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.)

Poker and Post Defense

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

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

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

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

“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.