Playground Pointers

 

Below you see a growing list of the Playground Pointers I have written over the last decade in an effort to provide physical record to what "your coach" taught you and is all too often being overlooked in teaching the game today.  You can also find Playground Pointers in book form. 

Looking for infomation on a topic not already covered by a Pointer? Participate in the Basketball Highway Forum for active discussion on a variety of topics!

Playground Pointers: Stuff Good Players Should Know- The Book

Publishers Note: Over these past years our highly popular Playground Pointers have become a great collection of teaching points for coaches and players.  As our site continues to grow we must retire some content due to cost and space limitations.  To compensate for this retirement we have put Playground Pointers 1-36 into a book form which we encourage you to purchase to add to your coaching library.  We will continue to post a new Playground Pointers each month but retire some as we turn them into more permanent record of these outstanding tips for players.
The following chapter topics are now found only in our published book titled

Basketball Highway's Playground Pointers: Basic Stuff to Develop Your Game
by Alan Lambert
Basketball Highway's Playground Pointers
Basic Stuff to Develop Your Game
Author, Alan Lambert.
Published 2002.
188 pages
SKU: coacheschoice-1585187321
$19.95


Chapters in Playground Pointers: Stuff Good Players Should Know 1-36
·         Taming the Energy in Your Basketball Skills: Are You Under Control?
 
·         Contributing to Team Offense As An Individual Player: Are You A Facilitator or a Hindrance? 
·         Bringin' It From the Bench
·         Transition Isn't Throwing Away 
A Perfectly Good Fast Break Opportunity
 
·         Changing Your Speed and Rhythm: It's About Time!
 
·         Smart Pressure...It's All About Being in the Right Position
 
·         The Building Blocks for Making Good Court Decisions" 
·         Repeatability is the Key to Becoming a Great Player
 
·         Getting Recruited: Steps You Can Take to Improve Your Chances
 
·         Staying Focused: Getting Results Through Concentration and Awareness
 
·         Never Fear Pressure Again: Pivot To Avoid Trouble
 
·         To Shoot Or Not To Shoot: That is the Question?
 
·         Ain't No Cure for The Summertime Moves
 
·         How To Become A More Aggressive (Assertive) Player on the Court
 
·         Protect the Fort: Effectively Defending the Fast Break
 
·         Steal the Show!
 
·         The Basketball Alphabet!
 
·         Are You Lost in Space? The Art of Effectively Using Space on the Court
 
·         Fast Break By the Numbers!
 
·         FEETwork for Effective Post Play
 
·         Training for Team Tryouts!
 
·         Becoming Chairman of the Boards
 
·         Increase Your Hops!
 
·         Be a Helper, Be a Winner!
 
·         Dump It In to Win!
 
·         10 Tips to Help You Get More Playing time
 
·         Handling Defensive Pressure
 
·         How to Get your Shot Off Quickly: Combining Proper Technique and Shot Selection
 
·         Develop Good Practice Habits: Get on Top, Stay on Top
 
·         Tips on Playing Without the Ball:
Screening and Cutting
 
·         Learn to Pass the Rock and Get a Game
 
·         Becoming More Than a One Dimensional Player Gets You Playing Time
 
·         Learn to Play the Percentages
…A Skill Worth Learning
 
·         How to Use the Dribble
 
·         Tips on Defending a Scorer
 
·         Tips on Using Your Hands on Defense

Read Your Opponent Like A Book: Great Players Are Great Students of the Game

#47- Reading Your Opponent Like A Book:
Great Players are Great Students
by Alan Lambert
Introduction
Today's Playground Pointer may be one of the more unusual I have written in recent years because it's much less about a specific basketball technique and much more about using your eyes and ears to reading your opponents body and position cues to provide valuable clues to tip off what they are doing.  This type of basketball knowledge is what allows experienced players to seemingly be a step faster and a step ahead on the court.   Being a student of your opponent can provide you a significant advantage in the game.  For players who are just beginning to play basketball this topic will be difficult because your library of basketball knowledge is not large enough to pick up relevant cues to gain this advantage.  For you I encourage you to read today's Pointer with the idea of watching older, more skilled players, and watching what they do.  Make mental notes and store them in your library.  Theoretically the more basketball games you watch and play, the larger your library of basketball knowledge becomes.  However if you are not a student of the game, you may be missing some of the most important tools you can assemble in becoming a great basketball player.  Because great players are always students of the game.  That is the focus of today's Pointer.
I am not completely sure where I picked up the habit but somewhere early in my basketball playing childhood someone taught me to be observant of my opponents.  Whenever I walk in the gym, no matter which player I may be guarding or which team I'm playing against, I immediately begin a study of that opponent.  Whether as a team or my individual player to whom I am assigned I am a quick study.  I watch for things like, pet moves, skill limitations (such as a weak left hand, or the inability to push the dribble out behind a defender) provide many clues to how I can better compete against that opponent.  For teams it has more to do with tendencies like always starting their offense to the right side of the court, always making bounce passes to the post, or defensively being a team that fails to communicate screens.  In a few moments I will give you quite a few more ideas about what to look for in terms of individual opponent skills, but for now it's more important you simply register how important this skill is to develop as you develop as a player. 
I remember playing a number of years ago against a player who had great physical ability.   He could dunk like some of the best in the pros, and guarding him was going to be a real challenge.  During warm-ups I began to notice that he could hardly complete any basketball skill, whether it was a jump shot, drive to the basket, or coming off a screen without taking more than 2-3 long steps to get a run at the ball or basket.  Immediately the red light in my head went off that if I could basically position myself to prevent him at any time from getting more than one quick step to the ball, basket, etc. I could completely disrupt his game.  This in fact proved true, and at the conclusion of the game this player’s stats line read something like 4 points, 2 boards and fouled out.  Not all players have weaknesses, and the greatest one's few, but every player has at least one.  You just need to read and study and make them play to their weaknesses.  Keep in mind that if you are a constant study, your library of basketball knowledge fills up quicker and you have more to draw on to use to your advantage.  If you are a study only occasionally, you are unlikely ever to be able to draw upon enough quick court knowledge to gain this type of advantage. 
Why is being a student of the game so important?  One thing you will quickly learn climbing up the basketball ladder is that there will be players physically superior to you, and player physically inferior to you.  With few exceptions most of us lie somewhere in between.  At the level you are playing, probably 50-75% of the players will be of similar physical ability.  If you are a student of the game, all the time, this knowledge often will be the deciding factor in who gains a playing advantage on the court.  If you are assigned to guard a superiorly gifted player then it becomes even more critical to use this knowledge to off-set their physical advantages and even the playing court.  So now I have talked identified a less visible, but critical basketball skill you can develop, called court intelligence, what are some specific things to look for when playing an opponent and what do those things tell me as a player.  Let us know look at seven aspects of individual and team basketball skills and some things you should be observing if you are a student of the game.  Some of my examples might be obviously simple to long-time students of the game, but for those less experienced it's a good lesson in things to which you should be observant:
Studying Your Opponent- Seven Skills
1. Dribbling
When I'm dribbling-
When I'm defending the dribble-
2. Passing
3. Shooting
4. Rebounding
5. Fast Break
6. Team Offense
7. Team Defense
These ideas are not new to many of you, but the yellow brick road is this today.  No matter what aspect of your game you are working on, no matter who your opponent is (offensively or defensively), no matter what skill level you are in the game, to become a great player become a great student.  There is an old adage that says "kick me once shame on you, kick me twice shame on me."  If you are a great student of the game, you won't get kicked twice very often.  In fact you will find the more you know about your opponent, their tendencies, their physical strengths and limitations, the more you will gain that critical edge to compete when it comes game time.  It is amazing to me as a coach and player of the game for more than 40 years how little information I can get out of players about their opponents who are supposedly students of the game.  Coaches give you team scouting reports to help your team prepare for tendencies from a strategic point.  But coaches can't overburden you with minute details about all the footwork or habits of individual players to the point where you can't think fluidly in the game.  Your observant eyes and ears can be the collection can for useful information about your opponent that can even the playing court and lead you down the road toward cutting down the nets.  Your coach is doing all he can to prepare you.  What are you doing to prepare yourself?   It's your test to take, what kind of student are you?
 
Check back next month for another Playground Pointers courtesy of The Basketball Highway®.

Defending the Ball Is No Shell Game

#45- Defending the Ball is No Shell Game
The Importance of Staying Between Your Man and the Basket
by Alan Lambert
Introduction
I recent years I have seen more creative offensive moves by players attacking the basket than a hummingbird stuck in a bird feeder factory.  One of the early great ball handlers Earl "The Pearl" Washington made a living off the spin dribble.  Since then we have seen Tim Hardaway's Killer Crossover, Isaiah Thomas's Spit Back, Phil Ford's Gravel Move, the Reggie Miller Shake, AI's, Byron Davis, and dozens more.  The primary goal of any offensive shake 'n bake move is to dislodge you defensive from your position between the man you are guarding and the basket.  Every player who has ever been coached and stepped on a court has heard the shrill of their coach’s voice reminding them to "stay between your man and the basket."  Just how you do that in today's smorgasbord of fancy offensive moves is the subject of today's playground pointer.
As a very young player learning the nuances of defensive technique I was taught the most basic of rules for keeping yourself between your man and the basket.  Let's take a look at these as a reminder of what you should be doing.  My observation is that more and more defensive players are "taking the bait" when it comes to fishing for defensive position against quick talented ball handlers.  Don't be a sucker; play the man not the ball.  Here are my tips for guarding the great ball handlers and staying between your man and the basket.
1. Guard the Stomach not the Ball- First and foremost amongst these rules for defending the ball is to guard the stomach, not the ball. WATCH THEIR BELLY BUTTON and ignore the rest. The ball, no matter how many times it's yanked back and forth, behind someone's back, or given the hide and go routine, will always be within arm’s length of the dribbler.  Most defenders make the mistake of thinking they need to move or adjust their position every time the ball moves.   If you are facing off against a great yo-yo yank and go dribbler you'll find it almost impossible to keep yourself between your man and the basket.  Think of all this ball movement and fakes as eye candy, a TV commercial.  You want to watch the real program (the stomach of your attacker) and forget the commercials.  When the attacker's stomach moves, you move.    Most of you have one time or another had the experience of playing the shell game.  Remember this is where a hawker tempts you to bet guessing where the pea will end up.  You try keeping your eyes on a little ball or pea as it is quickly shuffled between 3 half walnut shells or small cups.  Most of the time you lose because you get hoodwinked into watching the hands and movement of the shells and lose track of the pea.  This applies to your defending a great ball handler as well.  Don't watch the shells (all the ball movement) watch the pea (his stomach).
2. Keep Your Feet Active But Your Defensive Position Calm-When the stomach stays in one place...stay active on your feet but keep your basic defensive positioning relatively calm and motionless.  The yank and go tactics of your attacker are intentionally designed to move your body positioning to cut off the ball.  You need to keep in mind that you cut off the body (stomach) not the ball.  If you feet must move, keep on your toes ready to react and move in any direction at any time and at the instant you "SEE" the stomach move toward the basket, you get your "NOSE" in front of the body.  This is probably the toughest part of guarding a great ball handler.  You know they are quick, and you know if you don't get in front of that first step, you are beat.  The problem is when you over anticipate and try to get in front of each "phantom" move or dribble and get caught in a "my body is going one direction and my opponent is going the other" situation.  Think, move when his stomach moves and only when it moves.
3. Move Your Feet Before Your Head and Hands- The most common defensive mistake of young players on the ball is "THE REACH".  Feeling inadequate to stop the attacker by foot movement or lacking proper defensive footwork fundamentals to step-slide and cut the dribbler, most player try to reach to tip a ball or discourage the attacker.  Neither of these options works and leads to getting beaten or more commonly a reach foul.  If you didn't realize your head is about 30% of your total body weight.  If you have studied your physics you know it requires more force to accelerate or decelerate a larger mass. To increase your force more muscle fibers must be recruited by the brain so it takes more time to execute these actions.  This is one general reason why bigger players have so much trouble getting their feet moving, or conversely getting them stopped.  The point here is keep your head quiet and keep your hands from extending in such a way as to cause you to break your body balance.  Remember the goal is to be able to react and move in any direction with equal quickness at any time.  Think, move your feet before any other part of your body. It's your only chance to stop penetration to the basket by a quick attacker.
4. Stay Down and Keep Your Center of Gravity Motionless- One of the more difficult assignments against a quick attacker is when this great ball handler has a perimeter shot as well.  If the player you are guarding hasn't demonstrated they can make the outside shot, give them a half step to increase the time you have to react to regain position between the man and the basket on a penetration step.  Staying down however is a great problem when this player has great moves to the basket and a quick stop and lift for a knockdown shot, such as a player like Kobe Bryant, or Tracy McGrady.  You must be thinking in these situations play the drive and stay ready to challenge once they elevate to shoot.  Most important to defending this scenario is to keep your center of gravity down until your attacker’s center of gravity has begun to lift.  Again this requires you to watch his mid-section of the body not his eyes, head or ball fakes.  You have no chance for sure to stop penetration to the basket if your center of gravity has lifted off before your opponents. While yours is rising and landing they are by you.  Better a little late lifting your center of gravity (CofG) to challenge than to lose your CofG upward where you have no chance to move it laterally to stay between your man and the basket. 
Many players make the mistake as well of believing that a "high hand" challenge on a jump shot is necessary to alter a shot.  In most cases, great shooters benefit from a high challenge as it force them to arc the ball higher increasing their chances of making the shot.  Unless you are a long-armed, quick, tall shot blocker, you are better to stay down and alter the shot by positioning your shot challenge hand in a position to make the shooter uncomfortable in their shooting rhythm.  I teach my players to challenge just outside, or slightly inside the elbow because it reduces the chances of fouling your opponent and increases the chances they will (instinctively to avoid apparent contact) slightly alter their shot mechanics which will significantly reduce their shooting percentage over the course of a game.
5. When You Must Move- Move in Quick Choppy Steps- If your opponent is so skilled ball handling wise they can quickly reserve directions on you, long slow defensive steps will simply cause you to overreact and pull yourself out of good defensive position.  The best defenders are those who take quick choppy steps.  When steps like this are made you have significantly fewer moments in time that you are ill prepared to "react and move in any direction at any time with equal quickness."   So the key here is to move short and quick, stay prepared, try not to overreact to your attackers position.  Remember you want to guard the body defensively not the fakes, or the ball.
6. Keep Your Peripheral Vision Active- Defending a great ball handler also requires you have active help communication from teammates.  But realistically this happens less frequently than you would like.  Having an active peripheral vision means keeping your head quiet but sensing movement in the periphery which can lead you to anticipate an oncoming screen, or where you might have help allowing you to cheat a bit in the a different direction to reduce a quick players effectiveness.  The problem these days I feel is that too many players are learning or being taught to be "head turners" on defense instead of learning to constantly reposition their bodies (keeping the head relatively still-remember a moving head slows you down) to keep the best peripheral vision.
Great peripheral vision helps you avoid obstacles that might interfere with you keeping your man between yourself and the basket.  Think more of where the attacker is trying to get to and beat them to this spot then trying to stop them somewhere out in the open court.  The closer they get to the basket, the less choices and space the attacker has to get to the basket.
7. Keep Your Mind Alert to Your Position on the Court- Many coaches want to exert pressure as a team tactic.  Pressure as a team tactic is only as effective as your team's ability to keep defenders between the ball and basket.  If you pressure a great ball handler in the open court, you may be breaking this cardinal rule.  A better way to handle this might be to double team as containment a great ball handler to discourage penetration until their either give the ball up or they are in an imminent position to score.  A great defender also knows when the great ball handler is an effective threat to score.  If the attacker is most dangerous at the top of the circle, as a shooter-penetrator, then more effort should be place into forcing this player off their pet positions, or in denying them the ball unless they are in a less strategic position.  The point I am trying to make here is even if you achieve all of the above points, you may still need to adjust your pressure and positioning based upon the attacker's position on the court.  Don't pressure players who are not threats, unless it is part of team tactics where there is legitimate help support behind you.  Even then, it is more judicious to pressure less those who are not threats and pressure more those who are.  If you have a great ball handler with a wide array of herky jerky moves who cannot shoot, and who cannot finish, make them shoot.  Remember it's not just about quickness it's about percentages as well.
I know, you are saying I know all these things already.  But let me ask you this.  Are you still getting beat by that great yank and go ball handler?  Maybe know you these things but are failing to execute them.  This is where execution makes the defender effective; you can't guard Allen Iverson with your knowledge.  Remember:
And you will do a better job of staying between your man and the basket.  Don't make it a shell game.
 
Check back next month for another Playground Pointers courtesy of The Basketball Highway®.

FEETWork for Effective Post Play!

FEETWork for Effective Post Play!
by Alan Lambert

Introduction

Before I receive a scolding letter from my former English teachers concerning my grammatical incorrectness let me say young players that the use of the term footwork is misleading, and I think FEETwork is more appropriate. While grammatically wrong, it is a fundamental reality that to be an effective post player both of your feet must consistently work in unison. Today's Playground Pointer© is to emphasize to you as a young player the necessity of work daily footwork drills to automate and integrate the FEET into your offensive post up game.
 

Blisters Are Not a Problem With Most Posts!

How many post players do you know that get blisters? This is not an indictment on post players effort but more a red penalty flag on you the amount of foot movement and force that you required to use at an early age while playing the game. Compare that to the guards who press full court. There is no question that it takes more force to move a larger body, but the point here is the focus and effort on your FEETwork. What I am clearly want to say here is the most fundamental significant problem for post players poor FEETwork. From my years in basketball let me share with you what I believe are the most common FEETwork problems so that you as a post player can focus your efforts to correct these debilitating errors. Height will only be your advantage until the day when everyone at your position is the same size or bigger (which will surely happen at some point in your career). Then it will be your FEETwork that separates the men from the boys so to speak.


Common Problems Which Result in Poor Post Play!

1. Young post players fall into the trap of thinking their height advantage eliminates their need to work on sound FEETwork and skills. Often growing up in youth basketball you have been able to receive that lob pass and simply score or rebound and put back your missed shot because everyone is smaller. This curse causes you to stop practicing and learning skills must be learned and automated for you to be an effective post player at higher levels. A secondary effect of the height advantage at age is that because you are able to stand near the basket and receive a pass nearly every time you seldom are forced to move your feet or position yourself to get the ball at the mid-post or high post. Youth coaches simply tell you to stand near the basket and your teammates to lob you the ball. Consequently you develop the post disease of Immobility.

2. Next, big feet= flat feet! As young players grow often their growth spurt in terms of bone length exceeds muscle growth and subsequently disproportionate strength or lack thereof, for their size. As a result you may find yourself as a young 16 year old post player at 6'4', 6'8" or even 7'0" lacking the strength to stay on your toes for extended periods of time and to keep your feet and legs constantly moving to establish position.

3. Young post players also commonly let all potential energy out of their legs (into the court) after catching the ball. The loss of potential energy essentially eliminates any ability to make an explosive movement. Again, trained over time you may learn any number of post move but without the awareness and ability to maintain power in your legs at higher levels of the game you are a duck without water, going nowhere fast. If we were to measure the energy going in and out of the muscles of the lower body I think you would commonly find a roller coaster graph amongst ineffective post players. Potential energy is stored energy best externally demonstrated by contracted stable muscle groups and balance.

4. Poor balance. Due to the two previous problems most young post players are unable to adjust quickly to changing defensive positioning or tactics and respond appropriately by being able to make a shot, pass out from a double team, or penetrate at a critical moment in time. The player who can maintain dynamic balance has a lot more options.

5. Another common error with tall young post players is that they try to use their height to create space instead of their hips. The hips when used properly create space and when swiveled can as big-man post guru and Hall of Fame Coach Pete Newell says "can control and neutralize a defensive player by sealing or screening them away from the ball".

6. Your arms should be up and out. Extended arms assist with balance, reduce reaction and movement arm time to receive a quick pass made to the post, and force a defender to defend more space. There are essentially no situations in a game where a post player should have their arms down.

6. Finally young post players "WALK" through their cuts. By this I don't mean they physically walk like down the sidewalk, but rather biomechanically when they move they don't make a sprint step or two and a jump stop. Instead, you make what I call a "step-step" motion to receive passes, and during your attempts to execute your post moves. There are cases where this must be done, but the dynamic play required of today's low post game requires that you must sprint and jump stop into virtually all cuts to a position. The most common place the step-step occurs is when a offensive post player is denied the low post position by a quicker defensive player. The correct technique to re-establish your position says to step away from the low post and step back to ball. The same verbal description of this tactic will produce poor results if you take one step away- and one step back, versus walk or sprint away, then sprint back to the ball with an explosive step and jump stop. If you are having problems getting open in the post, you are almost undoubtedly "WALKING" into your cuts.
 

Tips for Better FEETwork!

The primary cause of virtually all of post play errors is the lack of strength, agility, and balance errors caused by under training your FEETwork. I will give you some basic footwork drills briefly to give you some target FEETwork to improve your game. But first let me help you correct some of these balance problems by giving you a few tips on which to concentrate when you are doing your footwork drills.

1. Move your hips first and not your head when you initiate any power cut or movement. Your body's balance can be described by saying you have balance when your center of gravity stays over your base of support. When you are on balance with two feet this base of support is normally between your feet. If you move your head first, almost without exception you will cause your body to break it's balance. Keep your head relatively still and upright. This also will help your court vision and shooting accuracy in traffic.

2. Whenever you must pivot, put your head directly over your pivot foot as you spin to assists you in maintaining balance. I call this the "ice skaters death spiral" effect. The more your bodies center of gravity is over the base of support (when you pivot your base of support moves from an area between the two feet to the area directly under one foot), the more balanced your will stay. Your head moves quietly with your hips.

3. When you must move to get open take at least two steps sprint steps and then jump stop back toward the passer receiving the ball on the balls of your feet. Keep that energy in your legs as much as possible.

4. Keep those arms up and extended to the elbows. While the obvious benefits which I discussed above regarding arm use should be your focus, keeping your arms up as you move teaches your coordinated balance and improves overall body strength through daily workouts. I had the opportunity to see former NBA 76ers-Star Darrell Dawkins play as a Pro a few years back well past his prime in a European Championship league game. While he was still quite mobile, what impressed me most wasn't solid footwork. It was the fact that on the offensive end his elbow was 100% of the time in face of his defender when attempting to receive a post pass. Now I never saw him throw the elbow in a dirty way and wouldn't condone any of you young players playing this way. However his thinking was simply, "I want this position, have strength and balance, and if my defender wants to attempt to get this position he must move his head (thus breaking the defenders balance) to get around that stationary elbow". A very subtle but effective way of using the arms of the upper body. Remember however that a full extended arms pulls your body off balance.

5. Stay relative low with flexed knees make your movements horizontal until you are prepared to elevate to score. A bobbing center of gravity also can cause you to lose balance. Your goal is to be able to react and move with power and stability from any position as any time. This balance also enables you to more effectively execute passes out when double-teamed, make a spin move against an over-aggressive defender, or pivot and shoot an shot with balance.

Here several post footwork drills must be on your daily individual or team workout plan if you are to become an effective post player with great FEETwork.

Daily FEETwork Drills for the Post

1. Catch off of a jump or quick stop!

Either have a teammate, or a coach practice passing you the ball after you have sprinted away across the lane 2-3 steps and sprinted back. Make a two-handed overhead pass back out the first 2 or 3 times and then finish the last time with a post move such as a turn around jump shot, up and under move, spin or reverse move, or jump hook. You should also practice coming back to the ball with your arms up and extended in each of these drills.

Have a teammate or coach practice passing you the ball at a variety of post position including the low post block, the high post, mid-post, and the short-post (step out 1 or 2 steps to the corner) in a variety of ways (low and away, tight to the body, up high, down low, bounce and chest passes) with the emphasis on your sprinting into the ball and catching it off a jump stop.

Have a teammate or coach pass you the ball as you make a weak side flash cut into the paint and work on catching off a one contact jump stop finishing with a variety of moves. Balance is the goal here off the catch as with all these drills.

2. Front Inside Pivot (made away from the basket)

With a coach or teammate practice V cutting out to the mid-post or wing position against an aggressive with the goal of using a front pivot (foot away from the sideline) to catch and face up against pressure. Work both sides of the court using both a right and left front pivot.

After squaring into the defender first work on a fake and crossover dribble penetration. Then change to a front pivot with a rocker step and go (non-pivot foot). Finally work on squaring up, driving the defender back with a penetration fake and then stepping back with the front foot for the jump shot.

3. Reverse Outside Pivot (near the basket against pressure)

Using the same V cut above work to get the ball at the high post, or mid-post. This pivot is very effective when the defense to pressure you near the basket. You can clear space for a shot and protect the ball with this pivot. It is also a good one for executing a guard around post handoff.

From the Reverse Pivot work on the penetration crossover step, then rocker step, and finally spin move.

4. Spin Move

When a defenders over-aggressive play causes their momentum to carry them beyond man-ball-basket responsibility, the spin move is a quick effective way to beat the defender. Practice coming out to either the wing, high post, mid-post or low-post and have a coach or teammate be the over-aggressive defender. Your you reverse direction off the same pivot foot after you have faced up. Keep your head over your pivot foot, reverse spin and make sure you don't begin your dribble until you have completed the spin. Then make your dribble hard and aggressive on the line of the step to the basket. The spin move can be made left or right but is best used to the baseline side of the court away from help defense. Learning the spin move down low is also an excellent way to get open on the blocks because it's very difficult to defend a spinning body that takes up space.

5. Explosion or Penetration Step

Practice catching and facing up both with front or reverse pivots and faking a shot. When the defender bites by moving in the direction of the fake, make a low explosive dribble along the line of the step to the basket and push the ball well behind the defender and sprint to the basket. Remember to move your hips first and explode off the back foot before releasing the ball.

After working on penetration to the basket work on face up, penetrate two steps and pop back for the jump shot. This nifty little move (ala Hakeem Olajuwan) can be a very effective post move against a big but slow moving center defender.

Concluding FEETwork

There are many drills you can do to The skills that I have discussed above including sprinting and jump stopping, head and body balance, arms up and extended and being able to pivot off either foot all are essential skills required in other post skills such as rebounding, screening, making a strong outlet pass or pass from a double team, and cutting to get open. Don't underestimate the value of these footwork drills to improving your total post game. By keeping your balance, improving your explosiveness, becoming multi-dimensional in your moves and reducing a defenders advantage because of your limitations your overall game will improve quickly. It's not just about someone passing you the ball in the post and making a turn around jump shot or step through (up and under move). Today's post players all too often think they don't need total basketball skills. Just look at today's NBA centers like Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neill, Arvidas Sabonis or Patrick Ewing and you will see how wrong you are. These great centers are effective not only in the paint but as their careers grow they expand their game away from the basket. An inside-outside player is a better player regardless of their position on the court and it all starts with that first step. Remember it's all about FEETwork!

Are You A Player Without a Cue?

#50- Are You a Player Without A Cue?
Cues Focus Players on Elements Critical for Successful Skill Execution
by Alan Lambert
Introduction
Basketball has a language of its own.  Every team and coach has a multitude of different ways in phrasing skills and providing instructions that, to the outsider, can seem like a foreign language.  Even more difficult for a young player wanting to become the best player they are capable of becoming is clearly understanding what a coach wants, when they want it.   If you were to spend a day on the practice court at a local college, or pro team you might hear the coach yelling things like; push, funnel, hot, red, 1 and done, pinch, go low, pin, trap and rotate, spread, cross-court it, skip-it, flare, fade, curl, pick and pop, and many more.  What is so important about learning all these verbal cues anyway, and why can't I just play?  It is a common question amongst young player today. I'm better without learning all this stuff!  Just give me the ball and let my skills do the trick.  Unfortunately the answer is, that even the greatest player's on the planet today (such as Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Shaq O'Neal, Carmelo Anthony, Peja Stojakovic or LeBron James) are limited when well prepared teams take away their strengths through complex defensive stunts which confuse a player and result in poor shots or worse yet turnovers.  In Today's Playground Pointer I want to teach you the importance of verbal coaching cue's and why, from a player's perspective they are critical for you learn them at all levels of the game.
Your Memory Has Limits Which Affect Your Playing Performance
Many researchers of the human mind have shown that there are limits to what a person can remember.  One of the most famous and ground breaking studies in science occurred way back in 1956 by a cognitive psychologist named G.A. Miller (see Psychological Review, 63, pp. 81-97) who found that these limits were 7 plus or minus 2.  More modern research is showing that it may more accurately be in the 4-5 chunk range rather than the rather optimistic 7.    What that means to the common basketball player is that roughly speaking your mind is able to hold 7 chunks of information in its memory at any one time. 

Hmmm.....how much knowledge does it take for a basketball player to learn their position, all the different skills, on offense, defense and in transition, and with an open, constantly changing environment on the court?  It's definitely way beyond seven chunks of information.  Stay with me here players because this is an important concept for you to understand and learn.  Cues are used by coaches to reduce the amount of information you are receiving at any point in a game and help you to quickly focus on elements of a skill for more successful execution.  To be successful at any sports skill we need feedback.  Feedback can be either internal (self talk) or external (feedback from coaches, players, or even fans) and this feedback affects our performance.  If you doubt what I'm saying try going into a completely dark gym and stand at the free throw line blind-folded with cotton in your ears.  Have a friend hand you the ball and then shoot 10 free throws.  If you truly were able to block out any feedback, you wouldn't know how many you make, or even if you hit the rim.  Successful basketball play requires feedback.
Cues Focus Us On Critical Elements
Feedback or cues are important to the basketball player because they help an athlete to focus on critical elements of a skill. Sometimes later in one's playing career you have learned enough (self-talk- internal feedback) you can self-correct your errors.  But in team play you still need communication feedback. For example, picks coming up from behind you, changes in team defense, what set play you are running on offense, or cues that help you anticipate what you opponent may be doing.  Early in learning basketball skills verbal cue are critical to developing a young players ability to learn to correct themselves later up the skill chain.  In shooting you might hear the coach say "point your elbow at the basket", " follow-through high and straight", "use your legs" each of which can help you self-correct your shooting technique without the coach going into a complex and confusing dissertation of what went wrong.  If fact, one of the biggest problems in coaching is that coaches want to give too much feedback, a problem in sports behavioral science called "paralysis by analysis".  
Clear and Simple Does the Job
For you coach's reading this Pointer today, the key to successful coaching is giving a clear visual image to the learner of the correct way of performing the skill.  Then you must attach a simple easy to understand verbal cue to emphasize your point and cement your point.   As a young coach I often over-coached kids.  Later with more experience learned to teach them simple cues to "correct their errors".  "Where's your follow-through" on a shot, "ready-shoot" or "explode low and deep- meaning pushing the ball low and behind the defenders outstretched arms on a penetration dribble step while attacking the basket.  Then in the heat of battle when players are getting bombarded with an endless stream of information, your "pre-practiced verbal cues" laser point their focus to the critical element to make the skill work.   
Players also need verbal cues to connect themselves to the moment.  Internal distractions (Can I make that shot the next time I'm left open? or "I can't stop this guy", or "coach is going to yank me if I make another mistake") often cause you as a player to focus on the wrong information, and lose concentration which then produces more errors.  External distractions (such as fans, behavior of opponents, playing surfaces, shot clocks, etc.) can also cause interference and produce poor results.  Relevant cues reduce external distractions.  What you as a player need is build a "library of relevant cues" that are tied through practice into an automated correction leading to improved concentration on the key element of a skill.  Now this shouldn't come as any big surprise.  This is extremely important to you as a player is that the more verbal cues you can associate with specific actions, the less active memory will be taxed during competition.  Let me say that again because it's a very important part of today's Playground Pointer.  The more verbal cues you learn, the more easily you (through self talk) or your coach can focus you on critical elements of a skill's execution and the less taxed will be your memory.  
Experienced Players Attend only to Critical Cues
Now let's jump ahead to tonight's NBA playoffs.  When you are watching the games tonight, take a look at the players who are experienced and how they seem very able to handle both the pressure of the game and the constant stream of rapidly changing information.  They are able to do this because they pay attention only the cues relevant to good decision making and to focusing their play on successful execution of a skill.  Less pressure on their memory resources frees a player's decision making capacity to better monitor the rapidly changing environment of the game.  At the higher levels the game is played faster and faster, leaving less time to read and react to situations.  When you are first learning the game, your failure as a player to attach critical verbal cues to your skills, even when a coach is giving you good verbal cue, might mean you can't translate them into quick action on the court.  Practicing at game tempo and "listening" to these critical verbal cues from your coach during those long practice hours, will over the long haul enable you to react and play at a higher level with a better chance of succeeding as a player.
These verbal cues can also help your concentration as a player when the internal and external distractions become overwhelming.  Great players at the highest level have the ability to block out these distractions and filter through a lot of incoming information to quickly pick out the "most necessary cue" at the "critical moment".  This cannot be achieved if, as a player, you fail to pay attention to critical learning cue" through your development as a player.  The more information you can store into simple verbal cues the more freedom your brain has to make decisions.  
Cues Must Decrease Processing Power Not Increase It!
To be successful as a coach, you have the ability to develop these critical cues.  Great coaches always do.  However your cues must be accurate and descriptive to the skill being performed.  You cannot give too many cues in any setting.  Memory aids area great idea for helping your players develop purposeful self-talk to correct themselves, like "pose for a picture on your release" or "jump off your toes like you’re doing a double flip off the diving board" when shooting your jump shot, or the shortened version "get your legs into the shot".  Finally, meaningful cues are only useful if they are relevant to the age and skill level of the player.  Teaching young kids to string together complex skills with verbal cues will prove flawed if they increase the amount of information the player has to process, versus reduce it to the critical element.  Keep these things in mind when coaching.  If you are a player and your coach is giving you too much information, ask them to see if they can give you one, two or three word verbal cues that you can associate with successful execution of a skill.  Misdirection of your focus as a player to the wrong cues may mean your coach is over-coaching you.  Ask question and pay attention, because most coaches do give you verbal cues.  The great ones give great cues.  The real question is are you paying attention when they do.  If you are a player who hasn't got a cue, concentrate more in practice to these key words that will unlock the door to greater brain power on the floor and more success on the court.
Tips for Enhancing Verbal Cue Learning by Players
1. Listen for short key words used by your coach to describe specific individual or team skill actions.  

2. Practice the elements of these skills at game tempo as soon as possible, while using verbal self-talk to reinforce in your memory the coach given cue and the skill being performed.

3. When you are uncertain what a verbal cue really means, don't be too embarrassed to ask for a simpler more clear explanation from your coach.  If you are confused, you probably have teammates confused as well.  A confused team is a step closer to a loss than a win. 

4. Practice self-talk between your teammates as well.  I'm not saying to coach your teammate, that is not your job. I am saying that if you can re-use the same verbal cues your coach is providing for the whole team, this will reinforce its use in your brain (and teammates as well) and reduce the processing load on your memory during games.  That's what talking on court is all about. Succinctly, and with few words, communicating to your teammates what is going on at any point in the game.  

5. Finally, practice what in psychology is called "centering".  That is the process of doing something the same way every time as much as possible.  When you shoot a free throw, use the same number of bounces and self-talk. When preparing for a shot from a teammate do the same footwork and get your hands in position to catch and shoot with little extra movement.  If you are working on stopping penetration as an on ball defender, focus on the mid-section of the dribbler and not their arm or ball movement. When it moves you move.  There are many examples of centering in basketball, but key is to do it the same way every time and put a label to it.  When centering is combined with outstanding verbal cues, feedback becomes very productive and skills succeed.
Tips for Coaches Using Verbal Cues with Players
1. Make your verbal cues descriptively accurate.  It doesn't make much sense to label your aggressive trapping defense "lazy" or "cold" when "red" or "fire" is a better descriptor of the intended effort and intensity of the defense.

2. Remember the 4-5 chunk rule of memory. For timeouts you might even reduce that to 2 or 3 critical elements.  If you want to see a team under-perform try giving them 7 bits of critical information in a 30 second timeout.  This is important for assistant coaches to understand as well.  For example during a time-out, the head coach may be giving the team 2-3 important verbal cues "were playing 1 and done" off the inbounds pass (meaning we're trapping once for a steal and when it fails we back to regular man pressure), "get a body on the defensive boards" (everybody must make contact and seal out  a player after a shot), and "push it up" (we are slow to transition and allowing the defensive pressure to get set up causing us to stall in our half-court offense).  Now two eager young assistant coaches, each pull a player aside and give them 2-3 more pieces of useful or not-so-useful information. What does the player remember coming out of that timeout?  In addition, will the additional information cause them to focus on the wrong element at the wrong time causing a complete team breakdown out of a timeout?  Keep it simple and short. Make your point and get on with it.  If you have to teach during a time out, you're not properly teaching during practice with critical verbal cues.

3. Know the critical elements of a skill and attach important verbal cues to those elements.  The more simple verbal cues that can be attached to more complex actions (both individual and team) the more rapidly your team can adjust during the heat of battle and the more processing freedom your team will to monitor rapidly changing information on the court.  A team that over-thinks on the court cannot adjust. Tie the key elements into key verbal cues.

4. Use colorful, descriptive verbal cues to associate verbal cues and actions.  "Hands High", "Mirror the Ball", "Face" on a dribble pick-up, Funnel baseline" are all colorful and clear descriptors for players.

5. Be sure the cues you are using are age and skill appropriate.  Trying to use the "colorful jargon" used at the collegiate level will probably not work the same when coaching a youth team. Some of it might, but remember the less experience the players you are coaching the more important it is to simplify the verbal cues and increase the practice time using those verbal cues.

6. Check for understanding when you give verbal cues and fail to get the response you expect.  You might be surprised as a coach to see how little your players clearly understand when it was so obvious to you. Instead of getting frustrated with their lack of understanding, simply make it more clear what a verbal cue means and allow enough practice time to make it stick in their subconscious.  It is the only true path to rapid adjustment and successful skill execution at the ever increasing difficult levels of play.
So here I go, listen, focus, practice, center, and repeat! And good luck with enough effort you WILL GET A CUE!
 
Check back next month for another Playground Pointers courtesy of The Basketball Highway®.

Are You Physically On the Ropes?

 Playground Pointers

#40- Are You Physically On the Ropes?
Rope Jumping: An Inexpensive, Portable Conditioning Tool 
by Alan Lambert
Introduction

One of the most misleading phrases I have heard made over the years is what great shape basketball players are in.  There is some partial truth to that statement but what I have observed more often than not, as a coach and player, is that players are in some shape but could be better conditioned if they knew how to condition.  Modern science tells us that we need some combinations of aerobic and anaerobic physical exertion if we are to be in the best shape possible, and that the conditioning programs we undertake must be balanced in accordance with those aerobic/anaerobic demands.  For basketball players, you need both.  Players, who argue they don't need to run, swim or bike long distances fail to realize that the aerobic baseline you create by doing these types of activities is what helps you maintain physical endurance and stamina late into a long season.  It is not something you can do on occasion for with any lasting positive effect. 
Just as important to a basketball player is having a conditioning/athletic development program that includes elements such as Plyometrics, jumping, running technique, and strength training which facilitate your body's ability to quickly convert energy resources into quick, powerful, explosive burst so critical to dynamic play in basketball.  You notice your anaerobic capacity most when you have to sprint the court 3 or 4 times quickly in succession, changing directions several times on a change of ball possession during a game.  If you become exhausted from this court experience and it takes you more than a time out, a couple of free throws, or a quarter break to recover your power, you need to work on increasing your anaerobic threshold.

Creating A Good Practice Habit

The reason I bring up the subject of conditioning is that summer is upon us.  It is a great time to change your workout habits to incorporate tools that will improve your basketball conditioning over the course of your basketball career.  Playing a lot will help, but it will not tax your system enough to stretch your conditioning threshold the way that additional training specific exercises can.    Be sure when you begin a new workout regimen that you consult a certified athletic trainer, or sport physician so that you have a proper physical examination, and have their professional expertise prior to starting strenuous changes to your current workout programs.  
I discovered one effective method for improving both aspects of your physical condition (aerobic and anaerobic) in an innocent way many years ago as a young player. A basketball teammate of mine (who eventually became a major league baseball player, and a pretty good one at that) use to come into the gym and warm-up with the ROPE each day prior to practice.  He would challenge others to jump with him.  I thought I was in pretty good shape, being able to chase up and down the court in a pressing style team for several hours a day.  The truth was that I lacked balanced conditioning, of which I became painfully revealed aware when my body completely gave out after jumping continuously at about the 10 minute mark.  My WELL conditioned teammate could jump for 45 minutes straight.   Now I am in no way telling you to go out and begin with 45 minutes.  I just mention it as a comparison between being well conditioned and WELL CONDITIONED.   
Rope jumping is a simple conditioning method, doesn't cost a lot, and you can do it almost anywhere at any time.  In my experience it is probably one of, if not the most effective method for determining your physical fitness as well as having almost unlimited capacity to assist you in improving on your current state of condition for playing basketball.  For the cost of a movie date you can purchase a high quality jump rope and take it with you to your individual workouts, use it to warm-up prior to playing, and travel with it wherever you go.    Today's Playground Pointer is written to introduce you the basics of rope jumping and learn more about a tool that can get you into and keep you in shape throughout the season.   My question to you young players today is a rhetorical but important one, ARE YOU PHYSICALLY ON THE ROPES?  If not you should be.

Basketball Fitness the Efficient Way 

Rope jumping will improve your aerobic and anaerobic power and capacity.  It will also help with body coordination, balance, agility and foot speed.  It increases upper body strength and improves foot and hand quickness.  You will also benefit from increased explosiveness in your basketball skills and will see some weight loss which will improve your mass to power ratio.   The most positive benefit of rope jumping is improved cardiovascular fitness.  Your heart is the muscle that drives the car.  A strong heart, let's you compete at the peak performance levels you desire.  When combined with improved skill and technique, championship players have not only skill but the strength and stamina to compete well into the fourth quarter and overtimes if necessary to overcome a stiff challenge from a worthy opponent.  Dr. Kenneth Cooper, the father of modern exercise physiology, notes that 10 minutes of continuous rope jumping has the same cardiovascular impact of bicycling over 2 miles in 6 minutes, swimming for 12 minutes, playing two sets of tennis, running a mile in 12 minutes, or jogging for 30 minutes.  It would seem in our time crunched world where our minutes are precious, that taking your rope along for 10 minutes of warm-up prior to beginning practice each day would be a most productive way to get yourself into better playing shape.

Rope Jumping Tips

Here are my suggestions for getting started with jumping rope for conditioning:

1. Purchase a good jump rope with ball-bearing swivel hinges that do not bind up.  Many people jump with plastic ropes which are okay but personally I like a slightly weighted rope (leather is sturdy and long lasting).  Friction-less ball bearing hinges let the rope work freely without binding allowing you to challenge the upper end of the number of speed repetitions you can achieve during your jump rope workout.  Rope that knot themselves or get constantly tangled should be tossed out.  

2. Jump with good shoes with adequate padding near the balls of your feet, and on softer surfaces when possible.  Wooden basketball courts, rubberized surfaces, level dirt, and indoor/outdoor carpeted surfaces work well.  Avoid concrete or extremely hard surfaces if you wish to avoid over use injuries to your lower body as you increase your work load.

3. Jump slowly to begin warming up your body.  Muscle fibers need blood flow to get into a more elastic pliable state which are more easily stretched, and protected from injury.  I would highly recommend jumping easily for about 5 minutes, then stretching some without the rope before beginning your 10 minute rope conditioning program.

4. When you are first learning different rope jumps, focus on proper technique in hand position, rope position, and body position.  The hands should be held about waist high and the wrists do the work of turning the rope, not your arms.  Your arms should remain virtually motionless through the jumping exercises.   When you jump keep your hands held slightly away from the body.  The rope should clear your head by a few inches and should be long enough to clear your feet without too much effort.  The best method for determining the proper length of a rope is to fold your jump rope in half and hold one end at or near your armpit or shoulder.  The handles should just touch the floor.  If the rope is too long you will unnecessarily cause yourself  more work in jumping and have trouble executing the more difficult double and triple jumps.  If the rope is too short, you will find yourself constantly tripping over the rope and also unable to execute the variety of jumps properly.

5. When you first begin start with basic footwork (bounce steps, alternating footwork, straddle hops, lateral hops) up to about 5 minutes a day.  Stop and rest when you are tired and you should jump with a 1:2 work to rest ratio.  Meaning if you do a jump 30 seconds, then rest for 60.   By the second week of jumping you should be able to increase your workload to a 1:1 work to rest ratio and increase the total number of jumps you do to a couple hundred.  A third week of jumping should begin to bring you to the point of being able to jump 5 minutes continuously at 120 turns per minute, jumping 3 to 5 times per week.  Again proceed at your own pace, if you need to stop and rest do so.  A good rhythm as you build your jump rope conditioning skills is to plan on getting in about 5-10 different jump routines into your 10 minutes and alternating either 1 minute of standing rest in-between them or a active rest meaning you slow your rope down to a very low work rate in-between the high energy demand skills.

6. When you jump, most professional rope jumpers will tell you to let the rope slightly contact the jumping surface on each rope rotation.  As a basketball player and coach, I always encouraged my players to not let the rope hit the floor at all.  This makes you hold the rope up slightly, improving the muscular workout for the upper body, and will allow slightly more speed as you do the speed jump drills.  Another added trick I used with my players is to have them keep jumping even as they foul a rope or jump when possible.  This keeps their heart beat up and does not permit jump misses to break the continuous jumping rhythm.  Early on it may be necessary to stop to un-foul the rope, but as your jump rope skill level improves, don't stop, except to rest.

7. Set goals for your jumping by either increasing the time of a jump, and/or hopefully increase the rate of rope jumping.  Use the same foot contact to count one repetition when alternating feet, or when jumping off both feet each time they contact the court.  When doing more complex combinations you might want to count more like the Frappier drills where one full sequence counts as one repetition.

8. Use music if it helps to motivate you.  Get your boom box out and put on a little high tempo music if you need some rhythm to stimulate your jumping.  Of course don't irritate the neighbors in the process.
Now that you have a basic idea how to get started let me introduce you to a number of different jump roping drills you can practice.  You might note that some of the footwork I will introduce to you is very similar to those in last month's Playground Pointer on Frappier Footwork Drills, which is no coincidence.   Rope Jumping however adds the element of hand/eye/foot coordination not required with Frappier drills alone.

Drills for You to Practice

Here are some of the most common jumps you can use with a rope:
1. Bounce Step- Jump just high enough to clear the rope and land on the balls of your feet as the rope rotates forward.  
2. Backwards- Same as the bounce step but the rope rotates from front to back over your head opposite a normal rope jump rotation.
3. Alternating Feet- Some people call this the jogging step, simply keep the rope turning as you alternate feet.  
4. High Knees- This is an extension of the alternating feet, but involves bringing your knees up toward your chest as far as possible.
5. Lateral Hops- Keep both feet together on the rope rotation and jump slightly from one side of a mid-line dissecting your body into left and right halves.  As you become more skills and coordinated with this jump, stretch the lateral distance you are jumping.
6. The Lone Ranger- Also called the straddle hop.  Start with one foot forward and on each rope rotation alternate your right and left feet from front to back positions.  A variation of this might be to leave your right foot forward for 2 or 3 rotations, then switch to left foot forward, or any combination or variations.
7. Half Twister- Jump off both feet and while in the air on the rope rotation, rotate only the lower portion of your body slightly to the right, then slightly to the left on the next rope rotation.
8. Full Twister- This is similar to the Half Twister only this time you allow the full body to turn completely to the right, and then completely to the left.  The rope remains relatively motionless while the body continues to twist and turn.
9. Criss-Cross- While you are jumping on both feet you cross both arms at waist level as you pull your hands out wide to create a big loop to jump through as the rope crosses.  On the second rotation, you uncross the rope, and so forth.
10. Horse Taps- In this one-foot touch jump you alternate right and left foot crossing over the midline of the body (see lateral hops) beginning with the right foot crossing over the mid-line to the left side of the body on the first rotation, followed by the left foot crossing over to the right side of the body and so forth on each successive rotation.
11. Bounders- This jump is similar to alternating feet but instead of seeing how fast you can jump you turn the rope more slowly and you bound down the "track" alternating feet.  This is a drill used in teaching better running technique and in this example you just add the rope to the bounders.  The object is to make your legs work power wise, minimizing the amount of contact time on the court, while still coordinating the rope jump.
12. Kick-Outs- This drill alternates feet but instead of a normal bounce you kick your feet out in front of you as far as you can without loosing your balance.
13. Hip-Hop- In this drill you land on both feet but you jump as far forward as you can on one rope rotation, and follow with with a jump as far back as you can on the next rotation, continuing to alternate forward and back hops. 
14. Double/Triple Jumps- Here you use one of the basic footwork jump patterns, most commonly bounces and make the rope turn 2 or 3 rotations on each jump. It requires both power, coordination, timing, and great conditioning to turn sets of double or triples over a given period of time.
15. X Out's- Here you cross your right and left legs back and forth over one another on each rotation of the rope.  

Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow

Keep in mind that the best jump rope routines are continuous in nature, keep proper rope jumping technique in mind, and alternate between periods of high and low intensity to allow your body to recover.  You can increase or decrease the intensity by changing between the types of jumps, (for example bounces-low intensity, low reps to doubles- high intensity-high reps, to horse taps-low intensity-low reps, etc).  Experience, and your legs providing you discomfort feedback will give you an idea of which drills are more demanding on you than others.  When a drill becomes relatively simply then work in increasing the number of reps in the same amount of time by increase the speed of rope rotation.
There are many ways you can condition yourself as a basketball player, but few will both challenge you and provide greater benefit than picking up the rope and doing a daily workout.  Are you physically on the ropes?  If not, maybe you have better get started.

Check back next month for another Playground Pointers courtesy of The Basketball Highway®.

Decision Making On the Court: It's Really Just A Matter of Yes or No?

#48- Decision Making on the Court
It's Really Just a Matter of Yes or No?
by Alan Lambert
Introduction
Hall of Fame Coach Dean Smith once said "you can't teach savvy (court sense)."  While I believe there is a lot of truth in that statement as a coach, that doesn't mean as a player you should throw in the towel on your teams playbook if find yourself making poor decisions on the court.  In fact just the opposite should occur.  The more you understand your teams’ offensive and defensive schemes and drill those systems to the point of automation, the better decision maker you will undoubtedly become.  Most poor decisions on the court are the result of the combination of several things. 
First, it's playing under control and within your capabilities.  Trying to do too much no matter what your skill level is like driving a clumsy car fast around a sharp turn.  Somewhere you are going to lose it.  Second, poor judgment occurs when you find yourself in situations you have not adequately practiced.  Being creative on the court can be a good thing, but if you confuse your teammates by "creating outside the system" you will often find yourself walking the turnover plank with no possibility of return.  The great teams and players drill for hours on the same situations (e.g. a mid-high pick and roll) so that they understand all the possible options a defense may throw at that event which makes the decision making easier and more automated.  Finally, poor judgment occurs when your skill level limits or removes possible options which are the most obvious choices.  A good example of this would be as a guard and getting attacked with a double team trap off a mid-high pick and roll.  If your dribbling skills don't allow you to either split the double team and attack the basket, or use an explosive back up dribble to escape the trap pressure to create a safe passing space or attack angle than your decision is made for you.  Lack of polished skills in most situations produces box canyon decision making.  Your choices are made for you.  Today's Playground Pointer focuses on these three aspects in helping you to understand that decision making on the court is really just a matter of learning yes or no decisions based upon practice.
Playing Under Control
Players practice and build basketball skills such as a jump shot, dribble patterns, defensive footwork as what are called motor programs.  This analogy comes from computer science where a programmer writes a piece of code to perform a specific action.  As human begins we develop a skill by piecing together a number of coordinated-timed movements commands. Through practice the amount of errors that occur in performing the skill are gradually reduced (refinement of the motor program) until it is nearly automated, done without thinking.  Over time reducing error and wasted motion allows this motor program to be rapidly pulled out of memory, sent to your muscles, and executed in a very brief amount of time.  This applies to the concept of playing under control because we learn and automate our skills at a given speed.  Once you exceed that speed the integrity of your motor program to control all your movements deteriorates.  Not only do you perform the skill more poorly (as a result of speed-accuracy tradeoff) but you are less likely to be able to successfully string together a series of motor programs to successfully complete your task.  The result is you play off balance, out of control, making a poor pass, taking an off balance shot, or gambling on defense taking yourself out of proper position.  While your brain may be presenting you with "practiced YES-NO" decisions by experience, playing out of control presents situations you rarely practice producing inconsistent feedback for making those court decisions. Here are a few tips to remember when building your basketball skills to produce the most efficient and automated motor programs;
1. Practice a skill slowly only until you get to the point where you can generally perform the mechanics of the skill correctly. 
2. As soon as your mechanics become fairly automated, increase the speed with which you practice and keep practicing at that top speed until you begin to lose control of the skill.
3. If you lose control of your skill, drop it back a notch until you can gradually perform it at the game speed required at the level you play.
4. Practice each of the basketball skills you learn in various combinations, e.g., shoot off the pass, shoot off the dribble, and dribble penetration off the catch, chaining together various dribble moves in the open court and work to make the parts unpredictable and interchangeable, always with control.
5. Any time you feel you are losing control of your skills because of the speed of the game, go back to individual practice and work on further refining and automating that required basketball skill at a faster tempo, with more power and control.  Remember you will only be able to make YES-NO decisions as fast as your skill level allows you to respond and execute that skill at the critical decision time.
Practice Team Situations Repetitively
Once your basketball skills show signs of maturing it becomes important for a player to completely understand your teams offensive, defensive and transition systems of play.  I heard it said as a young player, you should know everybody's position on the court and what they have to do in every situation.  I'm not sure that is realistic in today game with many complex offensive and defensive systems, but it is critical that you know all the possible play situations based upon at least your two most often played position that you find yourself during the games.  If you are running a set play offense this might require you to know two positions in a dozen or more set plays through not only the first option, but the second and third options as well.  Out of each of those options, the defense will normally try to take away the prize option and force you to execute a counter play.  The point I'm getting to is this; if you don't pay attention in practice, practice hard through all the team system drills, and develop the ability to pull a counter move from your brain and execute it under control against pressure, you will most likely put yourself into a poor position to make the proper decision on the court.  This is especially true when you are playing basketball a team sport that requires you to understand the timing and spacing of 4 other players on your team and 5 defender at any given point in time.  To simplify my point here let's take one example; a baseline flex cut within your offense. 
An excellent coach will put you into 2 on 2, 3 on 3, on up to 5 on 5 practice situations where you learn specific options as the flex cutter.  You might; a) cut over the top of the flex screen when the defender tries to go baseline side, b) duck under baseline if the defender attempts to slide over the top of the screen, c) step back for a quick diagonal return pass to the corner from which you started after you fade back to the corner when your defensive player cheats and gets inside the flex screen too early, or d) touch and go with the initial flex cut screener when teams attempt to switch this screen, resulting in you accepting the second flex down screen for the elbow jumper.  The poor coach will not present you with enough practice time to automate the key decision.  The good coach will have you over-practice it to automation.
It is your coach's job to put you into practice situations offensive, defensively and in transition so that you can practice all the possible variations to automation (the decision in a sense become its own motor program so to speak).  Then it simply becomes a process of reading the critical cue (your defenders position as you come shoulder to shoulder with the flex screener) as a simply YES or NO decision.
While it is boring and redundant, there is no way around getting to this point in your game decision making without executing hundreds of repetitions of each situation.  That is why it's so important to pay attention, go 100% all the time to create realistic game type decision situations.  Here are a few tips for practicing in team situations;
1. Listen closely when your coach presents a specific team skill and pay particular attention to the details of proper execution of your position. 
2. Try repetitively to execute your part of the team skill just as the coach wishes it done at game speed with control.
3. As your opponent begins to cheat or take away options begin to practice training yourself to see the critical cue which tips off whether you execute the primary, or counter option of a set action.  This is essentially practice your yes-no decision.  If you are uncertain of the cues, ask your coach to explain in more detail the team concept and what you are to do when your primary option is removed.
4. When you are on your own practicing your skills transplant your mind back into these practice situations and then work on improving the speed and quickness of your skill execution at these "decision nodes".  Referring back again to our baseline flex cut example, this might be working putting your defender into and under the flex cut screen and exploding over the top.  Then cut hard, push back and fade as if your defender cheated early to beat you to the lane and practice your jumper off a corner fade pass.  There are literally hundreds of such situations in the game and you should ask your coach for a list of these to work on at your position if you are not experienced enough to pick them up on your own.
5. Use only cuts, dribbles, passes, and shot that you practice in individual time in team situations.  If you discover you are lacking a critical skill necessary to make and execute good YES-No decisions in your team settings, than make a mental note and get back to individual practice time to work on them.
Eliminate Your Weaknesses to Improve Your Choices
I believe the greatest cause of poor decisions is the lack of a necessary skill at a critical point in the game.  The player's who have all the dribbles, passing skills, and footwork has the greatest amount of options and can more freely play the game and respond to a series of rapid YES-NO decisions in a fluid successful manner.  Note however that just having great skills does not make you a great decision maker.  Good decision making is a combination of Usable Skills + Game and Practice Experience + Understanding Team System and Concept + Automation (or repetition) / Time.  The more experience, skill, and understanding you have and the quicker you can execute them under control, the better your decision making becomes.  The one thing that holds you back from playing at a faster more powerful tempo is often simply your basic skills: dribbling, passing, running, jumping, shooting, and defensive footwork.  You might think of this as you being in a high speed dragster and using street tires to compete in a 6 second sprint.  Don't let yourself play with street tires, develop the real deal.  Here are a few tips for practicing to improve your individual skills;
1. Practice systematically so that you are either competing against a clock, someone else, or a goal.  This helps you to understand if you are actually improving or back sliding and will reinforce good work habits when you practice.
2. Make full use of all your practice time.  Great player don't fool around.  They realize over the course of their career they have a given amount of time and make full use of all of it to improve areas they lack in on court performance.
3. Pick one weakness a year and spend a considerable amount of time automating that skill to bring your game to another level.  This might be your left hand dribble, passing skills, shot off the dribble, 3 point shot, defensive slide footwork, etc.  If you pick one skill a year, after 4-5 years you should be left with relatively few if any weaknesses.
4. When practicing your individual skills against a teammate or friend, practice the concept of YES-NO decision making.  Learn and build a library of experience to pick up critical cue by your opponent which signals a primary or counter move to beat them to the goal.
5. Practice with individual skills with high intensity and effort at all times.  Remember timing is critical to developing good decision making and the more you vary the speed you practice the longer it will take you to adequately automate your basketball skills slowing your progress toward becoming a faster and more efficient decision maker.

Summary

When you can put together these three aspects of your game: 1) playing under control with speed and power, 2) practicing for hours team decision making to the point of understanding all your options, and 3) eliminating all your skill weaknesses, you will be properly prepared to become the best decision maker you are capable of becoming.  Experienced players talk about the game coming to them in "picture frames" and the game "slowing down" as the decisions become easier and more apparent.  At each picture frame there is an obvious YES-NO decision which generally produces positive results on the court.  This only comes through the process I have discussed in today's Playground Pointer.  The YES-NO decisions do become easy. It's working hard enough, disciplined enough and focused enough to put together these elements that lead you to becoming a confident player and decision maker on the court that require your full attention.
 
Check back next month for another Playground Pointers courtesy of The Basketball Highway®.

Defensive Transition: It's About Time

Playground Pointers

Playground Pointer #37- Defensive Transition: It's About Time
by Alan Lambert

Introduction
In my forty some years experience as a player and coach, one area of the game looms in my mind like a man sinking in quicksand.  What I'm talking and today's teaching topic is defensive transition.  Few players do it with enthusiasm. Failure to do it costs your team easy points. More commonly it is one of the primary causes of infighting amongst teammates because someone's mistake or failure to get back leads to that easy score.  
To be perfectly honest there may be nothing the game that takes more energy and optimism out of a team's play than failure to get back and stop your opponents transition. So why do I choose this subject as this month's Playground Pointer?  Primarily because I want to show you player's and coach's that it's not about stopping every fast break.  It's about making the effort every time and stopping some of the breaks.  It's really about time don't you think.
Most teams average between 20 turnovers a game.  A turnover leads to a fast break shot attempt about 3/4th of that time, meaning about 15 break opportunities for your opponent.  If you add on another 10 fast break opportunities off of missed or made shots that is a lot of open court high percentage scoring chances.  If you could discourage or stop even 20% of these transition opportunities resulting in no shot off of transition, you may prevent your opponent from scoring at least 10 points.  Ten points is a lot to spot a team to begin a game, so why would you do it during the course of a game.  I hope you see where I'm going with this.  A consistent effort to stop transition combined with your players understanding and being able to prevent these additional scores will more than likely take you from a .500 team to a .750 winning percentage team.  Enough improvement to get you into the playoffs with a chance for the trophy.

The Man in the Mirror
I believe stopping transition begins in the heart of every single player on your team, most of all YOU.  If you take a "get tough, they're not going to score on me attitude" it become contagious and your team takes pride in getting back and stopping the break.  If your attitude is, I can't get back and I'm going to conserve my energy, you'll almost certainly get what you earn, a spot on the bench, or as a team out of the play-offs.  It begins with you.  Instead of point a finger at your teammate, you become the stopper, the one they can count on to stuff your opponents break.   You become the man in the mirror.  The tougher you get, the tougher your team gets.  Take pride in our ability to stop your opponents fast break no matter how much they like to run and you'll be a winner for it.
It takes more than just willpower as you almost certainly know.  It takes know-how.  For me stopping transition is all about one thing; time...time...time!  I will teach you subsequently about some techniques for stopping transition but you must implant in that "calculator in your head" the concept that buying time is the most important and fundamental aspect of stopping transition.  Conversely your opponent is going to want to run it up your nose so you can't get back.  This battle is what defensive transition is all about.  The most common mistake players make in the open court in trying to stop transition is to gamble to steal or stop the ball in the open court.  They rolls the dice versus playing percentages.  Taking calculated gambles can work fine when you are in pressing situations where your teammates are familiar with rotations and responsibilities if you get beat.  But in the open court with uncertain numbers your primary goal is to delay the advancement of the ball in any way possible without giving up the basket to "buy time for your teammates to recover and match up" so that each has a man covered reducing the chance of a high percentage score in transition.

If I Could Have Time in a Bottle
If I could package up the art of defensive transition and put it in a bottle for you to drink it would contain the following ingredients.  First it consists of "defending of the basket".  If you are the first defender back, you must sprint to the basket area and attempt to take up the most direct path of any attacker who has the ball and can advance it for a score.  
Secondly, don't commit yourself to stopping the ball off the dribble in the open court because you are the last line of defense.  This is called ball containment.  If you can force the fast break team to make 3 or more passes you have a good chance of getting defensive help to deter or stop the fast break.  Most of you have played trapping presses and containment presses.  Think of stopping open court transition against you as a containment press.  You want to "buy time".
If you are not the first defender back as safety you may be in a position while retreat to the "fort" to deter any quick forward passes up the court.  Most organized defensive transition schemes involve getting a sprinter out to discourage the long quick pass up court.  If you are sprinting back in transition and there are at least two defender back, you should either 1) be attempting to discourage any passing lane up the court to an attacking player, or 2) be working to deter the ball from being dribble in a direct line to the basket.  In most cases it is more important to get back and discourage those passing lanes when you have at least two defender already back in tandem safety position.  
Since containment is critical to stopping the fast break any time you are in a position to discourage advancement of the ball directly force a diagonal dribble.  Equally important is to stop any open court penetration of the ball behind you (remember containment is the second most important goal).
Finally you must communicate with your teammates on defense what you are doing.  Often defending the basket and containment break down simply because of poor communication.  "I've got yours, you take mine" should be stitched on the lips of every player on your team. Don't just say it, point out who each of you are covering to help give visual signals to your teammates to reduce open court confusion.  
Whenever possible in getting back attempt to cover up players by position so that you don't end up with a guard covering a center on the secondary break, or a center covering a penetrating forward on the wing.  The match-up by position concern however must always be secondary to maintaining basket defense and containing the ball.  Until these two items are taken care of everyone must sprint back to the basket and locate a player.  In fact many teams will teach sprinting back to almost zone positions such as a 2-2-1 or 3-1-1 to prevent the fast break.

Additional Tips

Once you and your team become adept at getting back to the basket you can begin to develop more organized methods of stopping transition.  The most common is to put a jammer on the rebounder (on a missed shot) or inbounder (on a made shot) to discourage the quick outlet of the ball up the court. Then work on denying the first outlet receiver. Third or fourth defenders back (aside from the jammer) can be use to prevent or stuff the long side line passes up the court or clog the middle of the court.  Rapid ball advancement by the pass is the defensive transition team's worst enemy aside from losing containment.
Finally, when transitioning back if you are behind the ball, catch up and get ahead of the ball whenever possible.  When not, try to sprint to deflect a ball out of a dribblers hand from behind.  Rick Pitino's teams have made a living off of this type of play.  When beat, never give up.  Always look at it as an opportunity to defender from behind the ball.  More importantly in transitioning back is to fill the middle of the court.  The more defenders you can get into the middle of the court the less chance a team has of attacking right down your throat.  Remember the fastest time between to points is a straight line.  Make the attacking team change angles, pass the ball laterally, or even backwards if necessary.  All of these things contribute to buying time.

So What's Left?

I have talked about the importance of time, defending the basket, containment, stuffing the long pass up the court, jamming the outlet pass, and clogging up the middle of the court.  Let me leave you with one simple piece of advice which will improve your defensive transition.  When left with the choice between giving up a lay-up or giving up a short jumper always force your opponent to take the lowest percentage shot possible.  Let me repeat myself.  Position yourself so that if you must give up a shot because of numbers you force your opponent to take the lower percentage shot.  If a team scores 95 percent of the time on a lay-up in transition and 70 percent when the PG must pull up at the elbow because of too much lane traffic, you make the choice. 
Remember the example I used at the start of today's Playground Pointer.  If your opponent has 20% less transitions because of your efforts, based on what I have taught you today, they have five less chances to score (10 points).  With the 20 remaining transitions if you can force them to shoot 50% shots instead of 95% you will save you most likely will save another 10 points.  Now by simply hustling back, protecting the basket, containing the ball, and forcing a low percentage shot you have take away as many as 20 points a game from your opponent.  If your team is losing and losing big, look to your defensive transition game.  If you team is losing close games, look again at your defensive transition.   You see, it's about time!

 
Check back next month for another Playground Pointers courtesy of The Basketball Highway®.

Hands Free Basketball: Balancing Beneficial Versus Detrimental Use of Your Hands

#49- Hands Free Basketball
Balancing Beneficial versus Detrimental Use of Your Hands
by Alan Lambert
Introduction
The title of today's Playground Pointer is a bit of a misnomer but I chose it to make a point to you young players.  In the modern world of technology we live in today electronics devices are only useful if they come with "hands free" tools.  Our cell phones have voice dial activation, our TV's come with one button memory remote controls, and even our cars can tell us where we are at with one button or voice activated satellite navigation.  I am not at all suggesting by the title that you must learn to play completely without your hands.  But the theme of today's Pointer is to learn to develop your most fundamental basketball skills so they do not rely exclusively on your hands saving you, or even worse where become detriment to your game.  I want to give you some simple reminders of how and when to effectively use your hands in the game of basketball.  "Hands Free Basketball" simply implies your hands being constantly in the correct position for the skill you are performing to permit their proper use and save you a load of grievance as you grow your game.
Where Do You Want Your Hands?
I am a firm believer in importance of body balance in basketball in all phases and stages of the game.  Coach Wooden has spoken as well for years about balance on and off the court.  Some years ago I wrote an article on Teaching Balance which was well received by many other coaches.  In that article I describe what balance is in scientific terms.  Essentially it is keeping your center of gravity (COG) over your base on support (the area encompassed by any parts of your body in contact with the court.  If you have two feet on the court fairly wide apart, you have a broad base of support which makes it easier to keep your balance because it is more difficult to movement to draw your COG outside of that base.  If you are pivoting, or pushing off a drive foot to penetrate to the basket, for a brief moment in time, you have a fairly small base of support (the area under the ball of the foot) which makes it easy to lose your balance or be physically pushed off balance by an aggressive opponent. You ask, what does this have to do with Hand position?  The Answer is many things.  When you extend your hands you are more likely to break your balance.  This is because, first, your arms are attached to your body and if your hands extend enough your upper body must come with them.  And second, because your hand and arms have weight which, when moved outside of the base of support, change your center of gravity.  If you move them enough you can pull your body out of balance.  That seems simple enough to understand.  Players who use their hands wildly and as the primary source of influencing play become like the novice trying to keep their balance on a balance board.  They can do it, but without much body control.
Why am I telling me with this information?  Your hand position (and head position as well) probably contribute more to problems of losing balance (or getting out of position to react and move in any direction at any time) than any other factor in basketball.  This is, again as a reminder, because they have weight and can significantly alter your body's center of gravity.  So, where do you want your hands?  In, general, (I repeat in general), you want them relatively close to your body in a central position.  Now this sounds contrary to what many coaches teach where you keep your hands active and into the face or passing lane pressuring the ball when on ball defense, or the passing lane when off ball.  I am not contradicting what they are teaching and in fact have taught that kind of defensive pressure for many years as a coach. But keep this in mind, if your hands are flayed about in a wild and reckless manner you are more likely to lose your balance and get beat to a position because of your inability to react and move because of lost balance.  Instead make your hand pressure intelligent pressure and with short flicks and jabs so that the result is balance, not loss of control of your body.  That is the key point in today's Playground Pointer. 
There is one other point I'd like to make about hand position.  Movement takes time.  The more distance you must extend your hands the longer it takes to recruit the muscle fibers to initiate a bigger movement, and to slow the movement down to alter direction quickly.  There are certainly times when a fully extended hand and arm is critical to stopping a pass or challenging a shot, but the better avenue for a player is to keep the length of your hand movements minimal unless experience tells you without full extension you will be unable to deter the ball or a position.  This is why coaches teach the five basic passing lanes (under the arms, by the ears, and over the head) because when the hands are fully extended it is difficult to reach back into these passing lanes to protect them from a defensive standpoint.  Quick aggressive jabs of the hands that enable you to maintain balance both discourage these passing lanes from opening up, and make it more likely you will maintain your best body balance and be in a position to react and move quickly to any movement by your opponent.
I would be remiss if I didn't give you some examples of how this applies to various basketball skills so let's proceed to some simple tips for using your hands effectively.
Hand Position by Skill
Steady and calm hands are important to shooting because great shooters have the same start and finish position with their hands and arms.  Defensive pressure can and does force you at time to move the ball to relieve this pressure, but the calmer your hand position the more likely you will make the shot.  Tip: If you must fake to relieve pressure keep your fakes small and movement to a minimum to help you maintain your body balance, and be quicker to stabilize the start point of your shot.
Hand position is important to passing for a couple of reasons.  First to get power to your passes the energy your body is able to generate and impart to the ball is dependent on the hands proximity to your body.  The further you move your hands (and ball) away from the body), the less "mustard" you can put on the pass.  Even with the two-handed overhead pass holding the ball just off your forehead (the proper technique) allows you to better maintain your body's balance, and more quickly generate force to make a snap skip pass.  Long wing up overhead passes allow the defense more time to interfere with the pass or pressure the passing lane and because the arms are extended more difficult to stop and alter when the defensive pressure unpredictably is altered just prior to the pass release.  The rule of keeping the hands close to the body when faking is also critically important to passing.  Long extended arm ball fakes are neither believable, nor easy to control in terms of altering the passing target quickly.  In addition, too much extension increases the risk of your Center of Gravity being pulled outside your base of support and throwing you off balance.  No balance, no power, get it?
Keeping your hands up and central to your body assists in catching the ball because when your hands are down (a common error when young players run on the court) it takes time to recruit the muscle fibers necessary for larger movement to lift the hands into position than if the hands are already in position to begin.  When a passed comes at a less than expected time, there is often not enough time to react and move the hands into position the results being a missed, dropped or fumbled pass and turnover.  The body naturally wants to move the hands up and down when running, but this can and should be retrained for basketball players.  For the passer it's critical to pass the ball to a consistent point so the receiver knows where the ball will arrive the greatest percentage of the time.  Poor hand position prior to catching the ball and unpredictability of the location of the pass have an exponentially bad effect on success in catching the ball.  This is why showing with your hands where you want the ball and the passers ability to consistently deliver the ball to that target cement passing success.  Wild hand and arm movements again constantly change the body's center of gravity and pull a player in and out of balance.  In the low post a player who is constantly to maintain balance is less likely to be able to move and snatch an errant pass than a player in balance under control.  Use your hands purposefully when moving to catch the ball and keep your balance.
Probably the most pointed example of hand position and its importance to dribbling is keeping your off or non-dribble hand up and in a position to receive a cross-over dribble or deter a reaching hand into the ball space by an aggressive opponent.  When the offhand is held down and to the side, it again takes time to move the hand into position and locate the ball as it changes position on the fly.  When the non-dribble hand is held up in a protective position is aids not only in discouraging the reach by an opponent but in reducing the time to gather a crossover dribble and change direction to accelerate past a gambling opponent.  In addition when the ball is kept somewhat close to the body then farther away you have more time to react to a steal attempt and you are more likely to have your body on balance to alter course and beat your opponent.  While there are some pretty impressive "killer crossover moves" (see Bernie Holowicki's Five-Star Inner City Moves and Inner City Moves II) or (Ganon Baker's 35 Street Moves You Can Use) it is my contention that to extreme of a movement of the hands in these moves becomes disadvantageous both time and balance wise.  The best moves are quick and almost magic like deceptive.  This requires both hands to be up and central to the body.  Finally in getting your hands (and attached dribble) too far from the body core, you slow your reaction time to alter the dribble against invasive pressure.  As a defender in my playing days I almost always would attack a dribbler who had the ball extended well away from the body core, especially one the ball had left the hand on the downward dribble where recapturing the ball and altering the course of the body and dribble are almost next to impossible for a half a second or so.
Your hand position is most critically important to your defense on the ball because hand aggressiveness is only beneficial if it does not draw your body off balance.  I think you've all heard these words before "don't reach".  It's not really the extension of the hand per se that create problem, as much as losing your balance and being unable to recover proper position to stay between your man and the basket.  If you can flick, and jab, or poke to keep aggressive use of the hands in their proper place you are more likely to maintain balance.  I believe that full extension of the hands is only purposeful when it is an obvious requirement to prevent ball advancement or movement to a dangerous threat.  This is not to say you can't have active hands.  Active hands are different because this implies movement without losing balance.  As I have previously stated there are special times where hand extension is warranted, such as the off trail hand to discourage the quick crossover dribble.  But if the extended hand is a constant source of losing the body's balance and position then it would be better to go back a step in your defensive footwork and gain skill and confidence in stopping a dribbler with footwork only prior to adding the "weight" of an extended hand back into the balance equation.
Hand position affects many aspects of off-ball defense.  When in off-ball denial position it is perfectly proper and accepted to have the lead hand up and extended into the passing lane to discourage quick ball movement by an opponent.  However if you aren't playing "hands free" defense and your extended hand is driven into the passing lane space as a gamble because your footwork hasn't put you into proper position to extend and pressure with balance than your hand becomes a liability.  A "hands free" off ball defender has such good footwork that they are in position almost to discourage the pass with their body.  The hand is then free to quickly jab and deflect an errant pass.  Keeping the pressure hand up and in a central position also reduces the amount of time to get the hand to the passing lane.  How many times have you seen in a game where a help defender is nearly in perfect position but because their lane hand isn't up are late to raise it and discourage or block the pass.  Hand in the central up position also allow the body to be more balanced and prepared to slash through off-ball screens where getting the lead hand between the defender and screener are essential to splitting the screen and breaking it down.  Finally when the hands are constantly in up then down and then up position the body's balance is constantly being altered.  This is subtle but it slows your footwork down and your ability to react and response quickly to changing events on the court.
Keeping the hand in the up and central position when rebounding assists both in being more prepared to get your hands to the ball quickly but increases the likelihood you will be able to react to an aberration as the ball comes off the rim.  In addition to helping you better maintain balance and your ability to move quickly, it is less likely your hands will be pinned or locked into a down position where your hands are essentially useless on the boards.  Players that learn to keep their hands up consistently as well are more able to keep a ball alive, especially on the offensive glass and they learn to control their bodies with the arms in this position increasing the probably of a successful 2nd or 3rd attempt tip-in.  On the defensive boards, players often fall into the trap of holding their arms down and back to seal in an offensive rebounder, but in reality it is very difficult to move your feet and react to the unpredictable nature of a ball rebounded from this position.  In nearly every case, a defensive rebounder will have to lift their arms to move to the ball.  Down position of the hands requires longer movement distance and time to reach the balls position and decreases the chances of getting the rebound as well.
Summary
Your hands should be the bonus points for proper footwork and effort of the remainder of your body.  If you develop the habit as a young player of relying on your hands to make plays without proper attention to your footwork, you will reach a playing plateau that will prohibit you from becoming the best player you are capable of becoming.  In the end, footwork is what puts you into position to surprise an opponent with your hands and make a key play.  Remember that your hands never go anywhere you feet can't take you, or at least without critically damaging your ability to maintain your body balance as you move on the court.  This is why coaches often practice defensive slide and stance with your hands grabbing your practice jersey.  Because it develops good basketball fundamentals and makes you a better player.  The concept of "hands free basketball" doesn't imply you ignore using your hands.  It simply means that your positioning on the court should be tied almost exclusively to your footwork, and your hands are free to be an unpredictable and influencing factor against your opponent. 
There are certainly situations where a specific hand position is diligent to smart execution on the court.  For example, coaches teach to have a low trail hand away from the dribble direction when defending the ball because it discourages a low quick crossover and buys you time.  When you are on the ball and an opponent picks up their dribble, hard hand pressure on the ball makes it difficult for an opponent to complete a pass to an open teammate.  Listen to your coach when they teach these exceptions to the "general rule".  However keep in mind that if you aren't playing "hands free basketball" you are mostly likely losing your balance a lot, getting beat where you shouldn't and slow to react to fast moving situations in the game.  Foot position prepares you, and quick hands with a balanced body enable you to finish the skill with successful results.  You are also less likely to be able to utilize all your quickness and athleticism because you are going to spend more time recovering your balance than beating an opponent to a spot. 
 
Check back next month for another Playground Pointers courtesy of The Basketball Highway®.

Ice At the Line: Clutch Free Throw Shooting Under Pressure

 

#42- Ice At the Line: Clutch Free Throw Shooting Under Pressure
Making Your FT's Automatic
by Alan Lambert

Introduction

There comes a time in everybody's basketball life when your team is in the lead, you have the ball, and are fouled to stop the clock. This Playground Pointer is about being cool, calm, and collected at the foul line. Confident you can make any pressure free throw to maintain or keep a lead at the games most important moments.  I will say this however, any free throw at any time of the game is crucial to your team’s success.   If you go 10 for 10 from the line early in the game, you may never be put into a position to have to make that free throw with little or no time left on the clock to seal the game.  Whether it's the first half, early in the second half, or late in the game, probably the most important trait you can develop in your free throw shooting is a consistent method.  Let's start there and see if we can't get you to the foul line able to ice the game at the critical moments.
There are no great pressure foul shooters who vary their technique on any trip to the line, no matter how many free throws they take over the course of a game, a month, or a whole season. In fact the great ones probably vary their shots very little over the course of their whole career.  The problem for most players is that their shooting mechanics are not sound, not automated, and thereby susceptible to technique "creep". What I mean by that is that most young players when developing their shots sacrifice good technique to make the shot. When they miss a shot, they keep changing their technique until they do make the shot. Then they stay with that method until they miss a few more, at which time they change their form again.  If you are doing this...stop it immediately. 

Tip 1- Be Consistent With Your Shot Mechanics.

Start with your feet approximately shoulder width apart, in a comfortable position, as if you standing on the end of the diving board of the high dive.  The reason for this is balance.  You cannot have consistent form if your body balance breaks during your free throw causing some other part of your body (your hand, wrist, or arm) to compensate for the loss of balance.  Keep your knees flexed, slightly on the balls of your feet, get your wrist cocked (a 90 degree L), elbow at 90 degrees and pointing at the basket, eyes locked on the target, and start and finish your shot with one fluid motion, upper body relaxed power from your legs. Hold your follow-through high and straight with the forefinger and index finger of your shooting hand completing the following by finishing pointed at your eye target (the point on the rim, above the rim that you focus when shooting).  If you start the shot at a different point each time, then you will fall into the trap adjusting your power to compensate for a different start point.  If you are off long or short, adjust your shot by changing the follow-through point (normally higher, but it can be lower) which when exerting the same power from your legs will increase the arc of the shot and slightly shorten or increase the distance of the shot.  This keeps you from exerting unwanted rotational forces on your shot and causing right to left free throw error misses. 

Here is one last tip for your shot mechanics at the foul line, focus on how you make the shot, not on why you miss it. Many players fall into the trap of trying to correct (and subsequently over-correct) a missed why by compensating for the error.  The longer I have taught shooting the more I believe it is much better to simply focus on how to make the shot correctly and the shot will correct itself.   Remember same start and finish point, balance, power from the legs, relaxed upper body and high and straight follow-through.
Another thing to remember is to have the same foul shot preparation sequence prior to getting the ball to your quiet set position before initiating and releasing the game winning free throw.  Some players take 2 or 3 dribbles prior to the set position for rhythm.  Others take none.  Step up to the line the same way each time, and make sure you locate the nail mark at every foul line which signals the absolute center of the circle.  It is less important that you forward foot in exactly on the nail mark, than you put your toe to the same spot each and every time you shoot.
It is difficult to make free throws at any time without consistency; however once you become consistent with your technique more mental factors begin to become of greater importance when shooting foul shots under pressure.  Arguably the most important factor in great pressure free throw shooting is your concentration.

Tip 2- Concentrate Only on the Target When You Shoot
 
If you are thinking about your form, thinking about what that opponent is saying next to you on the foul line, or thinking about what your parent's, girlfriend, newspapers, TV announcers, or anyone else in this whole world are saying if you make or miss the shot, you'll miss it.  Great concentration starts with locking your eyes on the target, and never taking them off of the target until 2-3 seconds after you have released the shot.  How can you tell if you have proper concentration?   The tip off for me as a coach is to ask my player where their follow-through point was following the shot. Some players will answer....Uhhh I don't know. 

They have very poor concentration.   Some players will answer...I was right of the center of the basket.  That is okay concentration.   Some players will answer, I thought it was right in the middle of the basket (even though they missed the shot)...which is questionable concentration.   The great shooters can and will tell you....I was slightly right just inside the front of the rim but with enough arc to make the shot.  The more detail you can remember about your follow-through point, the better the shooting concentration you are likely exhibiting.
 
Concentration also allows you to block out external distractions such as opponents trash talking, the crowd screaming their heads off, or people under the basket waving objects or hands to make you miss.  If you watch the best foul shooters in the NBA it seems they are almost in a "mental zone" oblivious to these external distractions.   In fact, they are.  When you step to the line to make that game winning free throw, block everything else out.  It's you and the target. Nothing more or less should enter your mind. 
 
Another way to think about how good your concentration is to think of yourself as if on a crowded New York City street at 5:00 pm rush hour the week before Christmas.  You are meeting your best friend and have promised to meet them at a specific location.  While you are aware of all the commotion going on around you, your total focus is on seeking and finding that familiar face in the crowd.   For you on the foul line, that familiar face is the target on or above the rim. Nothing, I mean nothing distraction your eyes from locking on that target and holding both your eyes and follow-through point on that target till well after the shot is released.  Anything less and your concentration may fail you when your technique does not.
 
Tip 3- Confidence Comes from Hours of Practice With the Game on the Line
 
Consistency and concentration when practiced together lead to confidence.  All great foul shooters want to step up to the line.  It is the difference between standing in line to get your butt kicked, or standing in line to receive a big pay check.  Your attitude determines your altitude in terms of your success in the game.  Now to get to the point where you have that kind of confidence you need to put in the hours.  You can't practice 20 free throws a day (some which are not even under pressure) and expect to step up to the line in the big game and make that crucial free throw with confidence.   It takes hours and hours of foul shooting to automate your free throw shot so you never have to even think about the technique.   These thousands of practice free throws assist you over time in eliminating superfluous or unwanted error in your technique.  Instead of having an error creep in during the critical free throw you had that error worked out months ago.  When you have practiced 100-200-300 pressure free throws every day, one more in the game seems miniscule. 
 
Kobe Bryant was recently asked how he was able to step to the line in a recent NBA Championship game with all that pressure and make the game winning free throw.  His answer was, I have shot that free throw thousands of times in practice every day.  You create that mind set when you practice your free throws and you replicate it.  This practice and subsequent confidence gives you a mindset late in the game of "give me the ball, and foul me".  I'm going to put this game away when you foul me.  Do your homework and prepare by practicing technique and concentration to create confidence.
 
Here are seven additional tips that will help you ice the game when the pressure is on:
 
1. Step up the line only when the official is prepared to hand you the ball, and you are ready to enter you pre-shot and automated foul shot routine. If anything or anyone disturbs you prior to being handed the ball, stand back and start again.
2. Once you step on the line, lock your eyes on the target and never let go.
3. If you must make two or three consecutive free throws, stay at the line on makes, and step a brief step back and start your routine again if you miss.
4. Block out any previous misses as a fluke.  Concentrate only on the next free throw and how you make the shot.
5. Take a deep breath and exhale big to relax your body and release any unwanted muscle tension prior to starting your foul shot motion.  This calms your nerves and let's your muscles shoot in the more relaxed mode that you do during the course of the game.
6. If you miss a free throw don't think about what caused the error prior to the next free throw.  Instead focus exclusively on your routine and mechanics you have done thousands of times before in making a free throw.  The previous error will correct itself without you ever thinking about it.
7. Think about making the free throw and nothing else as you lock on the target and complete your follow-through.
There are many different methods coaches use to teach shooting technique and successful foul shooting.   Most are reasonably similar in terms of form, and preparation. However what each of these has in common now matter what you are taught, are consistent shot preparation and mechanics, great concentration, and confidence through proper practice.  You do these three things and you can and will make that game winning free throw.

Check back next month for another Playground Pointers courtesy of The Basketball Highway®.

Learn to Play the Percentages….A Skill Worth Learning

However, while you are out there learning to shoot the rock, grow some awesome handles, dee up, and drive and dish don't lose sight of what skill contributes most to winning teams. Percentage basketball is what I'm talking about. Percentage ball has become a lost art to the many high flying acrobatic maneuvers of today's players. They would rather slam, look fancy to draw attention to their ability than make the simple play that results in an easy score.

I'm not at all suggesting you give up the crowd pleasing acrobatics because there is no question the dunk is a high percentage play. I am simply saying players, as you developing your basketball skills learn to play the percentages. This means easy scores with numbers advantages, locating a physical mismatch quickly on the court and getting that player the ball, making one extra pass to get a higher percentage shot, or taking the wide open shot versus penetrating into traffic and shooting off balance.

If you are not a student of the game you will never learn to play percentage basketball. I am telling you that no one rises to the top level of basketball and wins consistently without being able to play percentages. To learn percentage basketball you must be attentive when your coach is teaching you about these situations and be able to use them to your team's advantage consistently throughout the course of a game.

One of the simplest examples I can give you is of a game I was coaching some year's back where we were playing a very athletically talented team. In the scouting report we saw they ran 95 percent of their plays from the right side of the court. Primarily because they were weak left handed dribblers. They were athletic but only half as athletic going to their left as their right. Our focus the whole game on defense was to never let them initiate a dribble with the right hand. Needless to say we won going away by 20 points and totally frustrated a talented team. This is an example of playing the percentages. You should learn this when playing defense on your opponent as well. What are their strengths and weaknesses and are you letting play to their high percentage play or forcing them to play below their level by taking away their strengths.

Other examples are found in all aspects of the game of basketball including knowing percentage wise where the ball will come off the basket ring the greatest percentage of the time when shot from the right side of the basket at 45 degrees, knowing that teams that don't get 70 percent or more of their points in the paint rarely win championships. Teams that win championships always have a positive turnover ratio against their opponents, make 80 percent of their free throws as a team, and shoot more free throws than their opponents because they bring the ball inside more. Winners also get back and give up the fewest transition points. Percentage basketball is getting more shots and better shots than your opponent.

The point is players, talent will get you on the court, but percentages will make both you and your team a winner. Winners carry the positive effects of effort, teamwork, and enhanced self-esteem into life after basketball. Talent without focus, and the intelligence to play high percentage ends up talking about what should have been. Learn the percentage game, and you'll become a much better player, even if at times you struggle with other parts of your game.

 

 

 


 

Mistakes! Leave That Brick Behind

#38- Mistakes! Leave That Brick Behind 
by Alan Lambert
Introduction
"The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything."
Theodore Roosevelt
There is one skill that every single player who has ever played the game has fully developed and tested, making mistakes.  I know that sounds like a bit of an odd statement. But in life and on the court it is a hard, cold the truth.  What enables some players to deal with mistakes and overcome them better than others?  Today's Playground Pointer focuses on understanding the value of the mistakes you make, knowing their causes, and providing you tips for overcoming this your mistakes.  The season end is approaching.  Teams are faced with win or out situations at all levels.   The pressure is up, the rewards are high, and the results of your performance will be something you carry with you the rest of your life.   How you handle your mistakes will say a lot about what kind of player you really are.   
Wilt Chamberlain missed 10,816 shots in his career.  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar missed even more, 12, 470.  Robert Parish missed 8,300, and in half a career so far Shaquille O'Neal has missed 5,287 and counting.  Yet what each of these great players has in common is that they hold a Championship ring.  If each missed shot, or turnover they made kept them from having confidence and striving forward to achieve bigger and better things the only ring they would have garnered would have been in their bath tubs.  What else is interesting is that all four of these players have career Field Goal Shooting percentages in the top 20 all times above 53% of all the shots they took.  
The same can be said for the all-time NBA Assist leaders, John Stockton or Magic Johnson.  If you looked at their stats they both have averaged more than 10 assists per game over the course of their careers, yet surely they have turned the ball over a decent number of times as well.  Bill Fitch recorded 1157 loses as a coach in his 25 years as an NBA Coach, and Lenny Wilkins 1107 in 28 plus years. Yet both have survived more than a quarter century in a profession where many coaches do not survive a season or two. Yet both have won NBA Championship rings.  So here's the point I'm trying to drive home to you today.  You can't achieve lofty goals as a player without overcoming your mistakes, dealing with adversity and moving forward.  
What Causes Mistakes?
First and foremost is effort.  Any effort will produce some mistakes. The turtle never moves forward if it doesn't stick it head out of it's shell.  So recognize that effort naturally produces mistake.   Effort and mistakes are like a horse and carriage they go together.  They are inseparable.   When you accept that mistakes are a part of effort you are freed to exert more effort.
Fatigue is often a key factor in your making mistakes.  Mental and physical fatigue are teammates.  If you are mentally slow and not alert you will make physical errors.  Conversely if you are poorly conditioned, or exert your energy in a wasted fashion in games, your physical fatigue will certainly lead to mental errors as well.
Expectations of yourself, your coach of you, between teammates, or coaching staff and players can lead to mistakes if the expectations are unrealistic, or you are placed in situations of play for which you are not adequately prepared.  This might mean you haven't practiced enough to execute under pressure.  It might mean that your team, and coaching staff are over confident and have the expectation that you will easily walk over an opponent with half your game.  Expectations are external to the actual execution of the skills moment by moment in a game, which are what produces the final results.  
Relaxing when you should be exerting effort also leads to mistakes.  Taking your performance for granted is a sure way to see an increase in the number of mistakes you make in a game.  Staying relaxed under pressure is a key to good performance, but relaxing your effort is not.
Trying to impress others with your performance rather than concentrating on the task at hand will also contribute to mistakes on the court.  When your focus moves from the on court process of execution to external factors which take your mind off the court you are headed for errors.

Fear of failure is another factor resulting in mistakes.  To improve and grow as a player you must take risks, but make them risks of effort (calculated risks).  Fear is one of the great motivators in life, however failing to try out of fear is a sure fire method for committing mistakes.   Realize that try or not you will make mistakes.  But mistakes of commission are much more acceptable to your coach than errors of omission.
Concentrating on the wrong things at the wrong time will also produce mistakes on the court.  Renown Peak Performance specialist Jeff Janssen describes it as competing in the process zone during competition or in the outcome zone.   When you concentrate on the process and execution in performance you are much more likely to reduce your errors and produce positive results than if you let your mind drift out to outcome zone, or worrying about the outcome of a performance.  
Finally, recognize as a player that there are external factors that will produce mistakes that you have no control over.  These might involve poor timing or positioning interacting with multiple players, a slippery playing surface, an uneven bounce on a section floor in a foreign arena, etc.
I call these X factors.  These are things that no matter how much you prepare will influence the outcome of your performance.  You must live with these X factors and overcome their consequences if you are to be a successful player.  You cannot play the victim, as the X factor is a constant in the world, everyone faces it, and those that are successful players accept it as part of the game.
Tips For Overcoming Your Mistakes
1. "NEXT PLAY" - Duke's Hall of Fame Coach Mike Krzyzewski has his teams focus on the motto "next play".  Whenever something happens positive or negative, it is more important to concentrate on executing the next task at hand.  Great players do not live on past performances, they compete every day, every play.
2. Leave the Brick Behind- Jeff Janssen uses this analogy which I'd like to borrow because it is very apropos.  He says "mistakes are like bricks....you can carry them but after a while they get pretty heavy and limit where you go."  Eventually your bricks will stop you cold if you carry enough of them, or let any one experience become a brick collar.  Instead let each brick go.  Place it behind you never to trip over it again.  During a game, if you make a mistake.  Think of it as a brick and simply turn around and put it behind you.
3. Don't Panic- When you or your team make a mistake never panic.  One of the most difficult things for you as a player (and as a team) to do if to put poor performance or execution behind you.  Great players never let a poor start, or bad phase in a game, inhibit them from competing in the next phase of the game.  When you experience that bad start out of the gate, or in game slump, focus instead on "winning the next few minutes".   Break your execution down into smaller segments of time.  Many highly successful coaches use this strategy when their team has performed poorly.  They say "let's win the next 4 minutes."  In these smaller segments focus on the execution of 2 or 3 key elements of the game (e.g., your defensive footwork, getting to the boards, staying between your man and the basket, and so forth).  If the game is down to one or two possessions, then concentrate on winning possession by possession.  As a player it means you bear down in your concentration level and execute the critical screen perfectly, or step out to hedge the pick and roll at that critical moment.  If the game is in the last seconds, your execution segments becomes 10 or 15 seconds blocks of time instead of 4 minutes.  Never panic, execute to win.
4. Get Tough! to get back- No one in life or in the game of basketball can bring their "A" game every single time they step on the court.  However those players that are successful overcoming their mistakes recognize this point and GET TOUGH, dig down and pick up their game when they're having an off performance.  Soft players use the "didn't bring my A game" excuse to let go, and to explain their no show when mistakes pop into their performance.   Great player get touch, dig down and give their best performance even when their "A" game is missing, and their performances are filled with errors.
5. See the Big Picture- Great players never let a mistake, or mistakes define who they are.  Have you caught yourself as a player hanging your head after you've committed a turnover, missed a open shot, or have been beaten defensively to the basket.  As a person and player you will always be of more value and able to contribute to your team than any one mistake you ever make.  Do not let a moment in time, one experience define who you are as a player.
6. Mistakes are Temporary, Local, and Correctable- If you find yourself feeling like your errors are ongoing, unchangeable, and irreversible than you need a change of attitude.  Big time players only see their errors as temporary.  Their mistakes do not define their whole game but instead are only localized to one  specific act on the court.  "I blew it", I'm going to leave that brick behind, and I'm going to change the next play.  Key here is that you remember your mistakes are correctable by subsequent performance.  If you have had a poor first half performance that is only temporary.  The second half is still to be played.  If you have committed an error in failing to box out, it doesn't mean you are then required to pass the ball poorly the next possession.  Your mistake is local, and not global to your performance.  When you realize you have committed a mistake, block out outcome zone distractions, and concentrate on execution of the next skill sequence when it comes time to execute the skill again.  Your performance is always correctable no matter how many errors you make if you try.
7. Use Your Mistakes As Challenges- The most successful players in the game today look at performance errors and adversity as challenges.  One of the best examples of that is Shaquille O'Neal's free throw shooting performance.  No one in the past couple of years has taken so much verbal criticism, or received tons of advice as to how to change his performance.  Yet I am certain that Shaq looks at performance at the line more as a challenge than a hindrance.  When you make a mistake, challenge yourself up to perform better the next time down the court.
8. Concentrate on the Things You Can Control- Many of the mistakes and adversity you will face on the court are due to factors out of your control.  What you can control is your reaction to, concentration, your confidence in yourself, and attitude when facing these circumstances.
9. Turn Your Wounds Into Wisdom- Great players learn from their mistakes and don't commit them again.  Your errors of the past are the wisdom and success of the future.  Think of your game mistakes as a trampoline to better performances rather than a stone around your neck.
10. Persist, persist, and persist more- Successful players have recognized and accepted that mistakes are part of the game.  What makes them different is that they persist even during their poorest performances.  Remember this, the player that fails is typically one who doesn't recognize how close to successful performance they are when they gave up.  Quitting on yourself when you have made a mistake is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
The tougher you get when you have made a mistake, the better your chances of surviving, and growing into a highly successful player over the course of a game, a season, and throughout your career.  Believe in yourself, concentrate on the process of playing each play, and leave that brick behind.   
There are many examples in the history of basketball where a player has make a significant mistake and gone on to greatness.  Maybe none so more visible than then 1993 NCAA Division I Championship game where Michigan's Chris Webber inadvertently called a timeout his team didn't have with 11 seconds remaining in the game costing his team a chance at the last shot to win the game. Chris had scored 23 points and 11 rebounds nearly carrying his team to the title against North Carolina, only to error at the most critical point of the game.   A lesser person or player might have let that mistake (temporary) determine who they were as a person and as a player.  However, we all know the rest of this story.  Chris Webber has become one of the NBA's best players with the Sacramento Kings, an All-Star, all because of how he handled his mistake.


Check back next month for another Playground Pointers courtesy of The Basketball Highway®.

Preparing Yourself for the Big Game

#51- Preparing Yourself for the Big Game
Proper Preparation Leads to Relaxation, Confidence and Success
by Alan Lambert
Introduction
Every player will eventually be faced with a game of importance a lot on the line whether it's an NBA Finals like the Lakers vs. the Piston or just your local youth league championship.  Learning to prepare for the big game is a skill in itself and can be learned from an early age.   It is not very difficult to get yourself ready to play when a game has little significance.  It is entirely a different animal when the game has so much importance you can't sleep the night before, have difficulty eating, and it obsessively can't escape your mind. 
How you mentally and physically prepare for this game in the days leading up to it will determine, to a great extent, how you will perform when your "big opportunity comes".  Today we'll give you some tips for helping you to prepare yourself so that you can get into the game relaxed, confidence and primed for success.  Knowing how to prepare yourself for the big game is the primary goal of today's Playground Pointer.  While we'll talk about both physical and mental preparation, we'll also provide some specific thoughts how to handle the night before and day of the game.  Sit back, pull up a bench, and let's get that makes the plays, and get that win.
Physical Preparation
Your physical preparation for the big game begins long before the day of the game.  It goes back even further than the week of the game.  It starts with your daily preparation from the very first day of practice.  When you practice every day, at every moment like its big game time, you'll become best prepared to execute your skills with the speed, strength and accuracy required at crunch time.  This sounds a bit of a simplification, but over the many years I have coached I have seen countless players who didn't bring their best to practice every day than later wondered why they were unable to perform under pressure in the crunch of a big game.  Practice like you want to play.  Our Tip: Bring the big game mentality to practice every day.
In addition to practicing like you want to play, you must practice the skills that will be required of your position and according to your role on your team in the week prior to the game.  It amazes me how often I have seen players practicing skills during practice leading up to a big game that won't be required for them in the game.  For example, big men shooting three point shots, when they haven't taken more than a half dozen three point shots all year, or point guards spending no time working on their ball handling when they know they are going to be getting tough full court pressure against the big game opponent.  Our Tip: Practice the skills that you will need to be most successful required of your position and by the role you play on your team.
Part of your physical preparation for the big game will be to push yourself in the days prior to the big game but conserve some energy the day before the big game.  A good coach will set up practices the day before a game that require high intensity and concentration levels but are of shorter.  Players who do not let the coach regulate the practice duration and attempt to "save themselves" will only cut into their skill tuning and big day performance sharpness.  What is important is that you get enough scrimmage and skill time to not lose your competitive or skill edge and to maintain the intensity required in the big game.  Our Tip: Regardless of the practice duration (controlled by your coach) carry your big game intensity level into your last practice.
Players avoid making any significant changes to their "go to" skills prior to a big game.  Forget trying your new moves in big game situations.  If you haven't spent a significant amount of time practicing a skill and having used it in game settings, put it on the bench for another time. Our Tip: Go with the moves that got you there.  If you don't have the moves, than you are starting a bit late at this point to try to automate and add a critical tool to your chest of armor at the last minute.  Don't do it.
You can enhance your confidence prior to a big game by spending some additional practice time on an area that has been a consistent weakness in your game.  "You should be practicing to eliminate your weaknesses every day through the whole season but if one of your skills areas has experienced a performance drop in recent weeks, give a few more repetitions to improve your confidence to use those skills as required in the big game.  Our Tip: Don't dwell on what you are unable to do well, and instead focus on what you can do well, then execute it to perfection.
Practice what works for you and keep it simple.  Pro athletes don't go back into practice trying to develop multiple skills in the week prior to a big game.  They stay to the basics and polish the best skills they have as if they were diamonds.  Our Tip: Big game performers go to their "bread and butter" and with an attitude you can give me your best defense or offense, I'm still going to beat you to the punch.
There is no better way to build big game confidence from a physical standpoint than by focusing on defense first. Invariably in big games the pressure is on both teams to perform.  It is not uncommon to see both teams miss several of their first shot attempts.  Keep your focus on defending tenaciously both to help rid your body of that extra nervous energy but also to increase the likelihood you will create a turnover and some easy scores to get your team going.  Our Tip: Defense, Defense, focus on your defense.

Finally, one player can go up against five in an effort to put the ball in the goal.  However that doesn't ring very efficient in terms of energy. If fact every one of you at one time or another while growing up playing ball has played a friendly pickup game where there is an odd man out.  Think of the extra energy it takes to play against more numbers, strength and position.  It therefore makes perfect sense to get your teammates involved in big games.  Sharing the ball reduces everyone's anxiety, keeps everyone alert and saves you precious energy that you'll undoubtedly need late in close big games.  Our Tip: Sharing the ball and responsibility is a wise thing to do physically to conserve your best for when it's needed at crunch time.
Mental Preparation
There are a number of things you can do mentally to prepare for big games.  These are often a big more abstract to younger players but none-the-less important to understand.  Here are some areas you will want to digest to help yourself become better prepared from a mental standpoint to play your best in the big game.
Proper and realistic goal setting is a critical part being mentally prepared to perform your best in big games.  If you are getting two or three minutes a game as a quick substitute for a key player and you are thinking your 25 points and 10 rebounds are going to make a difference you going to place a huge amount of pressure on yourself.  If you are a "gamer" and generally statistically produce, focus more on each opportunity to execute rather than on counting numbers in the game.  Performance produces numbers.  Striving for numbers can cripple your performance in a big game.  Our tip: Be realistic about what you can contribute to your team and focus on step by step execution to most help your team.
Remember to relax.  It's often easier said than done but realizing that your family and friends will still love you no matter how badly you might play should help you to keep it all in perspective.  Tensing up doesn't allow your mind and muscles to operate to their most efficient levels.  Remember it's a game and you'll live tomorrow.  Our Tip: Your performance will not affect how others who love and care about you treat you.  Enjoy the experience in the moment.
Equally important to relaxing is to reduce the number of distractions filling your mind.  Often for big games people want tickets, access to you and time with you.  Our Tip: If you find that you cannot get some quiet time in the days before a big game, politely request other to give you some room, and turn off that cell phone.
When you do get some quiet time, picture yourself at the place of competition and try to think how you will solve problems at every possible situation in the game.  If you are a guard getting pressure, think about how you will be able to successfully handle and release the pressure.  If you are going to get trapped, where will your teammates be as release points.  If you are denied how will you handle your cuts to get open?  Slowing down your mind, envisioning the proper execution of the skill and making proper decisions will help you relax in the actual game situations.   Our Tip:  Take time in quiet to problem solve prior to the game.
Finally, confidence is extremely important tool to great performance.  However over-confidence can be a fly in the ointment.  Know your offensive and defensive assignments so thoroughly you don't have to think much when your number is called.  Be aware of the difficulty of the challenges of a great opponent and big game, but step up to the challenge, and understand the challenge is the same for your opponent.  Our Tip: Be confident but avoid overconfidence. Overconfidence diffuses your performance and the concentration necessary to perform your best.
The Night Before the Game
Most athletes start to show concern for the big game preparation the night before the big game.  In reality two nights prior to the game should be the start of your preparation.  While there isn't a lot of scientific documentation to support my view, having been a coach and player for more than 40 years, I cannot count the number of times I saw players stay out late 2 nights before a big game, sleep well the night before, and perform like a dog because they were tired.  There is something to be said for getting your best night of rest two nights before the game.  It doesn't mean to stay up all night the night before, but it won't matter what sleep you get the night before, if two nights before you are a night owl.  Our Tip: Get your best nights rest two nights before the big game.
Think about taking a big exam in school where you have to memorize a lot of information to succeed on a test.  If you don't study until the last night then stay up all night, it is highly doubtful you'll do your best come test day.  The same is true for basketball.  If your concentration level and mental preparation for the game doesn't begin until the practice or night before the game, you can forget bringing your best performance come big game day.  Our Tip: Don't cram the night before a big game; start down that road days before.
Taking care of your body isn't just about getting enough sleep.  The food you eat can significantly impact your performance.  In general it is a good ideas to carbohydrate load (spaghetti, noodles, potatoes, etc.) the night or two before the big game. Pasta loading the day of the game won't give you much of a lift.  Instead look to eat a balanced meat with foods that are relatively easy to digest about 4 hours prior to the big game.  Eating too close to the game will cause your stomach to rob your other physical resources of vital energy including both your muscles and your brain.  Our Tip: Eat wisely in the week leading up to the game, and on game day eat with enough time to allow your body to best use the foods to be converted to useable energy.
Hydration, the amount of fluids you take in, is also a critical factor to playing well in the big game.  Your body uses water to help convert valuable foods into energy.  Lack of water in your body causes problems.  Our Tip: Trying to drink several gallons of water just prior to the game won't help your body hydrate the same way as drinking several glasses or bottles of water throughout the day prior to the big game.  Our tip: Keep in mind that soda's, teas and coffee's contain caffeine's which dehydrate rather than hydrate your body and muscles.  Avoid these drinks the day of a game.
Remember to take it easy mentally the night before a big game when at all possible.  There will be times when as a student-athlete you have to prepare for a big test or event the night before, but try to allow enough preparation time that you aren't cramming for two events the night before the big showdown.  If you can relax and try to do something fun that doesn't take too much brain power.  Remember that mental processing by the brain takes energy too.  It might not be useful to sleep for two days prior to the game, but on the opposite end of the spectrum challenging your brain to a spelling-bee or mentally challenging video game probably also isn't the wisest choice of activities the night before.  Our tip: When in doubt rest is best.
Game Day
On game day, when possible, visit the site of competition, observe your opponents (via film if not live), and find a comfortable quiet place to relax prior to leaving for the gym or entering the court.  If you remember in the famous movie Hoosier's about the little team from Milan, Indiana in 1954 that beat all the big schools on the way to the state championship, the Coach took them all to Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis and had his players measure the height of the basket.  He then asked if it was the same height and dimensions as the gym they played in.  The point is the court and dimensions are uniform for everyone.  Our tip: Visually walking through a court or via a shoot-around can help you relax and realize the game is the same no matter where it's played.
Eat properly the day of the game. While this was mentioned above, it is critical that you eat and hydrate yourself properly to give your body the best chance to use its fuel efficiently come game time.  No body runs the Indy 500 on half a tank of gas. Trying to hydrate yourself during the game will help a bit, but not as much as if you do it well the full day of the game.  Our trip: Eat foods which can be converted to energy quickly, and keep your body watered!
When you have other responsibilities on game day, school, work, class, studies, live in the present.  Concentrate on the task at hand.  When it's done then don't carry emotional baggage from previous tasks to the game event.  If you are worrying about the game later in the day when you are taking your test, you'll perform poorly on the test.  If you're worrying about your test performance when the big game is underway, you'll most likely end up on the bench. Our tip: Live in the present, perform in the present.
Reduce distractions when possible.  Distractions can range from events not associated with the game to concentrating on the wrong things during the game.  This is why many players like to listen to relaxing music on the way to the game.  Block out the distractions and give yourself the best change to perform big. Learn from other championship teams.  One of the least obvious traits visible to the public is how great the concentration level is from NBA or collegiate players in big games.  No where are the distractions more intrusive than at these levels.  Yet these players are able, for the most part, to block out these external things and concentrate on the task at hand.  Our tip: Nothing that distracts you contributes to the successful execution of your best skills.  Focus on those things that contribute.
Control your arousal level.  There is a curve which describes how your arousal level affects your performance and it is an inverted U.  This is called Activation Theory.  If you are under aroused you perform poorly, just as if you are over aroused you do the same.  What you what to learn is how much arousal is good for you personally and what is too much.  For me personally as a young player I was very active with a lot of energy.  It was not until almost my senior level in college that I learned I could actually almost sleep or sit quietly in the locker room until about an hour before the game to help keep my arousal level down to where I gave the best on court performances.  You can't always control the external factors which affect your arousal level but you can determine if you are over or under-doing it.  If you find it difficult to "get up" for big games, you may need to start your "workup" a bit earlier in warm-ups to get to your best arousal level at game time. Our tip: Too much or too little arousal will work against good performance. 
During the Game
Play for the team, it's a team game.  Too many players tend to think they alone must do something to win the game.  Basketball is a team game that requires timing, understanding and execution between many related parts.  Our tip: When you are in the game do your best to perform your role and execute the skills required to make the team game work.
Be prepared...step up when your number is called.  It is easy to be a starter and prepare yourself to play but coming off the bench is a bit more challenging in big games.  Our tip: Stay alert, picture situations in which you'll likely be substituted in and be ready to step up when your performance is required.
Focus your performance on the best technique and not on the outcome of the event.  Focusing allows your mind to slow down and retain control of skill details.  Some call this "playing in the zone."  I'm sure everyone of you has at one time or another stood at the foul line to make a big free throw and rather than concentrate on what you have to do to make the shot (e.g., relaxed, legs, high and straight follow-through direct to the target) think about "boy I need to make this free throw to give us a chance to win."  Focusing on the wrong things causes poor performance especially when those things are not related to good execution of techniques or patterns.  Our tip: Take your game performance step by step.  Think about what you need to do to execute for success and not about whether or not you succeed.
Use proper self-talk in the game, never negative self-talk.  Most players talk to themselves during the course of a game.  Negative self-talk has the effect of eroding concentration and confidence.  Avoid this kind of self-talk no matter what happens during a game.  Our tip: Use self-talk to refocus you on the crucial element of the game.  For example, you might say on each shot, "crash the boards", "get back", or beat my man to the spot".  These are examples of positive self-talk with constructive results.
Imagine yourself succeeding.  From the week of the event through the actual game you have to envision yourself succeeding.  It doesn't always happen but if your imagination takes you to places of failure, you will.
Summary
Many factors influence your big game day performance.  In most cases preparing from the first day of the season through the last is the best method for getting ready for big games.  The tougher your practices, the more challenges you face on a daily basis, the more likely you will handle the pressure and expectations of the big game.  Physical preparation includes off season workouts that help you build a foundation of strength and endurance that will hold throughout a full season.  Late game fatigue late in the season is the result of poor off season preparation.  Without this foundation, you'll never be able to run enough sprints during the season to maintain your stamina late in the year.
Early or off-season realistic goal setting also helps you keep your practice efforts focused and your performances in proper perspective.   We have talked a lot about game day distractions but too many distractions throughout the course of the season will rob you of proper preparation time thus lowering your chances of becoming big day game ready.  Someone once said, the "players play (practice) and the talkers talk" to which there is a lot of truth.  Being ready for the big game takes a day to day commitment along proper fueling of the body, relaxation of the mind, and focus on the task at hand.  The more you heed today's advice the more likely you will bring your "A" game to the big game.

Check back next month for another Playground Pointers courtesy of The Basketball Highway®.

Putting the Quick In Your First Step- Frappier Drills

 Playground Pointers

#39- Putting the Quick in Your First Step! Frappier Drills
by Alan Lambert
Introduction
There isn't a basketball player alive that doesn't dream of having a quicker first step.  Hall of Fame Coach John Wooden once said (paraphrased) give me five quick players versus five tall one's and we will beat you every time.  However a quick first step isn't enough to turn you into a player.  Michael Jordan, arguably one of, it not the greatest player of all time, could beat people consistently off the dribbler due to a combination of speed, power and agility.  My observations of Michael Jordan as a player drew me to the one conclusion.  That he was blessed with an ability most players don't have, the ability to recover his center of gravity (COG) once it was violently "hurled" out of balance in beating defenders to the basket. Gary Payton is also another example of a player with great agility and balance.   Many quick players can get by their defender, but few have the ability to adequately recover their balance and successfully execute the critical basketball skill: whether shot, pass, or changing directions off the dribble.  Balance is also required after explosive defensive footwork in order to stop an explosive penetrator attacking the basket.  Today's Playground Pointer is directed at teaching you some simply ideas about developing first step quickness, balance and agility which together can take your game to another level.
Who's Frappier?
In the early 1980's an Exercise Physiologist from Kansas State University named John Frappier came back to the U.S. from Europe having studied speed and agility training programs of the former Soviet Union.  He became convinced that there were external ways which athletes could train which would stimulate the body's muscles, neurophysiological, and skeletal systems to perform more quickly, powerfully, and with extended intensity.  This acceleration program and their drills have become known in athletic development and training circles as "Frappier Drills".  I will introduce you to a few today, but you probably don't realize that you have almost certainly done some of these already in your young basketball career.  The most obvious one is what is coaches call "double line slides" where you execute a defensive slide across 3 parallel lines about 1 yard (or meter) apart as rapidly as you can in a given set of time.  You count the number of times both feet cross a line as 1, for a measured period of time, say 30 seconds or 1 minute.  The more strength, acceleration, and balance you have the higher you score on this drill.  In a very oversimplified way this is how most of the Frappier Drills work.  These drills are designed to teach a player how to move their feet out from under their center of gravity, recover, and continue to move their feet while keeping their dynamic balance.
Frappier believes that by combining Sprint Training, Resistance Cord Training, Strength Training, Plyometrics, and what they call the Super Treadmill (capable of tilting upward to 40 degrees and a maximum speed of 28 mph) that a player can gain a competitive edge in acceleration over other athletes.  The breadth of his program's goes well beyond the scope of today's Playground Pointer.  What I simply want to do is make you aware that foot quickness, acceleration and the recovery of your body's center of gravity after dynamic motion are all interrelated and to ignore them in your training unnecessarily puts a cap on your basketball playing ability.  Frappier's program is not recommended for kids under the age of 9-10, and for all athlete's starting sprint training, resistance cord training, strength and Plyometrics program, proper supervision by trained and accredited personal is a must.   
Hopscotch
In their simplest form the games of "hopscotch" or playing the old "four square" ball game which you may have played as a young child are Frappier Drills.  You don't need an expensive program to develop your own Frappier type drills and have fun doing them.  To get the most out of our ability however consult trained acceleration and sports training and health or medical professionals before implementing a complete Frappier acceleration program for the best and safest results.  Results of these acceleration programs have been argued to increase your foot quickness 2 tenths of a second in a 40 yard dash, increase your vertical jump 4 inches, increase of 50-70% of multi-directional agility, and improve recovery time from this exertion 50%.   For more information you can visit their web site at www.accelerationproducts.com where there are a number of references and contact for such programs.  Many professional players already have personal trainers who work with them on these types of drills, and several Division I College programs are beginning to add Frappier type training equipment to their strength training facilities.
Caution in Overloading Workouts
Now that you have a cursory background on Frappier's ideas, let me show you a few simple drills you could do on your own to improve your foot speed, and agility.  These are commonly and simply called "ground basics".  One thing to remember when working on your athleticism is that over-training when "strength loading" the body can be physically detrimental to your body and eliminate any positive gain by properly spacing out your training and recovery time from intensive loading.  Carelessly overloading also makes you much more prone to injuries.   Keep such training sessions down to 2 times per week for less than an hour for all the drills.  More importantly, give yourself 2-3 minutes active (walking, jogging, or moving about) recovery time in between each set of drills to allow your body proper time to recover.  You may not feel it at the time, but later on you will if you don't respect this strong recommendation.  In Frappier's own highly developed and specialized program there are basically four footwork drills (the 4-square pattern, eight-square pattern, the Krumrie and Munoz patterns they use.  However you can get quite creative and develop your own.  Frappier's settled on these drills because over time they seemed to produce the best results.  However training is sport specific so any time you build your own footwork quickness drill, keep in mind the type of movement you make in basketball.
10 Drills to Compliment Your Basketball Workouts
Here are 10 different drills I have used over the years to give you an idea of what you can do on your own or with teammates.  Remember use a fixed time each day (30 seconds is good) and restrict each drill to three sets with 2-3 minute break in between (teammates can take turns during the break), and as much as 5 minute rest between different drills (shoot free throws).  Remember to keep the duration of your total workout down to between 30-45 minutes twice per week.  Record your performance on each drill on paper both as a motivator and to help you chart your development and progress.  These drills are not substitutes for basketball skill workouts but should be worked on as compliments to developing your quickness and athleticism.  The more advanced Frappier Drills use elastic cords to restrain and provide resistance, again however only use these types of devices in the hands of trained and certified specialists.  However you can benefit from these types of drills even with minimal external resistance.  The smoothing of the neuromuscular pathways and balance and conditioning you develop by doing them will improve your foot quickness.
Looking at these footwork drills you will get some good ideas how to build your agility and quickness but remember you can be creative too.  Use some simple non-slip tape to mark the lines on your court indoors, or chalk to mark it outdoors.  Change the shape and distance between the lines for variety and to improve your steps.  The smaller box and X drills diagrammed here should be lines about 3-4 feet long.  For the larger movement drills such as Big S Carioca and Big X Carioca each leg represents about 3-4 feet.  However making your big box drills more than 15-20' doesn't make sense because you seldom must react and change directions to accelerate in greater space on the basketball court.
Partner Up
Now get those feet moving.  Partner up with a friend, have them time you and count the touches.  You can vary the pattern and methods of foot touches in almost every drill and I will give you some examples as well.  What is the key execution point in all of these drills is to keep your head over your center of gravity and move your feet.  Balance, and quickness must be done together.  When starting perfect execution of balance and clean and proper footwork are more important than speed.  As you get better then work to increase your speed of footwork.  Never sacrifice balance, or not cleanly touching the numbers outside of the lines for speed.

10 Footwork Drills for Basketball
The Box1. The Box (box 3 feet square)
Start on the X.  On go move both feet completely outside the box to touch the number 1, back to the X, both feet outside the box to touch the number 2, back to the X, to the 3, back to the X, then to the 4.  Count this as 1.
Variations: Change the pattern of number touching. Jump only off the left or right foot.  Jump 1-X-3-X-2-X-4-X.  Jump X-1-2-3-4-X count 1.

2. Cross (lines 3 feet long)
Start on the 1.  On go move both feet completely over the lines touching 2-3-4-1 count 1.  
Variations: Change the pattern of number jumping.  Jump only off the left and right foot. Jump 1-2-3-4-3-4-1 count 1.  Jump 1-3-4-2 count 1.  Jump 1-1-2-1-3-1-4-1 count 1.  Jump 1-2-1-3-1-4-1 count 1.

3. The X (lines 4 feet long)
Start on the 1.  On go move both feet completely over the lines touching 2-3-4 count 1.  
Variations: Change the pattern of number jumping just as in the previous drill called Cross.  You can also put small X's where the numbers are and increase the horizontal distance your feet must move each time they touch while keeping your head quiet and mid-body and center of gravity balanced.



4. Eight Box (lines 4-6 feet long)
Start on the X.  On go move both feet completely over a set of lines to touch specific numbers.  Go 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 count 1.
Variations: X-1-X-2-X-3-X-4...and so forth.  Go X-1-X-5-X-3-X-7-X-2-X-6-X-4-X-8 count 1.  Jump on left or right leg only.  Jump X-1-2-1-3-2-4-3-5-4-6-5-7-6-8-7-1-8-X count 1.
This box has provides a large variety of jumping patterns.


5. Big X Carioca (lines 20 feet)
These are what are called Big Box drills.  Start in the lower left hand corner.  On go sprint straight to the top of the line, then carioca diagonally down and to the right hand corner, sprint to the top of the right line, then carioca down and to the left hand corner count 1.
Variations: Make one of the sprints forward, one of them backwards.  Change the carioca to defensive slides.  Change the carioca section to one defensive slide-two sprint steps, one defensive slide.

6. Big S Carioca (lines 3-4 feet apart vertically, 20 feet long horizontally). Another Big Box Drill
Similar to the previous Big X Carioca drills but more variation and changes of direction.  
Variations: Have players do 180 degree turns at the start of each level of the horizontal lines.  It would go like this.  Start lower left corner, carioca 20 feet to the lower right hand corner, sprint ahead 3-4 feet, do a 180 turn, carioca 20 feet to the end of the middle horizontal line, back pedal 3-4 feet, turn 180, carioca 20 feet, and so forth.  You can complete a figure 8 and count 1, or count 1 for every horizontal box they complete.

7. Christmas Tree (horizontal line marked with S is 4-6 feet from X.  Vertical lines marks L (left) R (right) 2-3 feet distance from X.
Start on the X.  Back pedal to so that both feet clear the horizontal line and touch the S.  Sprint to the X.  Laterally jump or slide step over the line to the L, back to the X.  Back pedal to the S, sprint to the X, laterally jump or slide step over the line to the R, back to the 1. count 1.
Variations: Start S, touch X-L-X-R-X-L-X-R-X-S count 1.
Start. S, touch X-L-X-R-X-S-X-S count 1.

8. Six Sider (lines approximately 2-3 feet)
Start on the X. On go move both feet outside the line to touch 1-X-2-X-3-X-4-X-5-X-6-X count 1.  
Variations:  Start X-1-3-5-X-2-4-6-X count 1.  Start X-1-X-4-X-2-X-5-X-3-X-6-X count 1. Again there are number of jump permutations with the Six Sider. Add a jump rope to some of the simpler drills shown here today to give your cardiovascular system and upper body additional work as well.

Runway Lights9. Runway Lights (X and subsequent circles or x's are 6-12 inches apart)
Start with both feet the X on go the left (L) foot touches 1 as the right (R) foot simultaneously touches 4, then L2-R5 then L3-R6, L2-R5, L1-R4, proceed as quickly as possible with Ra-Ld, Rb-Le, Rc-Lf, Rb-Le, Ra-Ld, return to X count 1.
Variations: L1-R4-X-L2-R5-X-L3-R6-X and proceed to Ra-Ld-X-Rb-Le-X-Rc-Lf-X count 1.

10. Turn-Sprint-Tap (use the free throw line and a backboard or wall)
Most of the drills we have shown involve horizontal movement.  However you can also incorporate a number of footwork drills that take the player from horizontally required movements to sprints- to vertical jumps, and back.  
Start on the S back to the basket.  On go, turn 180, sprint and jump to touch the T with both hands, upon landing, turn 180, back pedal over the free throw line, turn 180 count 1.  
Variations: Make two S's one at each elbow of the foul line.  Start back to the basket, on go slide shuffle to the other S and return, turn 180 sprint basket, jump, touch the T, back pedal to the S, turn 180 count 1.  Add multiple slide shuffles between sprints and jumps.  Add a basketball to improve ball handling while maintain balance.

Be Creative Be Quick
There are literally hundreds of drills like this you can use to develop foot speed, agility and balance.  Keep in mind that you can add a basketball to the drills, having a coach or partner pass you the ball as you are moving, or working on your dribbling in combination as well.  While I haven't gone into great detail here today, I also have had success working with similar drills that are not just horizontal but work from horizontal to vertical, like the Turn-Sprint-Tap drill shown last in our 10 drill sequence.
The point is you can't expect to have quick feet, balance, and agility if you don't make it a part of your training regimen.  It can be fun, it can be challenging, and it will help get you in shape as well. Remember having a partner to observe you and give you feedback regarding your body's position and center of gravity while doing these drills is essential to your improvement.  To practice not controlling your center of gravity and head will negate all your hard footwork.  Keep that head quiet, control your waist, and make your feet do the work.  If you want to accelerate your footwork, and put the quick in your first step, get to work.
 
Check back next month for another Playground Pointers courtesy of The Basketball Highway®.

RimTalkers: A Critical Skill for Survival on the Court

 

 

#43- RimTalkers: A Critical Skill for Team Survival
Using Your Voice As an Extra Teammate
by Alan Lambert
Introduction

In a recent Hollywood movie starring Nicholas Cage we are transported back in time during the World War II conflict to learn the significance of different combat unit’s ability to share communications without tipping off the enemy.  The focus of this movie was on a group of Navajo Indians who were pressed into service using their native language as a code all to its own, able to be spoken directly over open lines but yet no discernable to those unfamiliar with the language.   Today's Playground Pointer is directed at giving you a sense of urgency about the extreme importance of talking and communicating with your teammates on the court.  I title it RimTalker: A Critical Skill for Team Survival primarily because there may be no single individual/team skill on the court more important to your team’s success than communicating position and decisions on the court.  Excuse me for taking a bit of Hollywood to make this point, but whatever you want to call it, talking on the court is becoming a lost art in basketball.   Outside of pivoting with a basketball, I believe it is one of the poorest executed skills I have observed in more than four decades of basketball. 

This Playground Pointer is meant to give you some ideas on how to communicate, when to communicate, and I'll even throw in a special translation section to help you and your teammates decipher this uncommon language so you can become an expert RimTalker.  It is really a simple language but you have to work at it.

Since basketball is a game which involves the interaction of five players on offense, defense and in transition and your eyes have a limited field of vision you must learn to communicate with others human senses.  Failure to communicate what is happening on the court to your teammates is setting your teammates and yourself up for consistent problems in executing your skills.  How many times have you been blind-sided by a back pick and lost your man because your teammate didn't communicate?  How many times have you gone to cover for a teammate who has lost a player but someone doesn't cover for you?  How many times have you sprinted to fill a lane in transition only to have a teammate force up a shot in traffic when you were open?
 
Talking Reflects Unselfish Play

I think as a coach one of the most evident ways to tell a players unselfishness the court is by how much they communicate crucial information to their teammates during the heat of action.  Granted some of you players may be introverts who's verbal skills are being held in cold storage, but I have not witnessed a championship team in my years of playing and coaching were every single player did not understand and strive to use their voice as an extra teammate.   Think of your voice as being the sixth man.  Is there a player out there today that doesn't believe with an extra player on the court they would not have a significant advantage.  What is strange to me is some of the most talkative players off the court are often the least talkative on the court.   I think the lack of voice communication on the court has more to do with practicing when and what to communicate which is what we will focus on next. 

One last, but extremely important point.  RimTalk is about communicating basketball decisions.  It is NOT berating a teammate or trashing an opponent.  Personal emotion or macho bravado is not required to successfully use RimTalking.  RimTalk is used to give your teammates the clearest picture possible of circumstances on the court, what you are thinking, and how you will adjust to your normal skills and patterns which you have practiced. Trash talking is also not a part of the RimTalk language because it has nothing to do with good execution of individual or team skills.  Too much communication (trash talking) in Signal Theory (the science of communication) becomes noise and actually interferes with the most effective communication.  It is like having a cell phone with too much static.  You know there is a message but you cannot clearly understand it because of the noise.  Trash talking is sort of like the old adage my grandmother used to say when we were talking at the dinner table: "you can't talk and chew at the same time."  Translated this means if you are wasting your breath trash talking, you are certainly not communicating (chewing) the circumstances of the next rapid action on the court and are missing the opportunity to stay alert and prepared to execute.  Great basketball players are in the moment, not in the past.

Here are some examples of basic RimTalk and why it's important to use to give your team the best chance to win each time out on the court.  Remember RimTalk is a simple language. The simpler key phrases you use the better.  But practice during breaks in practice scrimmage situations, timeouts and dead ball situations giving a full translation if basic RimTalk isn't sufficient to get a teammate to understand what you are saying.  Tell your teammates or players what you mean when you are communicating.  Keep RimTalk to very basic understandable words in the heat of the battle. 

Here are some examples of RimTalking:

Basic RimTalk (The On Court Language of Basketball Players)

On Defense

Help (left or right)- Tells your teammate where you are at relative to their position.  Translation- I'm here on your left (or right) prepared, alert, ready to help you if you get beat off the dribble.  You can be more aggressive defensively because I am there to help you.  Have confidence in my help and stay aggressive.  (note: No Help means you are on your own play cautiously!)

Rotate- Tells your teammates that someone has blown a defensive assignment and you have now committed to defender this player with an open path to the basket.  Translation- I recognize you have been beaten and cannot possibly recover in time to stop your man from getting to the basket. No worry, I will step in and stop him for you.  You can help us out by rotating one man closer to the basket if you one of my help defense teammates, or if you were the man beaten off the dribble rotating back to cover the last open man away from the ball.  Do not stop and fret about getting beat, simply cover up for us to prevent our team defense from breaking down again.  I want you to have confidence I will cover for you so that when it happens to me I can have the same confidence in you.  Our team wins when we all make this effort.

I've Got Yours- This RimTalk signals that you are in a better position to guard a player in the open court than the man to which the player has been assigned.  Translation- Rather than give up an easy basket because you can't get back to adequately defend your player it makes much more sense that I take your man and you take mine until the next moment in game action when it is safe to switch back without risking a defensive breakdown. 

Stay- This signals a teammate to stay with the player they are guarding for the time being.  Translation- Even though we have some momentary confusion on the court in terms of who is taking who, LET ME MAKE THIS PERFECTLY CLEAR, you stay where you are at and we'll be just fine.  I'll stay with the man I am guarding and we'll execute our team defensive concept regardless of who we are guarding.

Switch- This tells your teammate we are in a better position to defend by exchanging defensive responsibilities on two players screening or exchanging positions.  Translation- While we want to work hard defensively to keep proper player-ball-basket relationships there are times when both energy wise and time wise it makes more sense to exchange players.  By my switching I am not demonstrating to you I am lazy and unwilling to work hard, but rather the coach has given us specific situations (e.g. same size player exchanges such as guard to guard, or post to post) where we can be more effective keeping pressure on passing lanes and reduce the possibility of a defensive breakdown by not being able to get through a screen.  Stay alert and communicate with me you understand we have changed defensive assignments.

Fight or Get Through- This tells your teammate that they must slash their way through a screen to prevent a quick pass and score or tuck and chase and then open up with a hand in the passing lane as quickly as possible.  Translation- Our team is at a higher risk of permitting a shot or allowing penetration breakdown if I switch to your man.  I will temporarily show to discourage the defense from making a quick pass for a score but you must recognize that I will not stay out there very long and risk a slip cut to the basket which might allow a much higher percentage scoring change by the offense.

Stick- Your man has picked up his dribble and is no longer in a position to pass or shot from this spot. Translation- My man is not a threat to dribble penetrate or score. You should immediately close any possible passing lane to your man a complete denial fashion and we should get a turnover out of this circumstance.  (note: many coaches use BALL or some other terminology when a player has picked up the dribble)

Box- Short for box-out, this term should be a red siren that the ball is up for grabs and you need to rebound.  Translation- You should either make contact with your player you are assigned (or nearest to in a zone defense), seal them and release to pursue control of the ball at it contacts the rim, or explode to the rebound area if the man you are guarding makes no attempt to aggressively pursue the rebound.  The red siren that goes off if you are not in a position to grab the rebound directly telling you should get your body on an opponent who might be in a better position to beat one of your teammates to the ball.  It doesn't mean you stand around and play spectator while the other team snatches the rebound and puts it back in for critical second chance points.

Shot- The opposing team has shot the ball.  Translation- The shot has left the opponents hand.  You immediately think Box and pursue the ball. Whether you get the rebound of I, what is most critical is we, as a team, pursue and gain possession of the ball at all cost.  When you don't hear the RimTalker word SHOT, you can assume that no player is in a position to shoot the ball, and you should maintain our team defensive concept.  Remember SHOT tells you that something has changed and all five defenders need to adjust priorities to retrieve the ball.

Help Me!- This signals a teammate you need their assistance in stopping the player with the ball or cutting to a threat position.  Translation- I am momentarily beaten.  Can someone cover for me until I can regain the proper position between my man the basket and the ball.   I am working hard on defense but due to a sudden lapse didn't anticipate a movement and require your assistance.  I am not telling you to switch to my man because if you can help for just a moment, I will fight my way back to position so our team defense is not forced into a more difficult player rotation caused by a complete breakdown.

Double- There is a double screen coming your way.  Translation- There is a tough double pick coming your direction.  As the lead defender on the screener closest to the ball I will show and help until you can fight your way through.  If however the player coming to the ball is the same size as the screener further away from the ball, we will call switch and exchange responsibilities.  Pay attention on doubles because from time to time in the game our coach may change the strategy for defending such double screens.  Doubles are dangerous when I haven't alerted you to one approaching.

Pick- There is a screen coming your way, be alert now!.  Translation- Immediately loosen up on your man and be prepared to fight your way through the screen.  Keep your feet moving, your lead hand up in the passing lane, and keep your feet active so that I won't have to rescue you by switching on a breakdown.

On Offense

Go or Cut- Your man is between my pass and you.  Translation- I cannot possibly get a pass to you where you are standing.  Cut hard immediately up the court, or to the basket and I will make sure you get the ball to our teams offensive advantage.

Step-out- I am being guarded without my dribble and need an outlet pass.  Translation- I am not in a position where I can safely pass you the ball without making a turnover.  Make a hard V cut, or step into your defense and seal them off prior to popping out hard to an safe open spot in the court where I can pass you the ball so we can continue our offense.

Fill- This tells your teammate that there is an open position or whole in the offense that can cause the offense to be dysfunctional.  Translation- We are bunching up with too many players in one position or area of the court where one defender can guard two of us.  In addition court balance is important to keeping good spacing on offense and if you will fill the next open position on the offensive end of the court we have a much better chance of converting a basket then if you stand and watch from a non-threatening position next to me.

Screen-Away- This tells a teammate who is not in a position to catch the ball to set a pick away from the ball to open up a teammate.  Translation- Do not stand like a statue and expect me or a teammate to pass you the ball.  If you will screen away to help a teammate, I will do the same for you when the time comes so that you won't have to work so hard to get open.

Flash- This tells a teammate that their defender is sleeping away from the ball.  Translation- If you will duck behind the eyes of your defender and explode to the ball I will get you the pass in an excellent position to score or draw a foul. 

In Transition

Outlet- This tells your teammate off a rebound that you are available to advance the ball safely up the court.  Translation- You can try to dribble out of traffic with quick dangerous defenders lurking all about but it is much safer and easier to locate my voice and pass me the ball so we can more rapidly initiate the fast break with numbers.  The quicker you find my voice and pass the more likely we will successfully finish the break with a score.

Numbers (e.g. 3 on 2, 3 on 3, 4 on 1)- This tells your teammates how many attackers we have and how many defenders are back.  Translation- This depends on the numbers.  Telling your teammates we have a 3 on 2 indicates push the ball up the court and keep good spacing and lanes and we should score. If you yell the numbers 4 on 1 it indicates that we will likely score but that at least one attacker should stay back as a safety to protect the basket.

I'm Left/Right- This signals your teammate you are in good position to their left or right on the fast break.  Translation- I am sprinting ahead of the ball with good spacing to give you the best possible passing opportunity to score a lay-up out of transition.  Without making eye contact, you should at least be aware that I am here and working so that we have a numbers advantage and don't blow this great scoring opportunity by selfish or forced play.

Trailer- This tells a player ahead of you with the ball you are coming behind them and will be a threat to score.  Translation- I am sprinting up from behind you to beat my defender to the basket.  Keep alert and if one of your primary options ahead of you on the break is not open you don't have to force the shot.  I will come a second late and surprise the defense by my hustle.

Push It Up-This tells your teammates you have the defense at a disadvantage, advance the ball! Translation- The defense is caught out of position and if we all push up the court quickly it is very likely we will get an easy scoring chance.

I'm Basket- This tells your defensive teammates that you are the first one back in position to protect the basket.  Translation- I am the first one back and will protect the fort until we get all the troops back into our best defensive position. I will not give up the basket until at least one or more teammates gets back to help me and who are better suited size wise to defend the interior.  In worst case scenario I will take a charge but I will not give any player a direct line path to the basket, so hustle your tail back and help cover up additional attackers. If we buy enough time by forcing additional passes we can stop this thing.

There are literally dozens of RimTalk words you can learn and should be using daily in practice and game situations.  Practice your RimTalk as much as you practice your jumper and your whole team will benefit.  Now I already know what some of you are thinking.  I know all this stuff.  It is simple; any player worth their weight in salt knows the importance of talking.  But if that is what you are thinking you are missing the main point of this Playground Pointer.  Knowing it and doing it are two completely different animals.  Learn to communicate in one or two word burst and be consistent.  Most coaches will give you the correct RimTalk for your team, but you are the one who have to recognize its value.  As you can see it's not the term that is said that is so important, but what it is you communicate.  No matter what you want to call it, SAY SOMETHING PLEASE!  Let your voice be the sixth man so crucial to your teams drive to the Championship.

Check back next month for another Playground Pointers courtesy of The Basketball Highway®.

Show A Little Glass In Your Game

Playground Pointeres

#41- Show A Little Glass in Your Game
Learning the Advantages of Using the Backboard 
by Alan Lambert
Introduction

There is a famous line in an old song by the pop-folk duo Simon and Garfunkel from the late 1960's which said "Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?"  It would be appropriate to ask the question of today's players "where has use of the backboard gone?"  The history of the backboard is colorful and interesting dating back to the earliest days of basketball.  The original "peach basket" was tied to a railing overlooking the gym at Springfield, College, and Massachusetts.  As the game became more competitive fans would stand up on the running track or walkway overlooking a basket and tip the balls away.  The consequence was that someone came up with the idea to place a large flat board between the basket and the fans, and the backboard was born.

Within days of implementation of this new "back" board, players found that they could gauge the angle and use this new tool to their advantage to make shots.  The problem today is that players have either forgotten or never learned its full advantage.  Arguably the most successful coach of his era and probably of all time, UCLA Hall of Fame Coach John Wooden was renowned for teaching his players to use the glass both in the post and especially off of fast break transition.  Coach Wooden's teams won 9 straight NCAA Titles (10 in 11 years) a feat unparallel before or since in collegiate basketball.  Coach Wooden believed that if his players practiced making 5-10 foot bank shots at the 45 degree angle off the break and could make them at a rate of about 75-80% these shots were nearly as good as getting a lay-up.  For those young players that missed the opportunity to see the great UCLA teams they were almost always successful in transition. Probably the single greatest scoring performance ever in an NCAA Championship Game was by UCLA's Bill Walton’s 21 for 22 field goal shooting performance against Memphis in the 1973 title game.  Bill Walton’s' patented move was the up and under using the glass.

The point I want to make here is why, if these players were able to shoot such high percentages using the glass, why isn't the glass being used more by players today?  I think the answer is two-fold, lack of understanding of how to use the glass, and lack of practice using the glass.  Today's Playground Pointer addresses this problem.

First Things First

The first step in becoming a prolific scorer off the glass is to understand shooting basics off the glass. 

Backboard Basics

1. Always shoot the ball off the glass so the ball contacts just inside the small white box just above the rim.
2. The ball should strike the white box on the downward flight of the ball.  Failure to arc your shot so that it strikes the box on the downward flight will result in a "flyer" (a hard shot that literally skips off the glass, misses the basket and off the weak side of the backboard).
3. Make your follow-through point on a line above the small white box so that the high follow through produces a high arching shot off backboard.
4. While the backboard does absorb some energy transferred to the ball off a hard drive to the basket, the shot still should be "kissed softly off the glass" as much as possible.
5. Make any 45 degree angle shot within 10 feet of the basket an automatic bank shot to reduce indecision between using the glass and shooting straight at the basket.
6. Use the backboard in the low post when you know you will be receiving a hard foul.  The angle characteristics of the glass are consistent even as the amount of energy imparted to the ball changes slightly.  This increases your chance of making a shot while being fouls.
7. Put a slight amount of backspin on your shot off the glass just like you do in a regular jump shot ensure the energy imparted into the ball are direct at your target.  Side spin or diagonal rotation means you are adding unwanted energy to the ball which will negatively affect your shot consistency and accuracy.

Advantages to Using the Glass

While these basics are critical to becoming a high percentage scorer off the glass maybe a more important question is what are the advantages of using the glass over shooting straight at the basket?  Here are some of the advantages of using the glass;

1. The glass gives you confidence to score in traffic, with too much energy on a drive, and over big men.
2. Shooting off the glass allows you to penetrate harder to the basket and still make a high percentage shot.  The harder you penetrate the more energy you must either redirect off a quick stop vertically into your jump shot, or the more energy will be transferred to the ball (which you do not want).  As I previously stated the glass does absorb some energy and allows you to redirect a little of that added horizontal force to control the shot.
3. Using the glass allows you to get the ball over the extended arms of long-armed shot blockers.  You must naturally shoot the ball a little bit higher off the glass, than you normally do in your regular jump shot, to kiss the ball off the glass on the downward flight of the shot.  This extra few inches is often enough to get the ball over the hands of a great shot blocker.  Notice how many of the NBA's great guards use the glass on penetration into the shot blocking zone near the basket.
4. At the NBA level a shot cannot be blocked once the ball has touched the backboard.  While this rule does not apply to International, College and High School levels, the goal tending rule still exists for a shot on its downward arc.  If you can automate your shot using the glass near the basket you will have less shots blocked and more goal tending called.
5. Many shots in the low post require the post man to make a quick pivot and power move.  It is difficult to control all the rotational force of the body when making these moves and again the backboards ability to absorb some of the extra forces softens shots in the post and increasing shooting percentages.
6.  Most defenders are taught to stay between the attacker and the basket and to challenge shots directed right at the basket.  Using the backboard slightly alters the target angle to the basket and can help you get off shots that would normally be more easily contested.
7. When attacking the basket in the post, putting the ball off the glass to the baseline side enables the offensive post player to use the basket as a partial shield against weak side defenders coming across the lane to help and having free air space access to block the shot.
Keep these advantages in mind as you add the glass to your repertoire of shots near the basket.

The Backboard Is Your Friend

Here are a few other positives examples in using the glass on the offensive end of the court.  Remember that the backboard is your friend as long as you keep your head up along the baseline.  Being able to make a reverse spin move, or duck under the basket lets you use both the basket and backboard as teammates when trying to score in close traffic.

While it's a bit of a fancy move you can also use the backboard to pass to a teammate in fast break transition.  It is a lower percentage pass but if you are caught with no other passing angle use the glass as a rebound board to toss the ball off to a trailing big man for the follow-up and score.
The more you use the glass around the basket the more adept you will become to putting more spin or "english" on the ball.  While this is not normally a good trait to add to shots, a skilled attacker who is able to put a lot of english on a ball is more able to get off difficult shots around the basket.  This is especially true when you have been grabbed or fouled in the act of attacking the basket.

Finally use the glass to keep the ball alive on rebounds until you can get a controlled tip into the basket.  It is much easier to tip the ball off the glass to yourself and get the put back than it is to tip it up in the air and tip it a second time into the basket.  In fact most teams practice this skill by tapping the ball off the backboard several times prior to completing the putbacks on rebound drills.  When you can't control a ball around the basket, tip it off the glass and keep it alive for a teammate.

Check back next month for another Playground Pointers courtesy of The Basketball Highway®.

The Battle For Space Position: Keys Winning the Position You Want

#46- The Battle for Space on the Court:
Keys to Winning the Position You Want
by Alan Lambert
Introduction
There is one particular skill crucial for your success as a basketball player.  It is the ability win the battle for position.  This refers to your ability to get open, win the position you want on the court, or prevent your opponent from doing the same.  Basketball is in reality a battle for space on the court.  That is the focus of today's Pointer.  Whether you are in the low post trying to get the ball in a high percentage scoring position or the ball side blocks or flashing from the weak side your ability to get the position you want will determine your ability to convert a high percentage shot.  If you are a perimeter player, being able to get open in a scoring position or to help your team initiate their team offense at the correct spot on the court is critical to your team’s success.  The battle for space isn't just about getting position for the ball either, because as a rebounder your ability to establish and maintain a position often determines the payoff for you on the offensive or defensive boards.  For the point guard or player with the ball the battle for space comes down to your ability to break down your defensive players spacing to force a help defender to create drive and dish situations leading to high percentage scores.  Today's pointer will help you more clearly understand techniques to better enable to win this battle for position.
Keep Your Feet Active But With Purpose
If there is one general rule coaches teach for getting space it is to keep your feet moving.  However, this footwork must be intelligent and timely to be effective.  Constant movement with no sense of where the ball is, or where your teammates or opponents are located is like racing to a fire without water.  Your effort is useless unless you keep your court vision and respect the big picture on the court.  Moving fast isn't the whole answer either.  Without a doubt explosive cuts get you space, but when they are predictable an equally or more gifted player will anticipate and beat you to the space you want.  Let us look at some factors that influence getting open before we move on to specific technique.
Basic Principles To Win Space
In a previous Playground Pointer entitled Changing Your Speed and Rhythm: It's About Time (see my book Basketball Highway's Playground Pointers: Stuff Good Players Should Know I introduced the concept of what is called the Psychological Refractory Period (or PRP).  The PRP basically describes the physical limitation the mind and body have to two events that occurs very close together in time (less than 2/10th of a second).  If the 2nd action occurs within that 2/10th of a second, anyone trying to respond to that second action will be necessarily slowed (as much as a half a second) before they can respond to that 2nd action.  In boxing they call this the 1-2 punch.  For basketball players it condenses down to making short quick fakes generally opposite (to get the opponent to bite on the first action) with a subsequent 2nd action to which the opponent is slow to respond.  You see this in many of the killer crossover dribble moves kids are now using.  The first move is only for the purpose of getting the defender to bite on that action whereas the 2nd move beats the defender. When you are attempting to win space always string together two quick movements and in general one in the opposite direction of the place you want to cut to receive the ball.  In many cases you may need to take more than one hard step away from where you want the ball. Often this is the only way to get a defender to vacate a spot in order to set up a second set of 1-2 movements to gain the best advantage for winning the spot on the court you desire.
The second physical concept you want to be very aware of comes physical laws of science commonly used in the martial arts.  Few players are physically stronger than every opponent they face.  Even if you are stronger, simply pushing your opponent out of the way will more often result in a foul than in winning position.  However if you learn how to apply force to break your opponents balance they are less able to respond quickly to sudden cuts or actions by you.  Balance is a key to explosive quick starts in basketball.  If you are pushing on a object (such as your opponent) you can stabilize a position but the trade-off is if you push too much, a sudden change in their exerted counter pressure may cause you to lose your balance and actually work to slow your ability to cut hard to a position.  Coaches commonly teach what is called a "seal move" where you pin and hold a defender, or attacker in a given position by stabilizing your body against them.  This works best after you have already established the position on the court you want to win.  Keep this simple principle in mind when you are attempting to win the battle for space on the court.  Pin and Seal works but only to your advantage if you stay on your toes, keep your balance, and maintain the ability to react quickly to changes in pressure by the defense or retrieve an errant pass.
Finally there are times when you are already closer to a position you want to win than your opponent.  When that is the case on offense, you only want to release and explode to that position when your teammate is ready to pass you the ball.  In essence you seal and hold until your teammate is ready to pass and then explode.  Keep this simple rule in mind when you are closer to the position you want and between the defender and that position; hold and explode.
Offensive Techniques for Winning the Battle for Position
Now let's quickly translate these scientific rules for basketball into on court examples. First I want to demonstrate techniques specific to offensive play and what you need to do to win the battle for the space you want.
Low Post- The simplest way to win this battle is to get to the position first.  In transition this means beating your opponent down the court, establish a seal, hold and explode to catch the ball technique on the entry pass. If you are physically smaller and have less strength than your opponent, you will likely get pushed out of the position you want.  Most coaches properly teach what is called post and repost.  This essentially means when you are being pushed off a position on the low blocks, get away from the physical pressure exerted to push you off this position (normally away from the ball) and with a quick 1-2 action (remember the PRP principle) quickly re-establish your feet beating your opponent back to the position they original displaced you from.  You might even have to do this several times remember that constant movement and quick feet can do more to get you position than simply brute force.  Keep in mind as well if a defender is pushing with extraordinary force toward the perimeter to root you out of this position, you can surprise them by quickly stepping away allowing them to momentarily stumbled forward to lose their balance prior to quickly pinning and sealing them in the opposite direction away from the position from which they stumble.  Remember think PRP, use your opponents strength to your advantage and hold and explode and you'll get your post position.  As a footnote when your battle is for position at the High Post the only difference is that when a defender wants to push you out off of this position, release and let them stumble in front as you seal and dive to the basket.  If you do this enough they will exert less force and be slower to react with each success movement of this type allowing you to win the battle at the High Post.
Wing Position- This position requires a bit more subtlety when acquiring your desire position because you generally want to catch the ball in both a position to score or penetrate into scoring range and where the offense can be initiated in a position where your offensive spacing is not distorted to the defense's advantage.  Generally speaking this is somewhere around the three point line at the free-throw line extended.  Most teams will use a screener to get you open at this position but good players can get themselves open because they understand the principles we have stated above and when to time their explosive cut when the passer is ready to make the pass.  The most common reason players fail to win the position they want on the wing is poor cut timing and not necessarily their ability to temporarily shake their defender.  They must work hand in hand to enable success in winning this battle for position.  Take always take your defender away from where you want to receive the ball.  When possible on this initial action, keep your body between the defender and the position you want to win.  Keep this position until the passer has made eye contact and given a non-verbal cue they are ready for you to break, then explode to the position by first stepping hard into the defender, with a forearm bar (don't push and get a foul) followed by another short explosive step to the "spot".  Remember here the importance of the PRP.  One slow action followed by another slow cut essentially erodes the half second advantage you get by performing a proper PRP 1-2 cut.  Finally if a defender is leaning on you and trying to seal you off from the position you are trying to win, seal them back in the opposite direction (usually in the direction away from basket) and make them believe you can easily back cut them to the basket, much like the technique used at the High Post when they are fronted.  If and when they push back for fear they will be back cut to the basket, you quickly release your seal, force them to lose their balance, and quick 1-2 step back to the spot you originally desired to win.
PG-open court(creating separation)- In the open court the problem of getting the position you desire is generally hampered by having possession of the ball and by the more aggressive defensive pressure you get further away from the basket.  In the case of the PG the space you will attempt to win will be either a spot from which you can safely penetrate the ball to pass and properly initiate the team offense or to break down your defender to create drive and dish conditions.  Coaches teach change of speed and rhythm.  This is primarily important because of the PRP principle.  Even if you are a slower player than your defender, you can somewhat off-set their advantage by being unpredictable and constantly using short 1-2 changes of speed and direction to keep adequate spacing between the ball and the defender.  This is most critical when you near the position on the court you want to initiate the offense because your ability to free yourself from hard pressure at the moment you want to make the initial pass will often determine whether or not you successfully get your team into their half court set.  While you are advancing the ball down the court, change your speed and rhythm but save your best changes for the last move to initiate the offense.  If you get nearly into the half court set to initiate the offense and hard getting hard physical pressure exerted against you, keep your body between the ball and the defender, try to temporarily seal them so that they exert too much physical pressure, then quickly release your position and make an attack dribble move (reverse pivot, crossover, or jab and go) at the very moment the defender loses their balance.  You can create space to win your space in this manner in tight quarters in the offensive end of the court. 
Rebounding-  The art of rebounding has some to do with excellent footwork and technique and a lot more to do with staying active, staying constant in your pursuit of the ball, and understanding that controlling as much space near the basket as possible has the most to do with your winning the ball.  Poor footwork and block out technique results in your inability to win space and forces you as a rebounder to rely on your athleticism to win the boards.  This works for the most athletic, but for the rest of us, getting the best position first is your best bet to controlling and winning the boards.  As an offensive rebounder you want to slash, pin, and be constant in your footwork in any effort to prohibit the defensive rebounder from sealing you far out away from the basket. The closer you can get to the basket with your movement the better chance you have of either getting a tip-in or keeping the ball alive for a teammate to rebound and convert a put-back.  Think again now of our physical principles to become a more effective offensive rebounder and win the space you want near the basket.  Optimally you want to make a 1-2 PRP cut to at least get even with your block-out defender near the basket and use your body to seal them either under the basket when they are too close, or the side away from where the ball will probably bounce from a given shot location and then explode to the ball.  Remember if the defender pushes hard to block you out, release, force them to break their balance and re-attack the basket.  Often a quick spin move off the body of the block-out defender serves this purpose well.
With the Ball- If you are the go to player with the ball you will be attempting to create space for an uncontested shot, or to break down your defender enough to force a help defender to leave their position and commit to stop the ball thereby leaving an open teammate for a pass and shot.  Any dribble move involving change of speeds and directions produces the best results in winning that desire space.  Many attackers however get "one directional" in their change of speeds.  I think the toughest players to guard are those that can kill you on their drives to the basket, but maintain their balance and use a 1-2 PRP step back move to nail the open jumper, ala Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant.  Equally successful in this situation is using your body from a hard 1-2 penetration move to seal a defender off from a position you want to take the shot.  You often see this when players at the Pro level back a player down, seal them and hit that tough fade away jumper which is almost impossible to contest. 
Defensive Tactics for Winning the Battle for Position
Having seen the tactics your opponent is attempting to use on your to create space on offense let's focus now on what you can do as a defender to deter them from achieving that goal and making you the victor for space from the defensive side of the ball.
Low Post- Your primary job in defending the low post is to get to the prime offensive position and make the attacker initiate movement away from their most comfortable scoring position. Ideally you want them to have to step out away from the basket.  This requires both strength, footwork quickness, and savvy to not let the defender release and repost when you have initially won the position on the original post up attempt.  While you must concentrate on defending the ball-basket-player triangle great anticipation can result in reducing the effectiveness of one or more 1-2 PRP cuts, as well as preventing the attacker from gaining seal and explode position.  Push only enough in fighting to win this position as you can maintain your balance and ability to readjust your footwork to deter a quick entry pass angle.  If the attacking lays too much force into you, step quickly away to force a break in balance, and then re-establish the "best" position available to deny the entry pass.  To reduce the effectiveness of any quick 1-2 movement once they have received the ball, crowd the defender and attempt to force them in one direction while you slide and apply physical force to reduce their speed and ability to get off the floor.  Never let the attacker seal and hold you from a position.  Pressure, release the pressure and keep the attacker physically off balance as much as possible.
Wing Position- On the wing your job is to take away the desire space for catching the ball in scoring position or forcing the offense to initiate their attack either with poor spacing or well beyond scoring range.   Here is it critical to stay between your man and the ball without getting sealed out either to or away from the basket.  I believe it is also quite necessary to stay close as possible but without allowing the offensive attacker ever to get any substantial part of their weight or body against you.  This allows you both greater reaction time when they attempt to use the quick 1-2 PRP movement principle, and reduces the chances of having pressure applied via seal and explode movement to the ball.  Without quick active and constant footwork this is almost virtually impossible.  But remember you don't have to deny the ball completely to most players to win the battle for position from a defensive perspective.  You just need to put the attacker in a position there they are less likely to score, or where the defensive help team as a whole have more time in order to close penetration gaps, help and recover to maintain pressure on the ball and shooters in half court situations.
Pressure on the ball- When defending on the ball you want to be only as tight to the attacker as your footwork and foot quickness permit you to prevent penetration to the basket.  I believe that part of winning the battle from this defender's perspective is to be aggressive enough to "control the dribbler" rather than have the dribbler control you.  This might mean applying surprising pressure in various rhythm and speed change combinations down the court.  More importantly you must understand are already between your man and the basket, or the position they want, and as long as you move your feet and occupy that spot first, the attacker must be the initiator to break down that position.  If your opponent is most effective and comfortable in initiating the offense one step outside the three-point line directly in front of the basket, exert pressure so they must initiate it slightly off center, or even off toward the wing.  Teams practice offenses based on rhythm, timing and spacing. Your job defensive on the ball is to apply pressure to disrupt any of those elements and you can best do that by winning the battle for the position they want and practice.
Help Defense- The most common problem for help defenders is they believe that being in position at one point in time means they are prepared to hold and maintain the optimal help position relative to the ball. The obvious problem is simply that the ball, their player and other attacker are in constant motion. To win this battle the help defender must constantly adjust their position because they do not always know when and where an attacker will ply their 1-2 PRP move, or attempt to seal and explode to a desired position.  Properly adjusting your help position as your player and the ball move, buy you space and time, and puts you in a position to seal out flash defenders or cutters, and force them to take the "long way around" to get to a position.
Rebounding- Defensive rebounding is all about physically checking your man away from the basket and exploding to the ball.  The greater the amount of space you can create between your man and the basket the less likely the attacker can get a hand to the ball for a tip-in or tap to a teammate.  When blocking out you should assume a half and half position and generally react to the second of the common 1-2 quick moves an offensive rebounder will use to slash into the basket.  Turning your butt into an attacker and failing to make contact is a sure way to lose position in the battle for the boards.  It is critical however on the defensive boards that you don't seal and exert too much physical pressure for too long against an offensive rebounder because they can use your pressure against you and getting into a "sedentary" position makes you slow to the ball.  Optimally you'd like a quick explosive 1-2 movement to pin, seal, and explode to the ball to be the most effective offensive rebounder.  And remember the greater the space you can win by making contact early on the attacker prior to the ball contacting the rim, the more likely you will win this battle for the best rebound position.  When you have lost the battle for the most proficient board position always remember that a little physical contact at or near the moment prior to a rebounders jump can effectively break their jumping rhythm and balance and slow their ability to get to the ball before you or your teammate do.
To conclude today's Pointer I remind you of the three scientific principles that will help you the most in winning the space you want. Use the Psychological Refractory Principle and quick 1-2 movements to get to a position first.  Apply the laws of physics regarding balance and applied force to keep your opponent off balance and slower to react and move.  Last, when you are between your man and the position you want, use seal, step in and explode technique to beat the position you want.  Remember the battle for space on the court is the key battle to winning the game on many different levels.  Get there first, and understand how to defend your spot through balance, positioning and good footwork.
Check back next month for another Playground Pointers courtesy of The Basketball Highway®.

The Roots of On Court Success Lay in Self-Discipline

#52- The Roots of on Court Success Lay in Self-Discipline
Doing Things Right When No One Else is Looking
by Alan Lambert
Introduction
I often have been asked at clinics the question what makes the great players?  There is no question that God given natural athletic ability is one of, if not the primary contributor to on court success.  However the years I have played and coached have been littered with the bodies of "great athletes" who never were able to get to or sustain success at the top.  Another key factor in the making of a great player is realistic assessment of one's own talents and potential.  Some of the best players at times appear to be almost surprised by their success, because their focus isn't on themselves but on their team's success.  An over-inflated view of one's abilities might fool some of the coaches some of the time, but not all the coaches all the time. More than anything it hurts you when you aren't realistic about where you are at as a player because you fail to recognize and work on the skills really important to improve yourself to your maximum capabilities.   From the coaches standpoint however if there is one element in the recipe of a great player that cannot be missing, it would be "self-discipline."  That is the topic of today's Playground Pointer.
Automating Your Skills the Right Way Requires Discipline
Getting big time skills and game requires an enormous amount of dedication, practice and commitment.  As I have stated in a previous Playground Pointer it can take up to 200,000 repetitions to automate a basketball skill.  That works out to about 500 repetitions on "one particular skill" every other day for about 2 years.  For shooting a basketball that means as much as 2-3 hours a day just to automate your shot and that doesn't come close to taking into consideration the other important skills in basketball such as ball handling, passing, defensive footwork, cutting and moving, and rebounding. 
The obvious question you might ask yourself is how on earth can I ever get enough practice time in a day to do all I need to do?  Combining your skills workouts into programs that allow you to practice multiple skills while condensing the time is the best, but not the whole answer.  The deeper rooted answer lies in being extremely self-disciplined to practice when your coach or other players are not around.  While the affects of practice afforded you in season, practicing 5 or 6 times a week for 2-3 hours a day, can make a significant contribution to your skill improvement, the greater impact on your basketball future will occur by what you do when no one else is looking. There is no question that practicing on your own is harder in terms of motivation and getting proper feedback regarding the proper way to practice your skills.  But the players who have the best chance of succeeding up the basketball food chain are those that can take what they practice in the gym with their coaches, and who can "on their own" to gain the additional repetitions required to be successful at their home basket, playground, or friends houses. 
There is another aspect of being self-disciplined and that has to do with your practice habits with your team and it's affect on your ability to rise to another level as a player.  Learning basketball skills is indifferent to direction.  You can just as easily learn a skill the wrong way as you do the right way.  Poor self-discipline to "give it your best to do it right" leads to sloppy practice habits.   Some coaches call this skill erosion.  Getting into a groove where you can execute your skills under pressure without thinking about them involves so automating your skills to the same pattern that it literally becomes a "programmed movement", an almost permanent habit.  When you lack the discipline to practice a skill at game speed under game conditions all the time, you are practicing to "UN-automate that skill".  
Your Effort When No One is Watching
There is no question that it's easier to motivate yourself when your coach or teammates are watching your performance.  However in reality, there are many situations in practice where you are the ONLY judge of your effort.  No one is going to force you to run your transition fill lane the proper way every single time when the focus of the drill is on the trailer.  Your coach isn't going to physically force you to stay in your defensive stance away from the ball when you are not directly involved in defending an on-ball screen and they are concentrated on teaching that aspect of the drill.  Nobody is going to force you to run your offensive patterns with energy, accuracy, and proper game speed, like you were designing a computer circuit board when the drill is structured to work on team defense.  Just keep this important fact in mind.  Every time you do it the wrong way, there is increasingly less chance you will be able to perform it the right way in a game at a critical moment under pressure.    The more doubt you have that you can perform that skill "out of the can perfectly" when you need it, the more your mind will be thinking about that uncertainty, and less likely to focus on the actual key elements of that snap-shot picture of time in the game where a split second decision decides your success or failure.   The more skill you can completely automate the more brain processing time you gain in which to slow down the games events and make the right decision when it's time.  Great players talk about the game being almost in slow motion.   That occurs because they have been self-disciplined along the way to do things right so often they are habit and not chance.
For the player who is naturally self-disciplined you have an inherent advantage over other players.  You just need to focus your discipline on practicing the right things at the right time.  For others however it can be a more trying challenge to be disciplined when you instincts tell you to take it easy or goof off.  Here are some of my ideas to help you focus yourself and become more self disciplined in specific areas.
Ways to Demonstrate and Improve Your Self-Discipline
1. Be on Time- There may not be a more telling tale to a coach about a players ability to be self-disciplined and perform what the coach demands than whether or not you are on time.  If you don't think your coach notices this trait, you are dead wrong.  There is also no greater trait to demonstrate to your coach your commitment to the team, the system, and your teammates than being on time.  Why is it so important?  Because basketball is a team game that requires everybody working together.  While it is somewhat natural for you look out for yourself, no team succeeds without the 5 players on the court, and all the others from the bench being committed to doing the same thing in a predictable manner at a predictable time.  The more your decisions are made in concert with the others players and within your system of play, the greater your chance of team and personal success.  Just look at the great talent of the Los Angeles Lakers this past couple of years.  When they were in concert in execution they won championships.  Even with their great talent, when they weren't together in concert they were less than the best, not enough to win an NBA championship.  One of the great quotes of all time came from Branch Rickey when he said "luck is when preparation meets opportunity".  It isn't luck, its timing.  Your self-discipline has taught you to be prepared with all your basketball skill tools so when the opportunity comes you can seize it and grab the trophy.  If you can't be on time to practice, or self-disciplined enough to meet your teammates at the proper time they need you, you'll never be a great player.
2. When You Want to Slack, Push It Back!-  There isn't a player alive that hasn't at one time or another thought about slacking off when they were tired or somebody wasn't pushing them.  This is the time to think of your goals as a player or team.  When you slack, someone near you isn't.  Pushing back becomes a trained habit just like slacking off.  When you learn to break the mental barrier of doing less, and instead do more, you are training self-discipline against adversity.  Great players rise during adversity.  Sometimes being great in game situations don’t require you to do more than everyone else.  Sometimes, it just doing what is required in game situations when others break down.  I am a firm believe that you set personal and team goals as strong reminders of why you push when you want to slack.  Without goals the motivation to push just isn't the same.
3. Success Begins With You and Powers Motivation-  Hall of Fame Coach John Wooden, winners of 7 straight and 10 overall NCAA Championship, was a stickler for discipline.  But it wasn't punishment or forced discipline.  You did it the right way or you didn't play.  Why were his teams so good?  Because they avoided many of the highs and lows associated with external motivators.   He believes that striving to be the best you can be is what produces champions. He didn't drive his players because he wanted something.  He encouraged them to do their best each and every day.   In one of his recent books entitled Coach Wooden One-on-One he talks about the worst thing you can do for one that you love are the things they could do for themselves.  He attributes this quote to Abraham Lincoln although somewhat uncertain.  The point is if you expect others to do things to get you to play the right way, or make the right effort all the time, you will be the loser.  It begins with you.  There is a great by-product of investing your own discipline, energy and effort into your practice habits.  It is an intrinsic reward that serves as a motivator far greater than any external motivator.  Confidence and a sense of accomplishment come from your own efforts.  These rewards in turn generate more motivation and in a sense become like a nuclear power source for the long haul and effort required over the years you develop as a player to reach the highest levels of the game.  External motivators like money, clothes, and travel can light a fire, but only the sense of accomplishment can be the torch that drives you to your best.   We repeat what rewards us, it's just human nature.
4. Compete Against Yourself-  When you are growing up as a player you are in constant competition against a wide variety of players, some much better some much worse and most somewhere in between.  It is pretty easy to get motivated when you must play against someone who is much better than you but a lot harder when the challenge is against a player with much lesser skills.  This is why as part of becoming more self-disciplined you must learn to compete against yourself.  Your standard is "becoming the best you can become" and the only way to accomplish that is to better your own performance each and every time you attempt a skill.  You may not win that competition because some days you'll be a bit tired; have other problems on your mind outside of basketball, or maybe even needing a break from playing so much.  But if your goal is to better yourself there is no better competition than yourself.  Set goals in everything you do and keep records of it.  When you are shooting by yourself record the number of shots, shooting percentages and the time it takes you to properly complete a drill or drill circuit.  Use these figures to give you an overall sense of your improvement.  Just keep in mind that sometimes external results occur more slowly than internal growth.  This is called a performance plateau. Where your skills are improving but due  to external factors, such as fatigue, experience of teammates, and even distractions you may not show that improvement in the stats.  However if you are competing against yourself to "win against your last performance" you will get better.  This requires self-discipline.  Competing each time you step on the court, in a very quiet but powerful way, you are improving your self-discipline.
5. You Get What You Give-  Some people might argue with that way of thinking but few could argue with the fact that it is hard to out give what you receive in return for great effort.  It isn't even quantifiable.  Pat Riley, NBA Championship coach once said "you can only receive what you are willing to give."  If you do not have the self-discipline to do what is right, do it to the best of your ability, and unselfishly, how on earth can you expect others in your team setting to go to battle for you.  Everyone wants to follow a champion up the hill; few want to chase the man that cowers in the trench. Self-discipline starts with the big E (EFFORT).  There is a famous law of science that I have previously written about in an earlier Playground Pointer called Wolf's Law.  It has to do with the direction of bone growth, but its principle applies in a lot of places in sports.  Wolf's Law states that there will be growth in the direction of a consistently applied pressure.  When you push in to learn a skill, practice it properly every day, with maximum effort, you will sustain the best growth possible.  Anything less will leave you with a sense of regret.  If you push in, and give all you can give you can live with your own efforts.  Giving all you can give doesn't just mean stupidly throwing away energy or practice repetitions.  Remember, learning is indifferent to direction.  When you give, be self-disciplined enough to practice the right way every time, all the time.  It's where you get back the greatest results.  If you choose only to work when others are watching, you will only get back what you have invested.  Don't do that to yourself.  Push in, push on, and push right.
I'm sure there are many other areas you can think about in terms of how to better your self and improve your self-discipline.  These represent only a fraction of the ideas that we could generate to give you a sense of accomplishment through improved self-discipline.  You may have read through this Pointer today and scratched your head a bit.  You might think self discipline is something you can overcome with effort at the right time.  Just remember the right time is all the time.  And the shortest and most productive path for you to rise up and become the best player you can be starts down the road of SELF-DISCIPLINE. 

Check back next month for another Playground Pointers courtesy of The Basketball Highway®.

To Change or Not to Change a Skill? That is the Question!

 

 

#44- To Change or Not to Change a Skill: That is the Question?
Making a Good Decision About Changing a Learned Basketball Skill
by Alan Lambert

Introduction

Everyone knows or has been told at one point in their life that the straightest distance between two points is a line.  One of the easiest ways to insure that you do not develop as quickly as a player as possible is to over-learn a basketball skill (e.g., shooting) the wrong way and then end up having to change your technique two or three times over the course of the next couple of years to correct it.  While there are some players who can be shown a skill properly once and then repeat it over and over again, this more the exception than the rule. 
 
For most players their technique is smelting pot of various coaching tips and drills provided by a wide array of coaches and skills modeled from their early years in the game up to the present moment.  For the fortunate player the information and teaching provided was consistent enough they developed the correct technique and carry it to this day.   To the less fortunate player their technique is more of a calico of skill technique which resembles basic technique but leaves their performance in practices or games less than reliable. 
 
If you are that player who has struggled with consistency in your shooting, dribbling, defensive footwork, passing, pivoting, or penetration technique, you have undoubtedly asked yourself what I can do to change my skill so that I can be an effective player.  This is the focus of today's Playground Pointer.  It is not a simple question which you will soon see, but it is important to understand skill development, and the processes which affect you learning and automating your basketball skills.  Together with your coach you can then come to a rational decision about the cost and benefits of changing your already well learned (if not correct) basketball skill to reach a higher level of performance.

How are Skills Built?
It has been said that a well learned skill is a habit.  In some ways this is very true.  In more modern coaching terminology I have often talked about automating a skill which is essentially the same thing.  It is your ability to nearly perfectly execute a skill without ever having to think about the minute details of its execution.  This leaves your brain free to process rapidly incoming streams of information about the game and make quicker and more effective decisions on the court under pressure.  The more you have to think about a skill, the less likely you will be able to execute it under pressure.  So your primary goal should be to learn a skill to the point of automation.  In fact to be a great player you need to learn all your basketball skills to this level.
 
Just having an automated shot, doesn't mean you'll be able to get that shot off if you are focus is instead on your footwork, or catching and positioning the ball without proper practice of those peripheral skills.  There a couple of key points you need to understand about skill learning which I want to make to you before proceeding with the question of changing a skill. 

First, you must realize that learning is indifferent to direction.  This means it is just as easy to develop and automate a skill the wrong way as the correct way.  If you begin by not listening to your coaches early on in your basketball playing career, and doing it your way (for let's say the immediate success of being able to make the basket), you will penalize yourself later on because there is a correct way to practice all skills.  You've heard it said, practice doesn't make perfect, but perfect practice makes perfect.  In a general sense this is absolutely true.  When you are building a basketball skill, each repetition serves as what is called a "frame of reference" (a series of perceptual coordinates you could say) which is stored in the brain for comparison against future efforts.  With increasing repetitions, the frame of reference should move closer and closer to the perfect way to perform a skill.   This in return makes it easier for the basketball player to determine what causes an errant shot (for example) and simpler to correct. 
 
Less practice makes it difficult for a novice basketball player to know what the correct frame of reference is.  They must rely on video, a coach, or teammates who model the correct shot to give them feedback which is useful, but not always as accurate or purposeful as internal feedback.   The goal in automation of your skills is to have a clear proper frame of reference which easily allows you to correct your own errant skill.  It is important that you practice the skill as close to the way it should be performed at all times (both in the early stages of learning a skill as well as later in your practice repetitions).  If you practice a lot the wrong way, you will automate the skill incorrectly.   Then at some point you will have to change that skill to remain competitive on the court, and it may be too late.

The second important point you need to know is about the actual number of repetitions it takes to learn a skill.  It is estimated for most basketball skills that it takes 250,000 nearly perfect (or similar) repetitions to automate a skill.  For something like a jump shot, this means repeating the same shot technique about 500-600 times every other day a week for over 2 years.  For the average young player taking 200-300 shots is a chore.  If you are shooting, or passing a basketball only 200 times every other day, it might take you 6 years to automate that skill.  The point is the more you work at it the quicker you can automate your skill. 

There is no escaping this number of repetitions. Where most players fail however is in thinking that if they work out on their own 4-5 hours a day and practice their skill they will automate it.  This is true, but it also may result in you automating the skill incorrectly and developing a shot, dribble, or pass that has a fundamental flaw when you perform it. 
This leads me up to the critical point of today's Playground Pointer.  There are literally hundreds of players out there today who love playing the game, are pretty good in most aspects of it, but have "miss-learned and automated a skill the wrong way.  It can be something as simple as making the same footwork off a catch and penetration for shot which leads to a consistent travel call.  It might be that you learned to shoot off the non-dominant eye and find yourself shooting with your shooting arm angled across your forehead to this eye causing a sling shot and corkscrew on the ball versus the desired shot in one vertical plane (hand, elbow, knee and foot on the shooting hand).  It might be something as well like making a drop step pivot on a post move the same way, and when forced to vacate this position a different way resulting in a travel call.  It could be having incorrectly learned how to stop first step penetration on defense and consistently getting beat.  When you or your coach is presented with this problem, an important question arises, should I invest the effort in terms of practice repetitions to change this skill or not? The answer is dependent on a number of things which I will address.

Changing A Well Learned Skill

The most critical factor in making a decision to significantly change a well learned basketball skill is the final destination has as a player in combination with your level of athleticism.  For example, if your ambition is to play in the NBA or at any pro level foreign or domestic, there are very few players with what a coach might call "bad technique". There are some with less than desired technique, but if you can't score at least some, or pass the ball some, you won't make it to that level.  The reason I say the final level is a combination of your goals and natural athletic ability is the following.  If you are the leading scorer on your high school team (based on size, athleticism, or court savvy) but you really don't have the desire to play beyond high school, an effort to change your incorrectly learned skill in the middle of your senior season will be a disaster.  You will undoubtedly lose your scoring skill, confidence, and likely playing time.  Keep in mind that any time you change a well learned skill there will be a learning period which will be reflected in a performance decrement.  The length of this decrement will be a function of how automated your incorrect skill had become and the amount of time you invest in the correct repetitions to change this skill.

Let us look at another case study for example which changes the answer.  You are a sophomore in high school and have been the biggest kid on your team for several years and still are able to score almost at will because of your size advantage.  You have some athleticism but based on your family history it isn't likely you will grow to more than 6'3" or 6'4".  To play at the next level you will likely be a 2-Guard, or at the NBA level a PG at best.  If your scoring or shooting skills are not correctly automated, as other players begin to pass you up during physical maturation, you will find your skills leave you in the post instead of moving toward the perimeter which will be your final player destination.  If this is the case, you are better off experiencing a possible 6 month to 1 year performance decrement at this age while attempting to rebuild an incorrect shooting technique, than in attempting to wait until your senior year when time will limit your ability to change.  In addition, the longer you wait to change the deeper you will automate your shooting skill the wrong way.  This will require even longer amounts of time and great repetitions to relearn the skill the correct way.

Here is another scenario to consider.  You are a professional player who is 28 years old and you have been making your living in the NBA or an International Professional League.  You earn your living by being paid as a professional player.  You have exceptional skills at one or two aspects of the game, and are a starter whose team success depends upon your consistent performance of those two skills.  You think that you can get more playing time by changing one of them to include more diversity to your game. 

In most cases at the professional level, the skills that are automated should not be changed.  Instead the player at this level should look to increase the depth of skills automated by taking one skill per year and making that the focus of their additional practice time, not at the expense of the skills they should be maintaining crucial to their career and performance.  Magic Johnson and Shaquille O'Neal are great examples of players who had terrific skills early in their NBA careers but who added additional skills each step of the way toward MVP years.  A note of caution here however, it takes a worker and someone who really understands the effort required to add this one skill to make this change.  If there is any doubt it is the right thing to do, the potential to do more permanent damage to a player's skill at this age is certainly riskier.  Adding a skill is the more logical approach, while changing a skill may end a player’s career. 

Change Please, What's Left Over?

What then are the important things to consider when deciding if you should change your sputtering skill?

Here are several important questions to ask of yourself and your coach prior to deciding if you should attempt to change your skill:
1. What is your long-term basketball career goal?
2. Am I willing to put in the extra hours above normal practice time to relearn a skill I already feel I can perform to a modest level?
3. Is it realistic time and effort wise that you can put in enough correct repetitions to unlearn the old skill and relearn the new skill prior to reaching your career goal?
4. Will a skill change be required for you to play your natural position upon reaching the highest level possible based on your natural athletic ability?
5. Do you have the patience, and mental temperament to handle a drop in your in game performance level over the period of time you are relearning this skill?
6. What are the consequences to my playing future if I do not make the change in the skill?
7. What time of the year are you considering making these changes?  Remember, it would be best to begin the skill change (the hardest transition between the old skill and new) in the off season when there are less performance requirements in games critical to the success of your team.
8. Will my changing this skill significantly affect my team's performance and what are the consequences of that performance drop at least for a short period of time?
9. Does my coach support the changes that I want to make and understand the potential performance consequences? And will this change be articulated by the coach to my teammates so they understand this process you have chosen to undertake?
10. Are you a person who have a good sense of how skills are performed and you are a relative quick learner?  The more adept you are at picking up skills, the more likely you will be able to handle the extended repetitions required to unlearn and relearn the new skill.  Slow learners beware, frustration levels can set in which can totally discourage you from following through on the changes leaving you in skill quick sand.

You Can Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later

In my coaching career I have always liked the slogan from the old Fram oil filter commercials; you can pay me now or pay me later.  There is no short-cut to automating your basketball skills the correct way.  If you try to cheat the learning process, you will be paying up big time later.  When that occurs you will undoubtedly be asking should I try to make the change.  My experience over the years indicates that if you have any type of college or pro level ability, than most skill changes up until you are about a sophomore or junior in high school are generally acceptable. Even your senior year would be okay if your performance drop doesn't affect your ability to get a scholarship and play at the next level.  If however, your athleticism, quickness with which you learn and relearn skills are in question as to whether or not you can achieve playing at the next level, you would be better served to continue with your current skill until you have achieved the next level and have the support of a coaching staff that can assist you in making the changes after you have established your ability to compete for your new team.
 
Players who really don't have the aspiration of playing at the next level should stick to the skills that enable them to enjoy playing and performing at a decent level where they are playing. While these are not hard and fast rules, they should help you decide if a change is in order.  Always consult your coaches and get their perspective on the consequences of a change.  If they are encouraging a change that you are hesitant to tackle as a player, sit down and talk with your coaches about your concerns and some of these questions I have posted above.  It is your choice to make, because in the end you will wear the consequences.

Most important to remember from todays Playground Pointer is the concept of time and repetitions to automate your skills and that it is indifferent to direction. If it is just important to score the goal regardless of your technique you may get by for a while.  But eventually it will catch up with you.  The result will be that you have to go back and unlearn (essentially the same amount of repetitions it took to incorrectly learn the basketball skill up to this point in time whether it be 50-100, or 250,000 repetitions) and then tack on another 250,000 repeats.  If that is your way of getting from one point to another in a direct line you are going to be well behind the players that do it the correct way, in a straight line.  Learn it right from the beginning and save yourself a ton of time.  When you have to change, consider all the factors and make the best decision for you.  It will require patience, commitment, and understanding your performance will drop during the transition, and the effort to follow through to see the full benefit of a skill change.  If the benefits of the change outweigh the negatives, get to work!


Check back next month for another Playground Pointers courtesy of The Basketball Highway®.

Transition Isn't Throwing Away A Perfectly Good Fast Break Opportunity

Transition Isn't Throwing Away A Perfectly Good Fast Break Opportunity
by Alan Lambert

Introduction

I am not sure if any team skill have digressed more in the past decade in basketball as the transition game. Oh sure, more teams are running, you young players are more athletic and can hammer down dunks off of spectacular lob passes. But what I see is more blown scoring opportunities on the fast break then ever before. It use to be that a fast break was a gimme!, autoMATIC, a sure thing, betting on the winner after the race, but not any more. I think it is because too many of you young players try to make the spectacular play rather than the smart one and end up throwing it away. There is too much 1 on 2, 1 on 3, and 1 on 4 because of the "I can score on these guys" mentality. It isn't about whether or not you can score. It should be about whether or not it is a high percentage play. The game is evolving into too much "what about me" instead of "what about us." I also see players making very poor open court decisions with 3 on 2 or more advantages turning an easy scoring opportunity into a difficult one. Today's Playground Pointer is to remind you of the roots of transition basketball, and getting you back to the basics of the offensive fast break. It's not the show that counts it's the points you make...at least that is what I was always taught from the day I first picked up a basketball. The winner of the Championship isn't the team that wow's the crowd, it's the one that puts more point on the board more times than their opponent.

Some of you may have by chance seen the recent television commercials by Fox Regional Sports where they promote their efforts by their special coverage of "unusual" regional sports. In one case you are taken to a foreign country where an foreign speaking announcer is eloquently describing a high dive (similar to what you might expect watching the famous divers at Acapulco, Mexico) only to see the diver plunge hard into the earth. The fans then hold up score cards rating the dive and the crowd cheers. Weird sense of humor but I use it to illustrate a point. The problem is the results. What looked stylish turned ugly. That is not what fast break basketball is about.
 

It's More About Points than Style

The most critical statistic in basketball today is points per possession (P/P). You can calculate your team's offensive efficiency or defensive proficiency by dividing the number points scores or allowed in a game by the number of total possessions. The higher the offensive P/P versus the lower the defensive P/P provides a good indicator of your teams success. The reason transition basketball has exploded in popularity in the last 20-30 years has been because it is fun to play and stylish. However if you team runs, and your offensive P/P drops your team is like a water pump in the Sahara desert, pretty useless. That is why "fast breaking" teams are not necessarily winning teams. You may find your team has 80 possessions per game but only scores on 35 of them for 82 points. Yet your appointment who had 78 possessions scored on 42 of them for 95 points. It's not how fast you run, it's HOW you run which makes your team a successful transition fast break team.

Today I want to provide you with a key teaching points which are important in successful transition basketball. These are the kinds of things that you shouldn't have to think about, but simply recognize as the fast break develops.


Key Points for Fast Break Success

Getting the Break Started...

Finishing the Break With Results...

Shots Off Transition...

These are but a few of many tips that can help you become a better decision maker and productive player in transition. Before I leave you to your fast breaking practice let me give you a few more additional tips on scoring in specific numbers advantage situations.


2 on 1 Numbers Advantage...

3 on 2 Numbers Advantage...

4 on 3 Number Advantage...

Attack With Control...

The most important tip you can remember in basketball is to play with explosive quickness but always keep yourself under control. This is especially true on the fast break. You are taught as an offensive player to catch the ball in triple threat position ready to shoot, pass, or pass. What you forget is that the rule also applies to catching the ball in the open court on the fast break. The minute you blast to the basket with your head down off balance, you are giving up the chance to pass or shoot off a quick stop.

When you are sprinting out on the break to fill a wing, or hitting the "run way" to the basket preparing to finish the break, ask yourself if are you in a position to stop (to pass, shoot or catch and drive) or go to the basket? Once a defender recognizes that you has lost your balance, or the ability to execute one of these three offensive skills, you become more defendable and decreases your chances of scoring. Take away two of them, and you are stoppable. If you are in such a hurry that you completely lose your ability to control your body going to the basket, you will not score and throw away the best chances your team has of putting points on the board. If you consistently fast break without regard for making smart controlled decisions, you are contributing to your teams demise. Let's bring back "smart" transition and see if we can't return fast break basketball it's proper place in the game.

 

 

Trucos para Defender a un Anotador

 

Trucos para Defender a un Anotador
(Tips for Defending a Scorer)
por Alan Lambert
Traducido al español por Fco. Javier Morillo Oteo

Si no se lo has escuchado decir nunca a tu entrenador, lo oirás en algún momento durante tu vida como jugador. El equipo que gana es normalmente aquél que hace muchos lanzamientos y con un buen porcentaje. Piensa en ello mientras lees mis trucos para defender a un anotador.
Concepto 1- Sé un estudioso de la defensa.
Todos los grandes defensores estudian a su oponente. Esto es especialmente cierto cuando el contrario es un gran anotador. Desde el primer instante en que lo ves, sea en un calentamiento o en un vídeo, deberías saber cual es su mano débil, si le gusta lanzar desde bote o desde pase, si le gusta prepararse o lanzar rápido. La rapidez con la que eres capaz de averiguar los puntos fuertes y las debilidades de tus oponentes viene dada por la experiencia, lo que no es excusa para que, sea cual sea el tiempo que lleves jugando, sepas cuales son los movimientos favoritos de tu oponente, cual es su mano fuerte y su mano débil, y desde que posiciones del campo le gusta más anotar, desde dónde tiene más confianza.
Evita sus puntos fuertes e intenta forzarle a utilizar sus puntos débiles. Te sorprenderás de que saber algo tan simple como que tu anotador no lanza a gusto después de botar con la mano izquierda te hará un considerablemente mejor defensor. Si eres capaz de convertirte en un estudioso del juego, y aprendes a leer a tu atacante rápidamente, podrás defenderle de forma efectiva aplicando lo que has aprendido. Algo sumamente importante es que no necesitas estar jugando para aprender sobre él. Cuando estés en el banquillo, mira y aprende para que, cuando tengas tu oportunidad y tu entrenador te llame para jugar, estés preparado para defender.
Aprende también las jugadas favoritas del equipo contrario y desde dónde les gusta anotar. Evita que lo hagan mediante anticipación y rompe así su estilo de juego.
Concepto 2-Haz que el anotador lance menos de lo habitual, fuérzale a bajar su  porcentaje de aciertos, y haz que lance desde más lejos del aro presionando la línea de pase para obligarle a tirar más allá de la distancia donde se encuentra a gusto.
No hace falta un profesor de matemáticas para calcular que un tirador que lanza con un 50% de efectividad y efectúa 24 lanzamientos anotará por lo menos 24 puntos. Si su porcentaje es del 75% anotará 36 puntos. El mismo anotador, lanzando sólo 12 veces, pasará un mal rato anotando sólo 12 puntos, siempre y cuando tú no cometas el pecado mortal de hacerle falta a un tirador que tiene un porcentaje de acierto bajo. Ahora, si puedes presionarle en defensa haciendo que reciba lejos del aro, digamos más allá de la línea de 3 puntos, de repente su porcentaje para un tiro desde esta distancia caerá por debajo del 35% la mayoría de las veces. Si eres capaz de presionarle un paso más allá, el porcentaje caerá al 25% o menos en la mayoría de los anotadores. Concede a ese tirador sólo 10 lanzamientos, la mitad de ellos desde más allá de la línea de 3 puntos, y tu equipo tendrá una buena oportunidad de ganar el partido. Recuerda también que algunos jugadores lanzan mucho más a gusto y con más confianza desde ciertos lugares del campo. Debes impedir que tiren desde esos sitios. A veces será cerca del aro, pero en una posición en la que no tengan mucha confianza. Si es un tirador puro, que trabaja sobre la línea de 3 puntos para recibir y lanzar, debes forzarle a poner el balón en el suelo.
Concepto 3- NO arriesgues en defensa ni expongas tus debilidades defensivas a un anotador.
La mayoría de los grandes anotadores tienen la habilidad de leer y reaccionar a las debilidades de sus defensores. Puede ser algo como que tienes el hábito de tener los brazos extendidos y el cuerpo desequilibrado hacia delante, situado en una postura que te impide parar la penetración del anotador. Debes ser lo suficientemente disciplinado como para mantener tus fundamentos defensivos y tu trabajo de pies si quieres parar a tu atacante. Conseguirá meter algunas canastas por muy fuerte que defiendas, pero anotarán muchas más si te arriesgas de forma habitual a intentar robar el balón o expones tus debilidades (como apartar la vista del anotador cuando éste tiene el balón). En lugar de ello, reacciona a lo que hace y presiónale cuando lance. Como dije antes, nunca le hagas falta a un anotador que está teniendo un porcentaje bajo de lanzamiento.
Concepto 4- Cuando defiendas a un anotador, hazle cambiar su forma de tirar, su ritmo e intenta romper su concentración en la canasta.
No hay nada más difícil en baloncesto que parar a un anotador que está caliente. Debes hacer todo lo que esté en tu mano para conseguir que cambie el tiro. Una técnica que ha funcionado bien durante años con mis jugadores es que no es necesario taponar el tiro, es suficiente con puntearlo presionando el brazo de tiro del lanzador sin hacerle falta. Incluso si subconscientemente el jugador intenta evitar el contacto con tu mano, puedes forzarle a alterar su tiro y reducir su porcentaje de acierto. Puedes obligarle a cambiar su ritmo modificando la cantidad de presión que aplicas sobre él y cuándo y cómo punteas su tiro. Si sabes que lanza muy bien desde un bote, haz que dé dos, o no dejes espacio para que bote. Rompe su concentración. El reglamento de baloncesto no permiten que toques a un jugador, pero cualquier sistema que te permita distraerle y hacer que sus ojos pierdan de vista el aro reducirán su porcentaje de lanzamiento y harán que seas mejor defensor.
Concepto 5- El último punto podría ser fácilmente el primero. Evita que el balón llegue a las manos del anotador.
Finalmente, evita que lance. Si lo hace, enciérrale. Ningún anotador debe lanzar dos veces en la misma posesión. Si le gusta tirar cómo, por atención y corre al máximo para evitar que le llegue el balón en situaciones donde podrá utilizar su habilidad atlética y de anotación de forma efectiva. Más importante aún, evita que el anotador reciba el balón. Es necesario un gran esfuerzo físico para conseguir esto, pero no podrá anotar si no tiene el balón en sus manos. Debes hacer que gaste tanta energía para conseguir el balón como la que tú gastas para evitarlo. Durante el transcurso de un partido, el cansancio de piernas hace que muchos anotadores bajen su porcentaje de acierto. Si tienes a un anotador muy caliente, defiéndele por todo el campo y haz todo lo que sea necesario para evitar que el balón llegue a sus manos, defendiéndole ciego cara a cara si es necesario. Recuerda que debes realizar ayudas defensivas a tus compañeros, pero sólo en esta situación y con la aprobación de tu entrenador, no abandones a tu jugador para hacer ayudas. Reduce el partido a un 4 contra 4 y saca a tu atacante del partido. Sé persistente para evitar que el balón llegue a sus manos y tendrás una oportunidad de ganar.
 
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Trucos para Utilizar tus Manos en

Trucos para Utilizar tus Manos en
(Tips For Utilizing Your Hands on Defense)
por Alan Lambert
Traducido por Fco. Javier Morillo Oteo
El uso de las manos en defensa puede convertirse tanto en una ventaja como en una desventaja, dependiendo de como se utilicen. Estos apuntes de campo permitirán mostrar a los jugadores jóvenes unos cuantos trucos básicos acerca de cómo hacerlo.
Concepto 1- Como preparación.....usa tus manos con un propósito y no de forma aleatoria
Tus manos, al igual que tu cabeza, tienen un peso considerable y, cuando se mueven, pueden hacer que te desequilibres y quedes en mala posición defensiva. Mantén tus manos relativamente quietas cuando el atacante amenace con el bote. Cuando tengas que llegar, utiliza movimientos cortos para desplazar el balón o acosar al driblador. Los movimientos agresivos con desplazamientos largos hacen que te desequilibres la mayoría de las veces. Si en defensa no mueves los pies al azar, no deberías tampoco mover nunca las manos de forma caótica.
Concepto 2-A la hora de situarte para quitarle el balón a tu atacante... mantén tus manos arriba y centradas al cuerpo cuando no las estés utilizando para impedir un pase o bote.
En realidad puedes mover tus manos cuanto quieras... siempre y cuando ello no te desequilibre. Sin embargo, si extiendes los brazos muy lejos del cuerpo al presionar un pase te será más difícil reaccionar rápido para desviar el balón con las manos en la línea de pase. Esto hace que, habitualmente, el defensor pierda el equilibrio y la capacidad de reacción.
Debes mantener las manos centradas a igual distancia de ambos hombros, con los codos apuntando hacia abajo, ya que desde esta posición las manos pueden reaccionar rápido y moverse hacia cualquier dirección en cualquier momento, de forma que es más fácil desviar un pase. Hay muchas exceptiones a esta posición básica de las manos, y tu entrenador te ayudará a identificarlas. Por ejemplo, mantener una mano baja para evitar que tu atacante haga un cambio entre las piernas, o mover las manos agresivamente en la cara del atacante que haya terminado de botar. Sin embargo, estarás mucho mejor preparado para atacar al balón en defensa si mantienes las manos arriba, cerca del cuerpo y centradas. Es más sencillo mantener el equilibrio en esta postura.
Concepto 3- Para robar el balón....golpéalo hacia arriba o hacia afuera.
Los mejores defensores juegan con las palmas de las manos hacia arriba. Desde esta posición es más sencillo golpear al balón hacia arriba y menos probable cometer falta si se produce el contacto. Creo además que es preferible empujar el balón hacia afuera cuando el atacante lo deja expuesto, ya que en la mayoría de los casos, al empujarlo hacia adentro, no conseguiremos separar al jugador del balón, y permitimos que recupere el control rápidamente. Si el driblador deja expuesto el balón, espera a que éste no se encuentre en contacto con la mano durante el bote y, situando la palma de la mano hacia adelante, empuja el balón lejos del cuerpo del atacante. Comprobé durante mi carrera como jugador que de esta forma se cometen menos faltas y se obtienen mejores resultados.
Concepto 4- Para desviar un pase....concéntrate en los ojos del driblador o pasador, pero reacciona sólo al movimiento del balón.
Muchos jugadores jóvenes avisan cuando van a pasar («telegrafían» el pase) debido a que no tienen buenos fundamentos de pase o bote. Los jugadores que no han desarrollado la habilidad de pasar sin mirar al balón son los más fáciles de leer. El momento en que sus ojos se levantan del balón señala que van a pasar o lanzar a canasta. Esto te dará un segundo de ventaja para anticiparte al movimiento del balón. Cuando tus manos se encuentran en posición central no reacciones demasiado pronto al movimiento del cuerpo o a una finta de pase o tiro. Centra tu atención en el movimiento del balón. En el segundo durante el cual el balón está en movimiento debes extender la mano para desviar el pase o dificultar el tiro. El movimiento debe ser similar al de la lengua de un sapo para capturar una mosca. Si no lo consigues, aún deberías estar equilibrado y ser capaz de ajustar rápidamente tu posición defensiva para ayudar o impedir el corte del pasador.
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