomic Habitsbuilds winning habits by making good habits (like exercise) easier and bad negative habits (e.g. watching too much TV) harder. Be consistent. "Don't miss twice." Track how we invest our time, our resources, our money. Buying a three-dollar coffee daily adds up to over a thousand dollars a year. Decide whether that's a good trade.
Become a learning machine. The more knowledge we have, the more inputs we have for decision-making. Director Werner Herzog advises, "Read, read, read, read, read." Former Celtics' assistant and Clippers VP of Basketball Operations Kevin Eastman reads two hours a day. Business tycoon Steve Forbes reads at least fifty pages a day. Legendary investor Warren Buffett spends half of his time reading. Don't only read but summarize the message of your study.
Learn how to study. That can include breaking up study periods between study and brief breaks (25 minutes on, 5 minutes off), self-testing, and spaced repetition.
Use available tools including summaries. Beware persons with discrepancies between their words and actions.
This passage from Moliere's Tartuffe shows the distinction.
Focus. Buffett encouraged leaders to make a list of twenty-five possible action items and then prune it to five. Focus relentlessly on those. He says that if you put all your eggs in one basket, watch that basket carefully.
Focus or attention are learned skills. Some students suffer dyslexia or ADD and cannot focus. Mindfulness is a skill proven to improve attention, even in elementary school-aged children and those with ADD. MRI before and after training shows that mindfulness increases brain density in learning and memory centers and reduces it in the brain's "stress center," the amygdala. Scripts are available free from UCLA Health.
Mindfulness is a tool used by former NBA legends (Jordan, Kobe) and contemporary ones like LeBron and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Here's my favorite mindfulness short video. "Lion Mind"
Commit. Do the work. Excellence takes belief and patience. This parable about training from Charles Ngo reinforces that message. At a UCONN women's practice, the women took two laps before practice. Nobody cut corners. Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich reminds players that they can't skip steps. "Pound the rock" until it breaks. "The magic is in the work."
You won't regret time invested in Coach Pete Newell's triad of 'footwork, balance, and maneuvering speed.' You play one hundred percent of the game with your feet. Not sure what footwork to practice? Go to USA Basketball.
Be a fan of Box Drills for footwork and balance to beat defenders with technique.
Become a great teammate. Everyone can be a great teammate. Take responsibility for the success of teammates. Cheer them on. Thank the passer for an assist. Communicate. Also, remember that nobody is unhappy when a bad teammate leaves.
Summary:
- Win with habits.
- Learn.
- Focus.
- Commit.
- Be a great teammate.
Lagniappe. Just do it.
Lagniappe 2. Enjoy studying footwork and fundamentals to understand how successful players create separation and quality chances.
Bueckers likes to finish right hand off right foot.
In Saban, the unauthorized bio of Alabama coach Nick Saban, his wife says (paraphrasing), "he isn't the greatest coach, but he is the greatest recruiter." As winning is the standard for big-time college sports, Saban gets the check mark.
Effective coaches:
Get the most improvement and highest standard of performance from players.
Get players to play harder and longer than opponents.
Have teams that do not beat themselves.
Take advantage of opponent mistakes.
Achieve the above consistently.
Coach Dave Smart reminds us that another value of player development is not just skill, but competition that pushes top players and allows interchange in the event of injury or performance decline.
Kawhi Leonard shot 25 percent from three at San Diego State.
During his pro career, he's averaged over 38 percent. What changed?
It can't be all shot selection as all shots are not equal.
He's not unique. Jaylen Brown shot 29 percent in one season at Cal and has averaged over 37 percent during four plus NBA campaigns.
Kawhi attributes it to shooting coach Chip Engelland. Engelland's reputation grew after a Grantland profile. Engelland shot over 55 percent from beyond the arc during his senior year at Duke.
During struggles for Steve Kerr, Engelland changed his routine, "Kerr and Engelland would sit alone on the bench in the Portland practice facility after everybody else had left. Engelland would ask Kerr to tell him what was going on with his kids or even leave him to read a newspaper. After a few minutes, Engelland would shout at Kerr to go, and the two would sprint off the bench and set Kerr up for a single 3-point attempt from the wing before returning to the bench. Repeat six more times and you’ve got the league’s most unlikely — and simultaneously most logical — shooting workout."
Aside from winning percentage, how would we measure coaching excellence? We rely on the eyeball test - organization, structure, teamwork, mistakes (e.g. turnovers), and effort. What is their intent? How does the game flow? Does the team adjust? What is the quality of the opposition? But it distills to execution...
"They have a winning culture." Bill Walsh defined winning culture with his "Standard of Performance" earning four Super Bowl titles. And he assumed a failing team and rebuilt it. A "positive culture" will not win without talent. In a youth sports setting, that may be acceptable.
We know of dysfunctional cultures like the 1970s Bronx Zoo, where the Yankees won despite their disagreements.
Walsh's culture focused on excellence at every level. He wanted peak performance from the person answering the phone, the guys striping the field, coaches, and players. The 49ers broke tasks into component parts and exacted execution excellence.
Considering the above, it's easy to know why winning is the gold standard. We rarely get "Hard Knocks" looks under the hood at team practices or culture. If not winning percentage, how else do you measure coaching?
Lagniappe. Nik knack. Stunning Jokic assists.
Lagniappe 2. You just had a career game in an OT win (28 points, 24 rebounds, 6 blocks, 16 for 21 free throws, an assist on your team's last hoop in regulation) after being named a top performer of the week. Ask the four questions:
1. What went well? Winning. Production. Crunch time performance, "rising."
2. What went less well? Work on conditioning and finishing through contact.
3. What could I improve? Grow the perimeter game.
4. What are the enduring lessons? Self-assessment drives the quest for excellence.
Avoid cliche. What is cliche? Oxford says, "a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought."
I think of a hockey interview, "we skate hard today; we skate harder tomorrow."
"Greatness" became cliche. Greatness inhabits rare air. Everything isn't great, even my best couscous-stuffed peppers.
What ideas, events, and people etch themselves upon our basketball souls?
The smells of Betadine with Tufskin and locker room perspiration are forever. So is the scent of fear.
A memorable book or film leaves lasting impressions with multiple unforgettable scenes. Think about the ending of The Karate Kid, the restaurant scene in When Harry Met Sally, training montages in Rocky, or the holiday party in Groundhog Day.
Transforming events imprint upon us because emotion intensifies neurochemical signal. When we won a sectional championship in overtime in 1973, I jumped and literally didn't come down. An unseen teammate caught me in the air from behind.
Sport affords creativity. Teams paint a canvas with a palette of space and time. Sometimes we love the results, others we hate the images. It's Kurosawa or kindergarten.
Image from Kurosawa's masterpiece, Dersu Uzala
Elite preparation is cliche.Watching a young player remove sock wrinkles, lace up her sneakers, and stretch meticulously is not.
Jay Wright, Gregg Popovich, Frank Martin, and Geno Auriemma are never cliche. In Auriemma's autobiography, he described sleeping near hot coals as a child in Northern Italy...and getting burned, scarred. Basketball leaves scars, too.
Referee baiting is cliche. Ted Lasso asking officials to explain the offsides rule is not.
The coach who "rolls the balls out" is cliche. The helicopter or snowplow parent is cliche. My wife Ellen, who cheers for both teams, is not.
Cliche is hackneyed, banal. Don't become a cliche. Work at being original.
Lagniappe. Think for yourself. Decide what is true and what is not. If we ask, "what is the ideal practice, the composite player, or desired coaching what first principleswould we choose?
We might choose a blend of mental and physical conditioning, the ability to teach and communicate, skill building, teamwork and integration, and decision-making. And that might lead us to develop a new drill or more effective practice.
Lagniappe 2. Adopt and modify concepts.
Older video from Coach Daniel. The fourth concept (backscreens in transition) is common. Why not add Coach Obradovic's technique of screening with the backside of your body which improves offensive readiness for catch-and-shoot, pass, or drive?
"Anyone can boil water and coach basketball." - Anonymous
Having coached youth basketball for several decades and been a sports parent of twins, I know the breadth of emotions.
State Championship game, 2005.
Eastern Massachusetts Championship, 2006.
"Why isn't my kid playing?"
"Other kids make mistakes, too."
"Oh God, please don't let her screw up."
"Way to go!"
Sports parenting resembles the Kubler Ross stages of dying - denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. We know what players don't want, backseat driving from parents.
How do we navigate the basketball journey? Coaching is a 'relationship profession' and despite our best intents, it won't be perfect. There are two kinds of coaches, those who've had occasional problems with parents...and liars.
1. "Accept the Prime Directive, Starfleet Order 1." In Star Trek, the "Prime Directive is a prohibition on interference with the other cultures and civilizations representatives of Starfleet encounter in their exploration of the universe." In sports parenting, advocacy rules. "The well-being of my child/our children comes before the welfare of other children and the good of the team." There are rare exceptions but it's a good rule of thumb. Love drives the conflicts.
This is a corollary of the "Endowment Effect." What is mine is better, more valuable.
2. "Never discuss why your child should play ahead of another parent's child." Playing time is the Holy Grail of advocacy. Although practice and all that entails should provide teamwork, teaching, and opportunity, parents, especially parents paying for participation, see and sometimes count the minutes. Parents are welcome at our practices and a few observed the end of practice, they don't see the breadth of effort, progress, and relative standing of individual players.
3. Be transparent. "These are your child's strengths, those are areas of need, and these approaches can help your child become a bigger contributor." As a grandfather, like Caesar's wife, I must be above reproach. Communications go through parents and parents are welcome at practice, pre- and post-game meetings.
4. Followthe Ken-L-Ration rule. Never praise another player to another child's parent. I've made this mistake and it never goes well. "My kid's better than your kid."
5. Practice the Dean Smith rule. The "star players" will get their due, attention in the electronic and the print media. Recognize the lesser-known teammates who contributed to victory.
6. Value everyone. Players and families sacrifice time and money to be part of the team. Appreciate them and thank them. Robert Townsend has a timeless, one sentence chapter in Up the Organization, "Thanks is the cheapest form of compensation."
7. Never make hard conversations solo flights. Assistants have a vital role in participating in hard conversations. When changing a player's role (e.g. moving them out of the starting lineup), engage assistants. Explain the reason for the change and that changes may or may not be temporary.
8. Share "report cards" with parents and players, using the sandwich technique. "Susie is a joy to have on the team, committed and a hard worker. She can improve her ball handling and decision-making to reduce turnovers. Her defensive progress is notable, especially in containing the ball." Sandwich "critical feedback" in between praise.
9. At the initial 'parent' meeting, explain our philosophies about sports, practice, playing time, and winning. Everyone likes to win, but equality of playing time will seldom foster that goal. And if you don't have a philosophy, you'll get exposed when parents ask. Crystallize our thoughts. Anticipating the questions makes us better.
"When you get that once in a lifetime kid, take care of her." - Herb Welling
10. Be an ally. Coaches and parents both want good things for players. But the coach's primary responsibility is the well-being of the team. I was fortunate to have the means to sponsor entry fees for preseason tournaments so parents knew that I was invested, too.
There's no magic formula for transforming championship performance, but I share a few quotes from The Playmaker's Advantage.
Enjoy the ride. Want it more. "Look over your shoulder."
Lagniappe. Zone action, "Kentucky"
Lagniappe 2. From Chris Oliver, Toss Out Layup Individual Drills
"Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around." - Stephen King
Tell better stories. Because this is post 2500, I'm writing about writing. If one wants "definitive" writing advice, read Stephen King's masterpiece "On Writing" or Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird." Educators own teaching students to think and communicate clearly.
King hates adverbs. Use powerful verbs. He's good with small words. Lamott says first drafts are crap. It's okay. Stephen King says write the first draft with the door closed and the second with the door open (to receive criticism).
Writers share our 'take'. Sharing opinions invites criticism. That's okay. I like licorice, but I won't seek converts. Matters of taste - dribble drive, spread, Princeton, sets - are matters of taste...and personnel.
Most stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. For example, what was the last thing George Washington told his men before crossing the Delaware? <Pause> "Get in the boat."
Use humor, pathos, surprise.
A father confronted his son asking whether the boy had turned over the outhouse. The son denied it. The father pressed him. "Remember, George Washington admitted chopping down the cherry tree." The son relented, "Okay, Dad, I did." The father replied, "Well, George's father wasn't sitting in the cherry tree."
Use rhetorical tools - like alliteration (our high school team was the Cardiac Kids), diacope, A-B-A form (Bond, James Bond), and chiasmus, word reversal ("Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.")
Investigative journalist Bob Woodward says his job is "to find the best version of the truth." His column unearths at least six discoveries for readers. I like that rule. One of the reasons I highlight sections is verifying six.
The DaVinci Code author Dan Brown says, "the difference between good writers and bad writers is that good writers know when they're bad." He advises "raising the stakes" including the use of a ticking clock. In effect, he argues for the shot clock!
Where do ideas come from? There's no idea taco truck. Ask questions. Why? Am I wrong? Check the facts.
Ernest Hemingway reminds us, "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."
Lagniappe.
Seven Tips for Writers (from Salman Rushdie) and Coaches...
Choose minimalism (one hair from the goddess of literature) or maximalism (personal choice)
Plan versus improvise (Control)
Have passion for writing (coaching/playing)
Take risks ("the great matador works closest to the bull")
Be committed. (Do the work)
Discard what is not working! (Overcome the desire to fix big problems)
Finish. "Get to the end." (A finished product is easier to evaluate.)
Lagniappe 2. Jokic. YouTube. Breakdown. Don't miss it.
Lagniappe 3. The future is now... Temporal occlusion training interrupts a play sequence and asks athletes to forecast the action or decision.
Lagniappe 4. The 10,000 hours to expertise is a myth. Need proof?
Yes, there is a learning curve but it's not 10,000 hours for many skills.
1. Mentoring is the only true shortcut to mastery (we are mentors).
2. Focus, overcoming emotional constraints (I can't do this), matters.
Adopt a business management principle by including an empty chair in meetings.The empty chair represents the customer. Moreover, it symbolizes taking another perspective.
Depending on the industry, the empty chair could represent employees (players), middle managers (assistants), or end users (fans).
Hold your fingers over your forehead and make the letter "E." Which way does it point? Research says that when it points so that someone looking at you can read it, you are more open to another viewpoint. When it points so that you can read it, you are the focus.
Do we see our program from the players' perspective? Do they see us as relationship-oriented, task-oriented, or both? Many coaches get labeled as one or the other. An empty chair in a coaches meeting reminds us to ask "how does it feel to play for me?" What does the 12th player on the team say about the coaching?
What is we had an empty chair in a team meeting, representing the fans? Fans expect effort, selflessness, energy, and smart play. Would our team take ownership of those expectations?
Absolutes and regrets travel together. When we stick to our absolutes, then we have no cause for regrets.
The larger our list, the more likely we are to violate them. Keep a manageable list. It's much like the Buffett 25-5 core principles; distill the list and refine to purity of values. Actions and perception change, but values should have permanence.
"Keep our priorities straight."
"Share something great."
"Always do your best."
"Become a learning machine." Learning is work and knowledge is not wisdom. Experience teaches us, "this is where I went wrong." We're wired to believe what we hear, including distortion and lies.
"Be flexible because we will be wrong." (Don't beat yourself up because there will always be someone around to do it for you.)
Turn the page. Happy New Year to fellow coaches, players, and fans.
The basketball community showed strength in 2020 with immense selflessness and willingness to share. Let's be even better in 2021. Ideas are the currency of the future. Challenge ourselves to find concepts to revise and implement for our teams.
"The mental to the physical in basketball is four to one." Why not invest more time to identify and teach using video?
I'm reading The Playmaker's Advantage which advocates the 'search-decide-execute' triad that I call VDE, vision-decision-execution.
Because youth (U14) basketball is shutdown locally, I'll use some examples from a former player who is an outstanding high school fourteen year-old freshman, straight A student. The clips come from the first quarter of a varsity game two days ago.
Attack Space. Excellent players win in space and this translates across sport domains. In soccer, it's the 'through pass'. In football, think about crossing patterns or delay routes from stack formations. In baseball, it's the hit and run. "Hit 'em where they ain't."
Cecilia (#45) attacks the middle and gets to the rim to finish with her non-dominant hand.
"The screener is the second cutter."Screening is opportunity, not grunt work. Pandemic Massachusetts has no BOBs allowed and SLOBs from foul line extended are the default inbounds.
Cecilia sets a back screen and then rolls to the open middle with excellent body position. This might work as a "ghost screen" with basket cut against sleepy defenders (below).
Cut urgently. Cutting hard creates an edge especially when a defender has lost contact.
The low post is open but the ball is reversed. What does your search reveal? I see several options, 1) hard cut to opposite elbow for individual action or high/low action. 2) Hard cut to the corner off the opposite low post screen opens the short corner or a three.
Attack the rim. Defenses teach "no middle." Historical and contemporary 'analytics' favor attacking the rim which scores layups and free throws. Find at least four ways to score - among transition, catch and shoot, off-the-bounce, cutting, offensive rebounds, free throws.
She attacks the middle and gets fouled. She can finish with either hand on either side of the basket. She also finished second in the Massachusetts Elks Hoop Shoot making 22/25 in the finals. So there's no Hack-a-Shaq.
Have a variety of finishes. Learn to finish with either hand off either foot from either side. "The magic is in the work."
Cecilia works from either side of the rim with either hand.
Summary:
- Attack Space.
- The screener is the second cutter.
- Cut urgently.
- Attack the rim.
- Have a variety of finishes.
Lagniappe: Zipper actions initiate many SLOB entries from Chris Oliver.
This clip (from within) illustrates how "great offense is multiple actions."
