That Basketball Life

As a coach you are concerned about a lot of things regarding your players.  You're concerned about what offense or defense your team is going to run or whether they are in good enough shape to play through a game or what nagging injuries they may have.  The number one thing on the list for me is player development and because of this the main question that I always ask myself is what is the best way for my players to acquire a given skill?  The question is answered in 4 steps, 1v0, 1v1, small sided games (ssg), and 5v5.  The first of the 4 steps deals with skill acquisition and the next 3 deal with skill application. 1v0 - Skill acquisition In 1v0, the player is just practicing on his own at first introducing the skill to his body and mind and then trying to get comfortable doing the given skill.  As he gets more comfortable with the skill he will need to push himself to do it faster and faster until he is up to game speed.  He can help himself get better b...

 I coached a game yesterday which my team came just short of winning.  In this league, each team is given 1 time out in the first half and 2 in the second half.  The team was down by as many as 13 points in the second half.  We put on a full court press to get back in the game and with about 2 minutes left I used 1 of my 2 second half timeouts to draw up a play in an effort to tie the game.  My thinking at the time was to get the ball to my hot hand and put pressure on the other team by tying the game.  The time out worked as we scored and the game kept going back and forth.  With about 50 seconds left I called another timeout as we had possession and were down 2.  We set up another play and it worked to tie the game but I was out of timeouts.  At the end of the game the other team called a timeout and I decided to continue pressing them.  The logic was to continue to go with what has worked.  The other team broke the press and got ...

Scrimmaging is one of the most popular parts of practice for players.  They love the idea of forgoing drills and just playing.  This drill makes a coach very popular with the players but is it beneficial in preparing your team for games?  The answer to that question is yes if used correctly.  There are different ways to run a scrimmage and all of the ways that will be described below are designed to help your team become more of a team. Types of Scrimmaging: Let them run - I like to use this type of scrimmage at the beginning of the season.  With let them run the whole idea is to split the team up and let them go up and down the court.  There are no fouls called, and the ball is pushed up the floor even after makes.  What I'm looking for with this drill is how the participants play with each other.  Do they play well together or is there a lot of "I'm getting mine" out there. The up and down action also allows for conditioning to take place in an ...

 I've spent some time on the topic of confidence building.  Over the many years I have spent coaching I have witnessed all kinds of players.  In general players fall into one of three categories: Player with plenty of skill but no confidence Player with little skill but plenty of confidence Player that has both skill and confidence The ideal category for a player to be in is category 3.  Between the other 2 categories, I would argue that it is better to have a player with confidence without the equivalent skill level.  This is how valuable confidence is.  Confidence can make an average player so much better and on the other hand a lack of confidence can make a very skilled player look bad.  The question then is how can you build confidence in your players?  Just like every other talent bestowed on people, confidence can be ingrained in some while for others it needs to be dragged out.  How can you as a coach make your players more confident i...

 I've spent many hours thinking about this topic over the last few days as I have had some issues with some of the effort some of my players exert during a game/practice.  As a coach it frustrates me greatly when I see a kid out on the basketball floor making no effort at all.  When I see this I always ask myself the same question "If this kid doesn't like to play then why is he wasting his time and money doing this?"  After some thought I have figured out that there are some kids that just don't understand the whole concept of effort.  They don't understand that bringing a ton of energy and effort to a practice or game will make that session so much easier to get through.  What I have to understand is that if a kid does not have this max effort ideal in his DNA I have to nurture it out of him.  I believe that just like anything else effort needs to be taught. Think about it for a second.  For some it's easy and for others it's hard.  Some ha...

One of the things I like to do with the kids I train is video them while they train.  In today's day with all the technology around it is easier than ever to do so and the feedback these videos give are priceless.  As a coach or as a player who manages to video training sessions what should you look for?   To begin with I want to make clear that we are talking about training here and about individual improvement.  A coach will be looking for other things not included in this post if he is filming his team practices, his team's games, or opposition games (we'll cover these in another post).   With that out of the way, what do we look for when we review a training session on film?  There are a number of things: Form when performing the drill - how does the form look?  Say you are teaching a reverse layup, how does the kid look when finishing with no one defending?  Does it look effortless or does it look like there is a lot of discomfort w...

Here at That Basketball Life we have spent a lot of time discussing drills that can be used to help improve your basketball game.  There are a ton of drills for dribbling, shooting, agility, defense and all the rest of the good stuff.  What I haven't spent a lot of time doing is discussing how you can incorporate all of the drills into a useful plan to help take your game to the next level.  In order to do this you need to incorporate a plan that not only teaches you how to use the skills but also when to use them.   The "when" is done with the mind processing information.  At first your mind will be slow to process this information as you will spend more time thinking but eventually the thinking will become reactive and instinctive.  To nurture this process, you need to be involved in battles against other players.  I love small sided games (SSG) for this reason.  Going 1v1 or 2v2 or even going 3v2 and learning how to capitalize on the advan...

There have been times that I've wondered why super athletic players can't seem to excel on the basketball floor.  I've seen guys that are tall and long and can jump through the roof that didn't make it.  These are the guys who in warm ups look great but in the game are not as relevant as you think they would be.  A lot of times you hear the phrase "they couldn't put it all together" being tagged on these people.  Why couldn't they put it all together?  Why is it that their dominance may have been evident against people at the lower levels but faded as they kept trying to climb up the ladder.  After listening to and studying how some of the greats approach the game, I believe that there are 5 elements that make a great player.  Possess all five and you will make it.  Possess four of the five and you can still make it depending on which four you possess.   The five elements are (ranked in order): Basketball IQ and studying the game,  ...

Nice video by Coleman Ayers on how important changing speeds is in basketball. He provides some great tips also.  

This is a nice video on how to get low and how to practice getting low.

 The difference between a player who plays well in big games and the one who doesn't comes down to his ability to embrace playing outside his comfort zone.  If you listen to the successful pros in their interviews before and after big games the one common theme they all share is how important it is to embrace the opportunity that is in front of them.  They all will say how they put their trust in the thousands of hours they have spent in the gym honing their craft.  They will also say that failure never crosses their mind.  They prefer to focus on the opportunity that is before them. How does this translate to kids and how can you as a coach instill values in them so that they can embrace such opportunities?  I think there are a few steps that coaches can take to build up confidence in their team. Find competitive games for them to play in.  Teams and players need to learn how to win.  This is especially true the older the child gets.  It is ...

Interesting take on the famed gap.

The pick and roll has always been a huge part of the pro game.  Over the last few years it has trickled down through the college ranks to high school.  Below is a good video discussing how one of the best point guards of all time uses the pick and roll.