5 Keys to being relentless

Over the next few weeks and monthes I will be updating the blog. These updates will be focused on readings and activities I give the girls to work with. The first one is below:

 

5 Keys to being able to be “Relentless”

#1 – A strict code of acting and behaving under stress. This includes:        

- A disciplined way of responding to stress

- A precise way of moving and responding to every situation

   - Quick and decisive response to commands – no hesitation is tolerated.

#2 – No visible sign allowed of weakness or negative emotion of any kind in response to stress. The expression of negative emotion is not permitted. No matter how you feel – this is the way you act, this is what we do!

#3 – Regular exposure to high levels of mental, emotional, and physical training stress to accelerate the toughening process. Practice should be tougher than games. People don’t step up in big games, people not used to that pressure and intensity simply fall behind.

#4 – Precise control over cycles of sleep, eating, drinking, and rest. Organization of your universe to every degree possible.

#5 – A rigorous physical fitness program. This focuses on aerobic, anaerobic, and strength training. You must be ready to take it too another level when others are dropping out.

G.A.M.E.

* 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

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

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?

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

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.

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.)