Are you preparing your team for any situation, Or just preparing to Lose?
June 23, 2008
This is the second in a series of coaching articles planned for this summer that analyzes, and questions, some common coaching practices. The first article took a look at the nature of player-coach relationships the coach’s role in that relationship. This article takes a look at a common coaching principle, one that most of us hear, and say, time and time again; a coach’s primary responsibility is to prepare his team for every situation that it will face in a game. In principle, this seems obvious: a coach’s job is to have his or her team fully prepared once game-day rolls around. But coaches apply this principle in a variety of different ways. Some are not very constructive, in my opinion.
As much as I enjoy the strategy involved with bench coaching, I remind myself from time to time that this is basketball. It is not chess. The primary difference between the two? Wooden chess pieces always do exactly what I tell them to do. People don’t. To borrow from John Wooden, “Over Coaching is a bigger problem than under-coaching in the today’s game”. Tactics aren’t the only factor in team success. In fact, as far as its importance in determining wins and losses go, I’d rank tactical adjustments - the chess match of basketball - a distant third behind talent behind talent and aggressive execution.
This is where the problem arises for some coaches: The more tactical adjustments you try to make, the less likely it is that you will execute aggressively. A critical part of coaching basketball successfully is finding the appropriate balance for your team.
As a basketball coach, I want my players to develop a certain degree of mastery at whatever it is that I am teaching. I think that this is critical to team success and to individual growth. I also have to understand that in order to bridge the gap between the type of play I want to see and the results I am actually getting, to develop mastery, what I need more than anything else is game-speed repetitions.
I’ll give a couple of examples of the problem.
1. A JV coach is looking for ways he could have beaten a specific opponent the previous season. The opponent had a star guard who was impossible to stop. The coach tried everything against this kid with no luck, from a man to man, straight zone, box & 1, and triangle & 2.
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This approach is all ‘tactics’, and no ‘execution’. In this situation, the answer is the problem. If I’m resorting to a box and 1 and a triangle and 2, the real problem is probably defensive fundamentals, not defensive strategy. The answer is to address those fundamental problems as thoroughly as possible, and to find ways from within the basic defensive philosophy to adjust to the other team’s star. If you don’t run your man to man defense well, how can you expect to run a box and 1 and a triangle and 2 and a zone and a man to man well? You can’t.
2. Several years ago, I coached a very good rec league team over the summer, that ran a simple but tricky inbounds play that involves a backpick on the ballside block. It’s a play that, when executed well, usually grabs the attention people in the gym. We were very successful with it in one particular game, scoring 10 point off of the two scoring options. After that game, one of the coaches in the following game tried to run the play a couple of times, but gave up after turning the ball over each time.
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This coach had his own package of plays that his teams had worked on in practice. Each would have given his team a better outcome, even if they did not exploit the defense in the same way.
In some situations the need to be prepared for every game situation clashes with the need to develop mastery through game-speed repetition. The conflict between the two is evident at every level, but is more apparent at the youth - high school levels. As a coach, its not as simple (or should I say complicated?) as preparing your team for every situation. Maybe a better way to approach the issue is to prepare as much as you can for what you are likely to face, within the simplest possible framework possible.
Defensive Communication Combo Drill
April 9, 2008
 1 on 1 with help Purpose: This is an excellent multipurpose drill. It teaches on-ball defenders to pressure the ball aggressively while forcing the ballhandler to the sideline. It teaches help defenders to step out of the key to help on penetration. For young players, the value of help defense is reinforced through the message that playing 2 on 1 (in the sense that the on-ball defender always has help available) is much more difficult to score against than playing 1 on 1 with no help. Players learn to pressure the ball while also containing the ball. This drill is also excellent at developing consistent defensive communication between teammates. |
Organization: Players form 3 lines across half court. The front player in the middle line has a ball. Procedure: 1. Player begin the drill like a 3 man weave. 1 passes to 2, who is cutting towards the middle of the floor. 1 follows his pass, stopping just past half court near the sideline. 2. 2 passes to 3, who is cutting across the court towards 1. After passing, 2 follows his pass and goes into the key. 3. 3 passes to 1 and steps up to defend 1. |
5. Play continues until a player makes a shot. If 1 misses his shot or turns the ball over, the player who secures the rebound (or steal) dribbles out to the perimeter and the other 2 players communicate, with one player defending the ball (calling “I’ve got ball!”!) and the other defender getting into help position (calling “I’ve got help!”). 6. There should never be two defenders on the ball. Instead, one player defends the ball while the other establishes help position in the key. This requires excellent communication and adjustment |
 Coaching Points: 1. help defenders should look to help early, before the offensive players able to get into the paint for shot. When helping, defensive players should establish their feet outside of the key with arms fully extended, standing “number to number” with the offensive player. 2. On-ball defenders should work to keep the ball on one side of the floor, discouraging penetration to the middle, while containing the dribble (don’t get beat). |
 The defender influences his man toward the sideline by splitting the defender with the back foot. We want to keep the ball on the side where we we have established our help defense 3 can pressure the ballhandler knowing that he has support from 2. (2 is emulating help position - the shaded 2 on the wing represents an imaginary matchup - the coach can stand still in this position during the drill in order to give help defenders more of a game feel.)The help defender holds his position as long as the ball is being contained - we don’t want to over-commit by helping when it isn’t needed and forgetting about our assigned matchup. |
 If there is no shot, play continues with one on-ball defender and one help defender. 3 would yell “I got Help!” on the shift into help position. |
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 We try to provide early help outside of the paint on drives to the middle as well. |
 Play continues until a basket is scored. If the emphasis is on defense and communication, , the coach can have players If the emphasis is on rebounding, the coach can allow players to go for the |
 Defenders continue to communicate: 3 yells “ball”, and influences towards the sideline 1 yells “Help” and assumes an open stance with vision of the weak side. When a basket is scored, all 3 players step off the floor and the next group of 3 begins. Offensively, this drill emulates game conditions by forcing the offense to conserve motion to focus on the scoring move rather than just focusing on beating his man 1 on 1. Players can develop recognition on when to drive to the basket and when to respond to help with a pull-up jump-shot. fundamentals of man to man defense, teaching defensive communication |
Basketball Practice Principles for Coaches, p. 3
March 17, 2008
Principle #21
Expect Mistakes. It is very easy to become frustrated when several mistakes occur during practice. I have found this especially true at the beginning of the season, where I have at times felt that we would never be able to properly execute important fundamentals, much less a team offense or defense. Later in the season, I have experienced the same feeling when a team has an average or poor practice following a period of success that has caused my expectations to grow. I have found it beneficial to balance this by reminding myself that mistakes occur constantly in basketball. My role as the coach is to continue to correct the mistakes and to provide players with the repetitions needed to eliminate them permanently. Even then, players and teams will go through stagnant
periods where old mistakes will pop up. My philosophy tends to be: as long as the players are giving consistent individual and collective efforts, I can accept mistakes as part of the growth process because I trust that we will continue to correct them and move forward as a whole. When mistakes are the result of poor effort or disinterest, my response is much more harsh and my communication much more critical.
I frequently remind myself that the team that makes the most mistakes wins the game on many occasions. This may seem counterintuitive, yet it happens so often because many teams that make more mistakes are also teams that play faster and more aggressively. Often, the having the courage to play with all-out effort despite looking silly at times has far greater impact than playing with cautious reserve.
Principle #22
Stations Utilizing Stations can be very beneficial simply because they optimize time and resources. Stations can be used to teach many different skills in a short time, teach different skills to players by position (i.e. ‘guards’ and ‘bigs’), or provide the repetitions required to master one or two skills. The intensity and short duration of well-run stations provide excellent anaerobic conditioning, which is critical in basketball.
Principle #23
Define Discipline. I believe it is important to define what is meant by the term ‘discipline’ early on with teams and players. In the context of team and individual performance, discipline describes a team that: sticks to its game plan; makes consistently good decisions; maintains a high level of play when fatigued; maintains excellent conditioning; and, very often, is a Winner.
Any suicides, pushups, or other activity that I hand out to my players and teams are given in order to teach them how to become the disciplined winner just described.. I work very hard to approach kids with a ‘clean slate’ every day, so the idea of punishing players based on a grudge or a selfish need to exert control is foreign to me as a coach.
I try to make my expectations very clear to players and foster the belief that ‘discipline’, despite the negative connotations attached to it by many people, is one of our primary objectives each year. Players that buy-into this philosophy usually come to feel that playing on undisciplined teams is not enjoyable at all, because the people involved lack the common vision, shared growth, and level of respect from their peers that typify disciplined teams. These players will come to expect and embrace a coach’s ‘punishment’ for breaking rules, for poor conditioning, and for poor effort. They realize that the coach who doesn’t respond to these types of problems is short-changing his team, by failing to teach them to become winners.
Principle #24
Be Yourself. A high school coach typically spends around twenty hours per week with his players during the season. As many players begin to play basketball year-round as early as 4th or 5th grade, coaches at all levels maintain contact with players throughout the year as well. At the high school and middle school levels the coach has constant contact with his players He is around his players so often that they will see the real him. Players will know if a coach is projecting a fake personality. A coach that pretends to be something he isn’t, or who tries to emulate another coach will ultimately lose the respect of his players. Consistency is extremely important, and the only way for a coach to be truly consistent is to be himself. Emulating someone else might work for a day but over the course of time players will respect the coach who is true to himself.
Jab Step Series|Coaching Guard Play
March 10, 2008
Purpose: To teach perimeter moves using a simple, quick jab-step
Organization: Perimeter players line up at the top of the key at any open hoops in the gym. Each player has a ball. This drill can be used with all players, including post players (all players should be taught all skills - particularly big players, who might not be big enough to play their current position at the next level). Alternatively, this drill can be used on one half of the floor with only the guards while post players do position-specific work at the other end of the floor.
Procedure:
1. Each player makes a quick jab step followed by a scoring move.
2. Each player rebounds his own shot, then goes to an open spot or a line) at the top of a key.
3. Players continue in this fashion for a prescribed amount of time.
Coaching Points:
1. Jab steps should be short (stepping only about 6 inches forwards), quick, performed with the strong foot (i.e. right handed players jab with the right foot) and forward. Too often, players make a lateral (sideways) step when they jab. Intelligent defenders will recognize that this type of maneuver poses no threat of actual dribble penetration.
2. Players perform one of three moves:
a. Jab step and shoot (this is performed when the defender takes a step back to honor the jab step).
b. Jab step and drive. (This is performed when the defender does not move backwards to honor the jab - the offensive player must explode to the hoop in one or two dribbles, directly past the defender (off the defender’s shoulder) so that the defender has no space to recover
c. Jab step, pump fake, and drive. If the defender does not respond to the jab step, the offense gives the defense another opportunity to respond to a pump fake. This is performed by bringing the ball up just above the shoulder of the shooting hand (i.e. the right shoulder of a right handed shooter) and cocking the wrists backwards. The offense does not need to jerk or heave the ball in an upwards motion, as this does not even closely resemble a shot attempt and holds the danger of making the offensive player lose balance. Pretending (for the sake of the drill - there is no defense) that the defender has responded to the pump fake, the offensive players explodes to the basket in one or two dribbles for a layup.
Tags: jab step, guard play, perimeter play
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It’s hard to win in the league, because every team is good, they got players on their team. A lot harder than high school. It’s competitive, and that’s what I most love about it.
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