Its exam week so I have a few days off to recharge my basketball battery and refocus my thought process. I have not been happy with our defensive effort and execution so far this high school season. As a result I need to look at what I do, what we do, and any other contributing factors.
It would be really easy for me to point to the following:
- We are JV aged in a varsity league so physically we struggle to win matchups.
- We have 9 of 10 players who had never played in a varsity level game before this year so we have to learn how to compete at this level.
- We have only 10 players and because of schedules/injuries/illness haven't had a high turnout to some practices at times making it difficult compete and implement.
- Defense is about commitment, hustle and heart; so young kids with less time invested just aren't battle tested enough.
It would be easy but its also mostly crap. This stuff may help keep our frustrations in perspective or difuse responsibilty, but the truth is defense is all about responsibility. To ourselves, to our team, to our goals. We need to be able to defend better.
So bottom line we need to refocus on what it is we want to do. In order for me to relay that message and focus teaching points I need to reclarify what I want to get across. So what makes sense defensively.
1 - Everyone has a skill set. Every opponent we play has a skill set and good or bad it is limited some how! Generally those limitations fall to some degree in three categories: ability to execute skills better with one hand, ability to execute skills a pace, ability to execute skills vs different levels of defense (primary defender, secondary, team rotation). So it makes sense to me to challenge the skill set of the player. Make them do things with their bad hand, at a pace where they are in less control, vs. multiple layers and looks of defenders.
2 - You don't slide the 100m dash. If basketball is an explosive game, then why when we look at the most explosive athletic endeavours on the planet do you never see people sliding to win? I understand the need for a good athletic stance to be ready to move and squaring up the ballhandler to limit vision and space. After that though why would we slide when offense can sprint. Unless we are superior athletically we just won't beat people to spots. Other than intial on ball defense as the ball is held or moving east west, we must sprint everywhere.
3 - Why help recover? The more I watch basketball, coach basketball, teach basketball (other than for simplicities sake) I have no idea why people would play help and recover. Its not like you are never going to send an extra defender. Its not like you are never going to get individual defense broken down. There is no way I can help and track the movement of the player I left so when I recover vs good offense I'm lost and disadvantaged. Good offense will react to any attack to make it difficult to both help and recover with reactionary movement and rotation. Instead of saying my teams individual defense can bust up what they want to do on offense (and then need to adapt to each opponent) why wouldn't we come with a defensive rotational game plan of our own. Now its not us adapting to them its hopefully them needing to adapt to us. More importantly we now are in a position where defensively we can focus on what we're doing not what they other team is doing. Why not create a defensive competition with the offense to see whose attack, reaction, and rotation is better trained and practiced then hoping we win enough mathcups to bust up their initial attack and reactions.
So what do we have to do (focus on in practice):
- Play in a stance ready to attack and be moving constantly.
- On the ball force the ball to play at speed with their bad hand through multiple players and rotations.
- Work on team rotations for the angles and actions we force so its our stuff vs theirs. Not our players trying to stop their stuff.
- Bring energy and communication in every situation so we are competing 5 vs 1 ball every possesion.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
Toughest Pass in Basketball - Continued
In the last entry I discussed the benefits of making a quick extra pass following the penetration and getting more quality shots and movement. One of the other places we encourage the pass-pass is in our transition break out to offense. This allows us to not only get down the floor quickly but handle pressure effectively.
I should probably preface this discussion by saying we run a break out looking to get the ball from the outlet to up a sideline to get an rim attack either with a rim runner or take on. I find that regardless of your actual speed ball movement and players sprinting makes you look faster then you might actually be. Using anticipation, skills and teammwork can (in many ways) make up for a lack raw athleticism.
So lets get back to looking at the idea of the pass-pass or "extra pass" in transition. (We prefer the term pass - pass because of immediacy.)
Anytime any player catches they should immediately (if not before) have decided whether they are shooting this catch. In places like the backcourt this is generally not the case. IN this situation and any other where we don't shoot it our next read should be to look to attack with a pass. If nothing is there then we are attacking on the bounce scanning (left-right-centre) counting bodies, recognizing where our offensive players should be/are and drawing defense to pass to one of them or scoring.
In transition this all starts with the rebound. Without getting too much into rebounding philosophy or footwork, we love when our rebounders can land in quarter back position. This means everyone else can know peel sideline get above the foul line extended while pushing our teammates who arrive first surther up the sideline. Now the rebounder should be able to throw a shoulder pass (or take an attack dribble or two past the d to make a power push pass) to someone open on a sideline.
We are know almost always in a pass pass situation. Defense is transitioning back. Poor transition defense is sprinting with their back to you trying to all protect the rim. Quality defense is taking away the rim runner while trying to contain the ball and set up everyone else defensively. As the ball carrier (our rule is if you have the ball you are the PG) you should have. A give and go up the middle, a sideline flip, a lateral pressure release or a short/long diagonal. This second pass is what makes transition work.
Regardless of where is goes it does two things: a) gets us on top of defense faster ie. at or over half in under 4 seconds attacking. b) makes it more difficult for them to defend in transition as they can't match up with ball to stop it if they can't get to where its going/ find the "pg".
Now we are over half and attacking. Either the diagonal has read open rim and caught to run. Or the strongside is attacking with a take on supported by the weakside runner and the middle runner. Again with pass-pass or give and go options.
Pass- pass is life in movement passed basketball. Now I just need to get my kids to be able to do it regularly and with quality.
I should probably preface this discussion by saying we run a break out looking to get the ball from the outlet to up a sideline to get an rim attack either with a rim runner or take on. I find that regardless of your actual speed ball movement and players sprinting makes you look faster then you might actually be. Using anticipation, skills and teammwork can (in many ways) make up for a lack raw athleticism.
So lets get back to looking at the idea of the pass-pass or "extra pass" in transition. (We prefer the term pass - pass because of immediacy.)
Anytime any player catches they should immediately (if not before) have decided whether they are shooting this catch. In places like the backcourt this is generally not the case. IN this situation and any other where we don't shoot it our next read should be to look to attack with a pass. If nothing is there then we are attacking on the bounce scanning (left-right-centre) counting bodies, recognizing where our offensive players should be/are and drawing defense to pass to one of them or scoring.
In transition this all starts with the rebound. Without getting too much into rebounding philosophy or footwork, we love when our rebounders can land in quarter back position. This means everyone else can know peel sideline get above the foul line extended while pushing our teammates who arrive first surther up the sideline. Now the rebounder should be able to throw a shoulder pass (or take an attack dribble or two past the d to make a power push pass) to someone open on a sideline.
We are know almost always in a pass pass situation. Defense is transitioning back. Poor transition defense is sprinting with their back to you trying to all protect the rim. Quality defense is taking away the rim runner while trying to contain the ball and set up everyone else defensively. As the ball carrier (our rule is if you have the ball you are the PG) you should have. A give and go up the middle, a sideline flip, a lateral pressure release or a short/long diagonal. This second pass is what makes transition work.
Regardless of where is goes it does two things: a) gets us on top of defense faster ie. at or over half in under 4 seconds attacking. b) makes it more difficult for them to defend in transition as they can't match up with ball to stop it if they can't get to where its going/ find the "pg".
Now we are over half and attacking. Either the diagonal has read open rim and caught to run. Or the strongside is attacking with a take on supported by the weakside runner and the middle runner. Again with pass-pass or give and go options.
Pass- pass is life in movement passed basketball. Now I just need to get my kids to be able to do it regularly and with quality.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Toughest Pass in Basketball.
One of my focuses this past summer (and hopefully now moving forward) was increasing our ball movement. I've tried to establish in my players the idea of not just quality passes (see Passing as a relationship. ) but passes and movement that are hard to guard. In my mind the toughest pass in basketball to defend is the: 2nd pass.
Following up action with action not only keeps defense occupied but requires them to anticipate, chase and overplay in ways that makes reads easier. In this case the action we focused on was the 2nd pass or what we refer to as pass-pass. This isn't a new or revolutionary concept but one that players often don't understand as a concept. If you look at something as simple as the give and go it is basically a pass followed up by an immediate second pass. The extra movement of the ball and need for extra defensive reaction to the ball is what makes it tough.
We focused in two particular areas this summer but it can be applied to many aspects of the game. In the next few entries, I'll give some examples that worked for us:
PASS-PASS out of Penetration
When we make a penetrating play (ie. dribble attack or penetrating pass) like most teams we have reactionary movement. Regardless of what this movement is for your team the real key is what happens on the kick out. Without getting into our penetration movement (I'll get to that in another blog) once we've attacked, come to two feet and realize that we need to pass out support should already moving/moved into place. This then should result in a kick out.
Where most teams struggle at this point is they want to kick and fire. The issue being that a player choosing to pass out of penetration has done so because they are in trouble. They've been stopped, doubled, are in amongst the trees etc. They are also facing a 3 second call in the paint. Their priority is to get the ball out of trouble and back into the offense. This pressure doesn't always lead to an ideal pass to catch and shoot.
Now you've got a rushed/ questionable pass out to someone who wants to catch and shoot. This generally results in a bobble, extra step, or maybe even a pass to a non shooter. Regardless it is generally not a clean catch and shoot scenario. Combine this with the fact that defense is pre-occupied with the ball has worked to stop it and will now chase it out hard to recover. You don't often get a clean unchallenged catch and shoot on these kick outs vs a good defensive team.
When we add in a belt pass or relay pass (catch on one shoulder and without stopping the balls momentum swing it through at out the other side) suddenly you will find yourself getting cleaner looks for multiple reasons:
- The primary objective of this pass is to move the ball to a shooter not to escape defense.
- The defense has collapsed and is sprinting out. They cannot change direction mid sprint without stopping first giving the recipient more time before they are closed out.
- The pass-pass leads to another pass-pass opportunity getting us into ball reversal and longer and longer closeouts.
- The emphasis on pass-pass allows you to avoid re-attacking back into defense and a catch drive.
- Shooting off an unguarded relay pass to an unguarded shooter resembles shots more like what most kids have practiced since they were small.
- It allows non-shooters or players out of the their range to find a better option without feeling they are killing the offense.
This is one of many applications the 2nd pass can be used to help. In my next entry we'll look at the extra pass in transition!
Following up action with action not only keeps defense occupied but requires them to anticipate, chase and overplay in ways that makes reads easier. In this case the action we focused on was the 2nd pass or what we refer to as pass-pass. This isn't a new or revolutionary concept but one that players often don't understand as a concept. If you look at something as simple as the give and go it is basically a pass followed up by an immediate second pass. The extra movement of the ball and need for extra defensive reaction to the ball is what makes it tough.
We focused in two particular areas this summer but it can be applied to many aspects of the game. In the next few entries, I'll give some examples that worked for us:
PASS-PASS out of Penetration
When we make a penetrating play (ie. dribble attack or penetrating pass) like most teams we have reactionary movement. Regardless of what this movement is for your team the real key is what happens on the kick out. Without getting into our penetration movement (I'll get to that in another blog) once we've attacked, come to two feet and realize that we need to pass out support should already moving/moved into place. This then should result in a kick out.
Where most teams struggle at this point is they want to kick and fire. The issue being that a player choosing to pass out of penetration has done so because they are in trouble. They've been stopped, doubled, are in amongst the trees etc. They are also facing a 3 second call in the paint. Their priority is to get the ball out of trouble and back into the offense. This pressure doesn't always lead to an ideal pass to catch and shoot.
Now you've got a rushed/ questionable pass out to someone who wants to catch and shoot. This generally results in a bobble, extra step, or maybe even a pass to a non shooter. Regardless it is generally not a clean catch and shoot scenario. Combine this with the fact that defense is pre-occupied with the ball has worked to stop it and will now chase it out hard to recover. You don't often get a clean unchallenged catch and shoot on these kick outs vs a good defensive team.
When we add in a belt pass or relay pass (catch on one shoulder and without stopping the balls momentum swing it through at out the other side) suddenly you will find yourself getting cleaner looks for multiple reasons:
- The primary objective of this pass is to move the ball to a shooter not to escape defense.
- The defense has collapsed and is sprinting out. They cannot change direction mid sprint without stopping first giving the recipient more time before they are closed out.
- The pass-pass leads to another pass-pass opportunity getting us into ball reversal and longer and longer closeouts.
- The emphasis on pass-pass allows you to avoid re-attacking back into defense and a catch drive.
- Shooting off an unguarded relay pass to an unguarded shooter resembles shots more like what most kids have practiced since they were small.
- It allows non-shooters or players out of the their range to find a better option without feeling they are killing the offense.
This is one of many applications the 2nd pass can be used to help. In my next entry we'll look at the extra pass in transition!
Back again.
After a busy basketball season and summer, I've fallen behind on my blogging. I will be back now with some thoughts and ideas I've had.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Passing as a relationship.
This is the next installment of posting activites and readings I give the girls this season. The one is snipet from the LLABB (a great blog for those who do not know) followed by questions asking you to think about passing in terms of a relationship.
According to renowned Italian and EuroLeague coach, Renato Pasquali, passing is a relationship formed with others. When you do not pass to an open teammate, you are send them a message: "I did not trust you with our team's advantage."
Here's a look at the different types of passes and what message they send:
• NO PASS = No relationship. I don't trust you to do the right thing with the ball.
• FORCED PASS = A forced relationship. It is never completed or never whole.
• "DIRTY" PASS = A pass made after holding onto the ball for a long time. It's an afterthought that says, "I've exhausted all other options and my time with the ball. Here... take what's left."
• "CLEAN" PASS = A pass made on time and on target. This pass builds a relationship of trust. It says: "I'm thinking about you and what's needed for the team (in this moment)."
It's important to develop an understanding in players that when you do make a pass to a teammate, a sense of trust develops.”
(LLABB.blogspot.com)
Think about passing in terms of a relationship:
- If the person you are supposed to meet is not on time or does not ever show up? What does that say about the relationship? What about if they show up but how they are dressed, or when they arrive doesn’t allow you to do what you had planned?
- If the person you are in a relationship with only gives you a chance or lets you spend time with them when it is convenient/easy/they’ve got nothing else to do – How does that make you feel? How are they showing they feel?
- IF the person you are in a relationship with doesn’t trust you: follows you around, only lets you do certain things, will not trust you certain places or certain times – How does that effect your relationship?
- What if the person you are trying to be friends with does things that hurt you, hurts them or does things in a way that holds either of you back? Do you bring it up? When does it have to change?
- If the person in the relationship is always willing to look to you, give you a chance, believes and trusts you to do the right thing – What is the relationship like then?
- If your teammate tells you to “F%^& off, I’m better than you!” How does that make you feel? How about if they say “Your good. I trust you! Here take this and help the team.”?
According to renowned Italian and EuroLeague coach, Renato Pasquali, passing is a relationship formed with others. When you do not pass to an open teammate, you are send them a message: "I did not trust you with our team's advantage."
Here's a look at the different types of passes and what message they send:
• NO PASS = No relationship. I don't trust you to do the right thing with the ball.
• FORCED PASS = A forced relationship. It is never completed or never whole.
• "DIRTY" PASS = A pass made after holding onto the ball for a long time. It's an afterthought that says, "I've exhausted all other options and my time with the ball. Here... take what's left."
• "CLEAN" PASS = A pass made on time and on target. This pass builds a relationship of trust. It says: "I'm thinking about you and what's needed for the team (in this moment)."
It's important to develop an understanding in players that when you do make a pass to a teammate, a sense of trust develops.”
(LLABB.blogspot.com)
Think about passing in terms of a relationship:
- If the person you are supposed to meet is not on time or does not ever show up? What does that say about the relationship? What about if they show up but how they are dressed, or when they arrive doesn’t allow you to do what you had planned?
- If the person you are in a relationship with only gives you a chance or lets you spend time with them when it is convenient/easy/they’ve got nothing else to do – How does that make you feel? How are they showing they feel?
- IF the person you are in a relationship with doesn’t trust you: follows you around, only lets you do certain things, will not trust you certain places or certain times – How does that effect your relationship?
- What if the person you are trying to be friends with does things that hurt you, hurts them or does things in a way that holds either of you back? Do you bring it up? When does it have to change?
- If the person in the relationship is always willing to look to you, give you a chance, believes and trusts you to do the right thing – What is the relationship like then?
- If your teammate tells you to “F%^& off, I’m better than you!” How does that make you feel? How about if they say “Your good. I trust you! Here take this and help the team.”?
Saturday, November 27, 2010
How to shrink your circle of respect, while strenghtening your circle of influence!
This is the next installment of readings for the girls!
7 Step to shrinking & strengthening the circle.
#1 – Create behaviours, expectations, and relationships that mark members of the circle as clearly different.
#2 – People within the circle must promote and work to make the each other stronger so the circle can be drawn together and made stronger
#3 – Those inside the circle and those from outside the circle are not allowed to pull the circle apart.
#4 – Members must recognize that momentary sacrifices of a few make us all better now and in the future
#5 – Everyone’s personal goals must be superceeded by the needs of the group. No one is allowed in the circles whose attitudes and goals do not improve us.
#6 – Members of the circle must be accountable and refuse to let other members down.
#7 – Outside influences are just that: OUTSIDE. They are for people not in the circle.
Law of the Chain: A chain is only as STRONG as ITS weakest link!!
7 Step to shrinking & strengthening the circle.
#1 – Create behaviours, expectations, and relationships that mark members of the circle as clearly different.
#2 – People within the circle must promote and work to make the each other stronger so the circle can be drawn together and made stronger
#3 – Those inside the circle and those from outside the circle are not allowed to pull the circle apart.
#4 – Members must recognize that momentary sacrifices of a few make us all better now and in the future
#5 – Everyone’s personal goals must be superceeded by the needs of the group. No one is allowed in the circles whose attitudes and goals do not improve us.
#6 – Members of the circle must be accountable and refuse to let other members down.
#7 – Outside influences are just that: OUTSIDE. They are for people not in the circle.
Law of the Chain: A chain is only as STRONG as ITS weakest link!!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
5 Keys to being relentless
Over the next few weeks and monthes I will be updating the blog. These updates will be focused on readings and activities I give the girls to work with. The first one is below:
5 Keys to being able to be “Relentless”
#1 – A strict code of acting and behaving under stress. This includes:
- A disciplined way of responding to stress
- A precise way of moving and responding to every situation
- Quick and decisive response to commands – no hesitation is tolerated.
#2 – No visible sign allowed of weakness or negative emotion of any kind in response to stress. The expression of negative emotion is not permitted. No matter how you feel – this is the way you act, this is what we do!
#3 – Regular exposure to high levels of mental, emotional, and physical training stress to accelerate the toughening process. Practice should be tougher than games. People don’t step up in big games, people not used to that pressure and intensity simply fall behind.
#4 – Precise control over cycles of sleep, eating, drinking, and rest. Organization of your universe to every degree possible.
#5 – A rigorous physical fitness program. This focuses on aerobic, anaerobic, and strength training. You must be ready to take it too another level when others are dropping out.
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