Passing and Receiving

Passing and Receiving Thoughts:

•If you can't pass and catch, you can't play
•Every pass is a shot, every shot is a pass
•Make a bad pass and you've taken away a shot
•Good pass= Right person, Right place, Right time

Transcending Ordinary Effort

Ordinary effort is when you're comfortable. That's mediocrity. A lot of athletes work within their comfort zone, physically and technically. They don't feel like they are going to lose control, or pass out from fatigue. But when you practice within your comfort zone you are not preparing yourself for a game. In a game situation, the other team is trying to take you out of your comfort zone. So, as soon as they do, you're in unfamiliar territory. You panic. You make a mistake, or lose the ball.

The challenge for you as an individual athlete is to find a way to elevate your environment. That's not easy. It's tough to keep yourself on edge independently. But this is what separates the truly great players apart. It is their capacity to do what Dorrance calls "flame on"--to hit a button and just ignite.

Take your practice to the most intense level and then your improvement is going to be remarkable. It will separate you from the ordinary.

--Taken from The Vision of a Champion by Anson Dorrance

Stringing Skills Together--Lesson of a rope

A message to the team during this first week of Individual Skill Development was to "string skills together." One of the biggest difficulties in teaching is getting the players (students) to understand how the immediate work relates to the performance in the future. Just as students ask in a geometry class, "Why do I need to do this?" I believe they think the same things during our Individuals at times, they don't understand why there is such a huge emphasis on so many separate "little things".

We discussed how a rope is made up of thousand of tiny strings. Each string represents a skill that we are working on. Jump stops, pivots, change of speed, ballhandling, high follow-through, etc. are all small strings that will lead to a strong rope.

Later in the week, we stressed that it's not enough just to be able to performa a skill, that skill needs to tie together with another skill (a pass leading to a shot, a catch leading to a shot.)

We want to strengthen the rope daily with our skill development.

The 5 Elements of Post Play

Coaches hear all the time that there are no post players anymore. Everyone wants to be a perimeter. But I disagree. The key is in defining "post play". Many associate the term with "Bigs", "Back to the basket". We define post play through these 5 elements:
1.) Transition--more heart than speed. It's simply consistent effort.
2.) Post Feeds--ability to get & stay open, creating an angle to score.
3.) Drives--Ability to drive & finish, creating space & scoring off the drive
4.) Cuts--Straight line cuts, weakside flashes, pass & cut, etc.
5.) Rebounds--Getting offensive rebounds, & Finishing putbacks

We refer to our "post play" through these elements--not by specific players or specific positions. We set game goals for points in the "post". Obviously, we are referring to the paint/ posting area. But we want as many players and opportunities to score in the "post".

We identify getting the ball inside by labeling our scores/ and paint touches--T,P,D,C,R

Pre-Season Planning--What's Your Pivot Foot Philosophy?

As we plan our pre season workouts, we review all of our teaching points and philosophy. We want to simplify our teaching. We want to look at what we need to emphasize-daily, weekly, etc. Reviewing tape from last season will give us great ideas where to begin. One of the things we will look at is our footwork. Every coach must decide on a pivot foot philosophy.

1.) Permanent Pivot Foot (PPF)-- the nondominant leg is used as the pivot foot at all times, i.e., a right handed player used the left foot pivoting while the left handed player uses the right foot. The advantage of this philosophy is that it is simpler and it places the player in a shooting position with the dominant foot in a staggered stance.

2.) Either Pivot Foot (EPF)--the left or right foot may be used as the pivot foot by both right and left handed players. The advantage of the EPF technique is the flexibility to meet all situations and it's coordination with the quick stop (where either foot may be used as a pivot foot).

Teaching Points On Passing From Our Elite Camp

Some of our Passing teaching points at our Elite Camp:

1. Technique—knowing how to do something the correct way
2. Good technique gives the player with limited ability a chance to be a good or even great player.

General Ideas On Passing:
• Not very many good passers any more
• Everybody likes a good passer
• Good passing teams are happy teams
• Look to point and say thanks

Great passers can do these things:
• Pass with either hand
• Work on passing anytime they have a ball and a teammate
• Understand the people they pass to (right person, right place, right time)
• Zip their passes—with proper spacing you cannot throw a flick pass to hard
• Make the easy (simple) pass and pass away from the defense

Passing
1. Triple threat position
2. Use vertical fakes
3. Look off your pass
4. Step into the pass
5. Put your wrist in their forehead (flick pass)

10 Lessons I Learned From UCF Elite Camp

Just a few notes I made during our Elite Camp:
1. Camps are the greatest opportunities to improve our teaching skills.
2. Putting players in position to teach reaps great rewards.
3. Teaching skills requires specificity.
4. Kids generally want to learn, want to be taught.
5. Young post players struggle with making and maintaining contact on the seal.
6. Players struggle putting multiple skills together.
7. Coaches must continue to figure out ways to teach stringing skills together.
8. Footwork--especially the "start step" is a weakness in even the best players.
9. Players confuse learning technique with "thinking too much".
10. As coaches we must develop the skill of transferring from Individual Workouts, To Practice, To Games. Slippage occurs in competition.

Skill Development--Isolate the skill, then Teach

A critical part to the game planning process is to identify the skills each player needs to perform the steps (tasks) involved in a particular play or sequence. After identifying the skills needed by the player, a team must a have a process in place for ensuring that their players develop these skills so that each play or player sequence is productive. Taking steps to develop these skills in every player occurs in two stages: Isolating the Skills & Teaching the Skills.


ISOLATE THE SKILLS
The first step in the process should be to analyze the tasks involved in the assignment of every player. Next, a decision must be made regarding whether the players have the ability to master the necessary skills. If it's determined that the ability of the players does not mesh with the skills required for a specific task. The Head Coach must either discard this part of his offensive plan or alter the play sequence to fit the level of talent.


Whatever the decision, the decision can be made easier if one strictly adheres to one of the cardinal principles of training--SPECIFICITY. This refers to the fact that "an individual gets what he trains for". All factors considered, the more specific his player's preparation, the better their performance.


TEACH THE SKILLS
Teaching players skills they need involves an evolutional process of promoting, enhancing, practicing and refining each facet of the capacity being developed. Rudimentary teaching progression of "hear it, see it, do it".

3 Areas of Skill Development

WHAT TO DO TO GET BETTER?

1. BE A BETTER ATHLETE
a. Lift. Sell out in the weight room.
b. Improve quickness.

2. DEVELOP SKILLS
a. Play, Play, Play
b. Spend time in the gym to work on your game. Be accountable.
c. Compete with time, score, etc.

3. ATTITUDE
a. Gives you the edge.
b. Deserve (merit earned through hard work)
c. Take ownership of your game.
d. Do something extra that the opponent hasn’t done.


Fundamentals are the skills that command attention
On a consistent daily basis.
No detail of execution is too small to overlook.
The truly great players are masters of fundamentals.

Objectives For Guard Play

Objectives For Guard Play

1. Create space on offense
2. North and South (no bellying out)
3. Body on body
4. Must be smart to be a guard
5. Focus on fundamentals, you’re not going to be great without them
6. Develop a “go to” move—have a hot spot
7. Between the legs is better than the crossover because the ball isn’t exposed to the defense.

Gordon Chiesa Offensive Development Thoughts

Notes from Utah Jazz Assistant, Gordon Chiesa

Back in 1999, I worked Rick Majerus’s camp and took these notes from Coach Chiesa’s clinic to the campers:

1. He was responsible for Hornacek and Stockton
2. Hands and feet are your career.
3. There are All-Stars who can’t catch the ball.
4. Must be in shape
5. Must be able to change speeds
6. Always cut with hands above waist
7. Play the game with hands above the waist
8. Body in motion, tends to stay in motion; body at rest tends to stay at rest.
9. Most cut to be guarded, rather than cut to get free.
10. When you change direction, you must rotate your hips.
11. Must be great with the ball to get the opponent in trouble.
12. The game is about confidence. Real confidence vs. False confidence
13. Establish a permanent pivot foot.
14. Bring the ball back to your body on a catch. “Load your gun”
15. The ball will only do what you teach it to do.
16. Master the skills. Ball quickness is key to being a great offensive player.
17. Always catch the ball with long arm. Explode your hand thru the defenders contesting arm.
18. These things are the building blocks of playing offense.
19. If your shot is blocked, your ball is slow.
20. Read the defense—Jazz spend 25-30 minutes working on this.
21. Long arm coming towards me, tells me to drive. Because his body weight is forward and he’ll come out of his stance—can drive either way—this is how you draw fouls—rotate hips; get up foot past his foot..body to body.
22. Most guys play laterally. Must play forward, body to body.
23. Spin dribble is a sign of weakness, means your ball is slow.
24. “Jump out” of your offensive move. Second dribble you clear the defender.
25. “Short arm” equals a stationary jumper.
26. Most players don’t know when to drive or shoot.
27. Watch great players to learn from their game.
28. Go at their body on drives.
29. Only 10 percent of players in the NBA can guard the ball.
30. Everything in the game is based on “hands and feet”
31. Too many players catch the ball, “lock Kneed”
32. Master the skills, it’s not about talent. Everyone has the talent to work hard and to work smart.
33. It’s fun to try to be great.
34. Mind-Body fusion.
35. Extraordinary work habits and mind.
36. Trying to chase greatness.
37. Make A Difference (MAD)
38. Step up be somebody and be a leader
39. Get your foot to the back foot of the defender.
40. You determine how far you will go.

Skill Development--Passing

It sounds so simple but the ability to pass and safely receive the basketball is an essential but often taken for granted skill. We are working in our IDW's on this skill as we prepare for next season. Listed are a few of the points we are emphasizing with our passing:

a. On time and on target
b. Pass away from the defense
c. Timing + Accuracy + Quickness + Deception
d. Pass fake, shot fake, go against momentum
e. See it all, Vision, Scan like John Stockton
i. A good player knows where he is on the court.
ii. A great player knows where everyone is on the court.
iii. A superb player knows where everyone is on the court and what everyone is going to do.
f. Hit the first open man
g. No Last Resort passing = dribble until you have exhausted every shot opportunity for yourself and then you pass
h. Give the ball to a three pointer at three and in rhythm

20 Thoughts & Observations From Non-Conference Play

Non-Conference Thoughts And Observations

I have put together some random thoughts and observations of our team and teams we have watched during the season in the non-conference. One of the things I enjoy about scouting and game preparation are the opportunities to learn. Not only do you learn about the opponent but all the teams that they play. We are constantly trying to improve our team by adapting things that we see. Listed below are 20 things I've thought about:

1. It's very hard to coach selfishness and immaturity.
2. Point guards that can control the tempo of a game are incredibly valuable.
3. The ability to penetrate and defend penetration.
4. Deep outlets put a lot of pressure on a defense.
5. Running along the side of the ball is not a stoping the ball in transition.
6. Players do not ealize the worth of starts, stops and turns.
7. Playing hard is a skill to develop.
8. Before teaching our players to lead others, we must first teach them to lead themselves.
9. Things that you can control, motivate you.
10. Develop the ability to maintain your stance for 30 seconds.
11. Finishing a 3/2, 2/1
12. Parents, Press, Peers
13. Communication--is part of skill development
14. Teach them how to watch tape
15. The art of simply hitting open shots
16. The ability to catch and shoot
17. Defining a shooter's range.
18. The value of ball reversal.
19. Teaching angles on offense and defense.
20. Cutting hard is a skill.

Good Player, Great Player, Superb Player

GOOD PLAYER, GREAT PLAYER, SUPERB PLAYER

Positioning, Anticipation and Technique give Quickness; Therefore, you can always get quicker.
A Good player knows where he is on the court.
A Great player knows where everyone is on the court.
A Superb player knows where everyone is on the court and what everyone is going to do.

Looking For Ways To Win--What Is A Workout

WHAT IS A WORKOUT?

· A workout is 25% PERSPIRATION and 75% DETERMINATION. Stated another way, it s one part physical exertion and 3 parts self-discipline. Doing it is easy once you get started.

· A workout makes you better today than you were yesterday.

· A workout is a personal triumph over laziness and procrastination. It is the badge of a WINNER—the mark of an organized, goal-oriented person who has taken charge of his or her destiny.

· A workout is a wise use of time and an investment in EXCELLENCE. It is a way of preparing for life’s challenges and proving to yourself that you have what it takes to do what is necessary.

· A workout is a key that helps unlock the door to OPPORTUNITY and SUCCESS. Hidden within each of us is an extraordinary force. Physical and mental fitness are the triggers that can release it.

3 Ingredients To Every Player's Success

3 INGREDIENTS TO EVERY PLAYER’S SUCCESS
1. Self-Discipline
2. Competitive Fire
3. Self-Belief
Identify and fortify fragile areas.Player development must be a strength as a coach

Definition of Insanity

Albert Einstein’s Definition of Insanity:
“To continue to do the same thing
But expect different results.”

Skill Development Teaching Progression

SKILL DEVELOPMENT TEACHING PROGRESSION
Identifying skills:
· Identify the skill
· Break the skill down
· Replicate game situations
Teaching the skill:
· SEE THE SKILL—Demonstrate correctly
· FEEL THE SKILL—Execute the skill
· PROPERLY AND QUICKLY REPLICATE THE SKILL TO AD NAUSEUM

Details & Skill Development

Repetition creates skills. Commitment to detail creates great skills. The great ones think in detail.

Skill Development--Three Areas To Develop As A Player

Three areas to develop as a player:

1. Skills
2. Understanding how to play the game
3. Strength and Conditioning