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Monday, September 12, 2022

Breaking Down Defenses as Easy as A, B, C - Auerbach, Boeheim, Caesar

Players hear the term "breaking down the defense." What does that mean to them?

Basketball is a game of mistakes. Basketball is a game of separation. Basketball is a game of cutting and passing. 

Overview for players - spacing, player and ball movement, scoring moment. Translate ideas. 

  • "Draw 2" 
  • Pick-and-roll
  • Penetrate the defense.
  • Reverse the ball.
  • Use mismatches.
  • Get numbers. 
  • Play Inside-outside. 

"Draw 2." Most competent defenses design stopping key cogs of an opponents offense. They help and force the 'star' to choose another option.  

At high levels, the second option is still talented. At lower levels...

For the 'star', "win in space" and caution when "playing in traffic." 

Design actions to limit the chance for defenses to bring help. 


Duke elbow handoff series clears potential help. 

Pick-and-roll. In its many variations, the PnR forces defensive communication (variable at best at lower levels) and offers a variety of options for the offense. 

Two minutes of gold from Auerbach and Bird. Players should watch this again and again. 

Penetrate the defense. Penetrate with the dribble or the pass to set up many options. 

Reverse the ball. Ask players how they intend to reverse the ball. 


Expect them to explain they can use perimeter passing, skip passes, or do so through the post. "Movement kills defenses." 


Boeheim vs Boeheim, ball movement versus 2-3 zone

Use mismatches. Basketball is a game of:

  • Passing and cutting
  • Mistakes
  • Matchups
  • Possession and possessions
  • Applying and defeating pressure

Exploit favorable matchups or in the 'positionless basketball' era, use switching to our advantage. 

Get numbers. Numerical advantage occurs in many ways. Transition is the most obvious. Many of the above examples create small edges. 


Michigan State's Tom Izzo creates an inside mismatch against the 2-3 zone.


Play inside-outside. Feed the post and get rewarded by relocation. Nikola Jokic and LeBron James are two of the masters. 


As players, remember, VDE - vision, decision, execution. Julius Caesar wrote, "veni, vidi, vici." I came, I saw, I conquered.

Lagniappe. Continuing with the theme...Hammon Time. 


 

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Saturday, September 10, 2022

Five Big Lessons for Players and Coaches

Young coaches may seek guidelines to share with players. These may help.

Players, embrace these principles. 

1. Great players make the people around them better. That applies across team domains, such as Larry Bird and the Celtics, Freddy Mercury and Queen. Are my choices making others better? The core of Metallica has lasted forty years. How? They agreed to choose whatever is best for the group. 

2. Sweat the small stuff. Great teams and players handle the details. Coach Lane always shared "three keys to victory." Simplify and clarify expectations. 

3. Always do your best. It won't be perfect. It isn't the same daily. It may not be great. "If you just do your best, there is no way you can judge yourself. And if you don’t judge yourself there is no way you are going to suffer from guilt, blame, and self-punishment." - don Miguel Ruiz in The Four Agreements

Being your best means being prepared, practicing fully focused, knowing and doing what you can do in the moment. 

4. Excellent players limit mistakes. Great players and teams do not give away games. They take away games with aggression, intelligence, and execution. 

5. Be a great teammate. Anyone can be a great teammate. We control our attitude, our choice, our effort. Bring positivity and energy. 

Select key responsibilities for coaches. 

1. Help players "see the game." Micro and macro game details require learning and teaching structure. Spacing, player and ball movement, and finishing/defending don't come naturally. Teach basketball symmetry - apply and handle pressure, force and avoid mistakes, get/prevent quality shots. 


2. Develop players and teams. "Every day is player development day." Improve and revise our drill book, playbook, and curriculum teaching spreadsheets. Google Drive is an outstanding storage resource. 

3. Get the most from players, putting players in position to succeed in the game and in life. Help players become their best versions. "Utilize strengths; attack weaknesses." 

4. Understand that the person is more important than the player. Players are more than assets or commodities to be deployed and consumed. 

5. Put players first. "Are we building a program or a statue?" As a group, many of us lament the empathy-deficient attitude of coaches making multimillion dollar salaries who oppose sharing any monies with players. That's just one form of unequal treatment of the people playing the game.

Lagniappe. Win with overwhelming force.  


Lagniappe 2. Be intentional. 

Lagniappe 3. 



 

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Basketball Boundaries - Vital and Vulnerable

To paraphrase Steve Martin, there are two ways to get your stuff out there, 1) write great stuff and 2) already be famous. "I'm screwed." 

Boundaries contain our thoughts, feelings, and behavior during relationships. Whether we think about it or not, we have boundaries. They may be subtle, but others know 'appropriate' behavior. Know where you're approaching lines. 

Hard conversations about roles, minutes, and behaviors tests those boundaries. Always involve another adult in those conversations. Separate bad choices from bad character. A player's bad court decision doesn't entitle the coach to throw her under the bus, calling the player 'worthless' or 'useless'. Be the adult. 

Suffering is the price of love. That includes grief and disappointment about how a player is playing or when not playing. Providing a chance for one player may get seen as stealing it from another. 

If we set expectations and boundaries for players (commitment, character, studies, chemical health), then stick to them as leaders. 

Educational boundaries exist. In secular institutions, coaches teach basketball and life, but not religion and politics. Those boundaries keep us out of parental domains. But we own teaching equality and sportsmanship. 

Where do the boundaries exist? At extremes, they include indifference or violation.

Relationships have boundaries at home, at work, and at play. 

What are our boundaries at work? Once, they were more rigid; often they are more casual. 
  • Do we comment on a coworker's appearance? "That's a great suit, Jack." 
  • Do we share our personal lives at work? If so, how much? 
  • Develop emotional intelligence to recognize others' boundaries.
  • Boundaries evolve. Rigid and flexible boundaries are part of life. 
What additional boundaries come into play in coaching?
  • Weight. Learn about eating disorders. Emphasize health, good nutrition, and conditioning over weight. Do not have weigh-ins. "Stay calm and BE INTENTIONAL about what you say to them. I am here. I am concerned. You are not alone. You can trust me. These statements are what I heard consistently. And yes, be concerned, but do not turn them into “the team freak” that is struggling." 
  • Attitudes. Positive and negative boundaries exist...truth without assault.
  • Strategy discussions aren't in parents' domain.
  • Commenting about other players with a parent is unwise. "Susie has improved a lot," seems innocent enough. But Joan's parent may see it as dismissive of her, thinking "Coach is disrespecting Joan." 
 
"Reflect on our boundaries...where one entity starts and another stops."


Screenshot from Esther Perel, MasterClass, Relationship Intelligence

Lagniappe. DHO, Stagger into mid-range. 
Lagniappe 2. Great players want coaching. 
Lagniappe 3. Be open to new possibilities. Unscoutable. 















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Friday, September 9, 2022

Fast Five: Expand Our Circle of Competence

Use mental models to think better. For example, expand our "Circle of Competence" of specialty and global knowledge. What we know is a subset of what we think we know. 

Pick a philosophy. Simplify. Teach. Choose what works. What makes a coach SMART? Find and develop excellent players. Without talent and commitment, nobody succeeds in coaching. 

Pick a topic, for example REBOUNDING. Take out a sheet of paper and write down beliefs and knowledge of the topic. List questions about rebounding?

  • What percent of rebounding relates to height versus other factors? 
  • How much of rebounding is innate versus taught?
  • Are there rebounding techniques/tactics proven to increase rebound percentage? 

Pick a coach. What coaches might we study to improve rebounding. 

  • George Raveling wrote War on the Boards
  • Tom Izzo's MSU Spartans are usually among NCAA leaders. Izzo's players donned helmets and pads to train aggressive rebounding. 

Pick a site. YouTube or FIBA share information about many basketball topics. YouTube has a lot of FIBA clinics. Sometimes less well known sites share solid information. 

Pick drills. What drills do you favor to teach rebounding? 

  • 5 on 5 block outs
  • 1 versus 1 versus 1 rebound and finish (ball always live)
  • Superman Drill 
  • Attitude drill

Pick a player to study. What makes guys great rebounders? I doubt it's coaching. We've generally done well rebounding by identifying players who 'got after it'. Don't use Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain because they're so far out on the athletic curve. Consider studying Rodman or Michael Cage. 


A few core beliefs:
  • Find players with special aptitude for rebounding (my daughter Karen had 18 in a state semifinal game against a 6'3" girl) 
  • Don't change technique in the successful rebounder
  • Prioritize "safe" outlet passes. A rebound into a turnover is no rebound.
  • Prioritize rebounding missed free throws. FT putbacks are killers.
Lagniappe. 


"What we demand of the players we should exemplify." 

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Thursday, September 8, 2022

"Delusional" - Looking Back Over Twenty Years of Coaching

"Delusional." Maybe that's the title of my next coaching book. Choose not to be delusional about youth sports. A video, "All-Stars" serving as inspiration. A few quotes: 

"The youngest age groups have the most out of control parents."

"When the girls are eight or ten, every girl is Jennie Finch."

"And every parent knows more than every umpire and coach."

That sounds about right. All of the stories are true. The names, places, genders, and sometimes the sports are changed to protect the guilty.

The late Bob Bigelow wrote a book "Let the Kids Play." I haven't read it. People say the Moms ate it up and the Dads said, "Fuggedaboutit." It's all hearsay. If you don't know, Bigelow played at Penn and was a first round NBA draft choice. Kinda competitive. 

A parent from the Deep South moved to Massachusetts and called the local youth football coach. "My son is seven and will be trying out for youth football. Could we get the playbook so we won't start off way behind?" In the Navy we called that SIE, syndrome of inappropriate enthusiasm. The coach explained, "we're teaching the basics here; there's no playbook for seven year olds."

Parents usually don't "stab you in the front." Other parents told the Mom that their kids learned nothing at practice. She rebutted, "I told them, I go to almost every practice and the coaches are teaching your kids a lot." 

Inspire confidence. Every time his daughter would shoot, the Dad would yell, "nothing but net." She had excellent form but hit nothing but nothing. Airballs. I'll bet she became good, though. 

The girl took her phone to a game in an affluent community. If you roll the windows down, the town smells like money. Her phone got stolen. Somehow, the opposing coach identified the perp and got the phone back. Class and money don't necessarily travel together.  

The officials approached me before the game asking about being paid. I explained that I coach and the league pays the officials. They crucified us. The opposing coach came up to me after the first quarter and asked, "did you steal something from those guys?" Evidently.

When there's a girls' game before a boys, expect the boys to encroach the court before the game is over, even dribbling during the game. If I were leagues, I'd hire officials who were guards in Shawshank Redemption. Stop that stuff dead in its tracks. Asking coaches to tell their boys to respect the girls game would be my second choice. 

One season, our kids upset a vastly superior team in the playoffs, more size, more skill. Act of God stuff. In the handshake line, their coach says, "we'd have beaten you if we made any shots." Write that down; feel free to use it. 


I respect the parents in Hoosiers. They warn the coach that they won't accept any nonsense from outsiders. They even vote him out. But then Jimmy comes in and ruins it, "I play, Coach stays. He goes, I go." Grandma says, "I think we should vote again." I had Grandma on speed dial.

The referee warns the coach, "Cross that line again and you're gone." The coach stacks the girls' gym bags at the line so he can't cross the line. 

Money talks. A state "Coach of the Year" at a private school told me he got fired because a moneyed parent paid off the administration to dump him. As Jim Bouton wrote, "I'm Glad You Didn't Take It Personally." 

"Never enough." We're losing a playoff game by fifteen with about 2:30 left. I substitute in the deep reserves. The other coach full court presses and has his kids shooting threes down the stretch. Seriously? Remember Helen Mirren's success advice. "First, always be on time. Second, don't be an a*hole."

The worst part. I've got a few even more brutal stories. 

Lagniappe. Thoughts from Gordon Hayward.

A couple of mine:

  • Secure the ball 
  • Look ahead and see the defenders (protect the ball)
  • Ideally, receiver has back to the sideline and sees the whole floor
  • When passing, don't "lollipop" the pass
  • When it goes well, the second pass crosses half court. 

 

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Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Team Building Exercises

Share vision, share sacrifice, share victory. There is no "one-size-fits-all" approach. There's a continuum from shared fun to shared misery. And the political fracas about indoctrination is a backdrop. Coaches teach personal and team growth not ideology, but outsiders have their own agendas. 

Here's a handy reference for theory, practice, and major types. Every situation differs in needs, time, resources, and budgets.

  • Communications-based
  • Problem-solving
  • Creativity
  • Trust building 

Boot camp. At the extreme end of shared misery is military 'boot camp'. Even then, you have different intensity at the same site, like Officer Candidate School versus Officer Indoctrination School (Newport). OCS and OIS are light years apart, with OIS the gentleman and gentle lady course. Been there, done that. 


Even within 'tough' training, you can build in diversions on the lighter side. 

Retreats. Businesses hold retreats including seminars, spitballing sessions, and trust-building exercises. A colleague told me of a Fortune 500 company where a relative said that the top 25 executives were virtually the worst people in the world who would do anything to crawl over each other on the corporate ladder. 

Change of pace. Players can get together for a crafts activity or an alternative sport (e.g. a bowling day). 

Speakers. Professional and college teams sometimes bring in guest speakers to discuss leadership and teams. The Patriots had Bill Russell in to speak about winning. During high school, our coach had Coach John Killilea, a longtime coach and soon to be NBA assistant, in to speak to us. 

Community service. 
  • Community cleanup activities
  • Habitat for Humanity
  • Youth mentoring
Shared readings. Find the material you want shared. 
  • UNC's Anson Dorrance has the women's soccer team read Michael Useem's The Leadership Moment
  • James Kerr's Legacy is brilliant but maybe not for everyone
  • The local volleyball team reads and discusses Jay Bilas's Toughness
  • Jocko Willink's Extreme Ownership is excellent
  • Kevin Eastman's Why the Best Are the Best offers clarity on character and leadership
Simple exercises like "Two Truths and a Lie" from the reference mentioned:

Two Truths and a Lie

"This is a great team building activity for small groups. Have your group gather in a circle. Ask everyone to come up with three facts about themselves, one of which is a lie. Then, one at a time have each member state their three facts and the rest of the group guesses which one is a lie. Then, one at a time, have each member state their three facts and the rest of the group guesses which one is the fib."

Lagniappe (something extra). Influence the defender NOT the official. 



Lagniappe 2. Find a few options that work for you on the curl. 

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Location: Boston, MA, USA

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

"Never Forget the Fun" of Playing Basketball not Working It

I love practice; I used to love the smell of iodine and Tuf-skin, squeaky sneakers, and suicides. Grow up "playing" basketball not working it. Making an experience miserable doesn't inspire children to love the game.

Richard Branson closes his MasterClass with a chapter "Never Forget the Fun."

I get it, you have to win. And winning is fun. But if you're coaching twelve year-olds what experience do they remember, do they carry forward in life?

Here are five activities that had purpose and that players loved. 

1. Dribble tag. 

Six players with basketballs inside the arc. Designate one as it. Same rules as tag, or add constraints like "dribble with the nondominant hand" or make every third dribble must be a crossover. 

2. Capture the flag. 

Teach movement, escapability. Everyone gets a 'pinnie' that they tuck inside their pants. The idea is to "stay alive" inside the arc without having your pinnie pulled. 

3. Quarterback layups. 


We only played this drill indoors. As kids get older and more powerful (8th grade girls), I excluded contact so nobody got killed. This drill trains players to explode to the basket and finish in one dribble. 

4. Frito Lay/ Free to Layup. 


Self-flip to elbow, catch and pivot. Score on one dribble layup. Rebound and dribble hard to elbow for a jumper. One point for each basket, game to 21. Switch sides after first round. 

5. "Specials" a.k.a. O-D-O, offense-defense-offense. 

Initiate the three possession game (tie score) with an ATO, SLOB, BOB, or free throw. We invested fifteen minutes daily in this form of scrimmaging which practiced 'special situations' and scoring/defending "close and late" in games. We usually had three groups of four depending on player availability. 

One game that we won, we went 3 for 3 in ATOs and won by three. An official came up to me after the game and said that our kids did a great job executing. He didn't mention how much we got beaten with the dribble where we got help and no rotation...as coaches we see the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

Teach movement, competition, and decision-making while making practice fun. 

Lagniappe. Play with emotion; don't be emotional. 

Lagniappe 2. Simplify like legendary Cal rugby Coach Jack Clark. An excerpt:

3. SHARE A VOCABULARY.

Jack Clark: There’s a coach on campus here who just asked me to look at his team’s values. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, because this was a really well-paid coach who’s in a high-profile sport. But this team actually wrote the word “California” in a circle, all the way around. Below the C they put everything you could possibly imagine: commitment, courage. Sometimes there were like 70 words for each letter — you can’t believe in all that stuff. He was like, “Did I miss anything?” “No, of course you didn’t miss anything. You’ve got everything — but putting ‘I’ for ‘intelligence’…listen, at some point those aren’t values. Those aren’t things that you’ll fight for.”

Jack Clark: We buy into six or seven things that are interconnected, that boxcar together to create a system. Now, might there be the odd freshman that would miss a couple? Maybe. But they would get the major definitions right because they’ve heard it and they’ve heard it from the other guys on the team. We talk about this. We spend a lot of time in meetings, too, remember. A lot of sports teams probably don’t spend enough time in meetings.


 

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Monday, September 5, 2022

To Create Excellence, “Invert, Always Invert.” Apply Some of These Ideas.

Plan success. Use the mental model of inversion to think better. "Your new goal shouldn’t be finding ways to be successful, it should be determining what things could prevent you from being successful." 

Feedback. Coaches guess what players know or don't know. Don't presume players know how to break the press, defend the pick and roll, or take advantage of 'numbers'. A lack of "performance-focused, feedback-rich" culture assures players won't be on the same page. And in the biggest moment, when you know precisely what you want, one or more will make mental or physical errors. Guaranteed. 

Solution: Practice and test situational decision-making. 

Scouting. Not scouting or game planning is a choice. Even in middle school, limiting a star player or a special situations play might separate winning and losing. When about a third of games are decided by two possessions or less, every possession counts. 


Solution: "Do it." An opponent had scored multiple times with a SLOB. "We can't let them score threes off this." Taking this away helped us win a playoff game. 

Conditioning. Everyone believes in conditioning. But how? Conditioning is preparation not punishment. 

Solution: With limited practice time, we condition within drills. Instead of isolating conditioning, consider these transition/conditioning drills. 

Want more? 

Efficiency. Waste less time. Upgrade practice tempo. It's more than Brian McCormick's "no laps, no lines, no lectures." 

Solution: Here's an old post addressing time wasting. 

Toughness. Reduce the three deadly S's - softness, selfishness, and sloth.

Approach: We don't coach 'hamburger drills' but hand out the Jay Bilas "Toughness" principles as a laminated sheet. One of the most emphasized is, "It's not your shot, it's our shot." Consider toughness awards. Note that with middle school girls, they are reluctant to be singled out for criticism or even praise. 

Solution: share clips of quality shots and lower quality shots and players being 'first to the floor' on a loose ball. 

Organization. Some people believe that "any idiot with a whistle can coach." Without a defined philosophy, intended culture, and preferred identity, failure is likely. If it looks as though there is no plan, there is no plan. 

Solution: Write it out. A shareable format like Google Drive allows a one-site fits all for philosophy, playbook, drill book, and teaching resource spreadsheets. 

Lagniappe. Be open to new analysis. Choose your language. "Extra pass." 

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Sunday, September 4, 2022

The Best Coaches

Keywords: Coaching, Sun Tzu, "The Art of War," John Thompson, Bill Belichick, Bear Bryant, Dean Smith, John McKay

"Hence that general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War


Great coaches are lifelong learners and teachers. Everyone has ideas about their makeup. Here are a few:

1. Coaching begins with relationships. We have a myriad of teams, from our family, to coworkers, city, and beyond. Entrepreneur Richard Branson describes them as circles. Our coaching 'circle' can extend around the globe. Relationships flourish with clear communication, respect, and empathy, the ability to understand how others feel. Coaching decisions lead to strong emotion, excitement and disappointment. Hard work doesn't guarantee a starting position or a big role on a team. Lack of hard work usually assures their absence. 

My wife and I celebrated our fortieth wedding anniversary in Maine with my high school coach Sonny Lane and his wife Paula. Maybe it's no accident that one of our daughters is Paula. 

2. Great coaches get the most from their players. Some said of Bear Bryant, "he can take his'n and beat your'n or your'n and beat his'n." 


Two men, Coach Bryant and USC Coach John McKay, literally changed history with a football game. 

3. Great coaches have teams that don’t beat themselves. Pressure degrades performance. Teams that maintain performance under adversity become memorable and sometimes champions. Coach Bob Knight says, "basketball is a game of mistakes." The ability to help teams limit mistakes helps separate elite from excellent coaches. 

4. Great coaches and players aren't made with cookie cutters. When players move on, I share with them, "there’s value in playing for different coaches. Learn new philosophies, substance, and style. Take what you find are the best qualities and bring them forward." 


5. Great coaches share character and competence. Coach Etorre Messina says, "character is job one." Great coaches do not breed scandal and controversy. 

6. Great coaches lead. They help take players and teams where they cannot go by themselves. They raise players to higher levels by inspiring them, by training and teaching them, and through accountability. The leader who says, "I take no responsibility" is no leader. "Leaders make leaders."

7. The best coaches teach players to be professional in all areas. When asked what was necessary to succeed in her profession, Helen Mirren said, "First, be on time. Second, don't be an A*hole." Phil Ford set his watch ahead ten minutes to be on Dean Smith Time. Professionals prepare well, practice hard, play with effort and focus, and assess their performance objectively. 

8. Great coaches are curious. They ask, "what if" and anticipate what can and will go wrong and what they can improve upon. They aren't "know-it-alls" but "learn-it-alls." 

9. Great coaches simplify and clarify. They teach not so players understand concepts but so that players cannot misunderstand. Don Meyer said that coaches go through three phases - blind enthusiasm, sophisticated complexity, and mature simplicity. Teach players to "fall in love with easy." 

10.The best coaches are relentless. They bring joy, passion, and love for their players and the game. They are there for their players. 


Great coaches ask great questions. Remember these from Michael Useem,
  • What went well?
  • What went poorly?
  • What can we do better next time?
  • What is the enduring lesson?
Lagniappe (something extra). 


When I think of Kevin Eastman, I think first about his habit of reading two hours a day. And when I think of Coach Raveling, I think first about his book on rebounding and second his breadth of reading. 

Lagniappe 2. A thread on small-sided games (SSGs). SSGs allow more touches and help coaches see both individual skills and how players interact with and impact other players. 


















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Saturday, September 3, 2022

The Truth of the Draft Choice Analogy

"Talent Uber Alles." Coaching helps talent succeed. How many "lottery picks," first and second rounders, and free agents appear on the roster? 

Consider this framework during roster assessment: 

Lottery pick = future All-League player or better 

First rounder = legit multi-season "varsity" starter

Second round = fringy varsity player

Free agent = developmental player

Without multiple "first round" talents, teams struggle. 

Players come as a tangible mix of size, athleticism, and skill. Excellence favors at least two of the three, and size is God-given not made. 

The goal, the vision is transforming 10-80-10 "middle roster" players of Urban Meyer into the top ten percenter. That doesn't happen just by coaching, as it relies on player-dependent commitment, discipline, sacrifice, and unrequired work. 

None of this renders coaching irrelevant. In fact, when we can't recruit, we depend on development and strategy to improve execution. Coaches impact organization, player development including game knowledge, strategy, physicality (strength and conditioning), and psychology.  

And we can dissect the 'strategy' of spacing, ball and player movement that establish the 'scoring moments' by available talent. 

Lagniappe (something extra). Twitter shares coaching pearls daily. 

Ball pickup tip: for example on jab or jab and rip, consider practicing with the player's eyes closed until the pickup is completed. They become independent of vision on the pickup and can focus on targeting. 

 

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Friday, September 2, 2022

Handling Pressure

Solid teams apply and handle pressure. Here are approaches I've found useful as a player and coach. 

To defeat pressure, practice against pressure daily. Strong opponents  always test your mettle with pressure. 

"Advantage-disadvantage" 

- 5 versus 7 full court, no dribble 
- 3 versus 4 full court, vary the four in 2-2 and 1-2-1 setups, simulates 2-2-1 and "diamond" presses

Both have value, but 5 versus 7 is transformative. 

3 versus 5 half court trap


One key is keeping the other guard behind, which allows a quick pass to frustrate the trap.

Gauntlet

Each "catch" the ball handler gets one dribble as a team of two navigates the entire length of the court. Offense rotates to the back level of defense in the drill.
 
Manmaker

Lagniappe. After speed, hesitation is the primary "same side" separation dribble. Hesis, crossovers, and combinations belong in your arsenal. 


Lagniappe 2. Untold: Operation Flagrant Foul. The story behind the Tim Donaghy story. Sad and sickening. 



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Thursday, September 1, 2022

Translation Nation: Language Teaching Analogy

"Ecoutez et repetez." We heard that hundreds of times from Monsieur Benoit, "listen and repeat." 

Players have no basketball birthright, no court citizenship. They arrive naive to positions and locations, footwork and foot fire.

Coaches translate. Did your language teacher yell at you for not knowing how to conjugate verbs or incorrect use of the masculine pronoun?

Every player doesn't come willingly. A parent or other relative who knew parts of the language drag them along. Their kin can be our closest ally or emerging enemy as they feel our care for their DNA. 

The class is the show that never ends for the willing, cutting the gap between mental and physical skill. 

Provide 'shortcuts' to learning the language.

1. Mentor. Be there to find the canvas for the young artist. That means teaching, tips, correction, and rebounding the misses. It means letters of recommendation, emails to coaches, capturing video clips, providing praise and constructive criticism. 

2. Never leave the basics. Excellence begins before the warmup routine, how you care for your gear and yourself. "Stretching" is a metaphor  - stretching muscles, stretching skill, stretching knowledge. 

3. Build skill. Define GO TO and COUNTER moves appropriate to your position. Don't tire of the mundane, the front and reverse pivots, the jabs, deep and negative step. Separation with change of direction and change of pace take years to master. Engage simple vocabulary before adding "savoir faire." You learn Ice, Blitz, Get, Veer, Flare, and more soon enough.

4. Study video. Watch elite players and teams and their separation and finishing, how they play with the ball and the '95', their play without it. Use cellphone video to edit your game. 

5. Become your own coach. Look for strengths and needs. Know your dos and know your NOs. Find out what drives your coach batty.

  • Value the ball. "The ball is gold." 
  • Make others better. Cut hard, screen, pass, block out, be first to the floor.
  • Turn the clock in your head off. There is no "my turn." 
  • Don't habitually catch and put the ball on the deck. 
  • Take better shots. Forget those runners, tweeners, nondominant hook shots. 
Embrace repetition. As Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote, “I wished I had known more, and I wished I had known it sooner.”

6. Improve your dialogue with teammates. Communication is among the hardest skills to teach young players. 

Ecoutez et repetez.

Lagniappe. 

Lagniappe 2. Fake backscreen with a slip. 


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