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Ask The Coach V

August 8, 2008

1). How much time do you realistically expect your players to spend in the offseason on their fundamentals, and with that in mind what kind of off-season program do you have set up for them?

2). How much time is spent in a normal practice prior to Xmas on shooting drills?

The next newsletter will spend some more time specifically offseason programs, so I’ll address offseason expectations, and time spent on shooting.

1. I don’t necessarily frame our offseason work on terms of my ‘expectations” – or at lease my expectations are never lines drawn in the sand, so to speak. Perhaps this approach is very different from that of many other many coaches. My approach is more to set up a summer program that includes several team functions – usually two to four local summer leagues and a practice schedule that keeps us busy 5 days a week, on average. I usually give my players individual workouts by position – post or perimeter – that are tailored at least in some small way to the skills they need to improve on for the following year. I talk with them about spending time going through their workouts consistently throughout the summer. In my experience the better players – the ones who really are committed – will spend at least 45 minutes a day on individual skill work. The committed ones will also make sure that they actually do get up several hundred shots each day. I know that a lot of coaches say that players should shoot 500 shots a day every day and that sometimes the expectations seem ridiculously high. Still, when a players make a real commitment to improving himself and makes it as goal to play at the next level, whatever that level may be, they will usually meet or surpass the coaches expectations, no matter how over the top they may seem.

I try to make it clear to my teams that this is the standard that good players and teams set for themselves, and I try to schedule enough during the summer to allow a committed group of kids to experience a lot of growth. But I stop short of making them ‘expectations’. They are standards that we set for our program, but kids have other commitments in their lives. And they are often faced with choices – sometimes the best choice isn’t basketball. I know of a first year high school girl’s coach who kicked a senior off of the team for failing to participate in the team’s summer program – because she was in Germany with her family!

The coach placed himself in a position where he felt like he had no choice but to kick the girl off the team because he told his players that they were expected to play during the summer. He painted himself in a corner when there was no need to do so; the girl’s family commitments were supposed to secondary to basketball commitments – even in completely unreasonable circumstances.

Written by Coach Stinson · Filed Under Ask The Coach, Coaching Philosophy | Leave a Comment 

Fundamentals of On-Ball Defense

April 10, 2008

turn and belly

Fig. A

influence sideline

Fig. B

influence baselinefig C.

contain the ball

Fig. D.

 When I discuss man to man defense with many coaches I am often surprised at differing philosophies on how to defend the basketball. Among the differing philosophies: The defender should play with the palms facing up in order to ‘flick’ at the basketball without losing balance; the defender should have both hands up to obstruct the ballhandler’s vision of the passing lanes, the defender should turn the ballhandler as many times as possible, the defender should force the ballhandler to the sideline or baseline, the defender should force the ballhandler into the help defense on the baseline. All of these approaches have validity; however, many coaches do not have a full understanding of which on-ball defensive tactics they want to apply in different situations. As a result, they end up contradicting themselves as they teach all of the approaches listed above indiscriminately.I’ve outlined my basic approach to on-ball defense depending on the situation. In no particular order::

  • When defending the live dribble or a man in triple threat position, the defender should be an arms length away from the ballhandler. If the defender has a quickness advantage, he may be able to decrease this gap slightly. A defender with a quickness disadvantage may want to increase this gap slightly.
  • A player defending the live dribble outside of the scoring area should focus on the ballhandler’s midpoint to avoid biting on any fakes.
  • If the ballhandler comes out of triple threat position (i.e. by bringing the ball above the head to look for a pass) the defender should immediately belly-up on the ballhandler and mirror the ball with both hands. Regardless of the opponent’s quickness, it is impossible for the defender to get beat off the dribble when the ballhandler is not is a position to dribble the ball. If the ballhandler brings the ball back into triple threat position, the defender immediately drops back into defensive stance, re-establishing the cushion of one arms-length.
  • (Fig. A) Any time the ballhandler picks up the dribble, the defender should immediately belly up and mirror the ball with both hands. The defender should yell, “Dead, Dead, Dead!!” This alerts all teammates to immediately deny their man as aggressively. Since the ballhandler cannot dribble the ball, off-ball defenders do not have to worry about helping on penetration. “Dead, Dead, Dead!” cues all defenders to taker away the only option available to the ballhandler - the pass.
  • When defending the ball in the backcourt, the defender plays with palms up looking to deflect the ball by flicking the wrists - the defender should not reach for the steal, as this can cause the defender to lose balance, opening up the possibility of getting beat off the dribble by the defender. Flicking the wrists allows the defender to pressure the ball without the head leaving the defender’s midpoint. As long as the defender’s head is squarely between the feet on a vertical plane, the defender very likely has the proper balance. Reaching often brings the defender’s head away from the midpoint, disrupting balance.
  • When defending in the backcourt, the defender attempts to turn the opponent as many times as possible in a zigzag pattern.
  • When defending the ball in the frontcourt, the defender mirrors the ball with the front hand. The back hand is up in order to obstruct the ballhandler’s vision of the passing lanes.
  • (Fig. B) When defending the ball in the frontcourt, the defender influences the ballhandler toward the sideline and away from the middle of the floor. The defender’s back foot should cut the defender in half (i.e. the back foot should be directly between the ballhandler and the basket). The front foot is slightly to the ballhandler’s right or left, influencing the ballhandler in the opposite direction. By influencing the ballhandler out of the middle of the floor, the defender establishes the team’s help defense
  • (Fig. C) When the ball is on the sideline, defender continues to influence the ballhandler in that direction without giving up the drive.
  • (Fig. D) The primary objective of the on-ball defender is always to contain the ball. Though we may be influencing the ball in a certain direction, this never means that we want to get beat in that direction. If a player gets beat we are always ready with help defense. By influencing the ball in a certain direction, we increase the odds that if a player does get beat, he will get beat in a direction where we are able to provide the best help defense possible. However, anytime a defense is forced to rotate and help, box-out responsibilities become confused, increasing the opponent’s chances at grabbing an offensive rebound.

More Defense Resources Fundamentals of On-Ball Defense

man to man defense

Written by Coach Stinson · Filed Under Defense Articles, Defensive drills | Leave a Comment