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hoopologist

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  1. Personally, I'd be working the dickens out of passing and catching drills in my practice planning if it's an issue of that magnitude. I'm always puzzled why practice planning does not reflect game efficacy and the lack thereof. If you spend 80% of your on-court time being gang-tackled AND you are not marching to the foul line, then it seems foolish to spend half of practice shooting free throws. My boss used to do this stuff and it drove the rest of the staff crazy. Spending 30% of our practice time on things we might use 2% of the time in game situations. Ugh. Every kind on your team should be carrying a ball around, dribbling it to school, sleeping with it, bouncing off a wall..working with a tennis ball, opening pistachios, playing piano...anything and everything for manual dexterity.
  2. Hey Rob, I'd suggest working in your practice breaking the press 5 on 8. Have the offense bring the ball against 8 defenders and run whatever it is you're committed to running. Then once you've run that a few reps take a defender off the floor. Run a few reps and then take two defenders off the floor. Ideally you're kids will have overcome the complexity of 8 defenders (though making a lot of mistakes) then find it a bit easier to go against 5. IN game situations it is then helpful to remind them - should they lose composure, that they've broken a eight-man press every day in practice. Of course this presumes you're running something sound against the press in the first place:-)
  3. Hello Frank, I've read your question regarding the contrasts between Motion and a "read and react" offense. I have also looked through about half of the pages of the pdf posted above me in the thread. I suppose my primary question would be "what exactly are the offensive players reading and reacting to?". As a coach I believe we must presume every student knows nothing about the game of basketball while at the same time looking for players (which I'll call College Recruiting) who have a lot of basketball savvy. The first allows us as coaches to properly prepare for the art of teaching - and that is what coaching is. The second helps the first and gives us a chance to do some other things in that teaching as the result of "better" players. I bring this up because I actually find the concept of "high IQ" being a negative requirement of a player to be quite upsetting. I'm building young people for the world of tomorrow and I'm doing it through sport. Ergo cultivating a player who can think and is not an automaton is critical both to my basketball tactics and society. Motion is a very challenging offense to teach. That sentence also tells you why it is challenging. It requires real teaching. There are no patterned movements. Players must be taught to read their defender and how to respond to that read. They must be taught how to play without the basketball - a very tough thing in the current day of hourly ESPN highlites which emphasize only offense (with the ball highlites). And that teaching needs to be drilled over and over, often in varied ways to reach the myriad of minds on the court - just like the classroom. As diagramed I'd have a few issues with Read and React. First it claims to allow freedom and excitement but also states that Motion has too much freedom. So right off the bat my spidey sense is tingling. Second, it mandates that in order for a guarded player to get open he either beats his man off a cut or off a dribble. These two things are fine but they are incomplete as far as offensive basketball goes. Furthermore, I believe the diagramed offense would place younger players in a position to make passes beyond their capacity AND place offensive players far too close to the baseline allowing better defenders to utilize the baseline as an extra defender. The spacing of the offense is very nice but I'd question the statement that it is simple enough for youngsters AND complex enough for pros. Some of the components of the read offense are in the Motion offense but that is about as much as I can say in terms of similarities. For a coach who does not understand when to make a basket cut, a replace cut, or a shallow cut, for the coach who does not understand the position of the defender that warrants each of these cuts, or for the coach who dies understand them but simply doesn't want to or cannot convey them to his personnel, Motion is not a very good choice. A patterned offense for that particular coach would likely be more fruitful.
  4. 1. Doubtful 2. Then why bother playing :-)
  5. In my view, a true Motion Offense cannot have patterned play. I do realize that coaches like John Calipari (and others) run offensive sets they call "motion" but I cannot, for the life of me, tell you why they call it Motion. I base this on my studies of the offense run by Pete Newell and Bob Knight - and their subsequent book together on Motion Offense - as well as my running it first as a collegiate assistant then with several high school programs as Head Coach. THAT offense would be very difficult to teach to the level of player you are referencing. In fact it has been very challenging to teach at the high school AND collegiate levels. It is, in my humble opinion, an offense that requires rolling up sleeves and really teaching the game. Plus it mandates having players learn the system over time and for this reason it does not translate well into the JuCo levels of play. If the discussion is about the Calipari brand of "motion" then the rules of teaching apply there just as they would to the Flex, Wheel, 1-4, t-game et al. You determine what you can and cannot do with your personnel, map out your teaching plan, and break down the offense to teach it's elements. If those things go very well then your team executes reasonably well (as there's always slippage). If one of those areas lags, then so too does the execution.
  6. It's been years since I coached at the middle school level. I personally don't see the point in segregating the 7th and 8th graders; especially if they are going to be playing together. Having an assistant is very helpful. Having a skilled one is a blessing. Some kids will want to come to the practice floor early and get some individual work. My personal philosophy is one that is embraced by my very tolerant guitar instructor. Building habits of doing things properly is critical. Repetitions of poor mechanics ingrains poor mechanics. It does very little "good" to do things 100 times poorly. Better to do it twice properly. A master coach sees what is going on right there in front of him. If players are "getting it" fine. If they are not then the fellow needs to have the guts to set his ego aside and stop what is going on in favor of instructions that will reinforce good basketball. Most coaches don't do this as they only have interest in running a crafty offense so onlokers will praise their efforts, their skill, and their ego. Such is life. Give the kid as much attention as you can without neglecting others needing development. Give him snacks. Give him things he can take home so that he is empowered to become a player, not manipulated into being one. Watch his progress and teach him according to his play. We coach people not plays.
  7. The best offense is a good defense and apparently your opponents are putting that to the test. Giving up transition baskets is three-fold: - handing the ball to the other team (turnovers) - poor offensive balance ("no one rotating back") - unwillingness or inability to run the floor in defensive tranistion If you're taking care of the basketball then you really don't have to worry about transition goals. Yes some teams will run off the rim or even off of your made baskets. I never pay to much attention to that nonsense. If you're not taking care of the basketball then it really doesn't matter if The Flash is your point guard and Wonder Woman is sitting on the baseline...your kids aren't going to stave off a transition assault all game long with hustle and offensive balance. I have yet to see (in 20+years of coaching) a team speed up AND take better care of the basketball. It's like trying to cut vegetables for your wife for dinner. Slow down and keep your fingers. However, for some coaches, this makes them incredibly uncomfortable because it exposes their stuff and mandates actual teaching. So coaches have to choose. Roll up the sleeves and get in there and deal with it or run around like organized chickens and hope no one notices because they're too busy being entertained.
  8. BC, Usually a question like this is contrasted with some other choice. So for me the question needs to be clarified. If you do not give him the 1-on-1 attention then you do what? Ignore him? Leave him? Allow him to develop by accident? I need a bit more, brother. To me the larger question is "what sort of 1-on-1 instruction do I provide?". You see we have a conundrum. This kid may be 6'4" and wind up as the best high school post player around. But he'll be very limited in collegiate programs at that size without perimeter skills. Or he could be a very skilled 8th grade ball handler on a team that likely has five talented ball handlers already. For me, I try to balance working these kids with agility drills first. Give him something he likes and don't make him do it for 40 minutes but elude that he'll have gains doing it every day for 5 minutes. Once he's jumping rope, handling the ball, et al, then you play him to his strengths (for you I presume it's his size) while building his weak areas. I would have to see him to actually assess such a thing and give a sound answer, but I suspect you already know. There's not much mental posturing for us to do as coaches until the young man has coordinated his four limbs with the trunk of his body. Start there.
  9. Hello Rob, I appreciate the opportunity your kids get in playing this team you mention. Why? Because life is often not fairly officiated. Frequently throughout our adult lives someone is "reaching in" or doing something that we perceive as being "not fair". It is absolutely a scarce and rare opportunity for your staff and players to learn and grow as human beings. The growth opportunity is reflected in the degree of frustration you experienced. I've been there - some very hostile environs. As a staff figure out the best way to maximize the learning for your student athletes. To tell you only this would leave you in a lurch. It's is philosophical in nature. And while every great coach is at least a mediocre philosopher, we need something pragmatic too. Teams that reach and grab play defense with their upper bodies. Almost without except this leaves defenders incredibly vulnerable. Yes there are some very gifted players who can compensate for the off-balance that comes with upper body defense (as opposed to defense with the legs) but very few players are immune to being exploited when they shift their center of gravity with the upper extremities. Had you considered pulling your offensive set(s) up above the foul line? If this is an aggressive defense and that aggression is manifest in reaching AND positioning up above the passing lanes you may be able to get some isolation and backdoor movement which can break the defense back into a more passive position. Obviously I could say "be strong with the ball" but most of my coaching cliché we're played out many years ago and that tank is relatively empty. Also bear in mind that officials are often more likely to blow a whistle on action in the paint than they are on the perimeter. Nothing torques me more than listening to fans complain about discrepancies in foul totals when one team plays in the post and the other passes around the perimeter. If you have a post game or if your perimeter players can score in the paint you might levelize the trips to the charity stripe.
  10. hoopologist

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    I'm in a bit late on this one and for that I apologize. I tend to be very direct as a coach with recruits and players. And I'll be direct with you, hoping to get at some things in short order. Keep doing what you're doing you'll keep getting what you're getting. As coaches we make choices; choices about boundaries, rules, parameters, the acceptable and the deal breakers. And then we must live with the juice of our choices. So please, if you are not happy with life's current nectar, toss something else into the mix, mindfully. I presume you are working with a high school squad since you mention film and 8th graders. To me, game coaching mandates refinement and reinforcement. If you are doing most of your vocal work (coaching) during the games (tests) then either you're not doing enough during practice or what you are doing during practice needs to be much more effective. If your players haven't "got it" by game time ...it's just not going to happen. It is not breaking down video that makes a team better. It is HOW that video is used. And I have no idea how that's being employed so I'll let that pass by for now. If it's not effective then spend that time doing something that is. I will tell you that my philosophy of the game is slightly different than that of some of the other posters. To me a burning desire to win is a given for someone involved in competitive athletics. If you have to convince your kids of that, then you're the wrong hire for the gig. To me, what is far more important is your desire to facilitate playing well. We want to play well every night. Some night's we play well and lose. I don't complain. We played well. Other nights we do not play well and win - I tend to "highlight" the areas in which we lacked in performance. There are two basic schools of thought on basketball (again, as I see it); surprise and change and simplicity and execution. To me, the former tends to win games early in the season. The latter tends to win championships. There is nothing more gratifying from a coaching standpoint then teaching kids to do something well. There are a myriad of ways to change the consciousness of your players. Here's two. The first is something that I observed Coach Hurley do in his practice in Jersey. And that is to remove the concept of "out of bounds". The ball is ALWAYS live and in play. Let me tell you, you have never seen a hungrier group of players scampering all over creation to secure the basketball. The second is to simply reorient the scoring mentality in practice. Reduce the points awarded for made field goals and increase the points for pressuring, five second counts, ten second counts, deflections, turnovers and steals. I can almost guarantee you will have a radically different practice. You can run your kids till they're blue in the face, talk philosophy like Martin Buber, or spin tales like Uncle Remus. Shift the nature of scoring and you'll shift the nature of competition.
  11. Not every player is a scorer. In fact the odds drop exponentially as a player advances up the ladder. I have really relished the kids I recruited who made other players better, who were unselfish, who understood the significance of involving others at each phase of the contest. To me that is a higher order skill than being a basketball "meat eater", which as you point out many kids already are. Perhaps cultivate this players abilities as he's currently displaying them so tht he may be "special" and set himself apart from the sea of greedy players that ultimately are a dime a dozen at Metro Index. The other side of the coin is that he will absolutely have to shoot the basketball if for no other reason than to occupy a defender and be guarded. A player who sees the floor, passes fundamentally, and sets up other players winds up with very easy scoring opportunities as a result. A balanced player is far more valuable (to himself, his peers, his family and the game) then one who plays like everyone else. Just my two cents after twenty years at every level. Take what you will. Leave the rest.
  12. Hello John, I don't post here very often but for whatever reasons I'm in today and found your post. There are a couple of points I'd like to touch on. Perhaps in that effort I will provide you some answer(s) or at very least add some juice to the thought process so that you may find your own unique answer. Your first three points are so very common in developing players. In fact players at every level have issues with both setting and moving around screens. It's tough to scale mountains in two hours a week. Pick your battles. One of the most difficult things for coaches to do is to be able to let go of their attachment to a particular pattern or set in order to coach the kids they have. I'll rephrase it this way, we coach kids, not plays. So the ability of a coach to look and see the strengths and weaknesses of their players THEN do something based on that assessment is not only critical to the development of individuals but to the cohesion that is the very definition of "team". Some teams simply should not put the ball on the floor for any reason other than going to the basket or improving a passing angle. Perhaps this is your squad (at this moment) but since I cannot see them it would be foolish of me to assert such a thing. If this is your assessment of your group then to me the logical reaction in the coaching construct is to a) limit their dribbling by working them without the dribble in practice and using ball handling drills within the first 20 minutes of your practice. The other asset here would be sound teaching of the triple threat position when catching the basketball, EVERY SINGLE TIME. When practice time is limited it is mindful as a coach to give the players something they can do developmentally on their own time. For this you need two things; a clear simple explanation in practice and focused repetition. Humans learn best when receiving concepts in threes. So give them three drills they can do for individual ball handling. And do them over and over and over again. This will also give you an idea who is working hard from week to week. With the age of the kids you have I believe every kid needs to develop ball handling skills. Better to have them and not need them than need them and not have them. Skills and confidence build in parallel. What works for me may not work for you. However I would: - consider a volunteer coach that might have some proficiency with perimeter development - shift your paradigm away from point guard, shooting guard et all to one of post players and perimeter player - develop and utilize all of your perimeter players (easier said then done but far simpler than trying to produce a point guard) - individual ball handling drills (emphasized and repeated in practice) that kids can do in 9 minutes each day they are not at practice - half court play restricting the dribble utilizing the triple threat position And, of course, have fun. After all, we often take it far too seriously.
  13. I realize your season has ended. Your slow start (in my opinion only) comes back to your practice methods. Practice mirrors play (minus slippage). So if you're not getting what you feel is enough productivity on the offensive end early in games come back to your practice plan and make the begginings of practice meanmore. How? Well one way might be to scrimmage but in the first three minutes all field goals count as 4 points. Stess conversion and concentration early and prevent your team from socializing of goofing off. Make sure your drill work is designed such that players don't stand around waiting. Everyone involved or very short waits. As for the player who asked to be subbed I find the reply to be quite simple. You're coaching the team; not a player, not a dad in the stands, not the official. So if YOU want the kid outthen you certainly can pull him. I'd prefer to tell him I'm not concerned with what he did last but with what he's doign next. (or now). So he had a few turnovers. I'd think if he turned it over a third time in a row you might want him out as well. Just for a moment to regain his focus.
  14. So are we trying to cure mechanical ills here or mental ills? If the boy is being drilled in the mechanics of laying the ball up and he's improving and embracing the skill set then there may not be additional mechanical needs. You said "timid" so my guess here is that he can take the ball to the rack whenever he wants to and convert. BUT he's shying away, perhaps from contact. Let's find out what's going on in his thought process. If it were me, I'd start with a very passive chat. Could be your son is just too smart. The best guards in the lane are usually fearless and don't know they can get hurt in there. You could drill him on layups and use a football blocking pad to bang him each time. That might, MIGHT help him get past it as he becomes more comfortable with the contact. How is he around contact on the perimeter? Is he aggressive defending on-ball?
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