94 Feet . . . Gimme a break

The court is a certain length. All any coach could ever ask of any player is to play the game all out for every second that they are on the floor. I personally feel like if we're asking kids to do that then they need the opportunity. This isn't 1955, its 2008 and in a FIBA game the game is played with skills executed at speed all the time. If we are attacking and defending the full length of the court it is giving my team and the other a chance to work and develop skills every second they are playing.

I hate it when people come over, or even classier yell over, "Coach why are you still pressing? Hey coach could you take off the press?"

That drives me insane for three reasons:

1) No one ever says anything where we're losing and playing full court. I'm developing my kids how I want, the other team is doing the things they want. No one says boo. This tells me that the issue is that there is anything wrong with playing the game full court, full out for 40 minutes. The issue occurs when the other team is losing. This means that their motivation in either situation is not the development of their kids game or mine, but rather the final outcome.

2) People who understand basketball understand that picking up full court is not the same as pressing. In a FIBA game with 8 seconds to get it over (and the knowledge that a huge percentage increase in made hoops happens in the first 7 seconds of a possesion) it is key that someone always be picking up and slowing the ball. We ask our kids to play every second hard and the right way. If we are still trapping, and zone pressing and running in every turnover up 40+ ok there is an issue. That is not the same as playing full court. Having ball pressure and control over what we do defensively is just fundamental basketball, don't complain because we're doing the right thing defensively and developmentally for our (and your skill set).

3) How does me not picking up full court help your or my kids get better? We are now meeting the ball handler 1/2 to 3/4 of the way down the floor which is terrible in terms of containing the ball and where the offense goes. Its also terrible in terms of teaching your kids to handle the ball in a game situation. Your kids get to dribble the ball over half with no pressure which if they can manage it, is clearly not a skill they need to improve. Both teams need to practice reads in full court, half court, transition, and breakdowns on both offense and defense. Waiting for you to run something eliminates half of what we and you can work on.

The game is being played to win or to develop kids: depending on your philosophy. Regardless once the win or loss is clearly no longer in doubt, the only issue becomes developing players. Players don't learn skills by going out an executing offenses or disrupting offenses. They develop by getting opporunities to execute skills at speed. The game being played 94 feet both ways gives them those opportunties. Let the kids learn to play, gimme a break.

NO such thing as big game players . . .

I really do not believe in big game players. I think their are people who can play at the level they train. What you see in big games is the players who have trained to compete in big games, instead of just training, can still hang at the that level. The average player that just works hard and puts in their time hasn't prepared for that moment and falls by the wayside. Its not a matter of stepping up as it is everyone else who hasn't earned it falling off.

My pet peeve is kids who train and practice as if their is a switch that they can flick on at game time. When the game is on the line, when everything is hard and everyone is moving at 100 mph so how they'll flick this switch and have skills they have never trained to execute in that environment. You play the way you practice, but if practice isn't championship level you won't be able to play in a championship game.

I don't know how you gets kids to play and practice harder. There seems to be kids who buy in regardless, and then others who you could try to reach any way possible who just won't give 110% all the time. It is these kids who end up struggling in the biggest moments looking for excuses, reasons or solutions and there aren't any. The solution was the last 6 monthes.