Basketball Thoughts

Things that make sense to me defensively.

2012-01-23T07:07:00.000-08:00

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.

Toughest Pass in Basketball - Continued

2012-01-20T09:36:00.000-08:00

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.

Toughest Pass in Basketball.

2011-08-11T07:06:00.000-07:00

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!

Back again.

2011-08-11T06:34:00.000-07:00

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.

Passing as a relationship.

2010-12-07T09:58:00.000-08:00

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.”?

How to shrink your circle of respect, while strenghtening your circle of influence!

2010-11-27T10:01:00.000-08:00

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!!

5 Keys to being relentless

2010-11-07T09:59:00.000-08:00

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.

G.A.M.E.

2010-10-21T12:58:00.000-07:00

* Warning persons reading this post should be informed that I'm a dork. Acronyms and silly word games amuse me thus when I design basketball items, these tend to bleed in.

What are we going to run on offense this year? G.A.M.E.

Get A Mismatch Early - Offense

What is it? It is a concept based offense (you can call it motion, read and react, freelance, etc) with a priority on getting us the best chance to score.

How? We will use concepts for breaking out, reading penetration, passing and cutting, and using screens. The purpose behind all of which will be to get someone a mismatch that we can win to score. We will use speed, skill and team play to accomplish this.

When? When do we have a mismatch? Anytime somone has a 1 on 0 or a shooter/scorer has enough of a step that a catch and go will result in an 1 on 0. Mismatches also occur: when a player with the ability to finish inside has position and the advantage, a shooter is closed out on late or with hands down, a defensive breakdown allows us to beat our player off pentration.

Why? I like to keep things simple. Concept based offense allows for the most learning possible, while allowing enough structure and freedom for players skills to develop. It puts the owness on their skills and interpretations not the ability to memorize sets and counters.

Where? Where do we get mismatches. Anywhere we can find them a preferably early in the clock. Before the defense is set and communicating (or even back) is the best time to get a 1 on 0. If the defense is back then as soon as someone can create a 1 second advantage or easy mismatch we will exploit it.

G.A.M.E. Rules

1. Atack all the time. Use eyes, body and ball to attack.

2. The floor is divided into grids (6 in each half). No more then 1 player per grid.

3. Players must constanly be active and forcing movement.

4. Allowed types of movement include: cutting to force a push/pull of players without the ball, exchanging grids via a screen, being pushed or pulled in reaction to a cutter or the ball.

5. The ball ulitmately determines and supercedes all other movement.

6. Players must pass and then: cut to score, cut to create movement or cut to screen.

7. Players must recognize, use and attempt to score in a mismatch once it is presented.

8. Player must understand that concepts change in phases of the clock.

Phase 1 Concepts - Fast Break

- Get someone to the rim.

-Release players up each sideline.

-Have a ballhandler and pressure release opposite them.

-Get the ball up to an pentration and pass to the rim in the first 4 seconds of the shot clock.

Phase 2 Concepts - Transition

- Players not invovled in rim action should be reading push/pull in reaction to drive or cutting action.

- On a kick out shoot if open and able, or immediately reverse the ball.

- Unless we've shot, reverse the ball until player have all cut through and we can get right into mid clock concepts.

-Total ball reversal and repositioning should have happened by the 8 second mark of the shot clock.

Phase 3 Concepts - Mid Clock

- Mid clock phase is 10 seconds in length.

- Mid clock options: Pass Cut Fill, Pass Cut Screen, React to Pentration

- Once you pass the ball you must cut to catch and score, cut to force movment, cut to screen for a teammate. Which ever action creates the most immediate mismatch.

- Any time they are able to effectively attack the rim the player with the ball must attack forcing players to circle in the direction of their selected hand drive.

- Any time you would cross a teammates grid but they are not pushing through that immediately becomes a screen at the meeting point of the grid.

Phase 4 Concepts - Late Clock

- Late clock is the final 6 seconds of the shot clock.

- Player with the ball must immediately create on penetration or find the player most likely to be able to do so immediately. In the case of the later the player who recieves the pass must attack.

- Attacking player looks to create or kick out for a 1 pass shot.

We may also have a couple of sets or specific calls along with inbounds, late game and inbounding situational stuff. I can't give away all the secrets at once though.

Tryouts and Evaluations

2010-10-19T10:52:00.000-07:00

I don't have tryouts.

I used to have tryouts, and sometimes I miss the good old days. You line up a bunch of nervous kids around the middle, detailing your expectations for the season and at tryouts. Then you do some technical drills to test skills, space them out with a lot of high energy conditioning to see who will tough it out and then let the kid compete at some point to see if you missed anything in drills. After a few nights of this have a meeting or post a list of who survived and earned the right to make the team. I don't do that anymore.

Now we have evaluation camp. Over a period of 10 -12 practice sessions we put in our entire offense. Anything we will plan on doing that year we work on, we mix this with skill drills that work on pieces of the offense and transition/competitive drills to keep energy high. During this time we do three levels of evaluation:
- Team Player
- Off Court Player
-Program

At the end of the sessions we announce teams for that year. Then we spend more time on individual skill development and defense.

Team Player and Off Court Player

This is an assesment of the players we have in terms of desirable basketball and program traits. We examine the following traits in every player and each coach ranks them out of 4:

-Atheticism (Agility, Verticality, Flexibility)
- Speed/Quickness
-Offensive Skills
-Defensive Skills
-Rebounding
- Leadership
- Hustle
-Intelligence (Decision Making, Application of Concepts, Ability to Adjust)
- Focus
- Complication Free (Drama, Laziness, Attitude)
- Size (Height, Length, Wing Span, Strength)
- Experience (Level of competition previous, Programs involved with, Camp/Club experience)

This takes several days or even weeks to determine, as we need time to see players in various settings. We need to talk to teachers, former coaches and other persons of influence in their lives to make all these determinations. In the end coaches will agree on a total score for each player.

Program

Once the numbers are set for each player the coaches will rank them from 1-x based on the numbers. We then decide who will make what team.

In our high school setting we generally follow this pattern:

- Best 8-10 kids based soley on the rankings make varsity. Then we fill in remaining roster spots (depending on team size) with any remaining grade 11-12's on the list from highest rank to lowest.

- Any left over 11 and 12's are met with and given opportunities to be involved with the program in other ways (managers, officials, work with minor program) etc.

- We now take the best remaining 9/10's to make up the JV team until the roster is filled. Any leftover players are given the same options as left over 11's and 12's.

In the time we've begun doing this we've been more successful at weeding kids out on their own and over timethen we had in shortened time frames of the past. Players who are able have a chance to show over time, and deficiencies become apparrent on and off the court after a few weeks, making decisions easier.

Love, Like, Parenthood, and Our Canadian Women's Basketball Team

2010-09-30T18:13:00.000-07:00

I've just finished watching our Canadian women's basketball team play, their pre tournament and initial round robin games. I must say I've been incredibly impressed, proud, frustrated, disgusted and amazed every single game. These women remind me of a quote from the book "Parenthood" by Bill Cosby my mother would often reference to all of her children.

"I love you, that does not mean I have to like you right now!"

I love lots of things in the game of basketball: guts, toughness, big shot making, intensity, hustle, pressure defense, teamwork, pace, passion . . . the list could go on and on.

Watching their games I constantly saw things that made me love this women's team. I also saw things that made me want to throw heavy things through my TV/computer screen:

Things I loved:

- We were tough. We played physical and gritty for full possessions of in your face offense and defense fighting and reading screens over and over again. Battled on the boards vs. teams twice our size and backed down from no one at any point.

-Coach McNeill. Like most of my favorite coaches she is nothing like me, and is constantly amazing me. She was intense while being composed. In moments where I would have been losing my mind, she was not only having focused and reasonable dialogue with players but was getting immediate results from timeouts and subs. She was determined, tough, committed and focused. Her team took on these traits in every way.

- Defending off ball action. For being outsized and athleted in most games, our women shut down teams screening games and cutting to the rim. Most teams found players to make tough shots, long threes or broke us down off the dribble in transition in order to score. 5 on 5 stopping other teams stuff I was very impressed with our effort and understanding.

- Adjustments. I think of all the teams I watched Canada did the best job of adapting from quarter to quarter. We would correct mistakes, make new reads and find ways to compete to get back into ball games. My congrats to the coaching staff and players on staying mentally tough, while being creative through many tough games.

I didn't like you right then (but I still love ya'):

- Possessions took years. We were playing with such a small margin for error, I was dying for possessions where we could get a quick turnover or an easy look in transition. To the point when we doubled a wing entry or got a rare fast break layup you'd have thought we were winning the Super Bowl in my basement. I love fast paced basketball, and by my own admission my solution to just about every problem I face as a coach tends to be better ball pressure, and cleaner transition offense. So for me watching us work 20 seconds off a clock and end up with a contested shot, or forcing teams to take long threes late in the clock time after time (only to give up the o-board and repeat process) caused me no end of frustration. Just personal preference, and as I stated previously I've got huge respect and love for the Canada coaching staff who know much better than I what they need to do to win.

- Make a jumper. We back screened as well and effectively as anyone at the tournament. The issue was eventually teams would load up on the paint and play under daring us to flare or pop and make shots. I have no idea what I found more frustrating the games where we would miss the majority of them, or the games where we had missed the majority of them before so we didn't shoot them and forced it into traffic for a turnover. The sun can't shine everyday, but even a broken watch is right twice a day (to mix a couple of metaphors.)

- Take it to the rack. Like most Canadian basketball fans, one of the most entertaining things for me to watch is Steve Nash circling and probing NBA defenses making individuals and teams look foolish. So you can imagine my feelings at watching us need to catch the right player, in the right matchup, in a late closeout (that rarely came because who closes out hard when you aren't making shots) in order to dribble drive the rim. In moments where I was dying for us to get an easy hoop we were forced to resort to waiting and reading on screens for match ups rather then just breaking people down.

- Breakout. I kept waiting for us to push the ball down, if not to fast break to at least get some action in transition before the longer defenses loaded up. I waited a lot. This is not a criticism of anyone on Team Canada, but as a fan I wanted to see us making some easy shots and plays to make runs. When we went on runs it was generally long stretches of great defensive stops and the opposition missing free throws, while we would show better offensive efficiency and make free throws.

In a nutshell I loved and continue to love our Canadian women's national team. I'm as proud of their effort and competitive spirit as I could be. The fan in me that grew up loving the "Bad Boys" in Detroit went crazy for our intensity. The fan in me that loves to fun and run and prefers "West Coast" NCAA to east coast, kept going crazy wanting us to score.

So conflicted.

How I Win?

2010-09-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

I'm taking on a new challenge this year in moving to girls full time. This will mean not only CP and provincial teams with high end young women in the other seasons, but all winter with some much less committed (yet still lovable) JV girls in our school.

After having a pre-season meeting and sharing my expectations with the boys team I'd planned on coaching, I left the seniors with a message about "Sandpaper" (See previous entry.) Now that I'm changing gears and trying to build a new culture in our girls program I've given great consideration to the message I want to start off with to the ladies:

I only know one way to win - Create a culture of us against the world!

There are three things we need to do in order to live this attitude:

1. Be special.
2. Be emotionally honest (Vocally).
3. Be Hostile.

1. Be Special.

We need to earn the right to special, but also embrace and understand we are different. We can't act, want, and react to the world the way people who aren't on this team do. Cute boys, friendly girls, our parents, and our community are who we represent the best elements of, but they are not who we are. They make decisions and choices based on motivations that have nothing to do with selfless sacrifice to make you and your teammates the best. We need to be special. You can't make common/popular decisions. You won't be spending your time the same way as most people. Our interests, efforts and allegiances need to lie in very different places then the students you interact with everyday. You must work harder, sacrifice more, and have higher expectations for yourself then you can currently imagine. You will be more humble in public, and more arrogant about your abilities in private. We must not only be different, but better.

2. Be emotionally honest.

Winners don't mitigate. Mitigating is a social behavior we learn to share potentially unpopular ideas to superiors. We must be direct, honest and constant. We are a team, a family by choice not chance. If you can't say what you are thinking, and we can't take what you say and feel to make us stronger, then we won't amount to much anyway. On the floor and off the floor we need to be able to trust and anticipate each other. We can't do this unless we are constantly in each others ear about who we are, what we stand for and how we need each other to succeed. This not only requires the confidence to speak loudly about exactly what you need and feel, but the maturity to see and hear the truth from others with the focus of getting better.

3. Be Hostile

There is no such thing as a big game player. There are players and teams who in big games and big moments continue to achieve while others fall away simply because they can still play confidently in those moments. They can succeed where others fail because they've done it day in and day out in tougher circumstances then they face in the game. We need to be brutal. Our practices need to be more intense, more pressure packed, more physical and more competitive then any situation we could face. As soon as there is a ball and a score we need to play with the sibling rivalry that exists in families. You'll love each other once its over, but there is no way you are losing to each other or anyone else. You must compete ever second of every play, drill, and exercise as if not winning that moment will cost us a championship. This intensity and mild paranoia will breed frustration, focus that frustration into effort and aggression. Don't get mad, make us better.

Sandpaper - First Letter to This Year's Senior Boys

2010-08-29T17:39:00.000-07:00

Everyone needs to embrace an attitude when they play basketball. For some people its their inner competitor, for others it is a persona, and for some it is the personality of their team or leaders. These individual and collective attitudes help to determine the make up of the team and contribute directly to results. Everyone competes hard at game time, you can see that in gym classes all over the world. The issue is you need to be able to bring the proper work ethic and attitude every time you train so you are prepared for game time.

This year I've decided to ask my seniors to adopt a persona in practice, off the court and at game time. For some of them it may be and extension of their basic personality but for others I'm sure it will be an exercise in trying adopt and embrace something larger then themselves.

I expect them to be our team's "SANDPAPER." What this means is no more complicated then looking at what sandpaper is and does then applying it to our team:

- Rough, gritty, tough. These are characteristics of any good piece of sandpaper. It also is exactly what we want our seniors to be and to bring to our team. In practice, in games, they need to be the ones setting the tone of playing with an edge of physicality, of being abrasive and intense (borderline hostile) to make sure we are at the right level all the time. They need to be the ones making sure "whatever it takes" is level and expectation every possession.

- Sand paper shapes with pressure, abrasion, and friction. Our seniors need to be making sure we are adopting the shapes, form and behaviors that we need on and off the court. They need to be the ones in people's ears, getting people out to train and lift, and getting on people that aren't doing what it takes. If someone isn't doing what it takes with their training, in the classroom or on the floor the seniors are the ones that need to make sure that a change is happening. We are only as strong as our weakest link and seniors need to be making sure that toughening, shaping and focusing their teammates is a 24-7 job.

- Sand paper is dependable, durable and you know exactly what you are going to get from it. Our senior leaders cannot be seen as weak or uncommitted. They need to be the first ones in, last ones out and the ones giving the most consistent effort, intensity and focus. They also can't be emotionally distant or labile; they need to be the rock that holds an even line through everything. They need to set the tone of efficiency and focus.

- Sand paper only works through force. Our seniors need to be the ones exerting the effort to help shape us. It is not just about them and their development it has to be about the making their teammates better, by actively doing whatever it takes to succeed at every moment. They need to exert active energy all the time in the name of meeting our goals. They cannot bystanders, mitigators or simply along for the ride they must be the driving force.

This is what it takes. It is what we need. You need to be our team's "SANDPAPER!:

The Best 5 Basketball Books , you may not know about.

2010-08-27T16:15:00.000-07:00

Its summer and that means some extra time for reading. I'm sure like all basketball fans, my love of the game transcends other aspects of my life. In my case when it is time to read, I very well may read a book about basketball to get my mind off teaching and coaching basketball.

I'm not talking about coaching handbooks, or drill lists, or manuals (although I've got a shelf of those too). I'm talking about some good inspirational basketball thoughts and stories. So here is my current list of top 5 basketball books you may want to check out for the first time or even again in no particular order:

Values of the Game - Bill Bradley

A collection of thoughts and essays from former pro, princeton grad and US senator Bill Bradley on the values and lessons learned through basketball. Great thoughts, stories and memories from some of the greats of the game past and present while focusing on the character lessons players, coaches and any basketball fan should be embracing.

To Hate Like This is to Be Happy Forever [A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifting and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the DUKE-NORTH CAROLINA RIVALRY] - WILL BLYTHE

The title really says it all. An in depth, laugh at loud, "Oh my god! Really . . " and thought provoking look at college basketball's greatest rivalry. I sports writer from a die hard Tarheel family takes a year of to examine everything that makes this rivalry transcend school and region to be an internationally notorious one. He goes through a whole season watching games, meeting coaches, interviewing die hard fans and following every aspect of the rivalry possible, backdropped by his family's personal relationship in this saga.

Transition Game: How Hoosiers went Hip Hop - L. Jon Werthem

Basketball was born in Springfield Mass. Its home and heartbeat has always been the state of Indiana. This book examines how factors that are changing our world (gloablization, multiculturalism, etc) have done the same to the game of basketball in the state of Indiana. It is a warm walk down memory lane following the history of the state of Indiana, the state of the game, and the state of the world through interlaced stories of familiar basketball faces and legends up to contemporary day basketball in Indiana.

Eagle Blue: A Team, a Tribe, and a High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska - Micheal D'Orso

Coaches, players and fans all seem to think that no other place has quite the problems or has to deal with issues that their team has to overcome. Try being the coach in Fort Yukon. This book follows a year in with the basketball team in Fort Yukon, Alaska. Fort Yukon is a small native community above the arctic circle deep in the Alaskan wilderness. The only way to travel is snowmobile, getting to games means a plane trip which may or may not be cancelled by -50 degree weather, kids growing up with the struggles and pressures of trying to be regular teenagers in toady's world, members of their tribes culture/heritage and working to try to win a state championship. This book has everything you could ask from a story of a team for a season to bring some perspective to your own world of basketball.

Winning Sounds Like This: A season with the women's basketball team at Gallaudet University, the world's only university for the deaf. - Wayne Coffey

What most people love about sports (in particular basketball) has something to do with the pressure, overcoming adversity, seeing life lessons played out in a microcosm, and the thrills of the unexpected. Well imagine trying to win at a NCAA university in the capital city of the United States, and by the waty - your team is all hearing impaired. A wonderful story of a season with some of the most special athletes, coaches, playing high level basketball at arguably the most unique university and culture in the world. If you need to know what basketball, winning, and the power of sport really are - read this book!

(Honorable mention should go to The Last Amateurs. A story following a season in the the only Division 1 basketball conference that does not offer sports scholarships.)

Poker and Post Defense

2010-07-30T06:51:00.000-07:00

Playing poker with people tends to be fairly telling about their personalities. Who is playing the percentages, who is betting aggressively early, who is playing tight, who is bullying, etc? One of the most important elements of the game is recognizing and understanding your opponent. You look for "tells" and watch how they play certain situations to make decisions later.

When we look at the game of basketball coaches try to find common elements to identify the way teams and coaches do things by picking out certain traits.

One of the things I key in on as a coach is what the other team does to defend posts. In my experience, almost to a team:

-If they play behind they think they are bigger. stronger and can bullying us off spots. They play tough contain to pressure m2m and try to make individual stops, and make you shoot contested shots over the primary defender. Rotation is likely to be help late at the rim or edge of the key with shot blocker.

- If they play 1/2 or 3/4 around high side they are a team that funnels to help in the middle or influences non dominant. They will probably help across (more hands in the middle) allowing you to skip and trying to recover. They will active wing defenders and want their bigs to stay at home.

- If they 1/2 or 3/4 around low side then they are a ball pressure to contain team influencing sideline and baseline and will probably double down if the post catches. They will also help earlier and rotate by dropping down. They tend to be more team oriented defensively with athletic active bigs.

- If they front the basketball, they are probably a high ball pressure team. Relying on early traps/help on baseline penetration and with combination rotations to cover passing lanes and traps. They are probably undersized and fast.

It sounds silly but its true. Same as you read the player guarding the screener when attacking with screens, I look at the way teams defend post play to determine their defensive philosophy and what we want to do. I'm sure teams do the same to us.

What they should see when they look at our post defense:

- Post defenders should be full front. I arm length's away (measured by a locked out inside arm fist first into the high hip). Low stance with active feet and outside hand up as high as possible. If teams try to seal or lock it down we simply give ground out. On a reverse we have enough space with the arm's length to step or sprint free without getting pinned.

Why do we defend this way:

- We are a ball pressure team looking to force traps/run and jumps so this technique keeps us closer to the ball, prevents any pass except a lob into an immediate trap and gives us the space we need to sprint free in rotations without getting locked/pinned.

I know that a lot of coaches worry about the lob, reverses or rebounding when fronting. I respect their feeling but disagree. The lob and reverse are both taken away with good on ball pressure to make the ball bounce. I've never really felt like is has hurt us on the boards but we tend to hit and go with all five anyway so our activity level either works for us or not regardless of positioning.

FYI in poker I also bet almost anything and will go all in much more often then anyone else in the game pushing the pace. Your personality is your personality, I guess.

Mismatches

2010-07-11T04:20:00.000-07:00

I have a friend who used to coach with me. He grew up in the US attending a private school in Tennessee where he played football and basketball as a 5'7 vs larger division 1 prospect athletes. Every now and then we will lace up our sneakers and play in some pick up basketball. Now I pity the first big guy who takes the yells "Mismatch" and tries to back him down in the post. Mostly because after school, but before becoming a teacher, this guy was a carpenter and is crazy strong for his size. This results in forearm shots to big guys ribs, backs and thighs that tend to leave them regretting trying to go get an easy layup.

As my coaching evolves I find myself coming back around to things. My latest re discovery is the idea of the mismatch.

As a concept based offensive coach I am constantly amazed at the assumptions I make about kids understanding of the game. Mismatches are a huge one. We are trying to break down the other teams defense to get someone a 1 on 1 they can win, to create a 1 on 0 for us to score. As simple as that sounds, you would like to believe that players would then immediately find the easiest way to beat someone (our best matchup taking advantage), but you would be wrong. Kids limited understanding of mismatches does not seem to extend beyond physical size into skill vs skill or situational concepts.

We'll feed undersized basket cutters heading into a wall of posts. We'll have an average ball handler trying to break down an athletic defender. We will pass up pull up jump shots at 8 feet by our best players, only to see them fire tough passes to post players (who can't handle) at 12 feet who will end up in a close out situation. The decision making is mind boggling.

I think this is a result of 3 problems:

Problem 1

A lack of exposure by today's youth players to pick up ball that honed most of the previous generation's game. Playground players just found the weak link, or the chucker , or someone's little brother and attacked that whenever anything got meaningful. Today's kids have grown up in such a structured sport environment where everyone gets to play, and we should all get a chance, that some of the innate primitive instinct to find the weakest in the herd and take them down has been lost. They have accepted we (the coaches) know what we're doing so they blindly do what they think we see as the right thing regardless of situation to succeed.

Problem 2

Over developed sense of self and others. Today's athlete has grown up empowered, aware of their rights, empathizing with the feelings of others, and learning to respect their environment and those in it. Bullying, judging, taking advantage of others, disrespect and selfishness are all looked down upon and to be avoided. (Yet those traits are exactly what attacking a mismatch is all about.) Confidence in themselves as people may give them a false sense of confidence in their game, but more importantly their sensitivity and respect of others doesn't allow them to mercilessly and eagerly attack and exploit other individuals naturally. In fact in the rare cases where youth coaches get players who will, in most cases they are told to share the ball and given some speech about being a better teammate and giving everyone a chance.

Problem 3

Coach as sage. Adults run their houses, their schools, their recreation, their sports, their free time, their structured time - we run just about everything their is to run in the lives of young people. (hmmm and kids seem to have bad instincts in a lot of on and off the court situations). We then also take players and too early structure their play. Particularly on the court coaches will recognize an advantage and set up plays or their whole system around this advantage. Players then execute the system because coach said so without understanding why, they don't see what they are dong as exploiting their advantages it is just how they play. Then when they go to another team or level with different strengths they either struggle because they can't adjust or the coach makes the adjustments for them again.

SOLUTIONS

- We as coaches must model and teach more and more. The only way to ensure a kid knows anything is to make sure they learn it from you.

- Coaches need to improve their players understanding of the game and the reasons behind "What-Why- When".

- Youth basketball needs less plays and more concepts and opportunities to play. Structured freedom to play, rather then smaller less skilled versions of elite level games.

- Players must be praised for using and reading a mismatch properly regardless of the outcome, while players who attack in bad situations, times and places must understand this regardless of how it worked out at this level.

- Kids must be encouraged to shoot more often and improve their shooting. This will stretch the floor making one on one matchups and skills more important then running structured offenses to get your kids who can finish closer to the rim to score and succeed more often.

- Every kid must have the skills to exploit their advantage. If they are being guarded by the worst on ball defender, they must be able to handle. If they are being guarded by a sagger they must be able to shoot.

- Do not use a punishment/reward system to motivate understanding. Punish/Reward returns are only high for basic physical tasks. When dealing with basketball IQ and exploiting advantages players must be given autonomy and freedom of creativity while being given feedback to improve.

Defending Screens

2010-06-20T15:19:00.000-07:00

Obviously in the grand scheme of things all coaches would like to game plan for every eventuality. If they flex we'll jump and switch the screens early. If they ball screen with a non shooter we'll hedge soft and go under. If they down screen with the shooter to pop or re-screen the shooter we'll fight through and deny hard on the scorer and play under the non shooter.

On and on and on it goes, in coaches' favorite game of who can have the marker last.

At most levels particularly below the elite level we don't have the prep time or player IQ to properly teach all these variables and program specific reactions. In an attempt to determine a way to teach defending screens that our kids can execute and remember in times of crisis we've come up with the B.A.T. theory.

We like a one rule for all (or at least as many as possible) attitude on defense. Keep it simple and work hard as a team.

B.A.T.

We B.A.T. all screens and leave the individual reads up to players in the match ups at the moment. Please keep in mind we are a ball pressure team so that the ball handler should be under immense pressure to dribble or find space not be sitting back reading and making great passes.

B - Ball side. We get both players to the ball side of any screen plugging straight line passes and forcing lobs (rainbow passes) we can run under, knock down or close out too. We trust on any pass that off the ball defenders, whether a particular player or area is their responsibility, can sprint to deflect any pass with air under it.

A - Active. No one should be easy to screen or read. Both players should be low, moving, changing angles to that it is not clear what is going to happen or who will end up where. This way we are hard to screen, read, and attack. Active is hands, feet, hips, arms and mouths.

T - Talk. The most important issue here is communicate the current situation. We have no set switch or stay, we get both defenders ball side, moving, and seeing how the offense reacts then communicating new movements or matchups. Primary concern is always being able to stop the ball or to rotate to cover threats when we move to stop the ball.

Defensive Essentials

2010-06-14T07:32:00.000-07:00

I always find it challenging when coaching groups that shoot poorly or need a lot of general and specific work on their offensive fundamentals. Given my druthers I would input our offensive scheme the first 3 weeks of the season and then spend the rest of the year refining offensive fundamentals to match. This would free up almost my entire season for defensive concepts, skills and wrinkles.

Unfortunately short of a top university or provinicial program no one gets that sort of luxury.

Since I live in a universe in order for me to spend as much a time as possible on offensive development while still getting defensive work in to become the team we want here are the essential defensive drills that we emphasis and use as our base teaching methods:

Foundation Drills:

- Closeout Footwork + Inital Move Footwork (Daily)

- Positioing and Footwork Drills (Regularly Early in the Year, Less Frequent Late)

- Doubling Positioning Drills (Once per week)

- *3 vs 3 Purpose series (1 every day)

- Shell Drill

Competitive Re-Enforcement Drills:

- 1 vs 1 Full Court

- 3 vs 3 or 4 vs 4 get the ball over 1/2 court.

- Shell drill with less d then offense. Short chot clock, o gets points for getting shots up that hit the rim.

- 2 vs 2 continuos focus on player picking up early the 2nd taking the rim runner.

Defensive Conditioners:

- Seagull Slides (Figure 8 around court)

-Army Slides (3 perimeter spots, 2 check points. Players closeout take 1 slide then sprint to check point. Do all three return to end of line.)

- Wall Sits

- Explosion Sqauts

- Team Hustle (PLayers slide and dive across the key # of times chosen by coach then sprint to the other end.)

- Body Moving (Training Course Requiring to move quickly through a series of jumps, slides, sprints in a circuit for 10 minutes.)

* 3 vs 3 Purpose series.

We set up specific 3 on 3 scenarios that have program initail movements for everyone then after the defensive sequence is execute we go live. 2 possesions per group then rotate a group in.

ie.
Kill the Big - Weak side block big and 2 wings on offense. Ballside wing drives, big defender comes to shut down the baseline, weak side wing defender must drop hard into the big. Once the ball is trapped and the big is hit we skip the ball at which point we are live.

ie.
No Middle - 3 Perimeter players on offense who may only pass bleow foul line extended if they dribble through the foul line. Offense gets points by getting through the foul line on the dribble or taking a jump shot that hits rim. 3 d must work together to keep ball pressure to bounce but not allow it through the foul line.
We set up very specific densive goals in 3 on 3 settings to practice movements wheil requiring the offense to attack a specific way to program our defensive responses.

Message to Seniors on Awards Night

2010-05-30T10:55:00.000-07:00

“Time and Pressure”

Do you know how a diamond is made? Pure carbon (like you find in coal) is put under tremendous pressure below the earth’s surface. This immense pressure continues for millions of years. The pressure eventually hardens the carbon into diamond. The lesson: the difference between your regular lump of coal and a diamond is only time and pressure.

Time and Pressure is how the earth makes precious stones, how you succeed on the court, and it is how people become the legacy they will leave behind.

To my seniors:

6 years seems far too short a time for us to have worked, accomplished, failed, learned, and succeeded quite so much.

I have spent more time with you then my wife would like, at times more than you have wanted, and more time then is healthy on my concern for each of you. Some demanded more concern than others, but all in many different ways. This concern I possessed was always with an eye on end product. The end of our time together does not mean though that you are an end product.

I had finite time to apply finite pressure. The edges I’ve worn off and mold I’ve pressed you towards are not the goal. You had to simply learn that to improve yourself you must push yourself from where you were, through discomfort, to where and who you want to be. I’ve seen all of you change, whether I think that change is good, bad, or other is of no consequence. What matters is that under time and pressure you changed.

As young men journeying into the world you have inherited the gifts of finite time and control over how much pressure you place on yourself to increase your self worth. Every moment you have is time to change, to grow to become whoever the world will remember.

While touring a coal mine in Cape Breton I learned that there are many grades of coal. Each is unique and serves a unique purpose; men often argue their value or merit. The difference between the lowest grade of coal and the most perfect diamond is not whether one is better or worse. Their value is determined by how rare and valuable others find them. The difference was simply: time and pressure.

My Favorite Basketball Day

2010-05-24T13:41:00.000-07:00

I have lots of favorite days for lots of reasons. You give me some parameters and I can come up with a great day that I had under those conditions. I could probably come up with a dozen days related to basketball in hearbeat. The day I want to write about is my most recent Favorite Basketball Day. Maybe I'll wax nostaglic another time.

A few weekends ago we had CP Atlantic in Moncton. What an amazing epxerience! Getting to work with the best young players in the maritimes and some of the youngest most innovative coaching minds in the Country. It was blow your mind ridiculously fun and educational.

Some highlights that made is wonderful:

- The players. From top to bottom a group a hardworking well intentioned kids. Between national level performers and future CIS stars this group really made it easy and fun to coach.
- The lodge. Staying at the lodge in Moncton is always fun. Close quarters, bunch beds you aren't sure are going to make it. Plus all the amazing people all under one roof.
- Canada Basketball the Canada basketball rep that was sent to the boys came over to see us (ours got sick and was MIA) and just wandered around picking coaches minds, offering suggestions and phrasing things in a way to me and the kids that made me want to write it all down.
- Sitting around talking to CIS coaches and seeing the game from their perspective, their issues, their successes. It was eye opening and really lit a fire under me.
- #1 Highlight is Carly Clarke. She is a rock star. The new head coach at UPEI on the women's side not only ran sessions but also was evaluating a potential recruit. Carly allowed me to assist her in the evaluation and even put the player through some drills. This was a experience I'll never forget and totally convinced me that I wouldn't leave my current situation with school and basketball for many, but to help Carly at UPEI I would go in a heartbeat if I could make it work.

What a tremendous weekend. Thanks everyone for reminding me again what is great about this game.

Ladder of Priorities

2010-04-24T10:48:00.000-07:00

“You give up the right to do your own thing, when you make commitments to other.” -Holtz
The key to any successful endeavor is to have an understanding of priorities of all the participants and aligning them with the goals of group. A sport is no exception.
In school sports the most frequent conflict arises as the incoming priorities of coaches, parents, and players are in opposition. In order to become successful people must supplant their individual goals for the betterment of the group.

Examine the example below, where you have the incoming priority lists of the three key groups.

Parent's Priorities

1 - Athlete
2 - School

3 - Team

4 - Program

Player's Priorities

1 - Individual

2 - Team

3 - School

4 - Program

Coach's Priorities

1- Program

2 - School

3 - Team

4 - Individual

The chart clearly illustrates where conflict arises. While the overall importance of school can be seen throughout, the coaches’ focus must be on what is best for the largest number while the others are more concerned with the individual.

Most coaches are very considerate of the individual’s needs and wants when making decisions but their bottom line the priorities outlined by their job and position come first. In order to have a successful program the coach must manage and guide their players to subvert their instincts of self first. Team success is a product of having the individuals focused on a group end goal, not short term individual goals.

Convincing players and parents that the program must be your primary focus in perhaps the greatest challenge that facing school coaches.

Nutbrown

2010-04-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

I've had very few original ideas lately related to basketball. It may have something to do with me trying to focus on Miss V (Verity - my daughter). To round out my quota for this month here is list given to me by Coach Daye senior that he took from a meeting with Coach Nutbrown.

FYI: Coach Nutbrown is 3 parts coaching legend, 1 part urban myth in Atlantic Canada.

Dave Nutbrown is one of the most successful Canadian university coaches to ever come out of NB. Not only did he successfully coach high school basketball in this province but he surveyed programs for many years at the university level. Before looking at the players to recruit, he would evaluate the program at a particular school to determine his willingness to associate with it.
The following criteria (in no specific order) are the issues that Coach Nutbrown looked at when determining program strength:

- The most talented kids possible.
- Desire and ability to play year round (at least part time)
- Won/Lost record vs. strength of schedule
- Championships
- Kids aspiring to play at a higher level
- What effect does it have on the school? Community?
- Immediate + Long Range effects on individuals
- Co-operation of administration
- Community and Parental interest
- Kids having to want to play and play often
- Coaches are a model of expectations at practice
- Practices mimic game intensity and expectations
- Coach willing and able to make the person a better player then he/she wants to be
- Strong feeder programs that mimic the attributes of the high school program.
- The prioritizing of long term goals, ahead of short term goals.

ASU

2010-03-10T09:43:00.000-08:00

Arizona State is freaking ridiculous. I'm sure that also means that most large division 1 schools facilities are also nuts, but having never been that up close and personal with a program like that before; I could only imagine. From lockers on computer codes, to whirlpools in player lounges, to multiple weight and training facilities and all this carved into the side of hill in the beautiful Arizona scenery/weather - wow! It makes you wonder why anyone would play in the North East.

Now to the game itself.

To be fair (and totally biased) I have a huge crush on ASU as a whole right now including their coach Charli Thorne and the entire team. They are as long, athletic and skilled a group of university women I'ld ever seen in person. The atmosphere for even "just a women's game on wednesday night" was ridiculous. I sat in the student band section rocking some yellow threads and was entertained.

Now all that being said they were playing Stanford, and there is no way anyone is beating Stanford. I know they lost to UCONN and may lose again to UCONN but I genuinely have no idea how any women's team anywhere could beat Stanford. They are skilled in frames and muscle masses I didn't know women came in. Their point guard had more muscle then any player for Arizona State. Their posts were flat out scary.

ASU had quick cuts on offense and fancy footwork on defense. Stanford had staggered screens and post ups resembling tanks rolling over some unsuspecting village in a war zone, and on defense they got extra physical.

Coach Thorne was coaching her butt off to make adjustments. Coach Vanderveer sat there until her team would make a mistake on anything then she would get up sub them out, chew them out, and sit back down. The final was 60 something to 40 something, but Stanford decided that is what it would be.

Steve - WOW!!!

2010-03-10T09:21:00.000-08:00

So I went to Phoenix which definitely meant that I was going to see the Suns play. Luckily enough they were in town during the week of the conference playing the 76'ers (two canadian NBA players in one building, who would have thought). What a game!

The suns were on fire and Philly isn't very good so it was 20 plus the whole way. Here are some memorable basketball things I took away from the game:

- When everyone is 200+ pounds I have no idea what is a foul inside of 14 feet other then a punch in the mouth.
- Steve had 24 points, 13 assists in 30 minutes of playing time on 8-10 shooting and with 1 turnover. He is always 3 steps ahead, he's reading the defensive and making eye contact with the guy he's going to find after the screen doubles to chase him and they rotate to pick up the slip.
- Communication at this level is art form. No one is calling plays around the court, you'd never get heard in time. Steve's coming down the floor with one hand or the other determining the action and movment by the side he attacks and wether he runs his hand through his hair or wipes it on the front of his jersey. After that it is read and react in hurry.
- When you can finish in the rim in two strides for a 6'10 frame, then allowing people to catch and play single coverage inside of 15 feet is impossible to defend post catch 1 on 1.
- Basketball still boils down to making the offense do something they don't want. Players in position to make shots/plays must make shots or plays.
- 3 Point shooting in transistion is back breaking particularly off a turnover.

Season Reflection #8 - Playoffs

2010-02-28T09:20:00.000-08:00

We we certainly spent the last 3 weekends learning a lot about us as team, us individuals and the qaulity of our high school basketball scene province wide.

Regionals

We went to Ormocoto needing to the first game to qaulify and wanting to play well in the seeding the next day. We managed to do both though despite that being our goal the competitior in me is still unhappy with the opportunities we missed.

The first game we battled but I had made the mistake of making my kids think too much. We knew the team we were playing was built around one superstar so we made a point all week of instituting a "sniper" wrinkle which takes one player out of our rotation to full deny the star every where all the time, and creates an auto-double once he catches. We did an excellent job on him holding him to 7 points total, but our attention to him and going away from our regular rotation led us to doing a poor job team wise at stopping the role players on the other team. We won but it ended up being much closer then it should have been. In our other games our most talented players finnally started playing like our most talented and we other then running out of gas at the end of both games to lose by a basket in one and 6 in the other we did a good job. I understand the downside of playing with the pace we do without depth means multiple games in 24 hours are not our friend.

Provincials

Proud sure. Shell shocked definitely. So we did go and represent our school at this level for the first time since 1997 (that year I was a freshmen in university and knew nothing about this school). We also learned a lesson that we had coming all season. You can't play at a level you don't see everyday and practice/play/compete at regularly. We spent the first 1/2 learning what this level was about to the tune of 41-17 at halftime, then came out and brought our game to match it to end up losing 81 - 69. That sent us home so I didn't see anymore basketball that weekend.

Finals

What a great finals experience. I took up some local kids and saw the best the prvince had to offer. I was disappointed in the AA girls final as the individual and team skill became lost in the moment and the game degernated into lots of long shots and the winner was the team that could offensive and defensive rebound more often. The other games were great. In a province that often struggles to shoot the ball these teams all had clearly reached the top of their leagues by being able to shoot it the best of the teams out there. In each of the games that became apparent as the teams at this level were good enough to stop the intial action so secondary shooters or needed to make shots. The teams that won found shots and made them.

Lessons:

- Keep It Simple Stupid. Don't make adjustments that effect the way you play or percieve yourself.
- If you are going to play is if you have depth, you really need to have good depth to succeed.
- You only play at the level you compete at regularly.
- Getting open shots its effective only if you can shoot it.
- Shooting fixes everything.
- If no one can shoot you better be able to rebound.

Season Reflection #7 - The Long Road Home

2010-01-10T16:49:00.000-08:00

So you go on the road to compete in a tournament. You win your pool. The kids have great team building and the hotel and watching Avatar in theatre. You meet the team that won your home tournament in this final. You have a chance to win your first tournament of the year to send a message to your conference competition. You have the most rest going into the final. You have every reason to go out and compete hard. You have every reason to be hungry for a win.

Yet for some reason teenagers can still come out flat, lethargic and unwilling to defend competitively. You end up scoring 92 points in regulation but still can't win because no one defends all game long. Then the long ride home.

I hate that ride. You should be moving on (the teens you travel with clearly have) and all you want is silence to mope in. You've debriefed after the game. You've talked about positives and negatives for individuals, but still all I want is that ride to be over.

Grrr . . . I thought coaches were supposed be above petty competitive issues like this. Still need to grow up some I guess.

Season Reflection #6 - Big Baby's

2010-01-01T10:22:00.000-08:00

So apparently I can still let my emotions get the best of me.

We played the other night and it didn't go well in the first half. You can't give up 51 points in a high school half of basketball and expect to compete. That being said we were only down a dozen at half so we went to talk about. I went in and began detailing defensive adjustments we had to make in order to close the gap and positive things we needed to keep doing in order to maintain success on offense.

But I was mad.

(We interrupt this blog to remind the reader that has happned on many occassions I don't see the world like most people. When most coaches would think that their kids weren't playing well, or didn't understand, or weren't sharp or even were dumb I don't. My default position on everything in the universe is that if we cared more it would work. It you cared enough to try harder, cared enough to train better, cared enough to sacrifice yourself for the win, etc.)

So I was mad and under the surface was the looming - Why don't you care monster - and then I saw them. Player with their shoe laces undone, players with their heads down, players clearly upset with their playing time rather then the score. I stopped (snapped - no stopped) and said:

"Forget everything I just said its all bullS#&^ ! You know the real reason we can't stop these guys. Its the same reason my 6 month old daughter can't play high school boys basketball. Baby's can't defend at this level!"

That was it. Everyone playing their guts out felt like they needed to do more and looked emploringly at their teammates. Unfortunately the nature of being a "big baby" is that when someone calls you on it you sulk and make it worse.

Did I feel better? Sort of! Did the kids who wanted to say something but didn't feel like the elephant in the room was brought up and they could relax? Probably. Did the issues causing the defensive short comings get resolved? Mostly no!

The moral of the story is a common one with me and teens: what I say is not what they are hearing. What they are hearing is definitely not what I mean. The really real truth is that in the at moment I want to run and around screaming "you see, you see" because all the stuff I bring up in practice and in meetings about needing to care more and work harder to be successful become manifest when its on the line. The simple fact is that at that point me gloating, finger pointing, or doing anything except being positive isn't going to help the outcome.

At this level of sports their are only so many in game adjustments kids can make. The competitor in me needs to take a back seat to the grown up coach who needs to find a way to manage the game. Could I have done something else? Would it have made a difference in the outcome?

I think what coach Greenburg says is true: You can't be the motivator, the disciplinarian, the counsellor, the teacher, the cheer leader and the support strucuture. If you are everything you burn out and they have nothing to do. The problem is cultural I'm still trying to make kids that aren't self motivators motivated instead of addressing the issue that they need to train them to be self motivated. I need to have less responsibilty and invesment in the outcome then they do.

How do I get them to do that?

Season Reflection #5 - Level 2 vs Level 3

2009-12-24T19:09:00.000-08:00

So we just got a butt whooppin handed to us yesterday.

These things happen when you take a border line AA playoff team to a gym with your family's name on it, to play the best AAA team in the province. It also happens worse when your best player stays home like a baby because he'd rather claim the sniffles then suck it up after you chewed him out last practice and sent him home. Then your next leading scorer sprains his ankle on the jump ball, and they aren't even jumping.

Needless to say it was a struggle being out athleted, minus our two kids who could score at this level and not being able to be deeper then a team we were playing for the first time all year.

As my valiant little guys kept getting blocked over and over again as they caught the ball on their basket cut into the CIS sized men waiting at the rim. All I could think of was a Dave Smart video where he is discussing screen situations. He talks about the basic theory of slipping or pinning your player after the screen and the level 2 by the book that makes sense. The difference between level 2 and level 3 is your 5'7 kid recognizing he's trying to pin or slip into the middle of 6'10's and needing to make a better read.

Today I saw how limited we are not only do we not understand the next level of read and react stuff, not only can't we scan to see the 2nd layer of d before making a decision, even if we could I'm not sure how we would adjust and still score. I guess step back and shoot longer shots we probably can't make. I hate zone. We might be the only team on the planet that you zone to get a 20 point lead and then go m2m to make it competitive for us.

Season Reflection #4 - Close

2009-12-20T19:08:00.000-08:00

So two road losses to the top two teams in our division by a total of 5 points. So between last season and this that is the last 5 in conference road losses all by less than 6 points. Obviously my first reaction is always what can I do?

The reality is that we win and lose games over 40 minutes. We play up and down getting everyone in and out regularly. Though we play this way to promote depth there are regularly players in the game who are best streaky and and worst routinely weak. As a result our positive streaks do not outweigh our negative moments over the course of the game.

I would still trust my 8-12 more then all of our opponents 8 -12. Unfortunately we seem to never be able to take advantage of their 8-12 with our top kids they way their top kids take advantage of ours. We continue to play team ball to score, when their best player or two we'll smell blood in the water and go for a quick 4-6 points exploiting that. Our best kid will be a layup then pass the rest of the shift. We get more greedy when we miss shots then after we make them.

The short term solutions are paying closer attention to matchups or shortening the bench. The long term are to make the bottom 6 players closer in skills to the top 6 so their is no noticeable drop off when they go in the game.

This feels like the conversation I keep running in circles with in regards to how we play zone. We get all sorts of open shots that we can't make. I don't think we need a new zone offense, we need to be able to shoot the ball better. That can't happen over the course of a week, but I'm not willing sacrifice long term player development to beat some 15 year olds that want to stand in the key learning nothing about how to defend. Oh, except that we can't shoot and that may beat us.

Season Reflection #3 - Song Time

2009-12-12T18:50:00.000-08:00

We've instituted a pregame ritual this year. Before we leave for the floor we sing a doctored Version of Lukey's boat. Fundy's boat is not intended as a rallying cry but more as a commitment too each other. I figure if teenage guys will sing a silly song in front of each other then being comfortable communicating on the court shouldn't be a big deal?

Though what do you do if superstar won't sing along?

Fundy's boat is painted blue - Ha me boys!
Fundy's boat is painted blue, she's the prettiest boat I ever knew.
A ha me boys - a riddle I eh,

Fundy's boat's got a fine fore cuddy - ha me boys!
Fundy's boat's got a fine fore cuddy, and every inch is chinked with putty.
A ha me boys - a riddle I eh,

Fundy's boat has high top sails - ha me boys.
Fundy's boat has high top sails, the sheets are planted with copper nails.
A ha me boys - a riddle I eh.

Fundy's boat is painted blue - Ha me boys!

Fundy's boat is painted blue, she's the prettiest boat I ever knew.

A ha me boys - a riddle I eh,

Season Reflection #2 - Leadership

2009-11-27T08:25:00.000-08:00

Bill Bradley once wrote:

Leadership means getting people to think, believe, see and do what they might not have without you. It means possessing the vision to set the right goal and the decisveness to pursue it single-mindedly. In means being aware of the fears and anxietyies felt by those you lead even as you urge them to overcome those fears. It can appear in a speech before hundreds of people or in a dilaogue with one other person - or simply by example.

I love this quote. It helps me to refocus when I get concerned over things beyond my control. The last few weeks I've been worried about our leadership in house. I've got 2 players who kids certainly look up to athletically and skill wise who will be ones with the ball in their hands in big moments, but neither of them are kids that other players look to emulate or support. Neither is the sort of kid the others would take a bullet for. On the other hand I've got a kid that every one loves, the emodies commitment and hard work but in big moments he won't even be able to get open let alone take over the game at either end because of his phsyical deficiencies.

The solution I continue to remind my self of is to identify the problem. If I think the problem is leadership then I need to define what leadership is and then go looking to see where we fall short.

In this light I don't have a leadership problem. I know exactly who everyone is looking to and whose attitude and performance makes people around them better. I know who our leader is and so do the kids. We just wish it was someone else. They'll do anything for that kid but he isn't the one charging them on to victory. We'll just have to hope Calvin Sampson isn't right and that your best player doesn't have to be your leader?

I've had other captains that weren't my best players have great moments of leadership (though in their defense they were a lot closer to being our top performer then this young person):

- We were in the midle of what would have been a huge upset on the road vs. the one of the top 2 or 3 teams in the province at any level. At half time we had let a 14 point lead slip away to end up tied at 53. This was primarly due to the best of their 4 university bound players deciding to take over and end the half going on a 14 point run himself culminating in a huge dunk. As I came into the locker room my captain was going round the room trying to keep kids fired up and saying "Just because he can dunk doesn't mean their pg won't keep turning it over!"

- I had a Captain that was facing an overtime game vs a cross town rival we'd never beaten. At that moment 3 of our best athletes told us they had to leave because they had an commitment to another sporting event. Instead of fighting or getting mad, my captain grabbed everyone else and said "Forget them. If they don't want to stay and win thats too bad, but we're all staying to win this." They did leave, and we did win.

- We had a freshmen on the line in our gym game tied 4 seconds left. He made the first, but back rimmed the second. The other team grabbed the defensive board and that palyer took 2 dribble towards half and heaved a 50+ footer that went in. On the way off the floor our captain went over and grabbed the freshmen saying "Hey, you won that game. If I'ld boxed a little harder and made someone else get the rebound that doesn't happen."

So I guess leadership isn't always about who you would get the ball too, though it wouldn't hurt if it could be. We'll have to see where we go from here.

Basketball Season Reflection #1 - Superstar

2009-11-11T11:27:00.000-08:00

I'm not a superstar's coach. I preach 5 guys on offense working together the open guy will make the shot, 5 guys on defense will stop 1 ball, and we talk about our 12 being better then anyone elses best 5-6.

The truth is after all that is said and done I expect our best player(s) to the be the best players every single posseision.Is that unreasonable? Probably, but if you can't handle unreasonable then having any interaction with me is probably not going to go well.

This year I'm in a position with the kid who holds the keys to our kingdom's success being a phenominal athlete and talent. The only issue is that if he were any more relaxed I would have to water him.

I am not the sort of coach who is going to draw up plays to make sure so and so gets their shots. I expect the team on the floor (with consultation from me) to recognize the options available and get the player in the best situation to score the ball. What I face is we still have kids who can't make unconstested anything, and a kid who could play at the next level willing to defer to them.

I'm sure if I talked to my coaching colleagues about this I would get advice about winning the kid over, or giving him more responsibility, or even trying to find a connection to inspire him to greatness. The reality is we have a pretty good connection, and he does mean well, its just not a big deal to him. When I say "its" I mean everything, win/loss, score/shutout, getting yelled at getting hugged, its all the same so long as he's out there running around he's ok with that. If he's not out there running around he just sits back and waits for his turn.

What do you do with a superstar who's relaxed indifference would make the Budha jealous?

Tryouts

2009-10-30T10:57:00.000-07:00

Some lessons learned from tryouts:

1 - As the Stones once sang: "You don't always get what you want!" The team you envisioned is not always the team you get to have. As a player the position you wanted or thought you were going to have suddenly gets upgraded or down graded based on the turnout and what everyone else has done. How do you manage this? Dialogue. Kids, especially teenagers are not going to go to the adult in charge with their feelings first. They will go to their peers, teammates, and family first. Get all sorts of feedback that is not yours and then come at you with info and attitudes that weren't there intially. Be up front let kids know the score and have real conversations about the situation that you and they are both in.

2 - Doritos kids aren't ready for a marathon or a sprint. If you happen to have a tryout at a level where the it is the first time kids have moving up to a new playing field and set of expectations, bench the conditioning. You will be able to tell 20 minutes in who has wind and who doesn't. You also will not be able to tell who has any potential game if all your yougn kids can't move in stance, catch, shoot or play because they weren't physically prepared and you burned them out before evaluating skills. If you want to see who has heart, or build toughness or whatever other reason you could have for turning a tryout into a track practice, go ahead. Save it until day 2 or 3 though, you want to make sure you know who has what and what you want, before you start seeing kids drop and wondering they want you.

3 - Load the concepts. Especially in a read and react 24-8 game kids need to be able to co-ordinate their bodies, minds and the ball. Don't save introducing your offensive concepts or defensive concepts until the team is picked. You need to know who will keep up mentally before you see who keeps up physically. You can make them be in better shape much faster then you can effect the speed of their learning. Find out what your basketball IQ level is, you can run them later. Seriously, a player you cut is not going to run down the road and tell Coach x what your running. Besides if they do and that effects your chances of beating coach x I would spend more time making your kids better and less on your stuff.

4 - Why are they on your team? I constantly tell my kids that if they are on the team it is because I can see them being useful for us in meaningful situations. If that kid is not going to be then why are you keeping them. Its great that their nice, they work hard, they'd be a good teammate. What else could they be doing with all those attributes to make your school, community or another program better? Instead you let the kid come out, rot on the bench and he doesn't contribute positively to anything. I like having a hard working practice with lots of kids too, but I want it to reflect game. If they are on the team they should be playing, if they are not playing why are they on the team?

Winning Isn't Complicated . . .

2009-10-29T05:18:00.000-07:00

Winning isn't hard! It requires hard work to win meaningfully but the formula is pretty easy.

1 - Be more skilled.
2 - Be in better physical condition.
3 - Work harder.
4 - Train Harder.
5 - Compete at everything like its the most meaningful think you do.

That's it. The only thing you can't train is genetics.

If you show up to a game more trained, more fit, more intense, more prepared and more able you win.

Think about it like this: One team has all the taller girls. The other team has all the shorter girls but they are as fast and strong/ faster and stronger with better skills, better work ethic and more preparation. How many people would believe the taller team would win???

"Many have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win." - B. Knight

Silly Defensive Question???

2009-09-23T11:56:00.000-07:00

I get constantly teased by parent responses after the game."Its over there Coach!" or "I saw it coach!" The "it" in question is the basketball. The reason for the teasing is fans will hear me constantly barking out the seemingly obvious question "Where is the ball?"

Now a 250lbs man hopping up and down the sideline screaming about whereabouts of the only orange object in the game which has everyone's focus could be laughable. It is in fact! The issue is that I am trying to cue up an important concept in my kids defensively.

Our defense is predicated on the simple concept of: We want the ball!

What is the first step? Knowing where the ball is! What is the second step? Working as a group to get it.

My feelings on defense are pretty well known to people who watch us play at all. There is one ball, if you get it the other team can't score. Over the years we've done different things defensively: zone, m2m, traps, matchups . . . you name it I've tried it. The constant has been you pressure the basketball. If the ball is pressured we can get it.

If the player with the ball is allowed options we must defend those options. If the player with the ball has to dribble because it is the only option left to avoid pyschotic pressure then we need to defend one option. If you are guarding a player without the ball you need to shift to help stop the ball or cover for a teammate who is going to be helping stop the ball.

We go through a lot of the same questions and comments with first time players in the program: Coach my guy is a shooter! But I'll get beat on a cut! But what about the screens/ cuts to the basket? My answer is pretty standard, they can't score they don't have the ball. If we make the guy with the ball bounce it into trouble, then stop him and make him try to get it out of trouble he'll throw us the ball.

A player under tremendous pressure from one or two defenders is not thinking clearly or making great reads. They are trying to get rid of the ball without making a decision that is going to get them benched. So if we pressure them and leave their only options to be things that will risk getting them benched if it doesn't work, we should end up with the ball a lot and their best kids in a lot of trouble with their coach.

"Where is the ball?" If we stop it they don't score. If we get it they can't score and their coach is ticked off.

Know where the ball is and load up on the ball and the ball's options. No one else can hurt us until the get it. Pretty simple stuff.

Shooting fixes everything . . .

2009-09-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

This may not acutally be true but it sure fixes a lot of things. I was on the sideline for a game this summer where we were the superior team but should have lost the game. We didn't adjust to the way the game was being officiated and sent the other team to the line 48 times and they made 39 of them. We gave away close to forty points and had just about everyone in foul trouble, but it was a non issue and we won it running away becuase of how well shot the ball. (69% from three, 60% from two).

In fact, look at the NB womens results from Canada Games and the recent FIBA Americas qaulifier that the National Men's team played in. When the NB women and Canadian men managed shoot 50% or better from 3 and 40% + from 2 they won. WHen that didn't happen and the opposition made those numbers they lost.

On the other side of the coin the NB men at Canada Games lost a 2pt point game to BC and an 18 point game to Ont where they shot less than 25 % all game but held both teams well below their tournament averages.

In a 24 - 8 game there are just going to be more shots period. The team that has more better shooters is going to win. One good shooter is easier to defend against with a shoretended shot clock, while less time for offense means more times who ever has the ball is going to have to be the one to finish it. Everyone needs to be able to shoot it. Especially on the teams I mentioned and on all teams in NB, because as our kids progress through the levels we just don't regularly produce the size and athleticsm of athlete to be a Post or often a forward at higher levels. Most high level players that come from NB need to be guards and shooters. But that is for another post.

What makes us better shooters? Deliberate practice.

A high volume of meaningful shots practiced with focus on technique or competitive situation or both.

Technique we are concerned with:
- Start from a balanced ready position.
- We always over extend our shooting elbow when straightening, and over extend our wrist on the snap. Always the highest release possible with the most follow through possible. (Shooting it as hard as we can (properly) with our arms on every shot means our shot mechanics never change. When we want to determine range we add or subtract legs instead of messing with our mechanics. Would you rather need to master 100 different swings for golf, or have a 1 swing and a variety of clubs that made the adjustments in range.)
- Never leave a shot short.
- Proper footwork on the catch to be ready to shoot/or attack effectively.

Competitive Issues we are concerned with:
- Getting the shot ready and off quickly.
- Being able to shoot under pressures of: time, noise, speed, fatigue, a defensive contest)
- Being able to shoot it effectively and be ready to catch and shoot playing at game speed.
- Not changing the jump shot in a competitive situations.
- Ability to make the sorts of shots the player will get in a game.

Mexico Vs Canada

2009-08-27T17:05:00.001-07:00

Just watched what is supposed to be a weak National Men's team play Mexico at a FIBA Qualifier. Canada 95- MExico 40

All I really learned was that once again good shooting can cure a variety of issues. Canada shot 60% from the three point line and were basically indefensible as whoever you left open drilled shots.

Mexico on the other hand spaced Canada's defense well early but was unable to make shots. As a result the more Canada scored and the poorer Mexico shot the tougher Canada's interior defense became. As the game went on Canada loaded up on the paint and blocked more and more shots as weakside defenders creeped closer and closer to the ball side. Mexico on the other hand had a tougher time defending as their defense stretched further and further to cover shooters.

The announcers were very complimentary about Canada's ball movement (30 assists) but its easy for offense to look good when you make shots and defense has to chase everyone. Mike Mckay has a great article on how 3 pt shooting changes the way teams have to defend.

http://www.basketball.ca/en/hm/blog/?sid=210

Finishes

2009-08-26T11:47:00.000-07:00

How do you score inside?

You find way to put the ball in the basket inside the paint.

Now look at the average basketball game vs comparable levels of defensive & offensive skill and athleticism. How many baskets vs. defense come off a traditional layup? Not many. Now larger players can get away with simple 1/2 hooks or power lay ups because they have the strength and explosiveness to finish those ways. Most hoops though are of a more unconventional manner. If I learned one thing this summer coaching against national level competition the idea that shooters are protected is a notion that is reserved for kids games, not games officiated at a high level. PLayers going into traffic and too the rim at top levels are generally left of their own and so long as defense stays off the shooters arms, shoulders and head any other contact seems ok.

The person I heard best describe this was Dave Smart (coach of the 5 time CIS champion Carleton Ravens) who talked about 6 foot shooters vs 2 foot shooters. The examples he used where Phoenix Suns Leonardo Barbosa and Steve Nash (both NBA players and former national team players for their respective countries) Barbosa is a two foot shooter. He explodes up to the rim and all his releases are within the two foot space between his shoulders. Dunks, power lay ups and half hooks. Vs. most national and international competition he is all but unstoppable on the way to the basket. But vs the USA and in the NBA he is blocked much more often then the 7 inch smaller and much less athletic Steve Nash. This is because Steve Nash is a six foot shooter. On the interior he is almost impossible to block because he can release the ball from any space in the length of his arms vertically or horizontally so anywhere is a 6ft square block the ball can be released.

Once we get the development of athletes past the basic ability to finish (most of which should be on their own time training basic skills) we need to ask ourselves which is more effective. Training athletes and teams to get the basic shots they have trained out of our offense or do we spend time training athletes to make a wider variety of shots so less elaborate offense is needed to generate the type of shot they can make.

Types of finishes inside kids can train:

Power Layups

1/2 Hooks

1 Foot Layup Overhand (Inside and Outside Hands)

1 Foot Layup (Inside and Outside Hands)

Reverse Layups (1 Foot and 2 Foot inside and Outside Hands)

Floater

Finger Roll

Sky Hook

Wide Hook

Freeze/Pull Back

Short/Quick Release

2 Hand Dunk

1 Hand

Reverse Dunk

Tip In

Footwork that changes the angle of the inside finish:

1 2 step

Power step

Jump Stop

Pro Hop

Pivot-Pivot

Spin

Rocker Step

Slide By

Straight to Wide/Wide to Straight (Ginobli)

Western Canada

2009-07-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

After seeing and playing several teams play from Western Canada you notice some trends as a result of players and styles:

1 -Help side or a lack their of. Most western teams do not make it to the key let alone the midline on the weak side. This a result of cutting based offenses, size of cutters and apparent belief amongst some officials that blocking cuts is a foul. As a result of not being able to impede the progress of huge cutters teams need to deny and chase them on the weak side so that when they cut they can continue to deny. This often changes on the ball defense to containment based because any break down in on the ball defense results in a finish chance inside.

2 - Motion. Most western teams tend to run a motion style offense with multiple cutters resulting in lock downs or post ups at the rim. While size and skill make this an effective tactic, the balance, team play and movement are all surprisingly effective in comparison to Central Canadian Teams. Ontario and Quebec tend to use more iso and pick and roll reads to create 1 on 1's while western teams rely on off the ball cuts and reads to win the same battles.

3 - Skilled Size. The real difference between western teams and eastern team is the size of their skill. BC men start 4 players 6'6 pr larger 1 of whom plays like a traditional post. Alberta women have 9 players 5'11 or larger playing a variety of positions. We are lucky if our large guys and girls have post game. These are all skilled athletes with a future at the CIS level. How many 6'0 posts do we have in the men's game at our NB high school level. How many girls coaches in NB would let their 6'0 girl develop wing skills in games? The playing field is not level and finding a balance between training our teams to compete and our athletes to develop to compete at the next level is crucial.

Train to Play

2009-07-26T11:23:00.000-07:00

How do you convince kids to train?

The issue that i struggle with is that the only way you get better is practice. Kids need to play and experience competition but at some point they have to put in the time to improve their game.

You don't become a world class chef just having dinner parties, you cook for yourself and on your own experimenting. How many penalty kicks do soccer players practice vs how many they get in a game? The latest research suggests that success is directly correlated to deliberate practice. Top performers spend many more hours of practice then their average counterparts.

The issue becomes for kids especially in smaller ponds (athletic communities) that the same 1%-10% of the population can have relative success in any sport by showing up. Most coaches, players, and supporters aren't interested in the long term development of athlete as much as they are the short term experience of the athlete or team in the context of their sport. As a result kids spend time moving from sport to sport playing and don't see the incentive to train.

Why would an athlete spend hours on their own in the summer moving form average shooter to good shooter to try to earn more playing time on the basketball court, when they can play in a soccer league and be an average player. In larger centres this is less of an issue because the depth of athletes is such that those who do not spend as much time training cannot fill out roster spots. They very best athletes continue to be the best, while the the second tier and bench players are sport trained athletes as opposed to average athletes.

Simply put the only way you get better is to practice, but how do we convince kids to practice when they can just play something else instead.

Canada Games Test Tournament

2009-06-01T09:29:00.000-07:00

I spent last weekend watching the first tournament that our Canada Games boys and girls teams played. I just had a few observations on how that went:

1 - Speed Kills! In just about any aspect of the game, if you can get there first your team has a significant edge. First to rebounds, first to loose balls, first down the floor (both ways), ability to keep your player in front, ability to recover, ability to blow by. If you have superior speed and can still execute skills at speed you are well on your way. The NB girls that won the tournament had greater team speed (and individual speed in a lot of cases) they the opposition. By playing to that strength the lions share of the scramble points, hustle points, and uncontested points went to NB which was enough to win the games handily. The NB boys only struggled in the game vs. Nova Scotia when NS went a group made up of superior athletes and started beating NB players to spots with and without the ball in 1 on 1 matchups.

2 - Skilled Depth. It sounds simple but the team with the greater wealth of talent wins. If you can have 12 very skilled players up against 5/6 great players and some role players; over the course of a 40 minute game the skilled kids are going to come out on top. If they work and show skills they can balance out the ability of the stronger individuals on the other side, and they should win most intagbible categories as their always making a skilled play, and when the opposition goes to their bench they won't be.

3 - Bigs are overrated. While clearly the larger the frame you can have and be atheltic and skilled , the better it is for basketball. Pure post players however, can be overcome quite easily in the FIBA game. Better shooting, ball pressure, and speed of play doesn't allow them to be as effective as they once might have been. Players that dominated this weekend were long, athletic skilled wings or strong quards.

4 - Shooting. This weekends game was played on a large new floor in a huge open empty space in an arena. It was very clear who the shooters were with good mechanics and which shooters were streaky or relied on consistent environment. Both winning teams had more players that could hit open shots from 18-21 feet in this environment. Shooting is still the great eqaulizer.

5- Tactics. While at this level you might think tactics play a larger role, its not entirely true. Tactics are more a change of pace, or a way to test the opponents offensive or defensive principles. Sure a trap can still cause havoc or get you some quick hoops, a shift to zone might change the momentum, and a set piece gets who you want the ball. At this level most of the game is being played in breakdown moments and 2nd/3rd level reads. At speed and with such high caliber teams, the hardest working more skilled team often wins regardless over 40 minutes. Now in an evenly matched game at key moments the correct tactical call becomes huge because a quick lead or big shot can be the difference. The reality is training and natural gifts combined with intensity can still win the the game at this level. Everyone is better, but its not the NBA where everyone is a freak who can do everything, so tactics still don't seem as important as talent.

Posting Up

2009-05-21T09:20:00.000-07:00

The first point I would like to make about posting up is the distinction between posting up and post players. Post players, or what I refer to as "bigs", are a rare and special commodity in our province. I say this because a true "big" is a phsyical specimen with a unique skill set designed for being superior in size to most of their opponents. They play close to the basket, and have different roles then most players.

The issue is that we don't have a lot of "bigs" in our province. The best NB boys players this year were a 6'4 point guard from Riverview and a 6'7 forward from Nepisiquit. THey'll both play at Acadia next year and neither will play the post. The point I'm trying to make is we will often see kids in our programs who are taller than the rest, and suddenly we teach them to be a post. Then they get to high school and aren't bigger anymore, or they have no options to do anything beyond their club/school because they wouldn't be a post at another level. My feeling is that we need to make our kids skilled face up players and if we are lucky enough to ever get a kid who is 6'6 - 7'0 who will be a legitimate "big" kid then we can worry about their interior game at that point.

That being said, one of the skills everyone needs to have is the ability to post up. Posting up is the skill of putting an opponent on your back to seal them away from the ball. This allows the offensive player to cleanly catch the ball, while maintaining contact they can exploit when they've made the catch. This skills allows people to catch by the rim uncontested, get an inbounds pass, or simply create space to catch to play 1 on 1. THe key is to post up a player not an area.

H0w do you teach kids to post up?

1 - The first step is to teach them to be comfortable and mobile with contact. Have them low in a stance, doing some pushing and pulling for space.

2 - PLayers need to learn that lower and wider allows them to hold space vs. contact and maintain position. Have one player position themselves as low and wide as possible to be strong and balanced. Have a partner (with increasing force) try to move them off a spot.

3 - Place a ball on the floor. Have both partners (using only their legs) fight to be closer to the ball then the other player without touching the ball. See how long one player can keep the other away from the ball using their back, butt and legs.

4- Once that is done have kids work in groups of three. Start with guided defense and work up to live play. One partner can have the ball and be trying to throw a straight line push pass to his partner. The third defender is trying to deny the ball into the offense. The reciever must post and position their body between the ball and the defender before they can recieve the pass.

What sort of footwork do kids need?

The basic footwork and body position is a step over or "swim move". The offensive player is low and tight to the defense. They then swing their inside arm out and around the defender knocking away arms and pinning the defenders torso. They step quickly over the closest foot of the defender, pinning the knee with their backside. They repeat this process until they have created an unobstructed line between themselves and the ball, with their defender on their back/hip.

Why post up?

The post up has many purposes.

The big one is that is takes the skills, footwork, and speed/agility often needed to beat an opponent and turns it into a game of who is stronger. So if a player were having trouble recieving a pass vs. and opponent of superior speed, agility or defensive aptitude they could use the post up as an equalizer.

The second advantage of the post up is it has contact already created. On any good attack of the defense, the offensive player has initiated contact and sealed a player off. The post up allows most of the work in initiating to be accomplished prior to the catch and it is only a matter of maintaining contact while keeping a hard angle in the direction you wish to move.

Finally it is a chance to be physical with an opponent. If you've got a player that is particulary fast or talented that you want to make work hard one defense, then a post up nullifies their speed and skill and requires them to exert a great deal of energy dealing with the contact. The other teams star cannot rest on defense if they are constantly being posted up, regardless of whether or not we intend to attack them with the ball.

1 on 0

2009-05-01T06:40:00.000-07:00

The game is easy when you get a one on zero. At least it should be! If you can get 1 on nobody and can't score the rest doesn't matter because you won't win anyway. So everything I'm about to talk about needs to be prefaced by the notion that you have to be able to make shots.

How do you get a 1 on 0?

Run

When we get the ball who is running out? If the answer is not everyone then you've got a problem. If you can get even 1 player down the floor ahead of an opponent you've got a 1 on 0. In an ideal universe someone would have sprinted to the rim as soon as we got the ball and been there in the first 3 seconds of our possesion with everyone else down and ready to shoot somewhere between 5-7 seconds. This means if you've got anyone on the other team that gets caught up, gambles, doesn't hustle back or just isn't as fast as their matchup then you are getting a 1 on 0 look for someone.

Take On

If you can't get a 1 on 0 by running you should at least be able to get a 1 on 1. This means if someone can take on their defender and beat them cleanly off the dribble then we get a 1 on 0 for them or someone else. This isn't the same as backing someone in or playing 1 on 1 all the way to the rim. A take needs to be at speed and leave the defender behind. This way the ball handler gets a 1 on 0 or their teammates do when defense shifts to help.

Cuts

A cut is a chance to beat someone. Its not something we do for the sake of doing it. Everytime you cut you force the defense to react to you, if the defense doesn't have to deal with you then your cut wasn't very good. Once a defender challenges you then its a battle to see who wins. If you win you should get a 1 on 0 catch or put them in a position to need to close out so you can use your "TAKE ON" to do the same.

Screens

Screening is a team skills that reuires a good read no only by one player but by 3: the screener, the player getting screened for, and the ball handler/passer. In this situation you are using and reading to screen to get a 1 on 0 catch or force a close out/ mismatch to occur that allows a player to win a "Take On" or "Cut"

What to do once you get a 1 on 0?

This answer is easy use it. Look to score. Either your open and need to make a shot or you need to find your now open teammate as help rotates.

I'm a basketball/volleyball/soccer/rugby/cricket/handball player . . .

2009-04-30T06:19:00.000-07:00

We have an on going debate in my school, my home, and amongst all my coaching friends and colleagues. The topic is the multisport athlete. The points of contention always seem to be what is the goal of sports at certain levels, how and when should you specialize and whether the nature/history of community dictate how the sport is managed. There are lots of issues but you can see why people have varying opinions.

Let me start by saying I was a dual sport athlete. Up until I was 17 I competed at reasonably high levels in basketball and swimming. Once in high school I limited my swimming to outside of the my high school basketball season and trained year round for basketball (this limited my opportunities but I swam because I was good at it, not because I wanted to be an Olympic athlete). Also growing up I tried a little baseball, soccer, and volleyball in competitive leauges. While doing things like sking, jogging, and a variety of sports recreationally.

I'm not interested in debating the finer points of if, when, and how you should sport sepcialize. Everyone has to make their own decisions. I am going to say if you want to compete in leagues with competitive teams that are producing high level athletes, its only fair to your kids to do the same things. That being said to create atheletes that perform at a high level we should follow what the science tells us, not what worked for some group, some time in the past.

So what do we know scientifically speaking:

Prior to Age 10 kids should play a variety of sports. The point of which is develop basic phsyical attributes and motor skills. This should be done through games and activity based learning. They should play a variety of sports every week doing each a couple of times with no one sport going for more than 6-12 weeks consecutively.

Between the Ages of 10-14 young athletes should play complitmentary sports (activities with similar movements and requisite general motor skills). They should begin training with sport specifc activities and select a prefered sport. This sport should have a high intensity training period lasting 20-30 and they should train 3-4 times per week for this sport, in addition to other sports activities. 75% of the their time should be spent training skills and physical attributes with 25% in actual preparation for competitive games/competitions.

Between the ages 14-18 (the high end range of kids opportunities in our area) kids should be sport specialised. They should be training 6-9 times per week during high intensity training periods in that sport. These periods should occur twice a year and total 42 weeks. Training should be 50% skills and phsyical attirbutes and 50% compettion specifc skills. Exercises and training should be geared towards their sport specialization.

That is science of it. I know these numbers may or may not work in individual settings. I also know that if your goal is not high performing athletes these targets are not needed. I would like to say again: if the goal of your program is to give kids a place and chance to play, you can do that without putting kids up against athletes who are training specifically to be high performance. Telling kids its ok to do less and just play more, while then making them compete with high performing sport specialized athletes is setting the kid, your coach and your program up for failure.

We do in fact have an offense . . .

2009-04-27T09:28:00.000-07:00

The title is in response to a lot of the people that see us play and don't believe we're in fact teaching anyone anything on offense. Trust me we do. My favorite moment was year with our boys playing the best team in the province (at any level). After the game a local official said: "Your kids have to do something other then one guy dribbles and passes to the other guy to shoot it. There are guys on the floor watching those two guys play."

It was true we didn't execute very well and the only two kids who can compete against a team at that level ended up being the ones who could get open and get most of the shots. The point being I still felt we were running offense, our other kids just weren't skilled enough to run our stuff against them. We got open shots (or at least as open as we were getting when compeltely out matched). Isn't that what offense does.

As far as I'm concerned (and I've been wrong before, more frequently when my wife is present) offense is simple. You are trying to get someone a shot they can make. What makes offense complicated is lack of skills. If you can't shoot or people have to shoot from a certain area or range then suddenly you have to do all sorts of crazy things to get people the ball in those places. My feeling is that if we can shoot it, then all we have to do is beat someone one and one.

Once someone is beaten 1 on 1 with a cut, post up, mismatch off a screen, dribble drive, etc . . . then someone is getting an open shot. If no one helps then we get a layup. If someone helps late we get free throws and/a layup. If help is early then somone is open and by moving the ball someone should get an open shot.

Our offense basically is a lot of rules/concepts about spacing and movement to make it difficult for teams to help. We look to score by relying on individual skills. If we win then it is because we had better talent or we worked our but off defensively. If we lose its because we weren't better than their defense and our d wasn't good enough to get us the win by itself.

I know that there are many who feel the job of the coach is to put their kids in the best situation to win. Buld your system around the talent you have, blah. blah, blah . . . I'm coaching high school aged kids still learning to play the game. Most of them will play after school only in an informal or recreational way. Do I want their basketball experience for the rest of their life to be: go set a post screen and seal??? I want kids who can play. A kid who can get out and run with anyone and be able to shoot, attack, pass from all positions.

We have an offense. It is teaching kids to put themselves in situations where they and their teammates can use the skills they train to use. Why does it have to be more complicated then that. You can't do much better then an open shot can you???

Defensive Footwork Drills

2009-03-20T09:16:00.000-07:00

As promised a while ago drills to follow up on the defensive footwork technique we are talking about:

(The names of the drills are inconsequential, you can call them anything you want that your kids can easily remember.)

Mirror Slides

Kids get into pairs. They face each other seperated by a line. (We use the foul line but any line will do.) One partner is the leader, the other is the mirror. The leader slides in a direction while the mirror does their best to match them move for move as simulataneously as possible. We force them to play between two set points, so they have to work on change of direction.

Mirror Images

Players get into groups. One player is on offense with the ball, one player is defending the ball. The remaining players are staggered behind original defender. They are all in defensive stance too. As the ball moves side to side or forward, the on the ball defender practices footwork. They "mirror images" all try to match the on the ball defender move for move.

Footwork Chase

Players get into 2 lines, each one beginning at the elbow and going to the near baseline. The first two players in each line face each other. In a defensive stance they move together working on footwork as they move to the other foul line before jogging back. The coach can vary the movments: all slides, slide to sprint (or any variation), make it a race, create a leader and a follower.

Triangle Slides

Players work with a partner. One with the ball pivoting, one in a defensive stance on the ball. As the offensive player pivots to protect or attack, the defensive player must make a quick 2 footed movement to take away the new angle. All the offense can do is pivot, the defense simply has to keep taking away the new lane created by the pivot.

Full Court 1 on 1

Players work with a partner. One on offense the other on defense. Have the player with the ball advance up the court while being pressure by the defense. The particular route or movement may be determined by your defensive philosophy but the key is to work on the defenses footwork. This drill can have several layers: offense just making the defense work, half speed, live one on one, etc.

These are just a few basic drills for footwork. Any thing you can think of is probably just as useful. Simply make sure that the focus is on proper defensive positioning and footwork not neccessarily the end result.

Teaching - Defensive Footwork - The Basics

2009-03-01T12:27:00.000-08:00

I've been looking at how we defend on the ball and ways to train kids on the way up through their developmental teams:

1- It all starts with stance. No matter what age group I work with the largest issue is stance. In a defensive stance they must be low, strong, and explosive. The big mistake I often see is kids have their legs bent and lean forward with their arms out. This is not athletic. They need to be in a position of strength.

Look fors:

- Feet minimum shoulder width apart (inside of foot lined with outsdie of shoulder)

- Knee pointed forward, inside the width of their feet

- Heels not in contact with the floor.

- Butt down, back straight, chin out

- Hands should be above the height of the ball

Common errors:

- Flat footed - Not ready to move in any direction

- Head down or back bent forward, putting all the weight in one direction.

- Arms and hands down or in.

- Not in an athletic, strong. or balanced position to sruvive contact ro make an explosive move.

2- On the ball. This begins with a close out. In a close out the player must sprint at the ball carrier and once 2 sprint steps away, begin chop or "sttuter"stepping into the ball carrier in a defensive stance. They must position themselves in a manner which takes away whatever particular assest they are defending, they also need to take away as many directions of movement as possible so they can load up weight in their legs to anticpate the first move instead of reacting to it.

Look fors:

- Players are moving from low to high to get into position.

- 2 sprint steps away stance changes and choppy steps start.

- Hands above the ball.

- Chest & Feet square to the ball carrier between them and the rim.

- Chin up invading space.

- PLayers have taken away options from the attacker, so they can anticipate the next move.

- Feet must remain active.

Common errors:

- Players have straightened up or are too high on the way in and are dropping down into stance.

- Hands are in, on or below the height of the ball.

- Feet or chest are angled giving them an angle to attack.

- Defender is an arms length (or more) away allowing player to be a shooter, passer, and dribbler.

- No direction has been taken away so they weight is evenly distributed.

- Feet flat or legs straight.

3- Moving your feet. This is about hard work and good technique. If you are faster than your opponents you can basically do whatever you have to do to get there, but too many kids who are fast when they are young learn bad habits and as they get older cannot defend properly. At a low level we must teach kids to slide (which as a term is misleading) and then as they progress up through develop the ability to adjust from sliding to sprinting then back to sliding as a means of dealing with more advanced offensive footwork and athleticism.

The term "slide" does not really convey what the defender must do with their feet. The feet must make explsoive, lateral hops/chops to keep the defender moving, while allowing them to change direction. The weight must be on the push leg, with the knee angled well inside the plant foot. Then it is a quick lateral movement with both feet into the desired space. The arms should be pumping actively in the desired direction. The goal is to create 2 foot movement for every one of the offenses, beat them to desired space and all while staying in as low and explosive a stance as possible.

Look fors:

- Arms up and angled.

- Constant low stance, with heels off the floor.

- Movement resembling a push, or jump

- Quick, simultaneous movements with both feet onto new territory.

- New position should not overlap old position.

- Arms pumping laterally.

Common Errors:

- Arms are not up or moving. / Arms are reaching into or on the defender.

- Player is bobbing up and down, not staying in constanct stance.

- Movements resemble step and pull, or shuffling.

- Movements are 1 foot at a time.

- New position overlaps old position.

- Defender steps instead of "sliding".

Slide to sprint:

At higher levels vs athletic and/ skilled kids, if you haven't shut down the dribbler in one or two steps by the offense you will not regain position moving laterally while they move forward. At this point the defender needs to learn techniques involving arms and hip turning the sprint to get into a position where they can shut down the offensive player.

Arms - At low levels it is easiest to teach players not to reach in or put arms on the offensive players. At higher levels to negate skill, athleticism and the reality that they will be attacked with the free arm, kids need to learn some techniques. The first is an arm bar. If a player is creating space with their shoulder, use their forearm to get an angle or trying to get into contact with your chest or side players must arm bar. Your inside forearm must be placed above the height of the ball on the bicep or shoulder of the attacking player. The arm must intially be at a 45 degree angle or less and then extended to the 90 degree. As the arm extends you must move backwards in a two foot hop, keeping legs bent and muscles loaded for movement. After you re-establish position immediately remove your arm.

Hips - Generally your hips and chest should be square to the opponent between them and the rim. When unable to slide and keep in front the defender must "hip turn" in one movement the hips (and legs down to the feet) switch from square to hip tp hip. Since the defender does not need to expect space or time to adjust it is important to keep contact hip to hip. (If you lose contact the defender can change direction and pull back leaving you out of position.) Run hip to hip until the offensive player must slow down (out of room) or until you can get an angle to "hip turn' back in front in defensive stance and "slide" again.

Look fors:
- Arm comes up high @ 45 degrees when offensive player intiates contact.
- Arm extends as feet hop back to create space.
- Hips, feet, and legs all switch position in one movement.
- Contact is maintained until position is re-established.

Common errors:
- Arms end up on the body or lower arms of offense.
- Player extends arms without moving feet creating space instead of holding it.
- Arms remain on player when not recovering.
- Players are stepping out of slides into a run, in stages.
- Contact is not maintained, offense has room to escape.

In the next entry I'll include drills to support these concepts.

Players not plays.

2009-02-27T09:43:00.000-08:00

I read a quote once that went something to the effect - "If your X's are twice as big as the other guys O's, then your X's look pretty good when they run your plays."

What I continue to take away from this quote is no matter what you run (or whether you run anything at all) your success is determined by the quality of your players against your opponents. For a long time I thought my job as a coach was to put in a system that if run properly would give us an advantage over our opponent. I've had high and low amounts of success with this concept. The two determining factors often tended to be how good the players in the system were and the level of our competition. You very quickly learn everyone has a system and if their ahtletes are bigger, faster, and more skilled their system wins.

Now I just try to make my players more skilled and work harder than our opponent. The reality then ,and now, is that we beat the other team when we play better, smarter, harder. Teams with more talent, size, skill or effort beat us everytime if they can at least match us in the other categories.

Now I spend less time on plays and more on skill. I want 5 players on the floor that can shoot it, and beat their player 1 on 1. I want 5 players who can handle the ball and make decisions. When you have 5 players that can do these things on the floor the game becomes so much simpler to coach and play. The guy with the ball makes a read to attack, everyone else reads and reacts, open guy scores the ball.

The same is true on defense. I don't need 6 different things we do on defense. I need 5 players that can use strength, footwork, and hustle to stop the ball. When we rotate, hustle, angle and battle harder then the other guy we win. When we don't, we lose.

Why do it:

1) You are actually coaching kids to play. Not making cogs in a system.

2) You end up with skilled kids that can play anywhere, any way for a lifetime.

3) Your job gets easier. Your not making adjustments for every detail and the emphasis becomes players learning, not you teaching.

4) Its player owned and operated. At game time its their reads, commitment (prior to and during), and ability that controls the outcome.

Why not to do it:

1) If you as a coach can't live with mistakes. This won't always be pretty, especially while the skills, minds and feet co-ordinate. If you need to mirco-manage and can't live with trial and error. This may not be for you.

2) If you can't live with short term butt kicking. In the developmental years and early on in their careers they are going to get beat. They will get beat because other teams use systems that maxmize the strength of their team without improving them for the future. In mini their big kid will score 20 pts a game on you because he/she was told to go stand by the rim and shoot. Your big kid is turning the ball over and feeling confused because they have to handle, pass and play on the wing. Short term success for them. In the long run your kids will be the better player in the short term they may lose.

3) If it is about your stuff. If you aren't ready to let kids go off plan, make reads, find their own ways to be successful, this isn't for you. If you have to know what your kids are going to do every second, not for you.

4) If you have clearly defined image of what you want every kid become. If in your mind you look at kids and have them pegged, pigeon holed, labeld or categorized this may not work for you. Tall cannot always = post and little cannot = shooter. You need to be willing to let kids work stuff out on their own for their own purposes not yours.

Getting a little handsy . . .

2009-02-01T12:15:00.000-08:00

So I've been reading. What I've been looking at is the FIBA rules and the "Tower Philosophy" of advantage & disadvantage. I'ld like to say that this reading is beccause I have a genuine love of the game, but my movtives are a little more mercenary. I'm always looking to gain the extra understanding, language, or technique that I can pass on to help my kids be successful. My current adventure is out of a desire to reconcile what I'm seeing, experiecing and needing to coach in my summer work with BNB and what I'm seeing, experiencing and needing in my high school coaching.

My issue is with what to tell my kids. As a coach there is nothing more frustrating then telling a kid one thing and having him/her come back in the middle of a game upset because an official has contradicted something he/she has been told. The kid doesn't want either adult upset with them, what is a kid to do. I find this more often happens with hand, arm, body placement at both ends then it does with issues of violations or offensive skill execution.

What we need is an example. Case in point. Offensively and defensively we tell our girls (age 15-16) in the summer that there is going to be contact so they have to intiate it. "You can either, be the player getting hit or the one doing the hitting." Then they will go out and swim over on cuts, knock down arms in passing lanes, get forearm contact on screens, meet cutters with a forearm and hip, get hands in and out on the ball handler to keep distance and stop them from using their arms. We seem to have success and have been complimented on our aggression and physicality. Now when we come back to high school boys (age 14-19) we try to send the same message about being the aggressor we end up in foul trouble. I ask them to be proactive: jam and force the issue attack at both ends and we are told to back off. We are told we cannot reach, can not invade space, can not wrap. I hear a logical explanation and ask my kids to adjust because that is all we can do.

The issue comes down to advantage & disadvantage. Not all contact is basketball is foul, if it were then we would be out all night getting a half in. So the official uses their baseline rules about position and spirit of the game, while not allowing rough play, to determine whether illegal contact clearly and immediately gained an unfair advantage for one player or the other. What I struggle with is finding the middle ground to work with my kids. I struggle with how the same action can be good tough play in a 15 year old girls game, but excessive between to 17 year old boys.

Do not misunderstand. I have almost never recieved an explanation from an official that was not satisfactory. I may not have agreed with it at the time, but their rational is always within the scope of the rules. My frustration is managing the scope.

I had a young coach ask me the other day: I see a lot of reaching going on in games, and I tell my girls to keep their hands out . . . what is the rule.

I did my best to explain it as I understood they should not be using their hands to impede or make illegal contact with the offensive player. I also tried to explain that depending on the effect, or result, of the contact is going to determine a foul or not. I finally conveyed that each official is going to see it differently and kids will need to adjust. In closing I explained that we teach our kids to play with hands off at first, then we teach counters to offensive reads that require more and more phsyicality.

The fact is there is no right answer. There is what the rules say, but the rules are situational. There is what the official says, but every official feels a little differently. There is what I say, but different coaches teach things different ways. The simple truth is you have to teach kids how to do it all: hands on, hands off, in and out, arm bars and counters for the all those things. If you do not they will end up in a situation they are not prepared for skill wise or mentally.

The Defense

2009-01-30T10:25:00.000-08:00

Contrary to some of the scores we give up I feel like we have a pretty solid defensive philosophy.

I have never been much of a believer that statistical differences are an indicator of good defense. Just because I can hold someone's score down doesn't mean I play good defense. It could, but I could also mean that: I'm holding the ball on offense for long periods, keeping the ball away from the other team, and using a couple of kids who can defend on their top players while everyone else is just letting the other team shoot. To me that's not good defense.

Coaches talk about turnover ratio, but again what we do on offense has as much do do with that number as our defense.

My judge of the success of our defense is the reaction of the opposition to it: are they having to call timeouts to dicuss things, are they needing to be reminded to calm down, are the looking to the officials for help, do they get furstrated and make notably frustrated decisions. My favorite defensive moment as a coach came in a game where late we got called for a blocking foul trying to trap the ball. The opposition threw the ball at our kid and said "Don't you ever f%^&ing quit!".

Why do we defend the way we do (what we believe about defense):
- It is harder to play and make decisions under pressure.
- It is harder to play and make decisions when playing at speed.
- More defenders and ways to stop the ball is better than less defenders.
- Less options and choices for the offense is better than more.
- Having the defense know what the offense is going to have to do is easier for us to attack, then reacting to the offense.
- We want the offense to have to execute skills at speed for 94 feet every possesion.
- A physical game, played at high pace, under constant pressure will favour a team that has better coached, skilled athletes over a group with a couple of solid individuals trying to execute a system.

How do we defend the way we do (what we are trying to do):
- The player with the ball must be forced to dribble it. They are not allowed to be passers or shooters.
- All dribblers must be forced to the sideline and baseline.
- Everyone defensively must be in a stance all the time.
- Job of players off the ball is to attack the dribbler and cover for attacking teammates.
- The ball cannot be unguarded.
- Everyone moves with the ball in the air. Picking up closest men once the ball is guarded.
- Any ball inside the 3 point line or at a checkpoint is doubled. Any ball in the key is collapsed by everyone.

No I in team . . .

2009-01-25T10:23:00.000-08:00

Welcome to generation unplugged. I am constantly dealing with kids who don't believe things are a big deal. They've grown up with options, untilties, settings, multitasking, and an ungodly amount of gadgets and gizmos. As they grow up they have faced the simple truth, if something is hard or I don't like it I'll shut it off and try something else.

The lesson they've learned is if I'm not good at it, if its hard, if it makes me feel bad or even bored: go do something else. Its great. We have a generation of creative, multitasking individuals that are natives in the technological world where we are only immigrants. They communicate percieve and understand concepts that are a foreign to me as swedish.

The issue is I'm in charge. I'm running a team where you sacrifice your feelings, stats, and desires for the good of the team. I ask a group a teenage kids to put team first in a world that is designed to appeal to their feelings first. Its a polarity shift that I find harder and harder to get across to kids. Your needs come second the groups needs come first.

Together Everyone Achieves More: right!!! Their idea of together is downloading music from the friends my space, my idea of togetherness is putting up a tent in the freezing rain with your friends because that was what you did. Draw a charge for your teammate, cover for your teammate, get on the floor for the team. THey want options, I want blood.

The solution: teach the skill they need. Learning to overcome, learning to suffer for the good of the group, learning to compete and overcome for some else not yourself. Growing up taught us these things, in our games, with our friends with the choices we had. If their life hasn't taught them, I have to teach them. I have to sell team. I have teach them the internal conversations and perseverance that life taught us.

We have to create the identity and skills for them to learn, adpot and buy in to.

Compete

2008-12-04T12:32:00.000-08:00

Kids need to compete. Kids want to compete. The issue is what they and we as the adults in charge define as competing.

The dictionary definition of compete, has it as a verb meaning: to strive to outdo another for acknowledgment, a prize, supremacy, profit, etc.; engage in a contest; vie: to compete in a race; to compete in business.

Our kids tend to think of competeing as engaging in a contest. They "compete" when there is a score or prize or an opponent. The issue is that to become a high performing basketball player you need skills created through muscle memory and repetition on your own. Kids associate competion, and the accorded effort, to game like situations. In reality the competition should be striving to be the supreme basketball player, person and part of the best team they can be. The competition and drive should be internal not external.

Solutions that we as coaches can offer:

1) For kids who can't grasp the concept of internal vs external drive you can cheat a little. You can turn drills, and skills work in practice in games, with scores, winners, etc. Kids enjoy this and tend to work ahrder. They are going to struggle on their own and miss out on a lot of development since without the external factors they won't want to drill hard or at all individually.

2) Demand high performance all the time. There are no break drills, or drills where we don't go hard. Require that everything be done all the time at game speed and intensity. The drawback to this philosophy is that developing skills for young athletes often requires to walk before you run. On teams with varied skill levels someone is going to be bored or overwhelmed. It also requires kids that are committed to being better, kids that play for fun or to be part of something may not responsd well to constant demands and pressure.

3) Spend the time reminding, praising, punishing, talking, . . . whatever your kids need to create that internal voice that pushes them. I don't buy that there are driven kids and lazy kids. No one pops out of the womb ready to take on the world, or indifferent to their surrondings. Competing and demanding excellence of yourself is a trained skill and learned behaviour. You have to keep putting people who need to learn it in situations where they develop the proper attitudes and structures. The draw back is you are talking about personality, values and attitude which are shaped by all the influences in their lives. You get them after they've spent 6-16 years with other adults and peers shaping their values, changes may not happen over night or at all. If your message deviates or contradicts their prior programming there is no sure bet they'll ever buy in.

The most a player can do is compete every second they have available. The most we can do as coaches is everything we can to try to help them do that.

Tactics vs. Talent

2008-12-03T09:31:00.000-08:00

Everyone likes to win. Ask my players after a game or practice, I'm about the win. Heck, ask my wife during a game of Scrabble. I'm about the win. That being said, I don't think as a coach it is my job to determine the outcome. It is the job of the players to go out and win the game. Out work, out execute, out read, and have better skills then the opponent.

There are lots of ways to use tactics to win a basketball game. Do you want to win in mini game? Press and full court deny letting them throw deep since most girls and not a lot of boys can. Get a big kid teach them to post up at the rim and let their teammates feed them the ball. Clear out on offense and let your best player attack the rim all night. You'll win mini games.

Do you want to win in high school in New Brunswick? Chase the stud all over the floor, zone off of everyone else and let them shoot. That will win you a lot of games vs. the skill set of NB kids. Have you made your kids better basketball players???

These are strategies, ways we find to win. You see at all levels of basketball. I heard a middle school girl last night say, "Hey coach you know what works against her. If we all just back off everyone else and 2 or 3 of us crowd her. " Its true there is always a tactic you can use to make it harder for a team or player to be successful. At elite levels (university, pro, National teams) most of what they do is tactical. This doesn't always make kids better basketball players. The young lady's idea to shut down the girl in middle school is great, but would she or her team become more skilled defenders or players by selecting that option.

Talent wins out in the end. We've all been on teams, or in tryout situations to get to a higher level where even though we worked hard, we just weren't good enough or at least as good as someone else. {Unless you are an NBA all-star (in which case thanks for reading).} Kids need to be able to play. Especially in the FIBA game of 24 and 8 with a move to a European style by Canada Basketball. Everyone has to be able to shoot, everyone must be able to dribble, everyone must be able to play at speed and defend all over the floor. If you want kids to be skilled, we should be putting them in situations where they have to be.

We've made a hard adjustment in the last year with my varsity boys teams. There are almost no assigned player positions, our offense and defense is concept based, everything everyone is being asked to do is about making reads and executing skills. Its tough. They play in league where defensive tactics and set plays are the norm over developing players who play. They want what the other team has. They want answers that never change, patterns they can memorize, and something that they can do everytime so the the pressure is on the kids who want it. In my mind the only thing you can everytime is be stronger, smarter, and more skilled. Its taking some growing pains but everyone is learning to play the game the same way.

Coaches give me all sorts of reasons why that is great but their team has to do this or that. The reailty is if you want your kids to develop skills (imho)you have to put them in a position to play, run and win executing those skills. If we tell them skills are important, but then use tactics that never let them practice new skills in games they take something away from our actions: finding a way to win is more important the learning the skill coach asked me to learn.

I'll end with this notion. One night a couple of coaches and I were discussing a similar issue one coach who disagreed with my view point passionately proclaimed, "My job as a coach is to put my kids in the best position to win games." I completely agreed with his statement. THe difference was he felt that what his kids did, and the schemes they used, to maximize their talent were what put them in the best position to win the game. I feel like what we do in practice, in games, and the off season to become better players than the other team should be what puts us in the best position to win. How do you feel?

94 Feet . . . Gimme a break

2008-11-28T09:43:00.000-08:00

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 . . .

2008-11-13T08:52:00.000-08:00

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.

When basketball . . .

2008-10-03T09:19:00.001-07:00

is played the way it 'sposed to be played, its in the air: floating, flying, soaring. The way the oppressed people of this earth see themselves in their dreams."

What a great quote. In a time when I'm frustrated with the basketball community at large it helps to keep me focused on the simple truth: this a is game, games should be fun. We get the opportunity to have fun, playing and competing when kids all over the world worry about the effects of genocide, land mines, religous oppression, arranged marriages, starvation . . . .

The list goes on. We have the luxury of feeling bad about medal counts and missing tournaments. The reality is what is great about basketball is not trips, tournaments, titles or all the other stuff we stress about. What is great about basketball is basksetball.

Being in the gym competing. Improving a skill set through hard work. Improving ourselves for that matter. Getting to play a game and be passionate about it is what is great about basketball. The rest of it is window dressing. We'll make memories regardless. There will always be somone we can play : it could be another school, a parent, our kids, adults in a rec league. Whats great is the game, everything else is details.

You can't take the game away. Who we play. Where we play. The rules we travel under. Whether we win or lose. Whether we get the respect of others or not. We still have the game. We will respect ourselves and our experience. The game only dies if we let it. Its the game that is great.

A Wing Thing

2008-10-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

Constant source of debate between me and my coaching friends: what do you do with the perimeter player 1 pass away without the ball. Deny, Sag, Up the line (Off or On), Help, Zone, . . . the list of possibilties goes on and on.

Clearly players more than 1 pass away need to have their players sagged off into a help position seeing their person and the ball. The issue becomes what to do with the player who is a threat to recieve an immediate pass. Then you get into issues of it depending on the reciever, or the capabilites of the guy with the ball.

Maybe I'm too simple minded. Maybe I feel my players are too simple minded. My thought is: who cares, they don't have the ball. Players without the ball can't score until they get the ball. We zone the wing players, gapping up the line off the line. Our chest is sqaure to the ball handler and we a 1 sprint step away from close out.

If the ball handler is being pressured, then the biggest threat is the dribble drive. A pressured wing pass can just as easily be stolen from this position as up denying the wing. In fact, more so because a denied player is probably less likely to a be the target of a pressured pass. A pressured pass should be also easy to close out on since the catch shouldn't be clean. I think doing anything else just opens up drive lanes and requires defenders on bigs to help up (giving up a dump or lob) or help late (letting an attacking player get into the lane).

Maybe I'm wrong. I understand all the situations and reasons for other things. We will deny a kid who we don't want to become the target of a pass, but in that case we are denying all the time and that defender has no other reads/jobs defensively. For me its, its keep it simple. Pressure the ball to drive have everyone taking that away.

Handle . . .

2008-09-24T11:36:00.000-07:00

If you are going to play the game at speed, which everyone should be doing (IMHO). Then you can be as fast as you want but if you can't bring the ball with you its all useless. Everyone needs to be able to handle the ball.

I don't mean everyone needs to be able to dribble the ball. I hate this idea that gettting from one end to the other unguarded and keeping control means they can dribble. I can roll out a basketball and my dog can get it from one end to the other and still end up with the ball. Everyone needs to be able to handle the ball = everyone needs to be able to attack defense with the dribble, handle the ball under pressure, protect the ball from 1st, 2nd and 3rd line defenders.

Protecting the ball from the 2nd and 3rd line defenders is more an issue of recognizing when they are going to be a problem and avoiding that problem. This means handling while scanning. I prefer the term scanning to head up because then kids need to know that the head up is doing something other than just not looking at the ball. Basketball really comes down to math: who on the floor can count to 10 fastest and figure out the best thing to do according to where the 10 are first wins.

The issue is that 1st line defender. They have to be a non factor. If the player with the ball is concerned the player guarding them, then they are never getting to worry about whats actually happening on the rest of the floor. Players need to be able to pivot, move in all directions and still maintain control of the ball, and their options with it.

Drills to practice ball handling:

Note: You don't need one thousand drills a few will do if you add to or load the drill to keep it challenging.

-Line dribbling: Exactly what it sounds like lines of kids going one at at time dribbling a ball.
                      Loads to the drill: ALternate hands, weak hand only, speed, changing speed, stop and go, change of direction moves, mutiple balls, mutiple moves, obstacles to negotiate, defense, scanning for things, off the catch, intersecting dribblers, race, complex series at speed.

- King Drills: Pass ball around head, pass around leg, pass around both legs, pass between legs.
                   Loads to the drill: Add bounces, remove bounces, add stance, add pivots, hops, lunges, complex series, defensive pressure, alternate direction.

- Spin outs: Being shadowed by a partner (Mimicing / guided defense) toss the ball to yourself catch with proper foot work, in a stance and pivot.
                     Loads: Add sweeps/clear offs, pivot and re pivot, contact, live defensive, add dribble by, add primary/secondary attack, add escape dribble, add competitive component.

- Chase: Catch pass and go hard in an assigned directions.
                   Loads: Add finishes, changes of direction with and without the ball, alternate hands, mix in change of direction moves, add defense.

What the game means to me!

2008-09-17T09:43:00.001-07:00

All of us come from different backgrounds. Basketball means different things to each of us. We come to it, have learned it, and take away from it different experiences. Lets talk about basketball for a minute and see if we can find some common ground.

For me basketball is not a series of events or actions. It is the sum total of moments that go beyond good or bad, right or wrong, it stems all the way down into purity of thought, emotion and action. For me all the hard work is worth it if it leads to those moments. Let me share a couple of those moments, with you, that make basketball important to me:

1) Have you ever stood in a school gym in the dark.

In those moments, a peace is created by the absence of life and activity. As you breath, your own soft echoes reverberating you will inhale and absorb the sensation of those places. The potential energy is electric. The smells, dents, banners, worn flooring, nicks and markings are not just wear and tear; these are a legacy of years, of lives lived, blood, sweat, tears, passion expressed and of success and failure.

Sports are a topic of nostalgia. Whether good or bad everyone seems to have had an experience that translates into a story. These are stories of heroes, embarrassments, fond memories and painful ones. An all-American backing out of the spotlight so their team-mate can get a win. Thousands of fans screaming and crying, faces coloured as much by their passion as by school colours. The roar of improbably victory and joy earned through hours of prior effort. The meeting of adversity and the growth of a team to overcome it. Young men and women enjoying the only success they might find in life, and a lifetime of memories built out of a uniform and a moment.

There are stories of heartache and of suffering. A young man sitting on the floor with tears streaming down his face, a childhood dream lost to him forever. Young women collapsing from illness, or exhaustion related to too hard, too much, or not enough. It could be the story of the girl that didn't want to do pushups in gym class , or of a teenage sensation turning professional and falling victim to adolescent maturity in a adult world.

For every story of joy there is one of suffering. Good or bad, anguish or elation, sports hold a tradition of passion and emotion. Fire and fury, found at a time in young people's lives when emotional attachment is at a premium, sports are a major source of concern. When people of all ages are brought together by sport changes in noise, energy, meaning, potential learning, and danger found with randomness ensues.

Sports builds moments. It can make heroes or victims. Spots helps to shape and create identity by making success and failure more concrete. In doing so it makes winners, losers, and all the variants in between. It forces the guilt, ego, frustration and triumph of life to be brought out in rivers of cascading moments.

All of this from an empty gymnasium. That which came before, allows voice to that which comes after. Those four walls and that floor have held a plethora of dreams, hopes, wins, losses, successes and failures. Hundreds of thousands of tears, hurt feelings, hugs, handshakes, drops of sweat and blood have mixed with years of effort and a million personal victories and epiphanies to make it that way. These places are a tribute to the power of sport, the potential of individuals and the test of the human condition. When you stand and breathe your breathing legacy.

2) Next time your in a huddle look up.

Look into someone's eyes and see if you can see beyond. See if you can see past the moment, past the frustration, past the emotion. Look and find that feeling that you would do anything, go anywhere and that nothing else in the world matters, because all you can see is the rest of your life. Feeling your body aching, but putting it aside instantly to push forward. The sudden certainty that you are part of something bigger then yourself. A sense of team and fraternity that makes you want to push yourself beyond pain, beyond illness, beyond healthy sacrifice without care because of what you can prove to yourself and those around you.

Look and see the unbridled passion of youth doing something it loves. Witness desire to a point of utter frustration melt behind passion, belief in ones invincibility, and refusal to ever stand down. Feel the wholesomeness of soundless feeling, lungs burning, adrenaline flowing, muscles aching but all leading to clarity of thought and certainty of purpose.

Search for that gleam in the eye of those performing or desperate to perform the impossible. Every ounce of their being will vibrate with the need and want, but they will know that they can never be in over their head, frightened of possible consequences or trying and failing. They will know this because in that same moment they will be looking for that same thing in you and finding that same certainty, that same life, that same belief shining through in your eyes.

These are just a couple of the thousands of moments that this game has that keep me coming back for more. Maybe as time goes on I'll add some more.

I hope there are moments that bring you passion and joy. In the journey of basketball and life you need only hold the same thought in mind: "There is no such thing as can I, can't I, will or won't it happen. There is only - Do I care enough?"