Age Class Provincials and Things I have to accept.

This weekend is our age class provincials. As we've worked up to this since the end of high school season it is always interesting to see what transpires. The 4-6 add on to the end of a close to 20 week high school season always shows you a lot about what sort of kids you've got and what their preparation and mind set is/was.

Some things I've noticed and some things I'll have to accept this weekend.

1) I got what I asked for. The most committed kids in the age class from both our high school varsity and jv teams have come out to train and practice with us. This means that everyone who is there wants to get better and is at some level working to make that happen. Sometimes 14-15 year old girls don't know how to work as hard as they can, or believe they are working hard when they aren't but they all show up and give what they feel is their best effort. What I have to accept is that this means from a pool of 21 possible kids. We've got 9. The 8 age appropriate girls from the varsity team were joined by only 1 JV player as the rest decided it wasn't for them, was too hard for them or they needed a break. No hard feelings if we aren't deep enough to play the way we want or aren't sharp early because of I lack of 5 vs 5 competitive drills in practice, then it is our own doing. We wanted committed hard working kids that wanted to be here. TUrns our you get what you ask for.

2) We have been training all our kids to make reads and play inside a concept based framework with reads and options. It allows us more time to work on skills and small sided competitive drills and games to train those skills. It also allows me to feel like going into this weekend we've a greater depth of skilled kids than everyone else. Our 6-9 are as skilled and knowledgeable as our starters so we should be relatively interchageable without a great loss. What I have to accept is that as part of a process without identified scorers/shooters etc and a less structured offense, we will occaisionally experience paralysis on offense other people won't have. When everyone knows who is supposed to shoot it and what your next action always is on offense even less skilled players can confidently execute. For us trying to mesh our reads with confidence issues in 14-15 year old females and my desire for them to work it out on the floor in situations means: I have to accept that regardless of our superior fire power we will still have stretches where we take bad shots or make bad decisions because kids learning and experimenting make mistakes.

3) I have to accept that we have defensive issues. Between the amount of time we spend on footwork and skills on offense. I know that our defensive attention to detail has not been as high, but long term once we have every understanding and exceuting offense will become a matter a training and reps while defense can then work on reads as well. Short term we are soft. I want us playing in your face pressure, rotational team defense. Every instinct they've gotten from mini and middle school experience says back off and contain to keep in front. I want them talking and sprinting taking chances on charges and free balls. They are comfortable sliding and letting players catch and shoot. I want players forced to attack non dominant, they just don't want to get beat. Its not that they don't want to do what I ask, its in the moment their fear and experience tells them one thing that is in opposition to what I am asking. THey just don't have the competitive reps over time yet to make that happen. I have to accept that we aren't as talented defensively as I would have hoped but that hopefully playing with energy and as a team at game time will be enough.

4) We may lose to teams who spent more time on tactics then we did. We haven't played since high school season ended and have spent time training footwork and movement skills on offense. We are ready to pass and cut, talk, twist and screen, dribble drive and shoot it. We are also ready to contest, work the ball and run at it with multiple defenders. I have to accept that we may not handle the first 2-3 zone we see with discipline or we may turn the ball over a ton if someone has a well prepped half court or full court zone trap. I don't want this to be a chess game. I want skilled kids to make decisions so that in the long term (most of these athletes I'll have for another 3-4 years) we have kids who can make plays not run plays. Short term there is a reason tactics work.

I'm still confident. We've got kids who can score at this level. We've got interchangeable pieces. We've been doing things the right way. I continue to believe there is no such thing as overacheiving you get exactly what you earn. No short cuts, no easy ways out. We'll bring it and see what happens.

Why I love this game . . .

Time for a repost of an old fav with some updated comments and thoughts since it is Valentine's day.

All of us come from different backgrounds. Our love of the game is different in each of us. In our game we talk a lot about relationships: being a good teammate, quality passes to improve relationship, and do you care enough? I'm a big reader of sports science, coaching, brain research but thankfully everything I read re-enforces what I believe. They use different language (10000 hours, sacrifice,tolerating failure, deliberate practice, etc.) but in a nutshell it all means: Do You Care Enough? I feel that everything in your life that you want, is good and is worthwhile can be yours if you care enough. Now caring can mean enough to work, enough to sacrifice, enough to humble yourself, but it is still all caring. I don't believe in overachieving (my wife and kids being the notable exception that proves the rule); you get exactly what you deserve through being the best you can.


So for caring and love and just because its Valentine's Day: Why I love this game!

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 who you each really are inside. 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.


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?"

Simple Truth

Looking to get back to basics and what is important in the game. I really need our kids to buy into loving the game and embracing training. Youth is only an asset if you see it as realized potential hours of deliberate practice.

So here are some simple truths I shared with my Canada Games Team a few years ago that anyone can learn from:

The truth is it doesn’t matter if you win or if you lose. You can be an undefeated champion and if it turns you into an egotistical bitch it was a waste. You could lose every game, but if it teaches you the humility and need for work ethic to overcome every life obstacle you face then it was all worth it. How you respond to the results will be more important then the result it self.

The truth is found in the moment. These moments, once lived, will be the same in your memory forever. That truth will be the one you need to live with.

The truth is that you will be alone with your thoughts and know whether or not your effort was heroic. Did you overcome your fear or did it overcome you? Did you play with heart or with excuses? Did you try for a dream or did you play for yourself? Did you shoot for the stars or aim lower to know you would reach? Only you will know these answers.

The truth is, in moments later in life when you look back and wonder; you will never worry that you should have been less physical, dove on fewer loose balls, encouraged your teammates less often or taken less shots. You’ll never wish you had gone home less tired. You won’t be sad that you were too passionate for too long and trusted too much.

The truth is that as people you are and will continue to be amazing. The truth of these next moments is yours.

That truth will be yours in your private moments, and only you will know.

What will your truth be?

Things that make sense to me defensively.

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

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.

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.

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.