We dropped another game, but we looked better. We simply could not make a shot, and we could not stop our opponent’s best player who was the biggest, strongest, fastest player on the court and played point guard. It was a tough match-up. We should have done better, but we’re learning. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘drills’
Coaching Frosh Basketball – Week 5
Friday, December 23rd, 2011Coaching Frosh Basketball – Week 2
Sunday, December 4th, 2011We lost our first game, and we did not look ready. We were down early, fought back, fell behind again, and fought back again, which hopefully gives us something to build upon. We did not shoot well and made plenty of mistakes, but we never gave up or put our heads down. Our primary weaknesses were transitioning to defense (they leaked out early), talking on screens, and boxing out. Offensively, game speed took us out of our comfort zone. Hopefully, getting the first game under our belts will increase the intensity and urgency at practice now that we have seen the expectations of high school players. (more…)
Planning a Youth Basketball Practice
Saturday, November 5th, 2011A friend emailed and asked for advice, as he volunteered to coach his son’s youth basketball team. As in many leagues, most of the players are beginners, and teams only practice for an hour or two each week before playing their weekend games (and people wonder why youth leagues are overly-competitive with a 1:1 practice:game ratio; leagues are teaching parents and players that practice is unimportant, and games matter most, primarily because practices are inefficient from a profit standpoint). Here is a sample practice plan. (more…)
Developing Better Game Passers
Friday, June 10th, 2011For drills to be effective, they must transfer to better game performance. Many coaches spend a lot of practice time on drills like three-man weaves or two-line passing drills, yet continue to complain about their players’ passing skills. The problem is the constraints: the constraints of a three-man weave differ from the constraints of completing a pass in a game. (more…)
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts Developing Talent in Young Players
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010A New York Times article by by Rob Hughes titled “Recipe for Soccer Success: Let Young Talent Blossoms” juxtaposes the efforts of China and the United States to develop its next generation of footballing stars with the development of the world’s best footballer, Lionel Messi.
“He wasn’t trained, he was born like this,” Ernesto Vecchio, the garage mechanic, says in a documentary, “Los Origenes de Messi,” that traces the roots of the world’s most beguiling soccer talent.
Watch that documentary, by Michael Robinson, and marvel at the humility of everyone around Messi, from his parents to his mentors. Essentially, they knew what he was capable of becoming, and they knew that the best they could do was simply let it develop — on the streets, in the parks, on the dusty courtyard where he and the ball were inseparable.
Of course, this approach differs greatly from the common approach in the United States, where structured practices, games and training session start at an early age and create a regimented development program for an aspiring athlete.
Hughes references an out of print book titled Common Sense about Soccer written by Nils Middelboe, a Danish merchant banker who played as an amateur for Chelsea in 1913.
He used the phrase “to systematize is to sterilize” in imploring coaches not to overload kids with theories, not to spoil their joy in letting imagination guide them with the ball. Even then, back in the 1950s and 1960s, Middelboe feared the regimentation of adults’ inflicting their control on kids.
Of course, Middleboe’s fear echoes the refrain from books like Josh Waitzkin’s The Art of Learning and more academic books like Talented Tennagers by Mihalyi Csiszentmihalyi and Benjamin Bloom’s Developing Talent in Young People.
To develop talent in young people, the first stage is a time of exploration and discovery, a time to ignite the youngster’s passion. Technique and “the right way” are of lesser concern. Instead, coaches and parents must create an environment that allows the players the space and freedom to explore and develop an interest in the activity.
Children like to play, it is in their nature to play, try new things, explore, test out new ways to do things and more. Unfortunately, coaching often stifles these instincts and directs players to one way of doing things. Coaches and parents offer a structured environment which, in Middleboe’s words “sterilizes” the athletes.
With young players, details are not important. Instead, keep practices and games active and continue challenging players to learn new things and try new skills. Ignite their passion for the game rather than dampening their enthusiasm. Create a playful environment rather than eliminating play in favor of drills and instruction.
By Brian McCormick
Author, Cross Over: The New Model of Youth Basketball Development
Director of Coaching, Playmakers Basketball Development League
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts The Purpose of Practice
Saturday, June 19th, 2010Last week, I spent the week running basketball camps for a high school coach. We had sessions for high school players; 6th-8th graders; and 3rd-5th graders.
With each session, I had a different purpose. However, I managed the camp based on the players’ enthusiasm: if they appeared to enjoy something, we continued; if they did not, we stopped.
Old school coaches would think the camps for 3rd – 5th graders were a joke, but several parents asked us to run the camp again every week of the year. I probably spent no more than 20 minutes per day on drills, and we never played a second of 5v5. On the last day of camp, as I tried to create some new, fun games, we played capture the flag with basketball rules for almost 90 minutes and the players never lost their enthusiasm. In fact, it was the first time all week that they were not begging me to play steal the bacon by the end of the first hour.
I have never directed a camp (or practice) with so little actual basketball, but I do not know if I have ever had a camp as successful. The players appeared to love playing team tag, dribble tag, sharks & minnows, steal the bacon and capture the flag. Not once did a player ask to scrimmage or play a “real game.” In fact, by the last day, when I tried out freeze tag (did not go as well as planned: cannot play freeze tag with equal numbers per team), the players actually finished a game and started the next game without me having to say anything.
I think the camp was successful because I got out of the way. During capture the flag, I had to intervene once because there were too many disagreements about who got tagged or whether someone should have been in jail or not, but once I explained that we were going to play fair or play not at all, we had no issues. In fact, in the last game, there was a close call as to whether a player crossed the line before getting tagged and I asked the tagger if he got him in time and he said no – he played fair even when given the opportunity to decide the outcome of the game.
Even when we did drills, we went for short spurts and worked on important skills, so the players maintained their enthusiasm. I essentially focused on lay-ups, ball handling, jump stops, pivots and passing during the week – I did not introduce shooting to this group. One day, we did a right-hand lay-up drill (not the most skilled players in the world and many were beginners) for over 20 minutes and nearly every player maintained his enthusiasm and effort level throughout the drill with no direct supervision (I walked around to six different baskets).
The key with this age group is to make the activity fun so that they want to continue. I concentrated on agility and ball handling the most because the skills are most accessible to the age group and the games are easy and fun. As a bonus, improvement was visible.
I tried a couple generic straight-line ball handling drills to introduce the proper technique for dribbling. One young player was in front of me, s I watched him most intently. He struggled. He slapped at the ball and could not keep his head up at all. Later, when I watched him while we played dribble tag, he attacked other players, changed directions, controlled his dribble and looked up. He was a much better ball handler and practiced more game-like skills while playing tag than during a straight-line drill. If that is the case, why even bother with the boring drill when the fun game involved more realistic practice and improvement?
The 6th-8th grade group was more difficult because of the disparity of talent. Some players would not have been too good for the 3rd-5th grade session, while several would have been okay with the high school players. There were also several cliques of teammates, which always makes a camp environment tougher.
However, these players rarely lost their enthusiasm. Every drill had a purpose and an end-goal, and we moved quickly between skills and games. For instance, when I introduced shooting, each group made 20 shots at a spot and then moved to the next practice. While the goal may interfere with learning to some degree (players concentrate on making shots rather than learning the correct shooting technique), the goal maintained concentration.
On the final day, I split the group into 3v3 teams and we played 3v3 games to 3 baskets. I put the bigger, older players at one end and the younger, smaller player at the other end. When I watched the older players, I was disappointed by a lack of effort. We had played an advantage passing game before the 3v3 and it was probably the poorest effort of the camp. I gathered the older players and asked for help. I explained that they were not playing with any enthusiasm or effort in this drill or the previous drill. I asked if they wanted to continue or move on. Several suggested a move to cut-throat, rather than the 3v3 games. I had them finish a couple more games and then we played cut-throat. After the discussion, they played hard for the rest of the camp, and again there were no complaints about the lack of full-court games or 5v5 or “real basketball.”
When coaching young players, sometimes we allow our adult sensibilities and perspective to get in our way. Young players do not need to develop adult-level skills. It does not matter if none of the players shoots like Ray Allen or handles like Steve Nash. Instead, the goal is to make the game fun so the players want to play more. Sometimes that means fewer drills or less specific skill development and more fun games and general skill development (tag, for instance).
Do you have any great ideas for summer basketball camps? Please share in the forum.
By Brian McCormick
Director of Coaching, Playmakers Basketball Development League
Join the forum discussion on this post - (2) Posts Should Youth Basketball Practices be Fun?
Monday, October 12th, 2009My friend Sefu Bernard posted the link to this video on his twitter feed. Enjoy.
How does the video relate to basketball practice? If making it fun to walk up the stairs encourages more people to walk up the stairs, can a coach change his players’ behavior through fun drills as opposed to yelling or running?
Basically, do drills need to be fun?
When players do not pay attention at practice, or when a coach believes that the players are not playing hard, coaches tend to yell or make the players run. Why?
Running does not motivate the players to play harder or pay attention. If anything, this behavior creates an antagonistic relationship between coach and player. Instead, a coach wants to create an environment where the coach and players work together to meet similar goals.
When I see players losing focus, I change the drill. I want to end a drill at its peak, before the effort, intensity, execution and interest start to wane.
I also try to keep drills fresh so players feel like they are constantly learning something new. For instance, rather than doing zigzag defensive slides, I use a drill called “Mirror Defense.” Rather than do straight-line ball handling drills, I play tag. My goals are the same, but the drills are more active, competitive and fun.
By Brian McCormick
Director of Coaching, Playmakers Basketball Development League
Ray Allen Shooting Instruction
Saturday, September 5th, 2009Boston’s Ray Allen is regarded as one of the top shooters in the history of the NBA. In this clip, he explains a couple basics of his shot and also a couple basic drills, especially the “+1/-2 Drill” which is also called the “+10/-10 Drill.”