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!