Motion Offense Makes You A Good Singer? Really?

If you teach your guys to run a real motion offense, and an aggressive dominating man defense, can it make them better singers? Or scientists? Or teachers? Yes, it can.

Many of you saw the report on Sportscenter about Julian Vandervelde (sp? Sorry, Julian, if I got it wrong, please don't pancake me for my bad spelling) and how he is an accomplished singer. During the report, he made a comment that struck me as revealing exactly what we're talking about in this blog. He said, "singing is a lot like playing offensive line, if you're off just a little bit, you will be off for the entire play. Or song."

Yep, the same is true with basketball. Sometimes to make a play work, a player has move a half a step one way or the other. The window is that small. Or the difference between shooting a good jumpshot and one that's just a little off can be as little as widening your stance just a bit to make a stronger base or making your shooting hand stronger by just a smidgen.

But, really, what we're talking about is finding that place in your gut, in your basketball soul, where you are entirely focused on the moment. Everything else is background noise. You catch the ball, after making the right reads, and you make a move. Or you see the ball on the other side of the floor and you see the play develop. You watch, bide your time, then explode into the passing lane and take it the other way. Being in that place where these things happen.

That's what good singers do. And good scientists.

The Flex Offense - Time To Love It?

I am involved with a team that is coached by a very good coach. So there's not much for me to offer. But this team has hit a trough, and it is staring up at some deep, rocky sides of that trough. So the coach commented to me the other day that he is seriously thinking of installing some kind of pattern offense - like the flex - just to get some movement and direction for his team. Giving his guys specific responsibilities and routes to run. Sounds great, right?

Except for one thing. We are not trying to teach the guys how to run routes, we are trying to teach the guys to play the game. So that when some idiot does require that they run a ridiculous pattern offense they will be able to make plays out of it.

But this is a short cautionary tale. If you are teaching your guys to play the game, rather than play your offense, you will run into troughs. And it will be to tough to climb out of that trough. It is inevitable. Because the teams you're playing against are going to get better, bigger, faster. Which means that what you knew yesterday is nor longer enough. You have to constantly build upon what you knew yesterday and develop new skills, reads, shot moves, and your understanding of the game. Yeah, it's going to be frustrating because it will seem like you are always starting over. But, as we discussed before, you have to decide if you're willing to risk your reputation as a coach to get your kids over this hump? Or are you content to coach for the guys in the stands and have your kids worse for it?

Up to you. I know where I will be. How about you?

Youth Basketball Confidence Builders

A critical error that I see happening, and I have to give credit to a fantastic AAU coach I know because he put it so well, is that too often we mistake building our player's confidence with giving them a false sense of security. I agree, and I've put it differently in my day, but his statement is more to the point.

See, you have to put your players in situations that require their maximum effort. And you have to continually be their cheerleader, because you want them to fail. Not fail spectacularly, but have them right on the edge where their maximum effort gets them ever so close to succeeding but not quite. Then, over time, as they grow and you work on their individual skills, one day they will be playing against a team that is one or two grades older then them and it will work. Your kids will blow by their defense and score. They will make a post move and score. And they will go back on defense thinking, "Hey, this is fun. That older guy can't handle me now, wait until I play a kid my own age. I'll OWN him."

That's confidence. Real confidence. That's what you're coaching for.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas.

And to all, a snappy crossover, a quick one dribble jumpshot, a strong core for a dominating boxout, and an understanding of how to play the game. That last one is the gift that gives all year round.

Enjoy

Christmas Came Early For Me

I was walking through a big box store today and I was stopped the parents of one of my players. This kid started with us as a fifth grader, and has been with us ever since. She's now in 10th grade. I really don't even remember how we got her, but we did. And I remember that when she first started, she was entirely unimpressive. A nice athlete, but no basketball skills to write about.

She's now playing for her high school team, and they got her playing J.V. and some varsity. But this kid is clearly as good or better than most of their varsity. She has developed some nifty dribble skills, is a decent shooter, and an absolute load to defend on the dribble and in the post. This kid is the kind that can carry a team on her back for a quarter or two. At least, and I mean at the very least, she's a top eighter. But they won't play her.

So anyway, I'm talking to her parents and they tell me that she said, "I can't wait to play for coach (insert my last name here) again."  Now that's pretty cool! So why the story? Because you will get the same kind of loyalty from your troops if you teach them how to play. Dribble skills, what to look for, how to get open without the ball, things like that. Then let them play, and fail, and play, and fail, and play, then succeed. Your kids will love to play this way and the beautiful thing is that you are teaching them how to play the game. Not how to play your game.

Just follow my advice and you'll be fine. And your players will love to play for you. And, eventually, you will look like a genius just because you did the right thing by them. That's a nice Christmas.

More Boxing Lessons

I'm watching a game the other day, and the coach is all in an uproar because he wanted the wing to get to the optimum position for a post entry pass. This, to me, is ridiculous. Here's why. No two plays are going to be the same throughout the course of the game. That's the nature of basketball. There will always be slight, sometimes imperceptible differences from one play to the next. Of course, some differences will be huge and obvious, but that's not what we're addressing here.

No, what's critical here is that you DON"T teach your wings to get to a specific spot on the floor to execute the play you want. What IS critical here is that you teach your wing the skills to make the play. To make a post entry pass off the dribble, to read the defense, to have the dribble skills to get the ball to a point on the floor that allows for a good post entry pass, that kind of thing. And that you teach your post how to get open, how to post up based on how the defense is playing him, and varied post moves to finish the play.

Take A Lesson From Your Fastbreak

Remember yesterday when we talked about Jefferson's pattern offense? Here's the weird thing, they ran a great fast break. It was aggressive (not as aggressive as I would like, but that's just a style difference), and they had great spacing. When teaching how to run a fastbreak, I used to teach my kids to run around a cone that I had put at the halfcourt line about 3 feet from the sideline. This made the kids maintain great spacing as they came down the floor and gave them a great angle to attack the basket.

Now, here's my question. If you can see how well spacing and attacking works in a fastbreak situation, why can't you see the same advantages in a halfcourt situation? A reflex answer might be, "Well, it's five on five." True, but if you teach a real motion offense, you will be able to attack gaps in the defense and then you have off-ball numbers. Then, essentially, you have a fastbreak situation,

Just thinkin'

Pattern Offense Again? Really?

The pattern offense showed up again. We'll call them Jefferson.

So Jefferson ran their pattern offense exclusively from the beginning of the game to the end. It NEVER varied, be it against a zone or man it was the same thing the entire game. Again, I know you've heard this before but since I'm seeing so much of this garbage it seems that I need to drive this point home even harder.

First, you must teach your kids the skills to create and make shots out of your pattern. Here's what I saw: pt. guard making 3 foot entry passes that were terribly hard to handle. Lots of dribbling too high, lots of holding the ball above the head, And when they did make a move to the basket, it was always while standing straight up. And these are just the basics. That's not even addressing dribble skills, shot making skills, and all that.

Second, the pattern they ran was ridiculously bad. It essentially came down to a 3 man game at the elbow and both blocks. Here's a hint that you will find in my book (How to Coach Youth Basketball), Any pass that is shorter than 4 feet is incredibly hard to handle. The best players in the world have trouble with this pass- you will note that when they do throw them it is usually an underhand pass or a bounce pass.

Now, I'm not against the pattern offense. I've said this before. I'm against the pattern offense before you have taught the skills to make and create shots from it. Okay, I'll admit that I would never run a pattern offense again. I have in the past, but I've learned from my error. Are you willing to do the same?

Waxing Poetic? Or Philosophic?

The athletes who trains according to a regimen dictated by popular opinion is likely to damage himself.

In case you think what I'm telling you is new, I thought I would let you know that teaching/coaching basketball this way is not new at all. But before I tell you who said this, let's parse it a a bit.

What the speaker is talking about here, in a basketball context, is this: just because everyone else is running some stupid pattern offense, or entries that require more than three passes, doesn't mean you should be doing the same. And just because everyone else is spending all of their practice time working on their pattern offense, or the dozen or so entries doesn't mean you should be doing the same.

In fact, I am positive, absolutely positive, that if you coach your kids the right way, you will be criticized. If you are a high school varsity coach and you require that your J.V. and freshmen teams learn to play the game as I'm recommending, you will be criticized. Because most of your competition will be doing something else.

No, what you should be doing is teaching the game. Teaching your players how to create their own shot. Teaching your team to run a true, real motion offense - not a pattern.

The guy who said the above quote? A wise man, at least that's what everyone says. Bobby Knight? Rick Pitino? Pat Summit? No, none of those people.

The quote is from ---------------  Socrates.

The Pattern Offense - A Look From The Other Side

You remember yesterday we talked about how one team was running a pattern offense and nothing else? And they couldn't make plays from it? Now let's talk about what the other team did. We'll call them Other.

So Other was able to predict the pattern that Pattern was running - stands to reason, right? I mean, that's the advantage of ANY pattern, it's predictability - and defend it well. But Pattern did something else that kind of forced Other into playing real basketball.

Pattern played this aggressive 2/3 zone and they extended it way out. The ran it very well. They helped, rotated, forced to the baseline (some of you may want to just influence baseline). But here's the problem they ran in to. They played it so well that Other was forced to try and run their offense from too far away from the basket. Rather than playing their zone to an objective, thereby sucking it back in when they achieved their objective, they just played it as they had been taught. Other got really frustrated and only scored 22 points in the first half. Every one of those points was a struggle.

Finally, out of frustration, Other went to the basket. What they should have been doing from the beginning. Suddenly, new passing lanes opened up, angles to the basket became wide open, and they began to get some cheap, easy baskets. But pattern was determined to stick with their zone - as if what they ran, and not it's execution, would make them successful. So they doggedly stuck to their zone and they forgot to just play.

Give Other credit, though. They went to the basket and meant it. It won the game for them. But the lesson here is this. First, teach your team the skills and the basketball I.Q. necessary to play the game. Then, when you run your zone or your pattern or what ever you wish, they will have the basketball skill and knowledge to make plays out of whatever you run. Then you can tailor your offenses and defenses to address a particular player, or spot on the floor, or shot. You become a lot more dangerous this way.

The Patterned Offense Does It Again

A few days ago I was watching a high school game. One team was clearly superior. Better athletes, bigger, more skilled, all that good stuff. I'll call them the Pattern team.

So anyway, Pattern team is up 7 at halftime after being up 10 early in the second quarter. They were running their offense well, lots of cutting, fairly quick ball reversals, good looks into the post. Sounds great, right?

The problem is, if Pattern team can figure out the movement the "pattern" than the other team can to. And that is exactly what happened. The other team began to get a feel for where the cuts were going, when the happened, when they wanted the high low.  And once they got a feel for the pattern, they were able to "play the play." They jumped into the lanes, anticipating where the ball was going. Pattern team never varied from running their offense. No entries, nothing creative from it. Nothing. By the fourth quarter they were reduced to trying to make plays from their pattern and they didn't know how to do that. They only managed 11 points in the second half and lost the game by 10.

Please, you don't have some super secret magic offense that is going to fool another team for an entire game. You just don't. Nobody does. Junk the pattern offense until you teach your kids how to create their own shot, what to do when a teammate puts the ball on the floor, how to play OFF of a pattern. Stick to that and you will be doing your kids right.

Let's talk about what happened to the other team tomorrow

The Cross Over Dribble

An hour on the crossover dribble? A full of hour of nothing but crossover dribble? Seriously??!!

Yeah, seriously. I was at a practice last week where the coach spent a full hour on the crossover dribble. He mixed up the kinds of drills that addressed this skill, but the main point was still the same. The cross over dribble.

What's just as important is that within teaching this concept, the coach was teaching a greater point. He talked about balance, keeping your weight within the circle of your feet, and not being afraid to use a little "shimmy-shammy" to get yourself or another player open.

So these 8 kids spent the first hour of their practice working on just the crossover. And the next ten minutes after that introducing the double tap. That's the progression you should be using to. And here's another critical point: while most of the other coaches his team will be playing against were studiously and enthusiastically working on their half-court offense, this guy was working on dribbling then he played 4 on 4 while running no plays at all. Yeah, his team might get beat this year. But the year is coming soon when all of these kids will have their way with those other kids who spent all their time working on offenses.

More on that later.

Oh and Ten and Lovin' It

Last week I heard a coach talk about going 0 and 10 for the season. Winless. Not one notch in the win column. And I loved it. Because this coach has it goin' on. He gets it.

He's the coach of a young girl's team. And while this team has scored its first victory, his point remains, they may not win another game the rest of the year. And I think it's great. It's as it should be.

See all of these kids are playing up at least one grade and some of them are playing up two. And they are having to work really hard just to keep up. They are a talented bunch, for sure, good athletes and pretty good basketball skills, but they are too small and not quick enough to really be effective. But the coach's point is that if they can work hard and do their stuff on this level, even though it won't work all the time, when they get against kids their own age they will do well.

... But Do They Have The Skills?

If you are going to run an entry over 30 times during the game, please practice the skills necessary to make the play work. Now, I get that the the high screen and roll is the hot thing- all the NBA guys are doing it, most college teams are doing it, then high school and younger teams should be doing it, right?

Wrong. Unless your team has the skill set to make the play work, you should not be running this two-man play. Instead, use the time in practice you would have spent working on the play to work on the skills necessary to make the play work.

More on that as we go.

Want your players to play really, really hard?

I talked a few days ago about how basketball is a free, fluid, creative game. To play basketball at its highest level, players will do the most stunning things to creat shots or throw dime-ers. Think of the great things that you see when you watch an NBA game, or an NCAA game. The scoop-de-dos, the no-lookers, the fall away jumpers. Do you think those just happen? A kid walks on the floor already able to do those things? Of course not.

I few posts ago I described to you how one of the kids we have been working with had been doing really well in freezing her defense on the dribble. So she did that in practice one day and her coach told her, "don't do that again, that's just showing off." I could have screamed. What a silly thing to say.

But what did he really do with that comment? He took her creativity away. He took away a little bit of her zest for the game. He took away some of the emotion, the fun, the hugeness of playing the game. That's the kind of thing that too many youth coaches do.

What would have happened if he had applauded what she had done rather than castigated it? I'll tell you. She would have played even harder and she would be willing to do what ever he asked of her on the floor. Just with showing his appreciation for upping her game she would have performed much better. Instead, he wants robots. Shame! Shame! Shame!

Remember, I want to know what you think!

Hey, guys. As you follow this blog, remember that I want to know what you think. And if you find it useful, please pass it along to your friends. If you find it ridiculous, I want to know that to. One thing I've learned during my coaching days is that I can always learn something from somebody every day. Just today I learned about how passion should be a place where we can go to live life. Thank you to YS for that one.

And if you have a kid playing basketball at any level, you should pass this post along to his/her coaches. I think they will find it valuable, and it will at least challenge their thinking.

One thing my high school coach told me: If you know it all, then it's time to stop playing because the game is about to pass you by.

#11 You Be Doin' Bad

#11, you are awesome!!  Girl, I watched you play a week ago and I could tell you could play from the time you stepped on the floor to shoot at halftime of the J.V. game. Let me give you a whole bunch of "atta girl"s for the game that you have grabbed.

Now that I've said that to you, let me give you some free advice. Keep pushing. I counted at least 6 times during your game that you could have pushed the ball right down the face of the defense but you held up. Why? To run that silly, ridiculous offense? Stop it! Just stop it! There was no one on the floor who could stop you. Wait, I take that back. There was one player who did stop you. That player is you.

I want you to think of it this way. If you take the first quarter and establish your dominance, what do you think is going to happen? I'll tell you. The other coach is going to call time-out and furiously devise something to try and stop you. Probably a double team or some kind of sinking man defense. Now, when that happens, what should you do? Still look to score, but now you know that you have your team-mates as great options because the defense is keying on you. Do you want that #23 to go off for 20? Then get your 20 in the first half. You can do it, you got the game.

And if you don't bust for 30 at least once this year, shame on... well, shame on someone.

Coaches, if you have a kid with this kind of talent, stop bottling her up to run your offense. Turn her loose! Let her be the player that she really is! She has earned that level of respect from you.

Basketball should be creative and fluid

Basketball at its highest level is a game that inspires creativity. That's what you should be working on, inspiring your players to be creative, to use their imaginations to play one step ahead of their competition. I think this is one of those life lessons that basketball can specifically address. To grab life and use it. To take the rules of the game - or the rules of life - and see what you can do within those rules. To play - and live - larger than you ever dreamed possible. To embrace failing, to love to fail, because that means you are out there doing things.

I was at a game the other night and this really struck home for me because of what I saw. One team, we will call them Stillcher high school (those of you in my home town can figure this out - it's an anagram), was simply superior than the other team. Superior at every position, maybe the post was a push, but certainly better at every other position. And they had one kid - #11, you know who you are - that could have busted for 30.

Stillcher won, but the game was a squeaker. Here's why, I think. Stillcher was determined to run their flex offense until they got the shot they wanted, which was usually that little elbow shot, but sometimes they got a layup out of it. Now that looks really good to folks in the stands. They're saying things like, "Wow! Look how well coached they are." Or, "They can really run their offense great." But the question is: does that offense really utilize the talent they have? I don't think so. To me this is a coach who wants the team to reflect what HE knows, not what the players know. There's huge difference. We will address when we talk about NCAA and NBA basketball later.

If you are determined to run the flex for your youth basketball team - and I strongly, emphatically advise against it with every molecule in my body screaming no! no! no! - please make some adjustments to it. More on that tomorrow. I'll finish with this note: let your kids play the game. Don't make them play your game.