I always love watching these soundbites from behind the bench of games. I wish all college and high school coaches were mic'd up like this. This clip was from the playoff game yesterday between the Celtics and the Heat, Coach Doc Rivers and Coach Erik Spoelstra:
I caught most of the end of season press conference by an embattled Jay Triano, head coach of the Toronto Raptors the other day. My big takeaway was the idea of creating a culture of accountability. Some quotes from the press conference:
"Do I have to demand more discipline from these guys who maybe aren't going to be professionals and act in a professional manner every single game? Absolutely. I have to make adjustments. Just like players have to get better in the off-season, I have to make adjustments as well."
Often times, you hear the phrase, "coach is too soft on them, he's not tough enough". In my opinion, it's not about being "tough" on your players, it's about making them accountable. Players have to know what is expected them, what is acceptable and what is not. You don't have to be "tough" on them to make your players accountable.
What kind of culture are you striving to create? What are your non-negotiables?
I always like to watch the benches when I watch games, I can always tell the culture of the team by watching the bench, and how players behave when on the bench. When I look at the Raptors bench this season, I didn't always see a team that was business-like and focused on the same goal.
Along this theme of accountability, I was observing a Spring Football practice the other day and there were several questions that I left thinking about afterwards:
What is your policy on dealing with lates to practices?
Do you allow players to come in late? How do you think this is perceived by other players on the team? Why are players are allowed to waltz into practice late and start participating in drills?
How do you deal with the alpha-dogs on your team?
Are you consistent in your treatment of players? How is this perceived by the other players? Why are certain players allowed to take plays off and not others? When and how do you choose to deal with motivation issues with your star players?
I was going through some newer notes today and went through some notes from a coaches clinic with Mario De Sisti. It broke down some of the youth programs from different countries around the world. The idea of standardizing how fundamentals are taught I think is important when trying to develop consistency from place to place.
Specifically, this one below from France was quite intriguing to me. I like the idea of focusing only on offense for the first while. The skills involved with shooting, dribbling, and passing require much more time to develop. Defense comes much more naturally and isn't so much a skill but rather attitude and communication.
I also like the idea of introducing transition basketball only after players have a certain mastery of the fundamentals (maybe Gr 7 or higher). Too many times at the lower levels, its the taller athletic kids that go coast to coast over and over who score. Force the kids to play within the 3-point line, then gradually add transition offense afterwards.
Anyways, here is the extract for you to read yourselves:
France – sport school system (CPEQ)
Analyze the fundamentals. You must be “fussy” about corrections. If you do not correct at the student level you will have problems at the cadet etc.
Mini level should be fun. Do teach spacing.
30 minutes – fundamental
Shooting games
Dribble games
Passing games
Mentality – don’t be afraid to make mistakes
Players need to learn to receive the ball inside and outside. Play guards inside posts play outside.
Defensive pick up points
Student – 1st year - inside the 3 point line, 2nd year – ½ court
Cadet – 1st year – ¾ court, 2nd year – full court
Also the intensity changes as you move through the different categories.
Periodization
Student – 100% offense – do not teach defense – learned through the offensive skills
Cadet – offense / defense no transition
Junior – offense / defense / transition
First three to four months – only offensive skills with GUIDED defense
Second three to four months – 70% defense / 30% offense
Last 2 months – transition / offense / defense
Conditioning is done through the drills
This allows the players to keep concentration on the skills being learned. If you jump around players are not aware of the concepts being learned. Players cannot remember form one day to the next.
Catching up on news from last week, this is a nice video tribute of Coach Don Nelson who recently became the NBA's winningest coach with 1,333 wins surpassing Lenny Wilkins. Coach Nelson is the only coach of the top 5 winningest coaches that has never reached an NBA final. I think his greatest moment was when the 8th seeded Warriors beat the 1st seeded Mavs in 2007. Anyways, enjoy...
For those of you who happen to teach physics, this is a neat little video you could use in the classroom especially if you have some basketball players in your class. The analysis was produced by Sports Science and aired on ESPN showing the last shot attempt by Gordon Hayward of Butler which almost won them the national title game over Duke this past Monday.
Key terms:
- launch angle
- velocity
- x-axis
Can you tell that I'm in lesson planning mode... Anyways, enjoy the rest of your weekend.
You hear often times that your are what you emphasize. I think intuitively when we teach good defense to close out hard with high hands to challenge the shot and not foul. When in the lane, we definitely want to go chest-to-chest. I came across these set of notes the other day from Dick Bennett which talks about "Walling Up On Defense". Basically what we already teach our players, but framed in a way in which you can emphasize with your players easily during practices and games, here ya go:
Of all the techniques we teach on defense, "Walling Up" is probably the single best thing we do as a program. It is drilled every day in some shape form or fashion, it is emphasized in every live ball situation, and it's something you hear at least one player or coach from the bench yell when the situation arises in a game.
We believe by Walling Up we save outselves 3 to 5% points of defense and 3 to 5 fouls per games on our players. That keeps our posts out of foul trouble, it helps our rebounding, it keeps our opponents off the free throw line (where we can't defend), and provides a mind set that builds the rest of our defense. Walling Up most often occurs in the paint (lane) when an opponent is trying to score. Statistically speaking even the very best players in the game don't make a very high percentage of contested shots. We Wall Up in the post to force players to score over the top of us rather than around us (You put both hands straight up in the air when you wall up and put your body on the offensive player. You don't even have to jump.) We Wall Up on the perimeter to take away vision of a shot or pass you do not put your body on them in this situation.)
The basic technique is to keep your boyd "straight up" without bringing your hands/arms down. In practice we force players to over exaggerate our angles knowing that in a game situation it's a natural tendency to reach a little.
*Teaching Point: The hardest thing to teach is to keep your feet moving and lower body moving to take up opponents space before they have terminated their dribble of pivot.
*The Best Way to teach this technique: Give the ball to an offensive player with his back to the basket on the block on the right side of the rim. Tell the offensive player to take one dribble to the middle of the floor and turn around and shoot a jump shot over the Walled Up Defender. The defender will need to body up to the offensive player and keep both hands up high.
*This technique will win five games a season for you. DS (I don't have any research on this, but I do believe it.) Plus it is fun to teach and emphasize!
Here are a few pictures of NBA players I found that help to illustrate this basic defensive concept around the basket,
Here is a picture of walling up a player a little further away from the basket to prevent an easy pass,
For more info on M2M defensive concepts and guidelines for running the packline defense, check out Dick Bennett's DVD on pressure defense. Coach Bennett is retired formerly of the head coach of Wisconsin and Washington State.
Pre Final Four Interview with Coach Krzyzewski
Posted by bruchu Labels: *NCAA, Motivation and Leadership
Like most of you, I'm getting really excited about the games tomorrow at the Final Four begins in Indianapolis. From the PBS talk show Charlie Rose yesterday, here is a great 1/2 hour interview with Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski. Unfortunately, I can't embed the clip, you can view the entire clip online on the Charlie Rose website. They talked about a number of different topics and I've added some of the best quotes below:
On Adapting to Your Players Year to Year:
We had to change, half-court defenders, rebounders. Less drive and kick, pressure full court defense.
You have to decide what team you are. Are you a drama, a comedy... then combine that with the basics of being good defensively.
On Trust:
When asked why he is so successful? There is instant trust.
I'm not more melo, I listen better. I let people talk more than when I was younger. I trust my people more.
Shoot your bullets, don't leave anything on the court. I tell players to trust their instincts.
Don't over talk your players so that their cup overfills. Allow your players to fill it up on their own.
It's not about what you know, it's about what the players know and can do. If you fill your players with too much info, they're thinking more about what to remember then reacting.
On Player Roles:
The rebounder is as important as the shooter. The rebounders have to believe that they are playing as an important role as the one taking the shot.
Well, hope y'all enjoy the games as I will. Anyways, if you are a big Duke fan like me check out Mike Krzyzewski's new All Access Duke Basketball Practice 4-pack DVD which includes 438 minutes of practice and Q&A with Coach K.
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