Coach Paul Basketball

No Time For Skills

2012-01-28T14:03:00.001-08:00

The complaint I hear most often from coaches is that I would love to work on skills but I don’t have time. They offer a host of reasons; short season, need to get in my offensive sets in, need to establish my defensive philosophies, I need to get in my slobs and blobs in, it would be nice to teach kids how to play, but there is just not time.

I guess I would have to ask, what is your objective?
Consider this, less than 6% of high school players will play college basketball, and less than 2% of college basketball players will turn pro.
As a coach you probably will not turn out that many players going to the next level. I’ve been fortunate to be able to get some there. Some of them were a surprise, some I felt were more than capable but were over looked, and some did not last once they got there.

It has to be about more than teaching some X’s and O’s. Getting players to do the dance of what you have decided is this years flavour of offense and defense. There is always time to teach skills.

Take these suggestions into consideration.

Transition Versus Half Court Offense
Although true you must be able to execute in the half court during tight games, if you fold a piece of paper down the middle and do a lumber jack tally on each side, one for scores in transition and broken plays, and the other side points scored in the half court offense, you might be surprised that the majority of points will be in the transition and broken plays section. Teaching your players to run lanes wide, approach the rim at a 45 degree angle above the block, run and catch, give targets, communicate, run and pass and finishing at the rim are all teachable skills. You can incorporate these into your drills. Design your drills to be jam packed with skills and habits you want your team to have.

Warm Up Pre-practice
This is an excellent time to bring your teams core temperature up by using skills. Teach footwork drills. If they ain’t sweatin, they ain’t workin hard enough. Try getting players to work in pairs, and have them go through a series of skills that you want to emphasise. If you need help or would like some specific instructions, don’t hesitate to contact me.

SLOBS And BLOBS
You probably like most of us accumulated a stack of Slobs and Blobs over the years. They probably all look very different from your offense continuity or sets. If you want to save time, use your offense and break it down into chunks that can be used as a Slob or Blob. This will trim down on the amount of time you need to teach, this part of the game. Let’s face it, when it’s time to teach Slobs and Blobs the energy level of the practice drops. It’s difficult to keep the verve of the practice going during this section. You can make it more competitive by timing them, as long as they are executing it correctly and they make the time, they have no consequences.

Push Pull Rotations
It’s far more effective if you players understand how to rotate to a new position depending on the ball movement. If there is penetration, which way should you players move in a push pull theory of basketball? When you teach sets, make sure you modify them so players are not standing around, but fill in new spots so there is always the following passes available; a baseline drift, and 90 degree pass, a 45 degree pass, and a player filling in from behind.

Designer Drills
Any drill can be good, if you are teaching skills. Those skills can be specific to what you are trying to achieve in your offense or defense. If you screen in a certain area of the floor, then design a drill that teaches how to get over a screen, how to burry your defender in a screen, how to pick and roll, how to pick and pop, how to make the read on the defender, so your players know how to reject a screen, shoot over a screen, bounce off a screen, turn a corner on a screen, how to attack outside shoulders and split a screen, and how to keep your head up during all of this so you can read the floor.

Help Your Players Become Better Athletes

If for no other reason, make your players better athletes because the tangible improvement players can see will make them more confident. A better athlete will be a better player. If you increase your quickness you will be a better player. If you increase your strength you will be a better player. If you increase your vertical you will be a better player. If you develop healthy habits of exercise and eating right, these are skills you can take forward in your lives, when you are not longer playing the game you love.

If I can help you with any of these suggestions, do not hesitate to contact me.

Do You Like Coaching

2012-01-28T12:10:00.000-08:00

Yes I know you like wearing the shirt. You like being called coach. You like the respect and revere that comes with the position. You like the company and community. Maybe you even like the TV appearance. Maybe you like the lime light. But do you really like coaching?
I observe coaches in a state of agitation. I see them angry most of the time. They are upset at practice. They are upset during games. They use foul language, and I know society has become loose with language just as it has with appearance, and behaviour, but that doesn’t mean you have to conform to that standard.
Where does this behaviour from coaches stem from? Is it the pressure to succeed? Is the pressure to keep your job? Is it a reflection, of the measure of your character? Do you have what Ernest Hemingway called "grace under pressure”. Or is it simply you feel inadequate in what you are doing. Did you spend the time to prepare your team? Are you passing the buck and blaming your team for the loss? Wait, it is a team right? You are part of it correct? Then isn’t the blame shared?
From personal experience I can say, that all but two losses I felt I had either not prepared my team, or made a decision during the game that might have produced a different outcome. Two of the best games I coached and prepared my teams for resulted in losses. But I could not have been more proud of the team, and my efforts in those games. They gave it their all, and so did I and my assistants. It stung, but it didn’t last long. It wasn’t our day.

For me coaching is teaching. Teaching is one of the most honourable professions, if your heart is in it. If you are willing to make a difference, and let the difference be your reward. If your heart isn’t in it, and you are agitated, and angry most of the time, then get out. You need to find something else to do with your time. Think of the effects you have on those players, and the role you are setting for your assistants. You can’t deny the effect you will have on both groups. I see out of control head coaches’ behaviour trickling down to their assistants. Nice legacy.

Stop looking for perfection! Look for improvements. Look for learning. Take the time to enjoy what you are doing. In the end it's about forming relationships.

Try focusing on some of these things.

1.Improve Your Players Skills
A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.
Larry Bird

2.Coaches Should Motivate Players
You only ever grow as a human being if you're outside your comfort zone.
Percy Cerutty

3.Coaches Should Be Tough But Fair
Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.
Oscar Wilde

4.Coaches Should Make It A Team Effort
Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
Henry Ford

5.Coaches Should Not Be Demeaning
By lifting the weakest, poorest among us, we lift the rest of us as well.
Bill Clinton

6.Coaches Should Give It Their All
The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.
Albert Einstein

7.The Sport Should Be Fun, Not Funny, But Fun
When the going gets tough, the tough do what they do, while the wise find the game in it.
Unknown

Talking On Defense

2011-12-24T04:19:00.000-08:00

Talking on defense might be the second most important or effective skill you can use to become a better defensive team. Nothing replaces strong defensive fundamentals, but talk can help your team in at least two ways;

1) Communication between your players will let your players know what is going on behind them, and how they should play their man. If the defender on the ball hears his teammate talking to the ball “I have help at baseline” he knows he can play his man a little closer and force in that direction.

2) There is an intimidation factor that stunts some teams. If a player with the ball hears a help defender talking to the ball “I have help at the elbow”, then they might be less likely to attack the elbow, knowing it’s covered.

However I question the way we teach talk on defense. A lot of noise coming from 5 players to my thinking is not useful. It’s just noise. It’s the difference between hearing and listening.

If the ball defender is screaming “ball ball ball”, can they really listen to their teammates instructions?

Also can they really be effective in covering their man if they are so focused on yelling “ball ball ball”?

If the ball defender is yelling “ball ball ball” and 3 or 4 other teammates are yelling “deny deny deny”, where is the useful information for the ball defender. Do you really think the ball defender can hear and distinguish all the different players yelling “deny” and even if they could, would it be useful information? Would they know where each of their teammates are when they are yelling deny, and would they be able to process that information quickly. Compare that, to these instructions;

Elbow help Sean
Baseline help Eric
Open post Colin

Some will argue that yelling “ball ball ball” will have a negative effect on the player with the ball. I’d like to suggest that, it is really not the case, check your game tape. If it does have an effect, then my guess is your playing against younger teams, and I’ve even seen referees ask teams to refrain from that behaviour, because at a certain age they find it doesn’t fit with fair play rules.

Some will say, yelling “ball ball ball” triggers or initiates the rest of our defenders to play in a certain style or position. I would suggest, that of all your players, playing up on the ball with pressure is the one thing, that we all want as coaches. It’s really a given or a standard, so calling “ball” is more chatter than useful information. The rest of your team are behind the ball. They can see the ball and their man, it’s really the players behind the ball that should inform the ball defender how to play, and let him/her know, that they have support.

I think the key to developing your defensive language is to get rid of useless chatter, and replace it with information packed key words or phrases. John Wooden would run drills in this fashion and I have tried to adopt this behaviour when running drills. Teach the principles you want to be emphasized in your drill, then when the drill is running, you simply call out words that reflect those principles, when they are not being done; “catch two hands”, “run lanes wide” etc. This same principle can be applied to developing a defensive language.

I would suggest the first thing you need to do is develop a defensive language for your team. Short quick phrases or words or sound packets that are rich with information. The language of course should be built to reflect your defensive principles. Whatever you want to do with your defense, then come up with short phrases or words that communicate these principles.

Getting players to communicate! If you have coached youth boys, then you know this is always a struggle. How do I get them to do talk? I searched long and hard for an answer to this puzzle. I went around from sport to sport, team to team looking for players that were good at this skill and asked them how they developed their ability to communicate effectively. Usually what I found out was that player was a coach’s son or daughter, or they were a natural team leader and the concept came easily to them. So I decided to do what I did for any other skill. I scored it and had consequences for not doing it. For e.g. if you are in a shell drill, score defensive talk, as well as rebounds, or paint touches. Apply a consequence for not doing it. Just like in lay-up drills if a player misses, I have them automatically go to a safe place to do 10 push-ups before they get back in the drill. There is motivation to get back in the drill because we are also scoring team makes. Apply the same technique to a missed defensive instruction. I think you’ll find it works.

Are You Getting In The Mental Weight Room - If Buddha Was A Baller Part II

2011-09-19T10:01:00.000-07:00

Buddha said “What we think, we become”. Self-talk is the the way our mind does business. This self-talk can be created by you or by others on a daily basis. So why wouldn’t you want to control this process to your benefit?
The latest studies show that the average person has between 2500 and 3500 thoughts per day, each of which is 12 to 14 seconds long. Top athletes have only 1500 thoughts per day. The reason top athletes have fewer thoughts is related to their ability to be more controlled and focused with their thoughts.
These same studies reveal that the average person spends 90% of their thinking on yesterday or tomorrow, where athletes hone their focus on being in the moment.

Learn to script your internal dialogue, but using affirmations. It is important that the affirmations ring true to you.
You can use different methods, or combinations of methods to help influence your consciousness. You could:
1. write your affirmations in a journal
2. you can recite the affirmations to yourself either aloud or in your mind
3. you can tape the affirmations and listen to them
4. write the affirmations on cards and place them where you will read them daily

To make the affirmations even more effective, you should couple the affirmations with mental visualization using as many of the five senses that are appropriate. To really cement the affirmations you should couple the affirmation with emotional feelings. Using both senses and emotional connection can really put you in the moment. If the moment happens to be trying to achieve being in the zone, then you stand a better chance of getting there by combining these methods.

You should create your own affirmations. They should be suitable for your personality and sport, but here are some examples to get you started.
1. I am on top of my game.
2. The more I practice the better I get.
3. I am improving every day.
4. I learn from mistakes.
5. I stay calm.
6. I play from a state of focus.
7. I learn from watching other players.
8. I feel confident during my game.

Are You Getting In The Mental Weight Room - Part I

2011-09-04T16:47:00.001-07:00

There is an increasing focus on sports psychology as we look for any edge to become more competitive, more focused, more confident. It is unclear how much of our minds we use, but we do know there are untapped resources. Stories of chips being inserted in to quadriplegics’ brains so they can navigate computers, and stories of the Backster Effect, where a persons emotional state can have an effect on their own cells even after they are removed from their bodies are just a couple of examples.
There is no doubt that emotions and mental strength can separate the good from the great. In the next few blogs, I will explore some of theories / methods that you can use to help you achieve a mental edge when competing.
Just as there are numerous overlapping training principles when building your body;
1. Individual differences
2. Overcompensation
3. Overload
4. Specific adaptations to imposed demands
5. Use/Disuse
6. Specificity
7. General adaptation syndrome
there are equally as many principles to consider when refining your mental edge

1. Drive Theory
2. Inverted U Hypothesis
3. Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning
4. Multidimensional anxiety theory
5. Catastrophe Model
6. Reversal Theory
7. Anxiety direction and intensity

The scope of the following Mental Weight Room Blogs will not go into too much detail of the above principles, but rather try to give some practical approaches to increasing your mental edge.

I think the most important principles to keep in mind are the Individual Differences Principal and Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning. Both of these principals take into account that we all have different genetic blueprints, and therefore we will have different response and adaptations to both exercise and levels of anxiety and arousal. The sports we play or even the position we play may also play a role.

Look for the next Mental Weight Room Blog: If Buddha Was A Baller (What we think, we become)

How To Get Recruited

2011-08-27T05:59:00.000-07:00

If you are not a blue chip athlete being targeted to play at the next level, you have your work cut out for you to get recruited.

You should spend considerable time self evaluating at which next level you can play. It will also be useful to get the opinion(s) of coaches. As part of your development you should always be evaluating your strengths and weakness, so that you can hone your strengths eliminate your weakness. That way you will be bringing something new to the game each season.

Once you have completed your self evaluation, use the following steps as a guideline for getting to the next level.

1. Research and focus on schools where you would like to play
Search the web, news articles, facebook, twitter and any source you can find to learn more about the school. This will help you decide if you want to play for this team, and will also help you demonstrate that you've "done your homework" when you get around to interviewing. This is also another good time to talk to anyone you know that might play or have played for the school and coach.

2. Research the Roster and research the Coach
Make sure the team encompasses a position you can play and contribute to. If you are a PG and the team is already heavy with PG’s and they are freshmen and sophomores, your chances have just gone down. Most D1 schools have the luxury of recruiting to a style of play. As players exit, they bring in players that can fill those spots. Determine if the style of play and the style of the coach is compatible with your personality and style

3. Create a resume
Your resume should include a history of your highlights and accomplishments related to both your academics and your game. There are plenty of free resources for writing a resume.

4. Create a cover letter
A cover letter is a letter of introduction. Your cover letter should be designed specifically for each school and or coach. There are plenty of free resources for writing a resume.

5. Game Tape
Have at least one DVD available to send to prospective coaches. That DVD could be a compilation of good quarters, but should not be a highlight reel. Coaches want to see you perform in a game situation.

6. Knock on Doors
If coaches are not coming to you, you must go convince them that you have flown under the radar and have something to offer to their program.

52 Weeks A Year

2011-08-06T13:42:00.000-07:00

If you are serious about becoming a better basketball player you need to have a year-round training program. That program should include strength and conditioning training, skill development team structured practices, and a rest and recovery phase. These phases are usually defined as;
Off-season
Pre-season
In-season
Post-season
Each season can be further broken down into cycles.
The true challenge in Canada, is defining when these seasons are. High school ball runs into provincial club ball. Club ball runs into AAU ball, and if you are involved in the Provincial or National programs, these will collide with the above seasons too. The truth of the matter is you have to make choices, about what your goals are and how you can reach those. You can’t do everything at once and hope to gain strength, better your skills, while playing games for all of those teams. One way to make sense of it is to work backwards with this problem. Ask yourself, where you want to play in your post high school career. What level do you want to play at? What venue, will the coaches of where I want to eventually play, see me? If they can’t see me, they won’t know about me, I’ll fly under the radar and miss my opportunity.
Off-SeasonDuring the Off-season, approximately 21 weeks, players should concentrate on building up their body. It should include strength and conditioning program that will not only focus on brining a stronger body to the next season, but also help prevent and protect the body from injuries. The off-season should include speed, quickness, agility drills, and sport specific exercises and movements that help make you quicker on the court. It goes without saying that a proper stretching program should also be part of all phases.
Pre-seasonDuring the Pre-season, approximately 8 weeks, players should concentrate on honing their skills. Strength training focus should change to more sports specific, injury prevention type of resistant training. Conditioning should become more sports specific. Conditioning can all be done with a ball in your hands. Working on skills and conditioning at the same time.
In-seasonDuring the In-season, approximately 19 weeks, players should continue to work on their bodies. Amount of weight, reps and frequency will change to accommodate playing games and team practices. It’s important that an appropriate program is adhered to. If you stop with strength training you will end up being your weakest during play-offs when you want to be strong. Rest and recover play an important role.
Post-seasonDuring the Post-season, approximately 4 weeks, players should take the time to have both a physical and mental break. Your body and mind will need time to recover. At the end of this phase, you can begin to train slowly gearing up for the next Off-season.

If you would like more detail about each of these seasons, please contact me.

Predicting The Future

2011-08-02T13:55:00.000-07:00

The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior
Author Unknown

The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Create it
Author Alan Kay

Unfortunately for most people they can be best categorized using the first quote. They do not use a critical eye to evaluate their strengths and weakness, and move towards having a specific plan to improve both. Players are made in the off-season; teams are made in the in-season. What are you doing to add to your game? These players are destined to bring to the table the same old game they had the previous season. Guess what, it’s so easy to scout a player like that. It’s easy to take their game away.

The good news for you is you can be that second type of player. You can devise a plan to create your future, while others are bound to repeat the past. You can work on becoming a complete scorer , enhance your basketball I.Q., hone your handles, refine your shot, improve your footwork, and enhance your court vision.

But start today! No one is moving the finishing line for you.

If I can help you reach your goals, let me know
Coach Paul

The Geometry Of Coaching

2011-06-09T11:15:00.001-07:00

If you are a coach, issues will be unavoidable. You will have to deal with parents, administration, and politics. When you are faced with these issues try to remember that both coaches and those who bring their issue see the team as a triangle. The difference in the orientation of that triangle is what causes the conflict. For argument’s sake lets say the person with the issue is a parent. They will see the triangle upright with the apex of that triangle representing their child and what, they see as the best interest for their child. A coach looks at the team as an inverted triangle putting the needs and best interest of the team first.
It’s easy to get caught up in all the ancillary things that are required from a coach. You can’t go wrong if you put the needs of the team first. It’s one of life’s lessons to learn that we are all part of something bigger than ourselves.

Belly-Fire

2011-06-06T15:19:00.000-07:00

How often do we look outside ourselves to find inspiration? It’s pandemic to look to someone else for motivation. Where is the fire in your belly? Where is the intestinal fortitude to work through obstacles? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s a weakness to ask for help, and maybe the term self-made-man or self-made-women is a bit of a misnomer. No one achieves without some help, but in the micro-wave style of society of wanting instant success, it seems rare for someone to sit down without distraction, determine what they want, set their sites on the goal and map out how to get there. Have we all forgotten that working towards a goal is the success?
Coach Paul

Watch Game Footage Of Sean Patrick

2011-02-26T19:06:00.000-08:00

Watch Games and Highlights of senior player Sean Patrick

All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up

2011-02-19T10:24:00.000-08:00

No doubt that sports provides and emotionally charged atmosphere. Have camera operators become that skilled and crafty they can determine when someone is about to drop the F bomb, or have we become so loose with language that where ever the camera is pointed, we see it. Coaches you can’t expect your players not to conduct themselves in this manner if you don’t follow the same.

Freedom To Fail

2011-02-15T06:25:00.000-08:00

Famous football coach Vince Lombardi once said, "If you can accept losing, you can’t win."
This quote must have applied to never giving up in a game. I don’t think the philosophy applies to teaching the game. It is important when coaching and teaching your players that they have your acceptance to make mistakes. They must embrace the freedom to fail, but fail moving forward. They must recognize their mistakes, and treat them with the correct perspective. There are important lessons with failures. Can you learn from them, but more importantly how do you deal with them?

If your players have a fear of failure, it can lead to creative paralysis and inhibited growth. Players need to understand the odds are small that they will perfect a skill absolutely right the first time. Only through persistence and adjustment and the correct attitude can they hope to use the skill in a game.

They need to look at failures as part of the process of learning. It should be thought of as feedback. They don’t need to feel bad and loose focus. I’ve seen players put so much pressure on themselves, that any small mistake, they become frustrated, angry and demeaned the mistake. Their state of mind should be one of being motivated and empowered to learn. They should be looking for a more flexible behavior that allows them to adjust to make a correction and keep the frame of mind that will allow them success on future attempts.

Remember the very best 3 point shooters fail 60% of the time. Do you think they are focused on the misses or the makes?

Kicking and Screaming

2011-02-06T03:42:00.000-08:00

Coaches who constantly scream do so because they believe it helps make the message clear and will motivate players to improve. They believe it will make their players better. Coaches need to yell simply to be heard over the noises in a gym especially when the crowd can be the sixth man. Under pressure some players loose their focus. Instructions stated firmly in a time out, or while they are on the floor can help them focus on that task, and reduce their pressure.

It’s the content that matters most not the volume. There is a huge difference between calling out an instruction and yelling out insults, or negative comments to players. There is no excuse for berating players and not treating them with dignity. There are always other options.

It is easy to be fooled by the short-term benefits of yelling and screaming at players. But there is a law of diminishing effects with yelling, or berating. The yelling must increase, the insults/threats must become more outrageous and the language must become harsher over time to have the same effect. Ask yourself is this the way you want to conduct yourself?

Don’t tell me you haven’t seen players start to tune this type of coaching out. It has less and less meaning, because, you become a cartoon. I’ll go one further you become a buffoon. Players want to have respect for the position of coach, but become disenchanted with that type of demeaning approach even when it’s not directed at them.

Have you so poorly prepared your teams that you need to draw that type of attention back to you? Do you think your antics of loosening your tie; running up and down the floor, yelling at your bench has anything whatsoever to do with basketball or coaching? Did you not prepare your team for the game?

Think hard about how you want to present information. Don’t leave your feet versus Keep your feet. Do you think the player really doesn’t know he made a mistake when he left his feet? You can reinforce this behaviour with positive messaging and working on it in practice. Coaches find another way!

This weekend I have watched some pretty appalling behaviour from coaches.Conversely, I also witnessed some outstanding coaching and behaviour. Thanks to both groups for teaching me a lesson. Thanks for confirming what I want to continue to strive towards, and what I want to distance myself from.

"The true measure of a man is not how he behaves in moments of comfort and convenience but how he stands at times of controversy and challenges.”- Martin Luther King Jr

Strength Training For Basketball

2011-01-30T09:13:00.000-08:00

I am asked often by players and coaches, if players should be working out with weights during the season. The quick answer is yes. Probably no other sport has the physique of the player changed more drastically in the past 20 years than basketball. I rarely ever get asked if basketball players should lift weights but more when and how. It was once believed that basketball players, boxers etc. should not lift weights. The thinking was it will make them slow, and bulky. Basketball players need to follow a basketball-specific strength training program that will improve their game. You do not want to loose the gains you made in the off-season. If you do not do in-season work, with a grueling season of games and practices you could be your weakest during paly-offs, when you need to be strong.
Player's should have goals in mind when when working out. The sure way to get no where is to not have a plan.

The reasons for strength training for basketball include improving your game by
1.Help ward off injuries
2.Increasing explosive power
3.Improve agility
4.Improve speed
5.Improve quickness
6.Improve your vertical jump
7.Mental toughness. Players that are stronger are more likely to play stronger.

Over the course of a year, strength training for basketball should follow several distinct phases. Each of these phases or periods has a specific objective and helps build the foundation for the next phase of training.

Periodized programs provide a progressive buildup to peak fitness and performance. Programs are often broken into 3 periods, but each of these can be broken into smaller periods or cycles.

1.Pre-Season
During this phase players will focus on building up after the off season. They will first concentrate on strength and hypertrophy. Players will work on power, moving a load at high velocity.

2.In-Season

During this phase players should be concerned with the maintenance of Strength and Power gained in the Pre-Season. This can be achieved by alternating phases of strength and power training. Appropriate recovery should be build into the phase to assist with recovery. Players need to be fully functional for competition.

3.Off-Season

It’s time to relax for several weeks. This is important time to refuel physically and emotionally. Stay fit by having light workouts or cross train.

For more specific details, don't hesitate to contact me.
Coach Paul

Before I'd get in the ring, I'd have already won or lost it on the road. The real part is won or lost somewhere far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights." -- Muhammed Ali

Measure Your Success By Your Effort

2011-01-21T16:29:00.000-08:00

You can not always win the game. I’ve had the pleasure of coaching a team that went 34 and 0. But our successes were not always measured by the W. There are two things you can bring to the game, without the help of a coach. One is conditioning and the other is effort or heart.

When you try your best you test yourself. When you try your best sometimes great things happen, sometimes mediocre things happen, and sometimes you don’t even come close to the desired outcome.

But your effort is something you can give of yourself. It is something you can control. If you give maximum effort, you will learn something about yourself, your teammates, and your team. You will have already won, because you can look at your effort as your success.

Check point. Did I give it my all? If so, then that is all I can ask of myself.

Ask an older person.. woulda, coulda, shoulda.. few things worse then regret.

Coach Paul

Negative Steps & 3D Space

2011-01-21T16:10:00.000-08:00

There is no denying that some of the best athletes in the game of basketball are in North America. I think you could also say that the better skilled athletes in terms of footwork are coming out of Europe. I heard Jasmin Repesa, says at a clinic “basketball is first step”.

I see such a poor understanding of footwork and creating three 3D space in the NCAA. Many players can not pivot off of either foot in any situation. Heck some coaches still talk about dominant pivot foot. I see countless negative steps. Imagine how fast these players would be if they did not take a negative step before moving forward. Taking a negative step (step back before moving forward) is not only inefficient but it makes the defender’s job easy. Firstly, the defender has more time to react, and secondly it’s an easy read. As a defender I know what way you are going to go, if I see you negative step. I know what direction you will be pushing off toward.

You must let your feet get you to a spot where your hands can take a shot. You must not only be able to create space on the floor, but also be able to understand the space you’ll need in the cylinder of air that surrounds you. That is your 3D space.

With all the athleticism in the NCAA, there is a real, push on attacking the rim. Attacking the rim if fine, but watch and see how many shots go unfinished because of a lack of composure. That lack of composure is a direct result of not know how to create 3 dimensional space, lack of being ambidextrous, and what I like to call a lack of ambipedtrous.

It makes you wonder where we will be, when Europe starts producing better athletes, that are also skilled.

If there is anything I can help you with don’t hesitate to contact me
Coach Paul

Teach Your Players How To Foul

2010-12-30T14:37:00.000-08:00

Coaches do you not spend time teaching your players how to foul in end-of-game situations, when you’re hoping to get an extra possession? Of course you do. You tell your players that they must be making an effort at reaching for the ball. You probably also tell your players that there are situations where you must not let someone score. Foul the player without letting them release the ball. I’m sure most of you teach your players how to do this, in a safe manner.

Is this some type of secret society that we have failed to let referees in on? I see flagrant foul after flagrant foul at the end of games, and they go unpunished. Listen, a push to the back is never warranted. It’s unsportsman-like like, it’s cowardly, and it’s flagrant. Come on referees make the right call!

Getting on the floor – toughness factor

2010-12-28T05:47:00.001-08:00

Often coaches coach the way they were coached. They stick to ideas that they learned not thinking the game may have changed since they were playing. It’s important that you look at situations with fresh eyes. How many coaches still run passing drills where partners facing each other are sliding and chest passing to their partner from one end of the court to the other end? When does this happen in the fast pace style of today’s game? The drill is just not relevant. Just like the importance of re-examining your drills to see if they are relevant it’s important to adjust your philosophies to match the rules of the game today.

We all know that possession is more important than position, but how does this affect your philosophy when it comes to alternation of the possession arrow. Does it make sense to have your players diving all over the floor in harms way just to give the ball up to the other team, because a jump ball was called? Are you as a coach aware of the possession arrow in loose ball situations? Should you be? Piling up on the floor is one of those situations that Referees choose to let any kind of contact go. You see players diving on each other, and the only time the Refs call a foul is when they are becoming untangled and out of frustration one of the players gives the other a shove. Referees are very willing to call ticky-tack calls...and coaches you know what I mean, but diving on a player during a loose ball…. Acceptable? It’s the same as a good strong screen when a player is unaware and gets clocked. No foul? Was there not a major collision?

Absolutely you should teach your players how to get on the floor safely in order to grab a loose ball. You should teach it, and then incorporate this into some of your drills. If you are not teaching these techniques, consider yourself negligent.

If two players are fighting for a loose ball and a jump-ball is called and it is determined by the alternating possession arrow, do you truly think the player that didn’t gain that possession now feels inferior? Do you think the arrow determined which player is tougher, and now the looser of the alternating arrow game will unravel? I think not.

Have you considered adjusting what your players do depending on the possession arrow? Would you consider having your player straddle the player in a crouched position and just like in a dead ball situation the rest of your players are in full denial trying to get a 5 second call or a travel as the player on the floor struggles to give the ball up?

Miscellaneous things you should teach your players
1. How to get on the floor safely
2. How to take a charge
3. How and when to save a ball going out of bounds.
4. How and when it’s good to foul

For more detail on items 1 through 4 feel free to contact me.

Coach Paul paul.patrick@sympatico.ca

Bad Shooting Drills – Jerry West was a great shooter despite this drill

2010-12-19T07:28:00.000-08:00

The object of teaching shooting mechanics is to create good, repeatable mechanics. See the 4 part Blog There Is a Reason There Is a Nail At The FT Line . Some coaches go to all sorts of trouble to try to eliminate pressure of not making shots, by taking away the rim. They want to work on mechanics away from the rim, so there is not the disappointment of having correct mechanics and the ball not dropping through the rim. It’s a coach’s job to let players understand that the ball does not always fall through the rim. Sports are an exercise in failure and how you deal with that failure. If you miss 60% of the time from the three-land, you are considered an excellent 3 point shooter. It’s a coach’s job to help players deal mentally with the failures. It’s also a coach’s job to help the player understand that they will eventually be more successful when using proper shooting mechanics. It will take less work to maintain a “good” shooting mechanics then a “bad” shooting mechanics. I read that Kevin Garnet puts up 1500 shots a day. I admire that work ethic to get better, but wouldn’t he do better to stop catapulting his shot and do fewer repetitions to maintain that. Guess what; there is probably no better feedback then the ball dropping through the rim. It’s a coach’s job to teach players proper shooting mechanics at a range where they can be successful. See Good Shooting Drills below.

Bad Shooting Drills

1.Jerry West Drill
I’m not sure if this drill was really in the staple of Jerry West’s shooting drills, but he is usually accredited for it. If it was, Jerry was a great shooter despite the drill. The drill has players lying on their back shooting the ball into the air and then catching it. The object is to make sure the wrist and finger mechanics are correct on both hands. This drill is bound to give you poor mechanics with your arms. It’s well known that if you want the ball to fly high, your elbow should be above your eye. This drill promotes having your elbow well below your eye. We do not need another drill that is going to promote youth players chucking up threes before they have the strength and mechanics to do so.

2.Shooting at lines
Players line up so their shooting elbow will be over a line on the floor. They release the ball on their shot and see how straight their shot is by determining if it landed on the line on the floor. This one is plagued with issues for me. Kids will look at the flight of the ball, or stare at the line on the floor. Unless they are working with a partner how can they check out their shooting mechanics? Do you want them to look to see if the ball hits the line, and then look back at their hands to make a correction? Come on this is nuts. Don’t you want your players to train their eyes on the rim, and make their corrections there? It’s hard enough trying to get players include looking at the rim for their shot fakes or getting early eye contact with the rim. I don’t want a drill that is contrary to those habits.

3.Shooting at edge of backboard
Player stands facing the side of the backboard and works on shooting the ball and hitting the side of the backboard. I guess this so suppose to parallel the old golf analogy of the golfer asking his caddie where he should aim. When the caddie tells him aim towards the woods, the golfer replies which tree. Here is my issue with this drill. There is a perfectly good thing to shoot at on the front of the backboard, it’s called a rim. If you want a small target to shoot at then use the eye at the back of the rim that holds the net in place. It doesn’t mater which angle you are facing the rim, you will always find a front of the rim and a back of the rim, and at the back of the rim you will find an eye. Aiming at a spot on the side of the backboard, will not allow a player to hold their finish and look at their arms and hands and determine if they need to correct something. They will be too busy retrieving the ball off a weird bounce. This drill is limited to two players at a backboard.
4.Shooting at Walls
Shooting at walls, picking a brick out and seeing if you can hit that is not unlike shooting at the side of a backboard. Although you will probably have far more wall real-estate then the sides of backboards, it too means the player must catch the ball and take their hands and arms away from checking their mechanics. Yes you could let the ball hit the floor and catch it on the bounce while checking your mechanics, but it also has another flaw. Players will be aiming their shot directly at a brick. Maybe that’s why they call flat shots bricks. You are promoting shooting directly at the rim. Unless you are telling your players that you are shooting the ball in an arc so that it comes down and kisses off the intended brick, why wouldn’t you just use the rim.

If you want to use the wall, use if for passing overloads drills. It’s a great way to get repetitions for passing in. You can have players try to hit a brick or spot on the wall while using all different types of passes. You can have them use 2 or 3 balls while firing the balls off the wall trying to hit a certain spot. You can have them use 2 basketballs and a tennis ball or any computation of that. You can combine the passing with dribbling, or creating space to make the pass. You can number spots on the wall and have the player hit those numbers as you shout out the numbers. You can have the player face the wall and you can their partner standing behind them bouncing the ball off the wall as a reaction drill to have them jump to the ball to catch it in their core. Walls can be very useful in practice, but in my opinion not great for shooting drills. For more information on these passing drills email me

Good Shooting drills

1.Zero Points
This is an excellent way to start your practices. Include this as part of your pre-practice if you can. Players face the basket from at least 5 different spots and need to make 5 – 10 shots from each spot. The 5 spots should include:
a.Directly in front of the rim (1 spot)
b.45 degree angles (2 spots one on either side of rim)
c.baseline (2 spots one on either side of rim)

Players are working from a distance away from the basket where they do not need to include their lower body in their shot. They are working on their upper body shot mechanics. Have your players hold their finish on each shot, so that they can check them out to see of they are correct. I like to have my players make 70 shots. 10 in from each of the 5 spots, and the bonus 20 shots are banks from 45 degree angle. When working on the banks, I like them to get a real feel for the glass by working the shots in from different heights on the glass.

As with all shooting drills where your players are working in close like a Mikan drill you need to challenge them so they will not just move through the motions of doing the drill. Keep them focused by making sure they are always holding their shot mechanics and checking them ( hold your finish till it goes in or hits the rim) and by challenging them to make the shots clean (rimless, nothing but net).

Not only will this drill help your players warm up their shot properly, work on their shot mechanics, but I think you will find as I do, your player’s confidence goes up with their shooting. They get to the point that if they miss a shot, it’s odd. They can get 50 – 70 shots in, in a very short period of time without missing.

If you don’t have a pre-practice, start making up tasks for your players. Players left on their own will come into the gym, start talking and chatting with no focus and start chucking up shots from between half court and the three point line, or dunking before warmed up. If you have access to the gym before practice actually begins they can include Zero Points in what they need to get done. If you don’t have accesses to the gym have them do some of the pre-practice drills in the hallway. This is a little off topic, but include, all aspects of the game, passing, dribbling, shooting, rebounding. For more information see up-coming blog in pre-practice routines.

2.Shooting to the top of your partner's head
If you are still looking for a shooting drill that helps with mechanics but takes away the rim, I think this one has some true benefits. Players stand facing their partner approximately 15 feet away from each other. They have one ball between them. Player 1 shoots the ball to player 2, and holds their mechanics so that after the catch by player 2, they can help correct anything in their partner’s shot. Have your players aim for the top of the head of their partner, but in a way that the ball is going up in an arc and dropping down on their partner’s head. This at least gives the idea or concept at shooting the ball at a target but not directly at a target like the side of a backboard or a brick on a wall. You can vary this drill by having your players jump 50%, 50%, 75% or 100% while shooting the ball and observing the effects on the flight of the ball. Make sure it’s the catcher that is watching the flight of the ball and not the shooter. You can also have the shooter close their eyes, so that they can visualize, or get into the kinetics of the shot. You can also have them mimic bad habits, like bringing the ball back too far to the crown of your head, or elbow out and they can compare the two feelings an the effect on the flight of the ball.

There Are Few Assurances In Life - Part 2

2010-12-08T16:54:00.000-08:00

Coming home from a tournament, my wife, my son and two of my son’s teammates, we found ourselves in one of those situations where there are no assurances. Snowy conditions and travelling at a conservative speed, an oncoming car came into our lane. In an effort to avoid the collisions, we ended up hitting the soft shoulder. The wheel buried into the gravel and we started to spin and flip down into a ditch. My son was asleep at the time when it all began and didn’t even hear me should hang on. He awoke as we were sliding down into the ditch. When we came to a standstill our vehicle was on the passenger’s side. The boys managed to open the door on the back driver’s side and get out. I kicked out the windshield and my wife called 911. My door wouldn’t open, but I got the window open. My wife then climbed out, over me. I unbelted my seatbelt and followed the escape path out my window. The Police, rescue workers, fire department, CAA all at the scene in a timely manner.
We were lucky. My son took the worst of the punishment, his back and neck are bothering him, but he is used to dealing with adversity. I’ll add safety to the list of things that have no assurances.

There Are Few Assurances In Life

2010-12-03T08:24:00.001-08:00

There are few assurances in life. Your job, your relationships, your health; those things will be challenged. You may not succeed at all of them, but there is no excuse for not trying your best at making them work. There is no excuse for quitting. There is no excuse for not measuring your success by your effort.
Basketball is no different. Your effort is the only thing you can truly control. As in life, your very best effort might bring you great results, it may bring you mediocre results and it may bring you poor results. But if you work hard and are learning from the experience you are successful. Never disrespect the game, your team or yourself by leaving it to chance.

One’s real life is often the life that one does not lead
Oscar Wilde

I would much rather have regrets about not doing what people said, than regretting not doing what my heart led me to and wondering what life had been like if I’d just been myself
Brittany Renee

Chris Bosh we want to chill

2010-11-29T18:11:00.000-08:00

I have to tell you I’m enjoying watching the Heat loose, and enjoying watching the Celtics win. LBJ’s commercials make him look like a fool. If he thinks he is doing damage control, from his Decision, then maybe he should stick to selling shiny shoes or maybe he should just disappear. You want to see some good juxtaposition, watch the version with Jordan’s voice dubbed over Lebron’s antics. Or Bosh with his statement “we just want to chill”

How is this for a work ethic? Ray Allen said, “In every practice and in every game, I am auditioning for my spot on the team”. “I am given the opportunity to earn my spot and prove I can help my team win games”.

The constant talk about the Heat just needing to get our team chemistry going. Are you kidding me? These are professional players, they can’t figure it out. It’s called sacrifice, and perhaps that’s the problem. When Kobe was on the Olympic team he said “coach l want to be the best defender”. This is a man who can clearly score the ball. He was willing to make a different contribution to the team to help the team be successful.

People give me Ray-Ray, give me The Truth, give me K.G., give Rondo, and give me Big Baby. You can have your King because I love the Working Man.

Coach Independent Thinkers

2010-11-17T17:46:00.000-08:00

One of the primary goals of coaching should be to help develop the desire for players to think on their own.

As the coach you should have final say, but always encourage players to contribute their ideas. How can that be wrong? You are trying to encourage communication right? This is a form of communication. In a time out, I have to speak first. All systems have a hierarchy. I called the time out so I must have a reason. I need say what I need to communicate to the team, and then I encourage the players to contribute. Quick sound bites, you don’t have much time to do so. Sometimes your players will come up with a good idea that stands on it’s own. Kevin Eastman once said to me “you never know where your next good idea is going to come from”. Something someone says might spark a great idea for you. Sometimes they might have an idea that, you can build on, and sometimes it might not be a good idea in your mind, but you have final say.

Independent thinkers strengthen a team because they understand that different perspectives bring different ideas and solutions. Willingness to share ideas and perspectives makes for more robust solution solving and a true team approach. Independent thinkers must be selective. It is not productive to impede progress with the process of questioning everything, but they must have the confidence to voice their opinion.

Fostering independent thinking is the first step to creating critical thinkers. Once a player is a critical thinking they can access the situation to come up with logical conclusions. Encourage your players to contribute. After all it’s a team sport, and all should be contributing.

Dependent thinkers accept whatever they are taught and rarely question information or ask themselves if the information really make sense. Is this the type of player you want?

Practice does not make perfect.

2010-11-11T11:13:00.000-08:00

Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.
Vince Lombardi

It’s true what Vince Lombardi said about practice. You need to learn form, and then steadily increase the intensity so that you are always out of your comfort zone to become better. It’s the same overload principal that body builders use to make muscles bigger. The catch is to make sure you are not creating bad habits, by logging hours doing the wrong thing. That is bad practice no matter how hard you are working at it. Not everything will be perfect in a drill. Maybe the pass isn’t quite perfect, maybe you bobble the dribble on your approach, maybe your footwork was not quite right and you should strive to get it right each time, but if it does break down, don’t go to the end of the line or the start of the line and start over again. Use that bobbled dribble, that imperfection in that repetition to simulate what happens in a game. It is the same as a broken play in a game. Finish that broken play. How many times to quick thinking players make something good happen out of a broken play? It happens a lot. The same holds true for a missed shots in a drill. Always finish, but finish game like. Fight for your rebound, and create a habit. Maybe the habit is to chin it, with a fake, and then put it up high to get the defender in the air and get it over the shot blocker. Whatever that habit is practice is game like and game speed. When you make a mistake just remember when life hands you some lemons, make lemonade with them.

What's In Your Head - Becoming A One-For-One Shooter

2010-11-01T08:36:00.000-07:00

Have you ever witnessed the phenomenon of the player who walks in the gym jacks up a three pointer cold and hits it? This is usually followed by a small crowd jeering or taunting, and the player misses everything or nearly everything after. Or conversely a player with extra time to shoot because of good ball movement misses that shot, even at the pro level.

In both these scenarios the misses are probably a result of thinking too much. Too much going on in the players head other than automatically shooting the ball letting the practiced mechanics of hours spent in the gym take over.

Like all skills, being able to clear your mind and be in the moment and just shoot the ball can be a learned skill that can be improved through practice. Like all skills there should be a progression to getting to this state. You want your shot to be as automatic as dribbling the ball or breathing. You don’t think about either of those processes. It should be autonomic.

We want to move towards being a one-for-one shooter. There needs to be a progression in your development to become a one-for-one shooter. In a game you rarely get to come down and take the same shot, from the same spot, with the defense set up the same. Nearly every shot in a game is unique.

So how do we get there? How do we make ourselves a good one-for-one shooter? We need to come up with a practical guide for players that makes sense. A guide that is a progression of steps that incorporates both repetitions of shooting mechanics, repetitions for the mental aspect of the game and repetitions of game like shooting situations.

I think these steps will help.
Achieving proper mechanics
• There is probably no better place to work on your shooting mechanics then the FT Line.
• Zero Points – self coaching very powerful
• Practice is where you should correct your shot. This requires concentration and focus under the instruction of a coach with knowledge of shooting mechanics. In a game you do not want to hesitate.
• No matter how much you practice or how good of a shooter you usually are, there will be times when for a variety of reasons you find that you are having trouble making shots. Left untreated or reacting in a negative manner, these slumps can turn into major confidence busters and can distract you so that you are not effective in other aspects of the game either.

Achieving focus
• There are many programs available to helping players achieve better focus. Most of these programs use forms of meditation to achieve these states. I have used many of these programs to do directed meditations or hypnosis with teams I have coached. I believe it helps. Like any skill the players need to take ownership and practice this skill on their own.
Achieving confidence
• Like achieving focus, achieving confidence is a skill. More detail in my blog Is Confidence A Skill Achieving
Autonomic Shot

• Constructing shooting drills that are fast paced, game spots and game speed and one for one.
• There should be a progression.
• You will need to have your mechanics automatic. Putting in a lot of work does not make you better. Putting in deliberate work makes you better
• You will need to get many receptions in. It is not uncommon for good shooters to put up 500 – 1500 shots a day. Depending on the habit we are trying to create it could be deliberate practice over 21 days, or if you are familiar with books like Malcolm Gladwell Outliers it could be up to 10,000 hours of deliberate practice.
• Once you have become efficient at hitting shots from spots, you need to now challenge yourself by hitting game shots from game spots at game speed. You can achieve this on your own or with partners. You can time your drills to make this competitive. You can make sure you are hitting 70% of your shots when they are uncontested in drills. You can combine these tow factors time and percent to make your drills deliberate.
• You add into your drills shooting from a different spot with each shot. You might be working on 5 spots, but make sure you move to the next spot each shot. This helps with becoming one for one.
• Add in defense. You must master one-on-none before you got one-on-one, but when you are ready, this will add another element that will help you become a one-for-one shooter.

Achieving Zone• The hallmark of flow or being in the zone is a feeling of being emotionally “neutral”. Having interviewed many players and reflecting back at my own experiences. I have come to this conclusion. Players all describe the experience the same, in that they are able to see plays ahead of the game, the game seems to be at a slow speed, that every shot feels like a winner, the hoop seems the size of a child’s swimming pool, but the emotional scale of joy are anger is always neutrals while this is taking place. To achieve a flow state, a balance must be struck between the challenge of the task and the skill of the performer. If the task is too easy or too difficult, flow cannot occur. This is partly why I oppose coaches who say if you want to get better you must play up age groups. I say when it’s appropriate. Sure way to kill confidence in a player is to give them a challenge they are just not up to the task of achieving. Can you call on this state of mind? I think you can do it more frequently then how most players describe it, including Bill Russell “it’s great when it happens, but it’s random when it does happen”.
• There are more and more books on the market about achieving Zone. I think the key to achieving it is tying some type of mental imagery to the sensation. I think through meditation and this association you are more likely to be able to call upon this state of mind.

If you are interested in One-For-One Shooting programs. You can purchase a 744 shot program that can be completed in 1.5 - 2.0 hours depending on the level of your players by contacting me.
Coach Paul paul.patrick@sympatico.ca

Coaching is like parenting

2010-10-30T12:44:00.000-07:00

I think it is important that you find your own voice when it comes to coaching. Much like how you find your way as a parent. Look to people that have expertise in the area, and take what works for you, so that you can develop your own style. Make sure your players and their parents understand your style. All players should always want more floor time, but they shouldn’t have issues with your philosophical style of coaching. When you have found your style, your confidence, you will be able to motivate your players more easily. The aim is to then transfer this motivation and confidence to your players, so that they become self-motivated and self-confident.
Hopefully the following tips will help you in your journey.

Before we get started, you must realize that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. How you teach players depends on the age and yes sometimes the gender of your players. With younger groups you can’t expect them to be as focused. To call younger groups into circle I would use techniques like clapping the beat of the song carwash When speaking to younger groups you may want them to put their ball behind them on the floor so that it is not a distraction. Certainly you want to have clear well understood rules. Coach by consequence . Don’t be the type of coach that is always screaming and yelling to get things done. It always amazes me how difficult it is to find mentors that conduct themselves without all the theatrics of yelling. I don’t know what that behavior is, but I can tell you this. It is not coaching. When the opposing coach is acting in this manner, I’m know he is no longer coaching and probably not getting the results he wants. None of us are perfect so if you have a “coaching-episode” apologize. When my children were younger they had the fortune of having a teacher who managed to maintain a quiet orderly classroom, by having set specific code of conduct on the board. If a rule was broken she would not break from teaching, but walk over to the rules, and start a lumber-jack tally on the board beside the broken rule. A friend of mine who is a teacher said it’s amazing what you are allowed to get away with when you are in a gym, compared to the classroom. Personally I think it’s appalling.
Like parenting with experience comes knowledge. When you become proven and you have had some success, that success breeds success. You may not have to put as much energy into convincing players in what you do.
Treat your players as individuals and take interest in them outside of the confines of the gym. Those of you that have coached any age level that is looking at the next level, regardless of that next leap, will know that few make it. There has to be more to teaching this game then just the W. You must use the game as a way to teach players about life. Many would disagree with this statement, saying “hey that’s the parents job”. Yes, your right it is the parents job, but why can’t you contribute to that experience. It’s a very powerful position. Just like a teacher or a parent the power-base is in your favour. Don’t abuse it, use it. You wouldn’t treat all your children the same would you? Fairness is not when everyone is treated the same, but when everyone’s needs are met. Years ago, when I use to run a skills clinic early Saturday morning, I could walk by any player in a shooting drill and make that player shoot better with positive sound bites correcting small things. I’m convinced that it has more to do with the positive statements, more than the small correction. All but for one player. When I moved closer to the station he was working at, he would not shoot as well. I had to find a way to give him positive attention, without disturbing his flow.
I know this can sound like flowery talk and you can say, it doesn’t move the finishing line. If a player is going to make it, then he or she needs to buck up and get there within a certain time. It’s true, you can’t move the finishing line, but remember how many players actually move on. Don’t forsake all the other players experience to generate one that makes it. I’ve seen coaches that use the “crab-in-a-bucket” type of style. I have to wonder what the point of that is. Is it to see one player rise to the top, so that the coach can associate their name with that player’s name. It’s a team sport, and it seems like North America has forgotten that aspect with all the emphasis on the two-man-game. You wouldn’t raise your family that way, why would you use that approach with the family of athletes we call a team.
When you listen to hall of famer John Wooden could you think of a more fatherly image? Firm, but caring, he coached in a way, which allowed him to teach by using precise, informative, positive, corrective sound bites. He gave information, without commentary or blame. When you praise a child, it is best to be specific with your words. If a child brings home a painting, it’s better to say, “I like the way you used purple when you painted the sky, then to say “I like your painting”. Obviously saying something like "great job" or "nice shot" is better than nothing but being specific is more effective.
Be a teacher and a motivator! In being a teacher you should be more concerned with the progress of your student, and less about the wins and losses. This makes things a bit more difficult for coaches; because you need to be sure you have a system of measuring improvement. Set specific goals teach specific skills and make your players excited about learning those skills and reaching their goals. Use the S.M.A.R.T. method Much like parenting when coaching the response “because I said so” is not really all that effective. Explain the reason why. Many times coaches need to put their sales hat on in addition to teaching hat because you need to make sure players believe.

Coach Paul

Clinics

2010-09-09T07:18:00.000-07:00

New Clinic Dates Posted Click Here

Footwork Makes You Smarter

2010-08-11T06:26:00.000-07:00

Footwork Makes You Smarter
I like to say footwork makes you smarter. All things being equal in terms of athleticism, it’s footwork that will make you a more effective player a more efficient player. You need to let your feet get you to a spot where your hands can take the shot. You need to be able to create space from your defender. When creating space, we need to think three dimensionally. We don’t just want to create some space on the floor, but also in the air.

I like to introduce footwork drills into our practice warm up. It’s a good way to get repetitions and a good way to ingrain footwork that you want established in dribbling and shooting drills.
Each one of these footwork dance-steps, we do for a full length of the floor. It’s a good way to help get warmed up and work on your footwork at the same time.

You can do these footwork drills without a ball. I tell my players they can get repetitions in on the way to super, on the way to the washroom, on the way to their next class. Do you care more about getting better than looking different from the rest?

Teaching Points
1. Athletic Stance
• Seat down
• Straight back with your chest up
• Eyes down court
• Legs at a less than 90 degree angle and on the balls of your feet
2. Ball Handling
• Keep the ball below knee and outside of knee on
• On dribble moves keep the ball low, shoe lace high, and receive the ball low. Remain ball quick by keeping the ball low.
3. Explosive
• Foot first ball second. The ball needs to be out of your hand before your pivot foot lifts.
• Explosive steps. Your first step should be low and long.
• The ball should be passed out to yourself. You should lead your with the ball when you make your move.
4. Shot Fakes
• Jab steps should be short quick and violent. You only need to jab about six inches to the reaction of your defender.
• Seat should drop during shot fake.
• The ball should rise above the brow.
• Eyes should draw a bead on the rim.
• All three of these motions should happen simultaneously.

Kobe Dance Steps
Use one length of the floor baseline to baseline for each of the three footwork moves. Make sure you are low and athletic. Foot first ball second. Pass the ball low to your opposite hand, and receive the ball low.

Nash Dance Steps

Shot fake, 1 dribble right and 2-step into shot

Shot fake, 1 dribble left and 2-step into shot

Shot fake, 1 dribble right, step-out

Shot fake, 1 dribble left, step-out

Shot fake, 1 dribble right, step-hop

Shot fake, 1 dribble left, step-hop

Ballers – What Can We Learn From Other Sports?

2010-08-10T13:22:00.000-07:00

Football
There is an inherent toughness build into this sport. You can’t be effective playing this sport if you do not like contact. Although there is not near the same amount of contact in basketball, ask anyone that has played in the post or driven to the hoop, there is plenty of contact to be dealt with. The physical toughness of football translates into a mental toughness that is required to play both sports. Football players have long trained for speed, strength, agility and quickness. In the game of basketball you are falling behind these days if you are not following suite and working on your body. Not only will it make you a more explosive athlete, but it will help ward off injuries.
Golf
Is there a sport that requires more concentration? Not only is there a huge mental factor to the game of sports, but a golf swing and the technique required to perform properly certainly rivals the technique required to shoot a basketball effectively. Golfers are looking to improve by honing their golf swing, looking to perfect it. Basketball players should be looking for those types of nuances in their shooting mechanics. Basketball players should also actively work on their mental game, to become more focused and more confident.
Volleyball
The two biggest parts of volleyball that I have observed: 1) teammates really rely on each other to get the job done. Each player’s roles can be specific but there are certain skills that all must be able to do. If you can’t receive a serve, you will be centered out and it will have a bad outcome for your team. Good teams are skilled and trust each other, and they spend considerable time in their rituals between points cementing that culture. 2) Volleyball player’s ability to shuttle their focus between plays. Point ends, they group together, cheer or encourage, then right back to being focused on the next point. Basketball players could do well to learn to trust each other as teammates and to shuttle their focus. Clear their head on bad plays and get focused on the next task. We have all seen players celebrating too much on a good offensive play only to get burned at the other end, because their minds were not focused on the next task of getting a stop.
Body Building
Introspective, self-assessing and self motivated. You have to possess these qualities to be successful in this sport. Basketball players need to take stalk of where they are, where they want to go, and how to get there. Moreover they need to have the self motivation to do it on their own. Basketball players are built in the off-season. Teams are built during the season. It’s not uncommon depending on how your practices are run, to actually become less skilled during the season. If your team does not shoot much in practices or run ball-handling drills, then you can see those skills can diminish over the course of a season. Can you be honest with yourself, take a hard look at where you are, and be motivated to work constructively on getting better? That’s what body builders are constantly doing. Looking at their symmetry, their size and making a plan to change what needs to be changed.
Rowing
Communication is essential in rowing. So much so, that the sport has gone high tech with microphones and speakers built right into the cox box. The cox box gives specifics for stroke rate, stroke count and time. It is the responsibility of the coxswain to guide the crew in the perfect execution of a race plan. In basketball the single most effective thing you can teach your players how to execute team defensive principles is to get them to talk on defense. Communication between the 5 players on the floor can elevate the teams effectiveness.

Would you prevent your players from breathing?

2010-07-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

Would you prevent your players from breathing? Then why use hydration as a reward or punishment for your players. This blog will not cover the pros and cons of water versus sports specific drinks. It will not cover how much you should drink, or pre, mid and post hydration techniques. I’ll leave that for another blog. It’s more about the mind set of coaches controlling their players’ health by denying them a drink of water. Water accounts for around 70% of your body weight, the loss of even a tiny fraction of this water can significantly reduce your performance, which is why maintaining good hydration is vital for all serious athletes.
I’m old, old enough to remember that in order to get a drink of water during school I would have to raise my hand and ask for permission. Today it is common for students to have a bottle of water on their desk. Which method is more humane and less disruptive? Do you really want that much control? Do you really want to answer the question “can I get a drink of water”? I have three children. Those parents with multiple children know if you have to explain something once, surely you will have to do it for as many children you have. The same holds true if you are the type of coach that needs to grant permission for a drink of water. Don’t you want your players to learn how to manage that, as long as it doesn’t affect or delay your practice?

Need ideas on how to get his done? Well there are probably many ways, but here is one suggestion. In between each drill, I have my players shoot two Free Throws and record their makes and misses. They can also get a sip during this time. They can also take additional Free Throws if they want, as long as they don’t disrupt or delay the practice. Boom! Your players are managing their own water intake, they are recording their own scores, and they are time managing so they can smoothly get into the next drill. As a coach you have the extra bonus of getting game-like Free Throws into your practice. Shooting two Free Throws when your players are tired from a drill is just like a stop in play where you have to shoot two Free Throws in a game.

Mirror Work

2010-07-27T11:59:00.001-07:00

Basketball players would do well to learn from boxers and dancers. Both boxers and dancers use mirror work to improve their techniques, footwork, coordination and alignment.

Working in front of a mirror to improve your shooting technique can be a very powerful tool. You should be able to observe your shot from the front and both sides. If you had to mirrors facing each other you could also look at your alignment from the back.

If the mirrors are long enough you can even focus on your footwork, making sure you are shoulder width apart, that you are powering up through both feet etc.

You don’t need to go to a facility that has full length mirrors. You can check out your shooting mechanics in your bathroom with or without a ball. When I was young and working on my game outdoors at the local school, I would practice my form looking at my reflection in the school window. I would also work on my ball-handling doing the same, looking in the window at my reflection. Great way to keep your head up.

Hey if you have a video camera and you have someone willing to shoot you will you work out from front, back and both sides, fantastic. Sometimes you have to use the tools that are all around you.

Do yourself a favour and incorporate mirror work into your daily routine.

There Is a Reason There Is a Nail At The FT Line - Part 4 of 4

2010-07-19T04:06:00.000-07:00

11. Finish and Follow Through: On your shooting arm you elbow should be locked out.Your elbow should be higher than your brow on the release.Your guide hand should be above your brow, with fingers pointed at the ceiling or slightly forward but still spread.You should hold your finish till the ball goes in or hits the rim.
If you are not locking out your elbow and you are not holding your finish, you will not have a consistent shot. Locking out your elbow is a consistent end point. You know it’s the same each time.Your elbow should be above your brow to get the proper lift on the ball. Discourage younger players from shooting 3’s. Teach fundamentals of getting to the rack and the mid-range game. I see kids that are younger with good accuracy but I know they will have to change their mechanics as they grow. To gain distance they are chucking the ball with their elbows below their brow, instead of using the upward force of their legs.

If your Guide Hand turns in you will be effecting the rotation of the ball. The ball should be shot out of teh Guide Hand. It's a one hand shot.

Example Of Thumbing The Shot With Guide Hand

12. Determining Dominant Eye: The path of the ball should move through your shot pocket come close to, but not obstructing your dominant eye. You can determine your dominant eye by the following method.

a) Extend your arms in front of you with your palms facing away. Bring your hands together, forming a small hole by crossing the thumbs and fore fingers.
b) Choose a small object about 15-20 feet away from you. With both eyes open, focus on the object as you look through the small hole.
c) Close one eye and then the other. When you close one eye, the object will be stationary. When you close the other eye, the object should disappear from the hole or jump to one side.
d)If the object does not move when you cover one eye, then that eye is dominant. The eye that sees the object and does not move is the dominant.

It is possible to have a dominant eye opposite to your dominant hand. In fact two of my children are built this way. This means when shooting the ball with their dominant hand the ball can move through their shot pocket closer to the middle of their face. Remember you want to bring the ball close to the dominant eye, but not obstructing it.

13. Eye Contact: As mention in “what are we trying to do” You need to train your eyes on the back of the rim. To read about the math behind a perfect shot click here. A perfect shot is one that drops through, hits the floor, and slowly bounces back to you. Don’t watch the flight of the ball. Keep your eyes on your target.

14. Simple Routine: I tell my players that I don’t care what they do, as long as it’s 1 dribble, 2 dribbles or 3 dribbles. I am a 3 dribble guy. I also tell them I don’t care what routine is, as long as they get a chance to make eye contact for the same amount of time it takes to do their routine. Ok, then with FIBA rules and 5 seconds to shoot the ball. Your routine should be efficient and consistent. You want to kiss your biceps or your wrist or spin it around your waist for each member of your family, that’s fine. If you shoot greater than 90%. Once you are doing that, you have earned the right. Having a routine at the free throw line will ease the tension.

15. Mental Aspect: Once the player has proper shooting mechanics, mental mistakes are the main reason why a player misses free throws. The Free Throw is a unique event in basketball, and therefore, a unique skill. It is the only moment when the action stops, but play continues.

The action stops and waits for the shooter who has, depending on the rules 10 or 5 seconds to concentrate, focus, think and shoot. Since you are shooting the same shot from the same spot, with no defensive pressure, the target if fixed, it is the mental aspect that is responsible for most misses.

If a players begins to think about the importance of the shot or the consequences of a miss they will feel pressure. When players feel pressure, they get tense. Tense muscles fail to perform smoothly and shots are missed. Players need to allow their bodies to do what it has done countless times in practice and games; make the shot! Michael Jordan said: "I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot. Why? Because when you think about the consequences, you always think of a negative result."

The mind cannot focus two things at once. You can not have internal negative thoughts and focus on making your shot. One will replace the other. The focus must be on the target, not on inner doubts, to shoot optimally.

Players should approach the free throw with a positive mindset. For players that become expert in visualization, a good approach is to close one's eyes and visualize a perfect free throw.
Their routine can include a deep breath and a strong exhale. This change in deep breathing can help center and relax the player.
Many players do well with having a mantra or anchor word. For one of my players I had him breathe in deeply through his nose, then exhale through his moth and say the word quotient on the breath out. Certain words can evoke calm. For me, when I played;
a) Deep breath in, with exhale thought the mouth.
b) Internal voice “get in”.
c) Bounce ball three times focusing on the same spot on the floor with each bounce.
d) Focus on the rim, and let my body take over.

There Is a Reason There Is a Nail At The FT Line - Part 3 of 4

2010-07-17T18:51:00.000-07:00

3. Don’t be a slave to the T formation: Depending on your body mechanics this T formation might be a stylized T. It is a term that should not be taken literally, with a perfect 90 degree angle. You’ll find with most players if you make a perfect 90 degree T formation with their thumbs, their guide arm will come up so that it’s parallel to the ground. This creates tension in their guide shoulder. You do not want tension in your shot. You want to be relaxed in your shot. Your guide hand should be upward facing fingers pointed at ceiling OR slightly forward. You should not be able to see your last two digits, and with these two fingers you should be able to balance the ball.
Perfect 90 Degree T Formation With Thumbs

As A Result Tension In Guide Arm,Elbow Pointing To Wall

Stylized T Formation With Thumbs

Relaxed Guide Arm Elbow Pointing At Floor

4. Hand Placement: Your hands should not be flat on the ball. It is a misconception that more surface area touching the ball the better control. If your hands are flat on the ball, you will draw the ball back too far to the crown of your head and catapult the ball. Use finger tips and finger pads on both hands. Also your fingers should be spread on both hands. Since we are at the Charity Stripe, let us gain more control over the ball by making sure our index finger is pointing at the air valve, and it is on the seem of the ball.

Finger Pads and Tips On Both Hands Creates A Gap And Better Control

5. Shooting Arm At 90 Degree: And your arm should be in a 90 degree angle. Watch Nash even on a fade-away J, he doesn’t vary from this 90 degree angle. Too much or too little angle will take away from your arc and harden your shot.

At 90 Degrees A Basketball Will Fit Will Fit Between Your Bicep,Forearm And Hand

6. Elbow Over Knee: Your shooting elbow should be over your shooting knee.

7. Wrinkled Wrist: Your wrist should be bent back so the ball can rest in it. Players that start with their wrist as a straight extension of their forearm will tend to bring the ball back to the crown of their head or further in-order to get their wrist parallel to the floor. The result is a catapult shot that is hard and without arc.

8. Shot Pocket: You should have the ball in your shooting pocket and you should leave from your low stance. Don’t go high-to-low-to-high. Go low-to-high. Again we are trying to give lift to the ball with our bodies, and guide the ball in its flight with are arm and hand. To read more about Shot-pockets read Quick Draw Blog.

9. Power Through Both Feet: transferring your weight to the balls of your feet. Not your toes. You want to remain balanced. Don’t jump; just use the up-force from your lower body to lift the ball. The muscles and joints of your lower body are far less complicated that the muscles and joints of your upper body. We want to minimize variables in motion in your shot. We want to make it efficient.

When a player’s stance is too narrow, you will often see them become unbalanced. With girls we see you often get what I call the squirrel tail. Their guide arm will whip out to their side to maintain their balance much like a squirrel’s tail flips from side to side, while they run across a hydro-line. With boys it’s falling forward or backwards from the line. With your stance shoulder width apart and transferring the force from heels to balls of your feet, you will remain balanced.

Exmple Of Squirrel Tail Guide Arm

10. Break 1 not 4: As stated in the Shot Pocket section, we want to shot the ball with our body, and direct it with our arms and hands. We want to eliminate as much motion in our upper bodies as possible. The joints in your shoulder, elbow and hands are more complicated in their motion then knees and hips. Breaking your knuckles can add a 5 degrees change in your shot per knuckle. The motion in the hand should be a flop motion. Your fingers should be spread and pointing towards the rim. If you watch this action in slow motion, when done properly you will notice a slight bounce. The thumb should be tucked under in this motion to send the ball off the peace sign fingers (index and middle fingers). So we break the wrist (one joint), lets call that breaking one. We do not want to point our fingers to the ground. That would be breaking four joints. 5 degrees times * 12) Avoid using terms like “reach in the cookie jar” or goose neck when teaching. Mimicking these actions will have players breaking 4. Back spin rotation; too much too little. Breaking 4 will surely put too much spin on it making shot harder and deflections off the rim lessen the chance of it sitting up softly and dropping through.

Example Of Breaking One
Fingers on both hands remain spread.

Example Of Breaking 4

There Is a Reason There Is a Nail At The FT Line - Part 2 of 4

2010-07-14T15:22:00.000-07:00

So what are we trying to do?
Firstly: we are trying to throw the ball in a straight line. I hate the word throw when it comes to basketball. Makes it sound like there is not much to it.
Secondly: we are trying to throw the ball up instead of out; gravity becomes your friend and kills the speed of the ball. You want a slow shot. The more vertical you shoot, the better gravity works to your advantage by slowing the ball down. As it starts to descend toward the target there is only the weight of the ball, approximately 24 ounces, propelling it. This also results in a soft shot that has a better chance to bounce in if slightly off line, or for a close-in rebound. The ball at its peak height should be about 1 meter above the rim (approximately the top of the backboard) when it is about 1 meter away from the rim.
Thirdly: We are trying to change the size of the target, the ball goes through. Although the rim does not actually change size, it will appear differently to the ball depending on the angle it enters the rim and its closeness to the back of the rim.
That’s right the target is close to the back of the rim. Forget what you have been told about the front of the rim or aim for the middle, as if you can aim for the middle of the rim. For the mathematics to prove this click here

Here is the break down on missed shots from the Free Throw Line. You can see that as long as you are shooting in a straight line you have a pretty good chance of putting it in. We can also see the majority of shots missed are short. It’s important that you aim at the back of the rim.

• 5 % left, 5% right, 5% long 85% short

1. Feet Shoulder Width Apart: Your feet should be staggered and shoulder width apart
• Your feet fit like a puzzle. The curved ball of the inside of one foot fits into the insole of the other foot. This is a good way to judge how staggered you stance should be. Your shooting foot should be forward but no more than 6 inches ahead.

• Line your shooting foot up with the nail in the FT Line. It’s directly in front of the rim, and you want to shoot directly towards the rim. We are trying to shoot with our body’s up-force and guide the flight of the ball with our arm and hand. If you straddle the line, then your arm has to move across your body to shoot the ball towards the rim.

Some prefer perfect feet where all ten toes point at the rim. This is a good approach,

But if you find you have tension in your upper body, as a result of perfect feet open your stance so that your guide foot is angled outward slightly.

2. Athletic Stance: Everything you do in basketball should start with an athletic stance.
o Stance shoulder width apart
o Back straight, leaning slightly forward
o Hips low
o Legs at a less than 90 degree angle

There Is a Reason There Is a Nail At The FT Line - Part 1 of 4

2010-07-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

Building Your Shot From The Ground Up – Part 1

Watching March Madness how many times have I seen a player at the FT line fall back? Where are they going? Stick your feet and get the task done. There is a reason they call them free, and there is a reason there is a nail at the Free Throw line. Maybe some of these players should drive the nail through their shoe.
How important are Free Throws? Check out these stats.
• 67 % of all points scored in the last minute by the winning team are at the free throw line
• 35% of points scored in the last 5 minutes are at the FT line
• 25 % of all points scored in a game are from the FT line
Still need convincing? If you are not working on your Free Throws, you just won’t improve much. Here is the break down of Free Throw averages from high school to NBA.
• 66% high school
• 68% college
• 71% NBA
Still need convincing. Did you see Duke beat Baylor? That happened at the Free Throw Line.

For this exercise we will concentrate on shooting from the Free Throw Line. It’s the only time in basketball you get to shoot the ball uncontested from the same place each time. So stand in the same place each time! Coaches this is the best place to help correct your players shots. Correct only 1 or 2 things at a time. Have your players concentrate on those things for 5 shots or so each and then move to the next player. Make the loop back and if they have corrected the things you had them change on the first set of corrections, add a new correction. This takes time, but well worth it. From experience, you can correct the bulk of a player’s mechanics by correcting their footwork. I’ve seen players with their feet pointed in the same direction but not at the hoop, making all sorts of compensations in their upper body including:
• Tilting their head
• Powering through one foot more than the other
• Crossing their body with the ball
• Bringing the ball back to the crown of their head and giving it the catapult action.
So let us start building the shot from the floor up. Stay tuned for Parts 2 - 4

Playing Like A Goose - A Lesson In Teamwork

2010-07-14T06:35:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite examples of teamwork comes from nature. There is much we can learn from Geese. By flying in a “V” formation each goose flapping it’s wings creates uplift for the birds that follow in that formation. The flock gains 71% greater flying range than if the birds flew alone. How significant is this? Is this not an example for teams to pull together with common goals and benefit the team by helping each other? Players who share common goals can reach them much quicker and easier if they trust one another and play like a team.

When flying alone, a goose will experience the drag and resistance and return to the formation. The goose understands the power of being helped. It’s important for coaches and players to offer help to each other, but equally important for players to check their egos and accept that help.

The lead position in the “V” is often shared. When the lead goose tires it drops back in the formation and another goose will take that spot. Great teamwork involves sharing of hard tasks and sharing leadership.

When geese are flying in formation you can hear them honky. This honky is a form of encouragement. Great teamwork includes encouragement from within the team. Coaches foster and environment where your players cheer for each other. If your drill is competitive and some are doing a consequence for the loss in that drill have the rest of your team clap them in and use positive talk during consequences, during drills, during game warm-ups and during games.

When geese are wounded or sick and need to drop out of formation. Two other geese will follow it down on its landing and stay to help protect it. The guardian geese stay until the wounded goose is able to fly again. Those geese then re-join the flock or fly in formation themselves on their journey. Great teamwork includes players that stand by each other in difficult times. They value all members of the team.

Progression In Teaching Skills

2010-06-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

I believe there should be a progression to teaching any skill including Post moves/footwork. I think it is detrimental to learning if you introduce competition in the drill or the defense too early. The players must be able to do the footwork automatically. They need to be able to go one on none, and get out of their comfort zone in that format, before they move to the next steps of learning. If you add competition too early the players will cheat on the footwork to win the drill. If you add defense into the drill too early then they will try to score at any cost and not make the correct read and therefore not use the correct move or footwork. BUT if you don't add competition once they have the footwork, they are not challenged, they stop working outside their comfort zone and they will get bored. If you don't add in defense at some point, they won't be able to recognize what the defense is giving them, and will not use the correct move. Adding in the defense can be staged. It could be a coach with a pad, over playing high so whatever you teaching when going baseline they can read it, understand how to play against some contact, and do the correct move. Or you could later have them face a series of different defensive stances. A failure to add in defense will not prepare them for the amount of contact and the ability to make the correct read. I had a player who mastered the up and under in the post one on none. But in games he would do it regardless of what the defense was doing, he would shake a defender, not knowing he had done so and come back to the defender with his under move. Adding defense into the drills and competition helped this player as it will help all players

For additional views click here

Teamwork

2010-06-02T12:24:00.000-07:00

Teamwork is extremely important to the success of any team. Unselfish play creates a better chance for the success of the group. You can have a group of great individual talent that will be less successful than a team of lesser athletes that work well as a cohesive unit.

What are the characteristics of a cohesive team?

1. Leadership: Teams must have leaders that they can believe in. They must believe in what the coaching staff is bringing to them in terms of skills, systems and direction. They need to believe in each other’s ability to carry out what is being taught.
2. Common Goals and Vision: They can only have this, if you sit down with them and hammer these details out. The entire team needs to be in agreement.
3. Team-centric Players: You need players that buy into the concept of team first. Players that will sacrifice their numbers in order to get the wins. The concept of team should be bigger than the concept of self.
4. Good Communication. Players need to be able talk on defense, direct on offense, and be able to openly discuss issues with each other and with coaching staff.
5. Commitment To Constant Improvement. This process requires the ability to evaluate the team and it’s players and critically solve any problems or issues that arise.
6. Supportive Environment. Players should have each other’s back. Team-mates need to be supportive of one and other. They should openly encourage each other, but they should also be able to call a player out, that is not holding up his end of the bargain.
7. Role Players. Players need to be able to take on a role. A player must be able to take on a role in a game or for the entire season if need be. Will your players sacrifice their scoring to lock down an offensive threat? Will they sacrifice their touches to grab rebounds?
8. Respectful. Teams need to be respectful. The team needs to foster respect for each other, for the referees, for the coaching staff.
9. Known Identity. A successful cohesive team needs to have an identity. They need to know what they do well, and what they need to do better.
10. Valued Team Members. Players need to understand they provide value to the success of the team regardless of their floor time.

The Importance Of Measurable Tasks In Tryouts.

2010-05-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

I witnessed an excellent tryout this week for the U17 Provincial Team. After a few warm up drills where players were being accessed for their basic movement, skill, athleticism the structure of the Try-Out began.
The Tryout was set up with an initial footwork drill. The players were shown an offensive move driving from the perimeter to the paint. The footwork was finishing with a 2-step, outside inside foot, pivot back for the reverse jumper creating space on the finish. The footwork was demonstrated, the separation was demonstrated, but the reasoning was not explained. It’s a Tryout, so the details of why are not as important as determining if the players are at the stage that they can pick up on the nuances and perform the skill. There was a series of progression drills that followed with 2 players based on that move, then three players incorporating proper rotations and spacing. Again the reasoning was not explained and I agree with that stance in a Tryout.

The next series went to 2 on 2 drills, where the players if they understood what was going on would then try to incorporate the skills learned in the previous drills into the 2 on 2 games. The Tryout then progressed to 3 on 3 games and eventually 5 on 5 games.

Now truly you can’t expect to see those concepts being applied in the 5 on 5 situations. You can only hope you’ll find a few players that get it. The rest think it’s about them scoring.

At each station there were coaches with clip-boards assessing the situation and taking notes. My hat goes off to that group of coaches.

Brad Rootes - Head Coach
Chris Cheng - Assistant Coach
Fatih Akser - Assistant Coach

Coach Paul

Monkeys In A Cage

2010-05-24T05:15:00.000-07:00

There is a difference between a captive audience and an audience held captive.
Coaches any drill can be good or bad depending on what you do with it. Make sure your drills are teaching skills that can be applied to the game. Change your drills so that your players are not bored when they come to practice. I know it’s better to be razor sharp at a few things then mediocre a many things, but that does not mean you can’t teach the skills you want to emphasize in different ways and in different drills. Give your players new challenges in your teaching environment. It’s been my experience players actually want to work hard for you. They are bored when they are not working hard.
Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life. – Confucius

Coaches give your players a job they’ll love.

Coach Paul

Coach By Consequence

2010-05-24T04:24:00.000-07:00

Coaching by Consequence, it is not for everybody but just consider the following.

Turn on any game, and you will see Coaches parading up and down the sidelines, leaving their designated boxes, throwing clipboards, chairs, swearing, shouting at players, shouting at Refers. We see this behaviour at all levels of competition. We see very successful Coaches displaying this behaviour. Is it any wonder that this trickles down to youth levels? Where are the mentors?
What does any of this type of behaviour have to do with coaching? You are not coaching when you are acting in this manner. Personally if the opposing Coach is acting in this way, I think I have an advantage. He is no longer coaching, and I will take advantage of that. I never think, “hey he is getting an edge up on me with the Refs and he’ll get all the good calls”, quite the opposite. You are not putting yourself in a good light with parents, referees or players You are simply not setting an example Do you actually think Refs don’t log that type of behaviour? Do you think it won’t have an effect on the game? Referees are people they are influenced by their emotions. Why do you think we have phrases like “the make up call”. Think about the amount of energy goes into this behaviour and the percent of times you get the expected result (the elusive call reversal). More often the flamboyant complaints end up in a call against you. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein
The bulk of coaching happens in practice. That is where you prepare your students/players for the exam/game. That is where you teach skills. That is where you teach behaviour. That is where you teach your systems. That is where you give life lessons. That is where you become an example and mentor to your players.
I see a strong parallel between coaching and teaching. I also see a strong parallel between coaching and parenting. In a picture perfect world we want a Coach to present the best knowledge he or she can about the game in an exciting or interesting way so that the players are sparked to learn. Is this not the job of a teacher? You want them to know their material, and to make it interesting. In the end, it’s the player that has to do the learning, but you can change the learning curve by knowing your material and presenting it in an enthusiastic way. You would also want to know where the boundaries are for behaviour and what the expectation for performance is. Is this not the job of a parent?
Be clear about what is expected. Have rules for performance and behaviour. Do you want to be the Coach that is always screaming or the Coach that motivates by making players want to learn? Have a consequence when they break a rule. I’ve always used a rule for being late for practice. I like to know ahead of time if you will be late but regardless of the reason you must buy your way into practice. Depending on the age, the buy-in is adjusted. An example would be 30 push-ups, 30 sit-ups and 3 minutes on the jump-rope. No yelling, no screaming, just a natural consequence for being late. It’s been my experience there is no fuss about it either. They just do it. I don’t mind players talking in drills, matter of fact I encourage them cheering each other on, but you must not talk when I’m talking. When I’m talking I’m teaching. You can’t learn if you are talking while I’m teaching. Consequence for breaking the rule can be as simple as sitting out of the drill. If the kid is a player, he won’t want to sit out. For more Rules for games, practices and floor time click here

When you coach by consequence you have to be willing to removing the safety net. A fall and get-back-up experience can be a helpful tool in a player’s / person’s development. Self realization learning may take longer, but it is always more powerful. All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes.
-Sir Winston Churchill
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Don’t accuse me of being Pollyanna. I’m not so naïve that I don’t understand that there is big money on the line, and jobs at stake. I understand the immediate effect that screaming and shouting can have. But the law of dimensioning returns dictates that this behaviour must be amplified each time to stay effective. Why do we have one expectation of behaviour for a teacher in a classroom, and when that same teacher moves to a different room in the school, the gym, we accept a different set of behaviours. Best run class I ever saw when my children were in elementary school was from a young petite teacher. She set out the rules early. She wrote them on the board, and soon as one was broken she pointed to them and placed a checkmark against the rule that was broken. Second checkmark there was a consequence. When walking through the halls of that school, that class was always well behaved and the students were happy and in a frame of mind to learn. Other classes looked like chaos, with yelling a little control.

Coach Paul

Is Confidence A Skill?

2010-05-05T16:31:00.000-07:00

Is confidence a skill? If confidence is a skill, who owns it? Just like ball-handling or shooting, confidence can be taught. Just like any skill some learn quicker than others, and some are more naturally adept to excel in that area.
With deliberate practice a player can become more confidence just as they can become a better ball-handler or a better shooter

Coaching parenting and teaching are very similar in that the power structure is not balanced nor should it be. As a coach you should be someone that is mentoring and teaching. You can be friendly but you are not the player’s friend in the sense that both parties are equals. When you teach it is your responsibility to make it an interesting and exciting environment in which to learn. In the end, any thing taught, whether it is ball-handling or confidence, it is up to the individual to learn it. They own that skill. When a player thanks you for making them better, remind them that they did the work. They learned the skill, and that you were happy to be part of that. That skill belongs to them. They worked at making it better under your guidance.

With the power balance being skewed there is no doubt you can have either a positive or negative effect on a players confidence.

What can you do to help players improve their confidence?

• Positive feed back during drills in the form of sound-bites in drills. Give teaching point and its pure information
• Provide an exciting and positive environment for players to learn
• Visualization Exercise For Improving Focus
• Shuttling (Internal- External Concentration)
• Recognizing, Stopping And Replacing Thoughts
• Positive Self- Talk And Thought-Stopping For Improving Focus
• Managing Distracters And Focusing On Relevant Cues
• Help players set goals for themselves and for the team. Use S.M.A.R.T. technique
• Conduct sports meditation sessions or introduce them to the concept.
• Help them form rituals
• Have them reflect on their achievements. Hard work and dedication equals results. Have them take a mental snap shot of where they were, where they are now, and where they want to be.
• Help them live in the moment.
Coach Paul

Complete Scorer

2010-05-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

How many weapons do you have in your arsenal? To be a complete scorer you need to have many.

I see most players practice their catch and shoot. This is good, but what if that shot is working for you today, do you have other weapons to help you and your team.

Coaches love the extra pass to get the ball to the player for the clean uncontested catch and shoot, how many times will that happen for you in a game.

If you are the designated sharp shooter, and that’s the only weapon you have, most good coaches will shade their help defence towards you, to take that weapon away.

More importantly are you shooting at game speed when you practice? Are you charting your progress? Are you timing yourself?

In order to be a completed scorer you need to have the following weapons.
1. Shoot with left hand off of right foot
2. Shoot with left hand off of left foot.
3. Shoot with right hand off of left foot
4. Shoot with right hand off of right foot
5. Catch and shoot
6. Shoot off the dribble (ability to create 3D space)
7. Shoot when you have lost your dribble.
8. Shoot in the Post

Two Steps, Hops & Quick Stops

2010-04-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

I’m often asked what footwork do I use when shooting off the catch-and-shoot or off a screen. I think different coaches have different rules for which foot you establish when catching the ball and getting up into your jump-shot. Coaches usually determined which foot to use by which side of the floor the player is on. I think nearly all coaches will tell you that when coming off a screen you will be planting your inside foot.
If inside foot is the standard then let’s extend that logic to which foot should be planted during the catch and shoot. I think you’ll find that it’s not so much which side of the floor you are on, but your orientation to the passer.

Coming Off Screens

If you are on the right side of the court coming off a screen, every coach will tell you to catch the ball on your inside foot. Said a different way, establish your inside foot as your pivot foot In this case your inside foot will be your right foot. In a game situation and hopefully in your drills, the passer will be to your left.

Which hand do you catch the ball with?

It's important to catch the ball in your shooting pocket, and if you are not catching two handed, and the passer is to your left, then you are probably guiding the ball into your shot pocket with your left hand.

The opposite also holds true. If you are coming off a screen on the left side of the court, the passer will be to your right, and you will establish your inside foot as your pivot foot, in this case your left foot, and you will probably guide the ball into your shot pocket with your right hand.

In a game situation, if you were on the right side of the court you could receive the pass from either the deep right long corner or from the middle to left of the court. Try to think of these two situation as the same as coming off a screen.

Also remember we are shooting transition jumpers now, so forget the jump-stop or quick-stop, we'll come back to quick-stops, but the game is just too fast for that type of footwork when shooting in transition. You must two-step into shots to be able to go full out and keep your balance.

So if the ball is coming from the deeper right side of the court, and you are receiving the pass on the right side of the court, it is the same as if I'm coming off a screen on the left side of the court. I want to guide the ball into my shot-pocket with my right hand and two-step into the shot using my left foot as my inside foot.

If the pass was coming from the middle or left of middle, and you are receiving the pass on the right side of the court, then you would establish your right foot as your pivot foot guiding the ball into my shot pocket with my left hand.

Cutting To And From The Basket

Let us move this same concept to cutting to the basket and away from the basket. If I'm cutting to the basket the ball is being passed to me from above the key in most cases. The player could be coming off a Pin Screen or just cutting back door. If moving from right side perimeter of the court to the basket, my inside pivot foot is the one closest to the baseline, so I want to catch the ball on my right foot. This mimics the same footwork as coming off a screen on the right side of the floor with the pass coming from the receiver’s left side.

If I'm cutting away from the basket to FT line extended on the right side of the floor, then I want to catch on my outside foot (left foot) You will be angled to the basket so you can create space between you and the defender and able to catch the ball on your outside hand (left). In actuality you are landing both feet at the same time, and the outside pivot foot is really not established until you choose it. Using your outside foot as your pivot foot you have numerous options. The sweep and go on the closeout from your defender, or the rubber band move. From both of those moves, you can get your pound dribble and two-step into a Jump-shot, or get right to the rack. In this same position when you receive the ball, on the perimeter, if the defender over plays you high side, you would establish your right foot as the pivot foot and drop-step towards the baseline to create your space for your drive to the hoop or pull up for the Jump-shot.

One of the great thing about the game today is you can choose which foot is your pivot foot. When I played whichever foot was furthest behind when you stopped, was automatically your pivot foot, and that is why people teach the jump-stop or quick-stop. It's really left over from back then, and like I said the game is too fast to shoot shots in transition hoping into shots. There is a place for the Quick-Stop or Jump-Stop in the half court setting of offense, but not in transition.

Quick-Stops Jump-Stops and Hops into Shots

Quick-Stops Or Jump-Stops
There is a time to do these, and I do run drills to get reps for players so they recognize when you would use them.
Catching the ball in a half court offense if the defender is off you a bit, with the jump-stop is a good idea. You are square to the hoop and it is an equal-foot-opportunity when you decide to drive to the hoop

Hops Into Shots
Again the game is just too quick to hop into a shot in transition and maintain your balance. You will float. But, if you are weak-side and you receive a skip pass, then I think it is appropriate to hop into that shot. You could also be waiting with your shooting foot back and step into the shot, but with cross court skip passes, it's probably going to be high, so the pass is not likely to get into your hands even if you are giving shot-pocket targets. You will probably have to reach a bit for the pass. In this situation the hop is a great way to gather your feet and get into the up-force of your Jump-shot.

Coach Paul

The Duck Behind Ball Screens - Part 4 of 4

2010-04-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

When a defender goes under the screen, the ballhandler should be able to get a good uncontested shot off.

The Switch – Ball Screens Part 3 of 4

2010-04-03T22:59:00.000-07:00

The read on the switch depends on personal setting the screen. If you have a big setting the screen and there is a switch, we have the classic small covering big going to the basket, and we want to find him and get him the ball. If there is a mismatch for the ball-handler, and he has the opportunity to turn the corner, then that is a good option.

Let us watch Duane Notice (blue jersey # 10) set a screen for Sean Patrick. Sean (blue jersey # 7) sees the switch and turns the corner to get to the rack.

The Trap – Ball Screens Part 2 of 4

2010-04-03T22:12:00.000-07:00

On the Trap or Double Team the read should be pretty obvious. If you have two defenders on you, then your screener must be open. Even if the help the help is quick to respond, the screener once they get the ball should have the option of the dump off.
Let us watch Ave Bross (blue jersey #5) draw the double team, and then find the screener, Sean Patrick (blue jersey # 7) rolling to the basket.

Trimming The Hedge – Ball Screens Part 1 of 4

2010-04-03T14:38:00.000-07:00

If you use the ball screen, you'll more than likely face many types of defense;

1. The Hedge
2. The Trap
3. The Switch
4. The Duck behind

On the Hedge you should go hard toward the hedging defender’s outside shoulder. He must consider you a threat to get to the cup. Make your dribble long and low, and get to the rack.

Watch Sean Patrick (blue jersey #7) do exactly that.
See upcoming Bogs on dealing with;

2. The Trap
3. The Switch
4. The Duck behind

Off the Rack Versus Custom Made

2010-03-29T15:19:00.001-07:00

In an earlier blog “Be a Triple Threat Player” I talked about players who are athletically gifted. Witnessing a gifted athlete, should never discourage you from continuing to work on your athleticism. You should be trying to reach your potential not match someone else’s potential.
But the truth of the matter some players are “Off-The-Rack” in this sense. They don’t work on their verticals other than practicing jumping and yet they can sky. Others need to be “Custom-Made” athletes by building their verticals from a well balanced program, including;
1. Core Strength
2. Dynamic Stretching
3. Resistance Training
4. Plyometrics
5. Sports Specific Jump Training
6. Speed Quickness Agility Training
7. Skipping

How much of each? That should be determined per athlete based on testing on each area. The results from testing will allow for a customized program that will target the areas that need the most improvement. A balanced program will also help in injury prevention.

Check out this video of and up and coming baller, Brandon John. It’s been my pleasure working with this young man from Toronto. Other than practicing his jumping, by working on his dunks, he has done very little specific vertical training. This player is “Off-The-Rack” athletic. I can’t wait to see him become “Custom-Made”.

We just came back from the King of New York Tournament in Rochester New York, where the team won Silver. Watch BJ throw down.

Oh did I mention Brandon is 5.11! (white jersey # 23)

Mirroring The Ball – The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

2010-03-20T15:20:00.000-07:00

How do you teach mirroring the ball? Many coaches set the drill up with a close-out to the ball. The player with the ball stands straight legged, and swings the ball around wildly while the defender goes to work at tracing the path of the ball. What muscle memory are we creating here?
Good: Defender gets reps at tracing the ball
Bad: Offensive player develops the bad habit of being inefficient with the ball.
Ugly: Your player stands up in a game under the defensive pressure, swinging the ball around and even takes a negative step while being bellied up.

Try having the player with the ball stay in athletic stance. Have the player use an economy of motion when moving the ball. The player with the ball can rip the ball to the hip, and then countering when the defender reaches towards the ball to mirror its path. The player with the ball can then counter by sweeping the ball below the hand of the defender or sweeping it above the hand of the defender.They can step through to deliever a pass to their partner. Alternatively the player with the ball can create space by sweeping the ball by the defender’s face, or stepping into the defender with one leg between the defender’s legs. When the defender backs up, or straightens up, then the player with the ball can then face the defender squarely.

Now we are creating a good habit for both players. Defender is applying pressure to the player with the ball, trying to disrupt their movement. The offensive players are more able to read the floor, by protecting the ball, and moving it in an efficient motion.

Set this up as man in the middle. Defender can start with 10 push-ups. Every time they get a deflection, touch the ball or get a steal, they can subtract 1 push-up. Every time the player with the ball takes a negative step, or does not rip the ball assertively in a counter to the pressure, they do a freeze-push-up for 30 seconds.

Coach Paul

Newton’s Second Law - Getting Outside Your Comfort Zone

2010-03-20T06:03:00.000-07:00

Newton’s Second Law states that and object will accelerate in the direction that you push it. This could represent the initial teaching of a skill. It also states that if you push the object twice as hard, it will accelerate twice as much. This could represent pushing outside your comfort zone to perform the skill eventually at greater than game speed.

We can use this model as coaches and players, in relationship to learning curves and getting to the next level.

There needs to be a progression if you want to get better at a skill. You must first learn the skill correctly. You must then challenge yourself or be challenged to perform same skill at greater and greater speeds or complexity. You need to work at a speed where you are making mistakes. Those mistakes are your challenge! Keep at it until you can perform at the new speed then move to the next speed until you have mastered each new speed or level.

As coaches we can sometimes add competition and consequence into the mix to challenge our players to move to the next speed. I do this with footwork drills. Once I know the footwork is solid, I break the team up into smaller teams, and they compete at stations in timed event. You can even add consequences for missed shots into the same mix.
Here is an example. Team is split up into two equal teams. Players are working on post moves. Starting below the baseline, each player has a ball. There is a chair above the first marker or wherever you like your players to receive the ball in the post. On “go” the player at the front of the line passes the ball out to a coach, behind the chair, who places the ball on the chair. The player comes out square to the chair in good post position to take ball off the seat of the chair and work on their move. The next players in line then go in turn. In each timed session the team is working on only one move. They make their move and if they miss, they get to a spot on the floor and do10 pushups, where they won’t interfere with the drill, before they can get back into the drill. They must do the footwork perfectly and approach the chair perfectly or the bucket doesn’t count. Here we have some pressure to make the shot, or they are no longer helping their team, they are doing pushups to get back in and there is pressure to do the footwork correctly or the bucket doesn’t count. You can add some additional pressure, by trapping the ball in the chair with your hand, so they have to fight to own the ball. At the end of each timed session the team with the most buckets wins that round. The team with the least buckets again will have a consequence.

Consequences and competition are two methods to get your players to work at accelerated rates.

Coach Paul

Quick Draw

2010-03-20T04:07:00.000-07:00

I worked at the Ganon Baker Oakville camp this week, hosted by Coach Pat Traynor. During free shoot-around time, a young girl approached me with an excellent question. She wanted to know how she should receive the ball to get her shot off more quickly.

I asked her to show me what she currently does. I had her move around baseline to free throw line extend and back a few times while I passed her the ball. She would catch the ball as if to shoot then pass it back to me. I had her do this from both sides of the floor. I had her repeat the exercise, but this time I asked her to shoot while I observed. This young girl had a lot of up-side her shot-readiness.
1. She was squaring up to the rim on the catch: She had her feet pointed to the rim, and her shoulders square to the rim. This is excellent and shaves time off, when trying to get your shot off. This also means she is making eye contact with the rim early.
2. She was athletic when receiving the ball: Her knees were already bent and she was ready to get up into her shot. She was playing low to high. I see players at much older ages; play high to low to high after the catch. Playing low to high will also allow you to get your shot off quicker. A key point should be, always cut in athletic stance and maintain this stance when get to your spot and are receiving the pass.
3. She was ripping the ball to her hip: This isn’t necessarily wrong; the ball is certainly well protected, but her hip is not her shooting-pocket. Her shooting-pocket was higher. That means additional movement in her shot while moving the ball from her hip into and through her shooting pocket. More movement in the shot means more places for error, it takes more time for the release, and you are less likely to have a one-piece or one-motion shot.
a. You will see some players use this extra downward swing of the ball from shot-pocket, to hip or below, and back up again to gain power for distance in their shot. Also players will sometimes draw the ball back to the crown of their heads to gain power in their shot (I call this the catapult.)These two methods of gaining force in your shot are of course mistakes, and are not good substitutes for using the up force in your legs to lift your shot. Your arms and hands are very complicated. The shoulder is the most mobile joint in your body. The elbow has both a hinge motion and a pronation/supination motion. The hand has 27 bones. We want to minimize the motion of our hands and arms in ours shots, and use the less complicated joints and much stronger muscles of our lower body for lift. Essentially we want to shoot with our bodies and direct the balls flight with our arms and hands.
b. Shot-pocket, shot-pocket, wherefore for art thou? Each person’s body mechanics are slightly different. As a result each person’s shot-pockets can be different but will be located somewhere between the top of the hip to the brow. When a players starts their jump-shot in athletic stances, note where the ball is in relationship to the top of their hip and brow, when they begin their upward motion. This will be their shot-pocket. Make sure there is no high-to-low-to-high motion in their shot. You must note where the ball is, in relationship to their hip and brow ,when the up force of their jump begins.

Here are the things I added to what she was already doing, so that she was able to get off a quicker shot.
1. Call for the ball with your voice: Draw attention from the passer by calling his/her name, or use the hoot if that works for you. Assuming you are getting the ball from a player that has good court vision, you are probably never more open then when you first get the ball. Sometimes you need to bring this to the attention of the player with the ball.
2. Call for the ball with your hand(s): The placement of your hands is important. Your hand(s) should be at the height of your shot-pocket. I say the height, because if you are able to receive the ball with only one hand and bring it into your shot pocket, then the hand closest to the passer can be shot-pocket height but slightly outside your body. E.g, if you are on the right hand side of the court receiving a pass from your left, you are able to catch/guide the ball one handed, do so with your left hand, and bring the ball to your shot-pocket. This will allow you to have your torsos square to the hoop. If you are not at the level of guiding the ball into your shot-pocket with one hand, then you should have both hands receive the pass. Have your hands in the configuration where your guide hand is on the side of the ball and slightly forward, and your shooting hand has a wrinkled wrist and is behind the ball. Basically catch the so your hands are ready to shoot with good form.
a. If you receive the ball in your shot-pocket, you are more likely to have a one-piece or one- motion shot. One-piece shot provides a quicker release. Hitches to look out for:
1) ball below your shot-pocket = extra motion
2) releasing the ball at the top of your jump and not just before. The further out you are from the rim, the sooner in your jump the ball should be released to take advantage of your body’s up force.

Of course it goes without saying, great passers give you more time. A pass right on your target is much quicker to release. Too bad passing is one of the most under taught skills.

Recap of Teachables for Quick Release
1. Be in athletic stance.
2. Have feet pointed towards the rim
3. Be square to the rim. Torso square to the rim.
4. Get early eye contact with the rim.
5. Call for the ball with your voice and your hands. Give targets with hand(s) at your shot pocket
6. Have a one-piece shot

Coach Paul

Working With Ganon

2010-03-13T09:19:00.002-08:00

I couldn't be more stoked. I'll be working at one of Ganon Baker's camps the week of March 15 - 18 Oakville Ontario Holy Trinity Secondary School 2420 Sixth Line
For More Details click here
Anyone who has the opportunity to be trained by Ganon should jump at the chance. His approach to training, his expertise, and his ability to relate to players makes him one of a kind.

Hope to see you there

Coach Paul

Painting By Numbers

2010-03-13T09:19:00.001-08:00

Just like painting by numbers, coaching by numbers can almost replicate the real thing.
Inside a singular team, it might even look like art. A player moving around in their system, with expertise, but that is a dance. That can be a well rehearsed dance, but can those same players play the game? Are they skilled?
Don’t coach numbers, coach players. Make sure you are teaching the same skill set to all your players. Depending on the level of competition and the age level players will have to play down or up a position.
How many times do we see players that grow early and get stuck playing with their back to the basket, then find themselves stuck at 6.2 or so, with no perimeter skills. Not to mention, the lack of true post skills that are being taught to those players. At 6.2 if that player is lacking in perimeter skills, how will he be able to play at the next level. Matter of fact, 6.2 is a point guard at the collegiate level.
It reminds of a story an Italian friend of mine once told me about his grandfather. I asked how his grandfather was doing. He said not so well. He’s not really learning any English, and he’s forgetting all of his Italian. Soon he’ll be mute.
Don’t let your players become mute on the hardwood. Make sure you are teaching them how to be a better passer, how to read the floor, how to shoot in different situations (see upcoming blog on being a complete shooter), how to be a good ball handler, how to box out, how to rebound, how to set a screen, how to get on the floor safely to retrieve a loose ball, how to take a charge safely, and how to communicate.

Coach Paul

Be a Triple Threat Player - Skill, Athleticism And, Conditioning

2010-03-08T14:46:00.000-08:00

Youth coaches... you have probably run up against teams that have a player who developed early and has some athletic gifts that allow him/her to dominate. In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, Malcolm discusses the unbalanced distribution of birth months among NHL players. Because youth players are registered in leagues based on their year of birth, the biggest and strongest players tend to be those born in the first few months of the year. Some times we see these kids peak early in their sports careers, if they don’t continue to work on their skills, and only rely on their natural athletic gifts

This phenomenon is not limited to youth basketball. There are athletic freaks at all levels. The higher the level of competition, the more freakishly athletic those players are. I’ve seen players that have never lifted a weight nor worked on their vertical and they look like they were genetically engineered and have 30 plus verticals.

Who knows how skilled Dwight Howard is? I’d love to see him in some skill drills. I do know this; he doesn’t have to employ a full skill set to achieve his success. He doesn’t have to have great handles. He doesn’t have to have great defensive technique. He doesn’t have to be able to create space to get his shot off. He doesn’t have to be a great passer. He may have all of these aspects in his game, but to do what he does, he does need to be very athletic. Howards stats for last season include.

Year 2008–09
Team Orlando
GP 79
GS 79
MPG 35.7
FG% .572
3P% .000
FT% .594
RPG 13.8
APG 1.4
SPG 1.0
BPG 2.9
PPG 20.6

Now keep this in mind. I’m all about the skills. I’m a skills coach, but how many times have you seen skilled kids passed over for athletic kids. Perfecting your footwork will make you smoother and faster. It will give you an edge, but you can’t ignore becoming more athletic. Perfecting your shot mechanics will make you more consistent, but you still need to have your feet get you to a spot, where your hands can take the shot.

When skilled kids are passed over for athletic players, it often boils down to two things:
1) Coaches see the body and believe they can teach that kid to be better skilled.
2) Its about right now, not tomorrow, and not what potential and kid has, it’s more about kinetic. The higher the level, the more true this statement is. Coaches at higher levels are putting together teams that may need to compete in the near future. They are not looking to develop players; they are interested in moving the chess pieces around the board.

Take stock of what you have as weapons. Become a Triple Threat player.
1.Are you working on skills?
a.Do you think Steve Nash is an athletic freak? Believe me compared to you and me, he probably is, but not on the stage he plays. Become more skilled, work on your ability to pass, ball-handle, shoot, rebound, read the floor
2.Are you working on athleticism?
a.Don’t let the fact that some people are more gifted athletically disappoint you and make you be a defeatist. If you are
working on that aspect of your game then you are getting better, and getting better is progress and moving forward. Moving forward is success!
3.Are you working on conditioning?
a.Everyone can shoot when they are fresh. Can you shoot when you are tired? If you are not in great shape, then you will find it hard to play full-out defence.

Imagine where you can take your game if you are working on this three pronged approach to your game.

If you are having a hard time imagining it, have a look at Chidi Majok. A player I had the pleasure of coaching for three seasons. When he started playing for me he only had a 18 inch vertical. Watch him throw this put back down.

Coach Paul

Competing Outside Of Your Personality

2010-03-06T08:14:00.000-08:00

As a coach you have probably dealt with your fair share of players that do not fit the stereotypical model of a competitive athlete. You have also probably dealt with players that were lacking in confidence when they came to you, or have watched their confidence slip during the season. Keep in mind that what you teach in sports should become life skills for your players. They should take away life lessons they can apply to other parts of their life. Like it or not, they will, so make those lessons constructive.
This blog is as much for players as coaches. Players have a responsibility to come to the table with a competitive edge. Effort and desire are qualities a player can offer to a coach, that do not require the coach’s expertise.
It is also the responsibility of coaches to teach to their own curriculum and create an environment that nurtures competitiveness. It is important for coaches to recognize the value of diversity. Drawing on the variety of talent and personalities in a team, means being willing in some cases to adapt the environment to the individuals rather than the other way around.
Here are a few things for your consideration when trying to get your players to play outside of their personalities.

Personality types
According to some experts there are up to 16 personality types. Others like to categorize into Introverts and Extroverts or A type or B type personalities. It’s foolish to think that only certain personality types can be successful in sports. Do some personalities lend themselves better to individual or team sports? Can you find ways to help these different personality types be successful?
Stereotypes are not quite what one would think of as a personality, but surely it’s become part of the psyche of both players and coaches that there is baggage that comes with stereotypes. It takes strength to play outside of these stereotypes.
Racial: You’ve heard it, I’ve heard it and certainly Tiger Woods and Justin Armour have heard and dealt with it.
Gender: Often when women step outside traditional gender roles through sports, labels are soon to follow.

What can you do to help play outside of your personality?

1. Be Transparent: Have philosophies, rules and expectations for your players. Don’t let your mood dictate consequences and rules or how your practice is conducted. Talk to your players as a team and as individuals about what is expected in terms of effort, learning and conduct. Except when you are wrong, say you are sorry, and correct the situation. Recently I saw a player taking some heat form his coach about missing a defensive assignment in a drill. The player didn’t actually miss his assignment but took the blame for a team-mate. When it was pointed out to the coach, the coach took the opportunity to let that player know, he was in the wrong for not communicating that it was not his check. He pointed out to the team, that you are not helping the team by taking the blame for someone else. We can’t correct the problem if you are not being open and communicating what is really going on. This was all done in the spirit of team, and was not demeaning to any of the players.
2. Make drills competitive: by making drills competitive, you raise the competitive level of the team, and consequently you raise the competitiveness of the individuals. You will nurture a competitive environment. Score your drills and have consequences to winning and loosing. Highest scores in the drill do 1 dribble suicide and lowest scores in the drill do 3 dribble suicides. I like making consequences skilled if possible. That way they are working on their skill while they are getting conditioned. If you do dribble suicides make sure your players are working on both hands. Down the court with one hand and back with the other hand. You can change up the dribbles between lines, cross-overs, through the legs, and push-dribbles for the long trips.
3. Add toughness drills in the mix. You hear coaches screaming about getting on the floor, or taking a charge. Don’t just scream it, teach it. Teach your players how to get on the floor safely and own the possession at the same time. Teach your players how to take a charge and drill it. Let them know how much it is worth to the team. Make sure it is in your team’s personality to have the whole team reward those efforts with praise and cheering. You would be surprised by the effect that offering the reward of a sports drink and protein bar makes on players’ efforts to take a charge. It’s not the drink or snack; it’s the competitive nature of getting a reward and recognition for doing it. With the possession arrow replacing jump-balls, does it make sense for your players to get on the floor every time? Maybe you want to be aware of that possession arrow, so that you can get over that player on the floor and get a closely guarded call.
4. Finding the right match: Find situations and techniques that will make players successful, don’t put them in a situation where they will fail. I coached a player with good size, good skill development, good footwork, but she was not naturally assertive or aggressive on the low post. On defense she could not bang with big players down low, but she could front her defender and play defense like they she was on offense in the post. Sitting in the chair, hands locating her assignment and preventing the ball from getting kicked in. On offense, she could play well in the mid to high post, and had a sweet mid range shot. So the aim is to make her a multi-dimensional player by encouraging a new more physical aspect to her game, while honing her Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki. Why shove a square peg into a round hole? If you find places where individuals can be successful, then the team is successful.
5. Help players build confidence: I’m not going to minimize the effects a coach can have both positively and negatively on a player, but in the end just like any skill, confidence is something the player needs to hone and refine. Being able to chart your drills, will aid in boosting your players confidence. Helping them set goals will increase their confidence as they get closer and closer to their goals. I have my players take a mental snap-shot of where they are now. Down the road we do it again and see how far they have come. Use these lessons of hard deliberate, goal oriented work to achieve goals as an example to be applied to other aspects of their life. Let them know, that the effort they put into basketball can be used to become a better son or daughter, to be a better sibling, to be a better student, to strengthen their Faith. If you work on fitness, plyometrics, core strength, then chart their progress; it’s amazing how something tangible like gaining some height on their vertical can spill over into confidence in their game. Above the obvious benefits hard work plus measurable gains equals confidence. Try to guide your teams through sports meditations. Help them learn how to visualize on their own or be able to control anxiety, or do focus drills.
6. Measure your success by your effort. This is a philosophy I buy into. I tell my players that there are fewer feelings worse then regret. When you give your best effort, sometimes great things happen, sometimes mediocre things happen and sometimes disappointing things happen. If you gave it your best, there is nothing more anyone can ask of you. If you are giving it your all, then in my eyes you are already successful.

Coach Paul

If It Didn't Brown Up In The Pan Maybe It's The Chef's Fault

2010-03-03T11:54:00.000-08:00

How many times have I heard coaches complain about their players, stating they are dumb? One coach once said to me, “I’ve been running this drill for five years, and not one team can get it right”. Hey is it me or is it them. Could it be the drill? Could it be the way you are teaching it? Could it be it has no relevance to the game of basketball? You are a coach, it's your job to find away to connect and get it done.

John Wooden said “you haven’t taught until they have learned”. I think Kelvin Sampson’s twist on it might even be better “Nothing is taught until it is learned and nothing is learned until it is taught”.

Players have different learning styles; visual, auditory, kinesthetic, try to appeal to all of these. Maybe the way you are teaching only effectively covers one of these types of learning styles.

Here is a story how I missed the boat in evaluating a player. I had been working out this player in the off-season with a few other new hopefuls. When it came to tryouts, my conclusion was this one player, just wasn’t browning up in the pan quick enough. The team this player was trying out for had become pretty competitive. I didn’t want to take players that I couldn’t promise time to. At 15 and 16 years of age, it’s better that they find a team where they can contribute and get significant floor time. Test the skills they have been learning in practice.
The cut phone calls. I hate them! This was a particularly hard, because I just liked this kid and his family. Great folks!. During the call, the father said "let us sit with the news for a few days Paul, and we’ll get back to you about it". I agreed but for the life of me couldn’t understand what the father meant. I cut his son. They called back a day later and he said, “we talked it over, and we don’t care if you can’t give our son floor time, he is developing with you and he likes being there”. I was stunned but agreed to carry him. This young man has so much character, work ethic, and verve, he willed himself into earning floor time. By the end of the season in play-offs he was getting significant floor time, was a major contributor to the team and one of my best Rebounders. The following year he was a starter.
During both those seasons I thanked him and his father for sticking with me and proving me wrong. In this case it was definitely the Chef’s fault.

Coach Paul

Being In The Moment

2010-03-02T16:54:00.000-08:00

Basketball like life is best when you are in the moment. You must learn from your past, prepare for the future but while you are playing, you must be in the moment.

Learning from the Past: If you make a mistake(s), don’t dwell on it either in practice or in a game. In practice you can not get better unless you are working at a pace where you will make mistakes. Anyone can bounce a ball, but you will not get better simply bouncing a ball. You have to go so fast using correct technique that you risk loosing control of the ball. Keep working at that pace and eventually you will be able to be mistake free (or nearly mistake free) at the new pace. Once you have achieved the new pace, you must chase the next level. In a game, if you make a mistake you have to leave it behind and concentrate on the next task at hand. Make a mental note, shot fell short, focus on back of the rim, and then move on to get a rebound or a defensive stop or what ever the game and your coach dictates you do. Don’t fill your head with negative thoughts. If that is a stumbling block for you, then work on doing a replace with a positive thought, and move on

Prepare for the future: In practice evaluate your skills and determine what you are struggling with. Work harder on that skill; trying to perfect it, After all, practice is like the homework that prepares you for the exam. The game is the exam. Set goals using the SMART technique. You need to have short term , mid range and long term goals to work towards. if you are looking for nothing you will surely find it

Be in the moment: It might take some buying into this principal because you hear sports analysts say, that you need to be able to see 3 or 4 plays down the road to be great. Or do you? When you are living in the moment, there is no stress, and you are free to be creative. You are more likely to be able to respond to situations. We have all heard the phrase, take what the defense gives you. That’s a form of responding with confidence and lack of stress. It is not seeing 3 or 4 plays down the road; it is read and respond to the current situation. It is that feeling of being in the zone.

Coach Paul

Newton’s First Law - Be Unbalanced In A Good Way

2010-03-01T11:32:00.000-08:00

Newton's first law states that an object that is at rest will stay at rest until an unbalanced force acts upon it.

The unbalanced force can be the coach, or a competitive environment that the coach constructs to make players reach a new level.

There is of course a role for coaches and mentors. People need instruction, motivation, and opportunity to learn from others. They need competitive environments to elevate their efforts. Need evidence? Have you ever noticed that when you make a drill competitive that the eyes of your players brighten?

In all facets in life, it’s rare to find people who find an internal drive, the intestinal fortitude to push themselves daily outside their comfort zone

Can you make the unbalanced force come from within? Remember players, the one thing you can bring to the table that a coach can not give you, is desire.

If there is something I can help you with don't hesitate to contact me

Coach Paul

Flying Under The Radar

2010-02-24T19:16:00.000-08:00

How many times have I heard coaches say” no one flies under the radar”? “If you are good enough we’ll find you”. You may never hear something more pompous come out of a coaches mouth than those statements. With all the players out there working on their game, how could this be possible? In fact, it’s mathematically impossible. Just read
the answers to a recruiting survey that I sent out to 45 CIS Universities.
I didn’t make these numbers up; the coaches submitted how many games they watch in a year. You can see by the number of games they view, that if you are not in the right place at the right time you may never be found. You need to take some ownership in this process. You need to self promote.What factors might you have going against you?

Blue chip athletes
Blue Chip athletes are noticeable. They stand out. They are in the press. They get talked about, and they are resultantly on the radar. If you are not a Blue-Chipper, you need to do some work in self promotion, to get noticed. Most coaches see the body and think I can teach that kid to play. All things being equal, size matters, speed matters, quickness matters. Equalize your chances by not only working on your game/skills, but work on your body.

Geography
This maybe more of a factor in Canada then other countries, but elite programs tends to be located in hotspots. What dictates a hotspot? Usually geography. Do you live in a densely populated area, where there programs are more likely to be funded? Do you have facilities where you can go work on your game?

Lower Competition
Are the teams in your area competitive enough to get invited to visible high profile tournaments where one a University coach may be in the stands? Is your team good enough to be in a final game at a major tournament? If a university coach is only going to 50 games total high school and rep in a year, they are likely to be at the championship final games. DON’T let any of these things ever be excuses for not getting it done. You can work on your handles in your basement or garage; you can skip in your garage. You can find a way, but it’s not as easy.

Too Many Hats
Are you in a system where your high school coach promotes you to Universities?
They may be limited by time, limited knowledge of the recruiting process, and sometimes just a lack of motivation to promote players. Ask your coach if he actively contacts University coaches to promote players. Ask your coach if they have any reliable contacts.

And if you are still not convinced that you can fly under the radar, watch this video about Steve Nash and how nearly went unnoticed.

Drilling Down

2010-02-24T17:31:00.000-08:00

Any drill can be a good drill, as long as you are teaching skills inside the drill. Conversely if you are not teaching skills inside the drills, every drill is a bad drill.

Be sure you are teaching, and explaining what you are looking for, and why it is important. Let your players know how perfecting a technique will make them a better player. Let your players know why you are asking them to do each step.

One of the mistakes we coaches make is trying to incorporate every new thing we see in a clinic into our practices. Don’t blindly accept drills. When you find something new that you think will fit with your team, look at refining it. I think it’s imperative to take every drill you do and give it a renovation. Look at it with critical eyes and try to make improvements. Invite another coach to come out and evaluate your team and your drills. They may have a twist on what you are doing that will make your drill better.

Are your drills game-like? Can you make them more game like? Most coaches run 3 on 2/ 2 on 1. How many of you set this up, with defense at one end in an I formation waiting for the 3 players on offense. When does this happen in a game? Have your defenders off court at the sideline, and have them come into the drill after the offense crosses half court (you pick the markers depending on the talent, I’m just suggesting here). Now you can also work on your defensive transition concepts, and you have created a situation that requires defensive talk to get the stop.

I have been forced to do this in the past. When my practice times were cut from 2 hours to 1.5 hours, I initially thought, how am I going to get all that I need to teach in that time frame. Most recently relocation to a facility that only has 2 baskets forces me once again to look at how I can get my players reps with only two rims. My style of coaching is very active. I like to be on the floor with my players, teaching skills by example. Matter of fact if I can’t demonstrate the footwork perfectly, or the shooting technique, then I won’t teach it till I have mastered it, in at least demo mode. I am not saying this is the best way; it’s just the way I operate. In the past I have had two assistants, and sometimes team managers. My practices are always open to parents or other coaches. But if you are in the gym, you might find yourself holding a blocking pad, swinging a pool noodle or passing a ball in a drill. This allows me to monitor the drill and give out sound-bites of information; ”athletic stance” “Run lanes wide” “catch two handed” “cut back to the ball on good angles” “post up on first marker”.

Now that I’m assisting on a team, once again necessity becomes the mother of invention. If I want to monitor drills and shout out the sound-bites, I have to retool the drills so the players fill in the spots where coaches once had a duty. If you have to do this, make sure your players filling in these spots, don’t become pylons. Make sure the role they are filling now, becomes a way of working on a skill. If they are passing, make sure they are using all the skills you teach when they are in a passing drill. Make sure they are athletic in their stance, make sure they are passing with their out-side hand, make sure they are creating space, make sure they are stepping through, make sure they are being deceptive with their passes. Insists that ever drill is a passing drill! It’s probably the most under taught skill.

Be proactive in this endeavour. Don’t wait until your gym time gets cut, or you have less help, or you have fewer rims. Scrutinize your drills and make them better before your are forced to do it.

Coach Paul

The Rare Player

2010-02-23T11:30:00.000-08:00

At the conclusion of tryouts I always tell the players that if they don’t make the team, they can contact me and I will give them a written evaluation and a program to work on. If they work on the program it will give them the edge up on tryouts next time.
It’s also not uncommon for a parent to call me while the season is in progress with the next MJ. It would be easy to dismiss these parents and their children, but what does it hurt to give them a look. At the very least, it could demonstrate to the player and parent what level their child is at and how they can work towards reaching their goals. At the very most you could find a diamond in the rough. I invite these players to a practice and have my assistants put them through the same type of testing they would have seen in a tryout, before they can get into a drill.
In these situations, I give the player and parent a program to work on and thank them for their interest in playing.

In these situations it has been my experience that only a handful of players will take the initiative of contacting me for the evaluation and program. Out of that handful, it’s my experience only a small few that will work on the program. Those are rare players.

I had the pleasure of coaching “a rare player”. He did go away with his program and worked on it. He did attend my clinics and worked hard, and he did make our competitive team. He turns every disappointment into motivation to get better. I remember in a game where his defensive assignments were more athletic then he was. He got taken baseline several times. Disappointed yes. Did he quit no! He did extra. He worked on his slides, keeping player in his bubble, keeping active feet trying to make players react to him; he worked on his direct and rakes. He did this on top of what we did as a team. He did extra.

Erick you motivate me to be a better coach.
Thank you
Coach Paul

Losing Sleep – Try Outs A Coach's Nightmare

2010-02-21T10:55:00.000-08:00

In my experience few things in coaching are more difficult then tryouts. Perhaps dealing with some parents, but I’ll leave that for another blog. I love getting back in the gym with the players. I love motivating players to give their best and to want to be a part of our team. I love working with a team of coaches to help me run a try-out and to help make decisions. But the decisions can be agonizing.

Having to cut a player that has previously played for you can be an extremely difficult process. Encouraging players to continue to work on their game so they may have a chance of making the team the following year can be a tricky balance. I hate having to disappoint players, but sports are competitive by nature.

I bumped into a fellow coach, Ted, the other day, and we began to talk about the process. I had coached Ted’s son for a few years, a terrific young man, who is going to be a dynamite referee. Ted confessed to me he was losing sleep over the process. I confessed to him that I would go through the same thing each year. It impresses me that it would have that effect on his daily life. You could simply say “it’s just youth rep ball”.. but I know he really cares about the process if it is effecting him in that way. I know he understands the importance of doing it right.
Here are some things I have learned, that have helped me with that process.
1. Know what you are looking for.
o Even if it’s your first year as a head coach, have an outline of what type of team you want to be. Have some philosophies for defense and offense and design your Try-Outs accordingly.
o Be prepared to adjust your goals depending on who comes out.
o Make sure your drills reflect what you are looking for in players.
 Do you want to be a high pressure defensive team? If so design your defensive drills to reflect what you are looking for.
o Be clear on what you are looking for. Have the players chant it back to you if you think it will help. But make the candidates know what is expected of them to make the team. If possible give advance warning of what is expected do so. I would post on my website what minimal requirements would be for tryouts e.g. level 11 on the beep test. The closer to tryouts the more information I would put on the site.
o Make sure there is some diversity in your drills.
 So you want to be a high pressure defensive team. Where? In the half court? Full court? I had my mind set on a player who could direct his team-mates in the half court and play excellent defense in that setting. That is the setting I always saw him in. 3 on 3 etc. Then in a full court setting I realized he didn’t have the wheels to play in that setting. I still took that player and over the years he continued to get better at all aspects of his game. But you can see how you might fool yourself with your drills. The player didn’t fool you. You fooled yourself.
o Include drills that demonstrate player’s leadership qualities and good soldier qualities.
 We can’t all be leaders, so make sure to grade players on whether they can follow instructions well. Teams need players that can take direction well.
o Include drills that demonstrate players hustle and toughness
o Include drills that can exclude players when you have large numbers trying out, and minimal time to submit your roster.
2. Get help
o Call in favours to get as many eyes as possible. Volunteer to help at other coach’s try-outs in exchange. It’s good practice for your own tryouts to be involved in others. I like to run stations especially on day one. I’ve had as many as 55 players trying out and luckily as many as ten coaches with me. When I say coaches, some of those maybe friends or students looking for volunteer hours. But you don’t have to have a lot of basketball knowledge to run a push-up station or a vertical jump station or time a sprint. You just need reliable people that are enthusiastic. My best tryouts my assistants and I have enough time to look for small things while stations are being run.
o Develop a grading system for your tryouts. For each event/drill/skill that you want the players to perform, have a standard grading system. This comes in handy for at least three reasons
 Often it’s easy to pick out the top kids you want on your team; it becomes trickier to pick out the kids at the bottom of your roster. This takes some of the objectivity out of that decision. Do you pick a kid that is athletic and lacking in leadership or vice versa?
 Be able to give feedback by having tangible scores that you can give back to the parents and players
 You can point players in the right direction for next year. You can guide them on what they need to do to improve their chances.
 You can also inform the parents of children why their son or daughter did not make the team, with some concrete proof. You wouldn’t be impressed if your child’s report card came home with only subjective comments.
o Consider running multiple stations at the same time and have players rotate from one station to another. Have each station manned with coaches that are informed on how to run the station, and how to grade the station.

3. Announce at your tryouts the tryout dates for other clubs in your area. Let players know that there are other options. I’m not really sure if my club endorsed this, but truly we just want to give kids an opportunity to get better. The more kids playing the better chance for improvement. I have called or emailed coaches at other clubs and invited them to my tryouts to see a kid who is on the boarder.
4. Provide players with some feedback and a program that will help them crack the nut next year. At the end of each tryout, I bring the players together and let them know that if they contact me I will give them a break down of what they need to improve on, and will design a program that will help them improve and improve their chances of making our team. I do this each year, even though I know it's the rare player that will take you up on the offer. Refer to upcoming blog on The Rare Player

If I can help you in any way with your tryouts please let me know.

Coach Paul

Ego and Ideals

2010-02-17T14:17:00.000-08:00

Phil Martelli once said to me “coaching is egotistical by nature”. I believe this to be true. You have to believe that what you are bringing to the table for your players is better than the next guys. If you don’t believe in it, why should your players. This belief should not be founded on bravado alone. Make yourself as expert as you can. Learn as much as you can about teaching, about skills, about strength training, about systems, about sports psychology. Make sure you have fully learned every nuance to whatever the subject is, before you introduce it to your team.
But most importantly keep your ego in check. Make sure your Ideals are bigger than your Ego. Coaching is about relationships. It’s about mentoring. It’s about getting people to work together for a common goal. It’s about learning about yourself, about your team-mates and about your team. Be learned and humble.

Is it me or is it them
Coach Paul

Monkey See Monkey Do - Hey I Saw A Box-Out

2010-02-17T11:29:00.001-08:00

Don’t quote me how many rebounds are grabbed in the NBA. The number of rebounds will be equal to the number of missed shots. What I’d challenge you to do is count up the amount of box-outs you see in the NBA. They are few and far between or is just the camera angle? Blame it on the 80 games plus schedule, maybe it’s impossible to expand that type of energy over that length of a season. Blame it on the fact that professional sports have a huge entertainment value, and you will never see a box-out making a highlight reel. The P.A.S.S. style of NBA basketball Pass And Stand Still is not a good model for young players.
Unfortunately, monkey see monkey do. The swat becomes more intriguing as a defensive tool to young players than does the box out. Have you ever had a player that you could give the assignment of keeping the other team’s best player off the boards for the entire game? I’ve been fortunate enough to have had that experience as a coach. I’ve had the pleasure of coaching players with that type of sacrifice. My eldest daughter Nicole, Mike "The Hammer" Tomlinson, and Evan "Bulldozer" DeGier can be included in that list. Invaluable!
More box outs equals:
1. More rebounds equals more possessions equals higher percentage shots. On the offensive boards it translates into higher percentage shots. Defensives rebounds translate into transition and higher percentage shots.
2. More rebounds equals more possessions for your team less for your opponents’ team.
3. Just ask Tom Izzo. Boxing-Out and rebounding equals a toughness factor to your team. I’ve heard Coach Izzo say “please have your players play football or something to toughen them up before you send them my way.
4. Rebounding is an activity that will land your players on the Free Throw line especially on the offensive glass. More chances to score, and an opportunity to get an advantage by getting your opponents best players off the floor in foul trouble.

Is it me or is it them
Coach Paul

Signs Of Intelligence

2010-02-17T09:20:00.000-08:00

A Chemistry Professor I had once said Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Turns out he was quoting Albert Einstein. How many times do we see coaches badgering referees? This action is repeated throughout the game, and through out their season. You have to stop and ask yourself, is it working? Have I ever got a referee to reverse a call? Even if the answer is yes, and I have seen it happen once, is the energy used to badger the ref worth the outcome. When I saw it happen it was a tipped ball out of bounds, and although possessions are important. It really had no effect on the game.

Here are some reasons to reconsider the energy spent questioning, yelling, and badgering the referees.

1.You are no longer coaching. Spend that energy on your team. Cheer them, instruct them, and make adjustments. There is an energy crisis, don’t contribute to it.

2.Believe it or not referees are human. If you think yelling at them will get them to answer your question in a civil way? Do you think how they are made feel will not bias the occasional call?

3.Be a role model. Would you expect this behaviour from you players? Show them how to conduct themselves on and off the court.

4.Be a student of the game. Engage a referee in a conversation. Invite a referee to your practice and have them talk about the game and then do a Q & A with your players and the referee. After a big time defensive smack on the backboard when one of my players was going to the cup, I asked the referee, can you explain to me how that is not goal-tending, when the shaking of backboard and rim are clearly effecting the shot. Answer: I can’t be expected to interpret the intention of hitting the backboard. So if the defender is smacking the board on the same side as the shot, then, I have to let it go. Now you and I know that all smacks to the backboard are an attempt to effect the shot, but the point of the matter is I was not informed and dropped any frustration with this call never being made. My expectation changed, and I can now coach around this.

Is it me or is it them
Coach Paul

Is It Me Or Is It Them

2010-02-17T07:06:00.000-08:00

A good friend of mine, when pointing out the obvious, would always say “is it me or is it them”. In that light of pointing out the obvious it’s very amusing. I think I will borrow that phrase for my sign off.
Thanks Mike
Is it me or is it them
Coach Paul

Being Out Coached

2010-02-16T17:07:00.000-08:00

One of the toughest issues to deal with when you are a coach is being out-coached. Having had a very successful coaching career over the past 5 years, I know that most of the losses my team had were a result of me not preparing them for their competition. Not giving them the tools to get the job done. Not making adjustments quick enough on the floor. With each one of those losses, I went back to the drawing board and worked harder to make my teams more mentally tough. I worked harder to bring my players better skills and better fitness. Worked harder to recognize situations and patterns and adjust to those.
You have to keep your ego, in check, so that you can recognise your role in each win and loss. You have to be willing to admit it and fix it. When you loose a game, you should not be just disappointed in the loss, but that you responsible for the disappointment your team is feeling.
Work harder each day at becoming a better coach. You wouldn’t expect less of your players.

Talent is Overrated

2010-02-15T19:27:00.000-08:00

In books like Geoff Colvin’s Talent is Overrated and Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers we learn that deliberate practice of habits will lead to success. Check out this video. It represents countless hours of practicing the following steps. Each step is a note, and when strung together makes for a great song.

1) Cuts to the ball in working in straight lines with hands ready
2) Right side of the court, moving away from the basket, left foot set as pivot foot ready for a sweep and go, or rubber band
3) Hard to see (number 25 steps in the line of the camera angle) but if you frame by frame it, defender's hands are down, put the defenders nose in his ear, by sweeping ball across his face to create some space.
4)Athletic stance dribbling the ball on outside of knee, below knee with chicken wing out
5)Cross-over below the knee, with chicken wing out.
6)Enters the paint through the elbow.
7)Offers 33 his left arm for contact, leaving his shooting arm fee from the contact.
8)The focus to finish in traffic.
9)The vertical equals 2 years of strength training, plyo and core to achieve a 40 inch vertical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlzsy5a-kIY

Coach Paul

Teach How

2009-10-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

When coaching you have a responsibility to teach how. Put finer points on what ever you are teaching. Too often we say "don't do it that way”, or we use terms that the players may not understand conceptually, OR we say “they were just told how to do it, and yet they are still not doing it” I have even heard coaches say, I’ve been running this drill for 4 years, and they still don’t get it. Remember, when you point a finger, 3 point back at you. Maybe we need to rethink what and how we are teaching. Remember like parenting, being a coach the balance of the relationship is unequal. You should encourage communication, but you can’t expect that the players will always ask questions. You need to be able to demonstrate what you are teaching, even if it is at a much slower speed. Show players, what you want, associate a term for what you are teaching. That way you can give an auditory cue when you are trying to emphasize the skill or habit you are trying to make second nature.
Coach Paul

Euro Legend Jasmin Repesa

2009-10-10T16:15:00.000-07:00

Attended a great clinic at Ryerson Friday night. The guest was Euro Legend Jasmin
and focused on individual athlete development with an emphasis on balance in basketball.

What I took away was the concept of not over extending in help, but being on blance so that your recovery is more effiecient.

Push Me

2009-10-10T15:24:00.000-07:00

well sometimes push me means exactly that. I'm doing a clinic in Toronto, and I have the boys doing some 4 ball, ballhandling drills in pairs. Enphasis on atheltic stance. I'm knocking them about a bit to check their balance, and just because it raises the intensity, and competitive nature of the boys. I'm being me.. whoopin and hollarin, getting the atmosphere high energy, when one of the boys shouts out to me "coach push me, push me". I go over to him, and say "oh yes I WILL push you, and challenge you, but at some point you need to find it within yourself to push yourself. You need to be self motivated. You need to find it in here (tapping on his sternum) to take you outside your comfort zone"... pounding those balls he never missed a beat.. but said "no coach, I mean push me like you pushed that other kid. Check my balance" LOL..

one more clinic

2009-08-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

One clinic left. I'm looking forward to a good workout with the boys. It's been a great group to coach. Respectful and hard working. What more could you ask for.
Last night we were fortunate to have Adam Jespersen workout with us. Adam talked to the boys about next steps, playing at the next level. He gave the boys some excellent information and lots to think about.
Thanks Adam
Coach Paul

3 In A Row

2009-07-23T06:13:00.000-07:00

The boys had three excellent workouts with Ganon this week. The intensity of the drills while emphasizing specific key aspects leads to one thing. Being a better player!

Watching Ganon work out the boys reminds me of two philosophies.
1) Practice the way you want to play or you’ll play like you practice.
2) Basketball is a simple game. Do simple things correctly and you’ll be successful.

Coach Paul

Ganon Baker

2009-07-20T09:04:00.001-07:00

Taking a few boys down to work with Ganon Baker in Saltfleet today. Always a good workout for the boys, and I never come away without learning something new.
Thanks in advance Ganon
Coach Paul

Rubbing Elbows

2009-07-15T05:44:00.000-07:00

While in Indiana and Kentucky I had the opportunity to see and talk to some of the following coaches. Man what a thrill, to be around and talk to people that coach at that caliber. Coach Izzo was gracious enough to invite me down to watch some practices. I’ll definitely take advantage of that. All of the following coaches I have used invaluable information from their DVD’s whether skill development or cunning and subtle nuances to playing team defense or getting brown thing to go in the round thing.
Coach Paul

Tom Izzo is the head coach for the Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team.

William John “Billy” Donovan, Jr. is the head coach of the Florida Gators basketball team

Jerold Taylor "Jay" Wright, Jr. He is currently the men's coach at Villanova University.

Tim Buckley is a former head coach at Ball State University.

Kentucky

2009-07-13T11:56:00.000-07:00

The EAU team went 4 and 2 in Kentucky. They lost in the semi-finals. Not bad for a first showing. It's very apparent that team defense is much better in AAU. Help and help-the-help is far more aggressive. The game is much more physical, and being a multi-dimensional player is key. If not you had better be able to do something better than all others.
Coach Paul

Are you ready

2009-07-10T10:28:00.000-07:00

well the intensity of team defense is much much different here. It exposes players that only have a one dimensional game. It's a great experience for the boys, and it's very cool to see some big time coaches watching games. Tom Izzo was at our last game.. Jay Smith was at one of the earlier games in Indiana.
The trick will be, creating an environment back home that simulates this one.. stronger, faster, tougher.

Coach Paul

Last Practice before Kentucky

2009-07-02T15:13:00.000-07:00

Last practice tonight before Sean heads out to Indiana and Kentucky. On the week of July 20 th, Ganon is in Saltfleet, and I'll contact him to see if he'll work out a small group after hours. Keep checking the calender.
Coach Paul

NBA Ballers 3 on 3

2009-06-28T18:03:00.000-07:00

What a kick to see the finals for 3 on 3 age group 16 - 18!

Final game one team had 2 London Ramblers: Sean "The Truth" Patrick and Charles "The Thunder" Kamau and the other team had 3 London Ramblers: Erick "Rocky" Fasado Pennetti, Evan "Dozer" DeGier, Andres "ARAM" Ramirez.

Three other teams had other players from the same OBA team... Chidi "The Smack" Majok on one team. Colin "The Human Flash" Mandich and Nick "The General" Norwood on a team. Also Leon "Rockets" Mboko on a team.

Good showing boys. You are all winners by my estimation.
Coach Paul

How many hours do you have logged? OR how deep do your roots go?

2009-06-28T18:00:00.000-07:00

How many hours have you logged?

In Geoff Colvin's book, Talent Is Overrated he talks about the 10 Year Rule.

The one thing that all expertise theorists agree on is that it takes enormous effort to build these structures in the mind. Simon coined a psychological law of his own, the 10-year rule, which states that it takes approximately a decade of heavy labor to master any field. Even child prodigies, such as Gauss in mathematics, Mozart in music and Bobby Fischer in chess, must have made an equivalent effort, perhaps by starting earlier and working harder than others.

In Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers he talks about the rule of 10 thousand hours.

Ten thousand hours! Why so long? Exeperts such as Daniel Levitin, the author of This Is Your Brain On Music, and Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers: The Story of Success figure that it takes ten thousand hours of practice to become an expert in almost anything.

In nature we see that the bamboo plant grows very little in the first 10 years. It spends those years establishing it's root system. After that time period it can grow up to 100 feet per year.

Figure it out.. take the time to determine how many hours you have logged. How deep are your roots. Then calculate how long it will take you to get where you are going.

Coach Paul

2009-06-28T16:40:00.000-07:00

Sean is doing well with on his AAU team. Great group of athletes! They had their first tune up game before they head off to Indiana and Kentucky. They played against the top AAU team in Canada and came out with a very decisive win 95 - 64.
Coach Paul

Year End

2009-06-28T16:36:00.000-07:00

Well it was a terrific year for me. The U17 girls team made it to D2 and competed 6 games in OBA's to get 4th. They also received the Fair Play Award.
The U16 team made it to D1, and competed well. They had a great record this season.
Busy, very busy, but very rewarding.
I'm looking forward to keeping in touch with all the players during their high school season.
Good Luck
Coach Paul