Shooting fixes everything . . .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.