PARENTS: a must read!

I enjoyed my friend Brian McCormicks recent post in his Blog site so much that I copied the entire blog entry and reposted it here.   I completely agree with this model and training philosophy for youth and HS age players.   You can find the original here-   http://www.thecrossovermovement.com/component/option,com_jd-wp/Itemid,61/

 *NOTE: Mr Messina’s comments are indented.

Ettore Messina on Talent Development 

March 17th, 2008

In many ways, my book and this site is a response to the way we develop talent and especially the way we approach youth basketball in the United States. In short, I advocate a long term approach and one which does not professionalize youth sports at a young age. On some sites, I have seen this philosophy, as well as the book, discredited by those who suggest this philosophy attempts to socialize sport: that is, eliminate competition and make everyone into winners so we can save everyone’s self-esteem. I have never advocated such a philosophy, and instead believe that the message and approach my book describes is the best way to develop talent.

Ettore Messina is regarded as one of the world’s best professional coaches. He is the coach of CSKA Moscow, one of the top three teams in Europe currently. The Cleveland Cavaliers Mike Brown sought his advice during the summer. On his blog, he answers the question of developing one’s child into a professional athlete:

 

First of all, it will be extremely helpful for your kid to try both an individual sport and a team sport when he’s young in order to develop himself mentally and physically. For example, I was very lucky that my daughter tried judo for 3 years when she was in primary school. This really helped her to develop her personality, to overcome her lack of self-confidence, to know her body better and to discipline herself a little bit.

When the parents of young kids ask me to train their son or daughter, I tell them to invest in martial arts lessons first and wait on the specialized basketball training until they are teenagers. I believe strongly in the discipline and the body awareness through martial arts, and the basketball players I train who did martial arts seemed like stronger, better athletes too.

 

The first thing that I would consider as a father is the quality of the coach. Many parents who are not very familiar with a particular kind of sports may be attracted by the system that focuses on the result. But there is a huge difference between playing sports on the professional level and teaching it to the youngsters. You’d better send your kid to the place where the focus is on the development of his personality and his qualities of a player, as it’s much more important at that age.

Agreed. I have written in the past of the programs who market as “train like a pro” and the problem with this training for young players. It is much more important to develop the interest and passion for playing at a young age and to model the desired traits, like hard work, sticktuitiveness, etc.

 

You should not hurry to make your kid a pro athlete that has four or more trainings a week and dedicates a lot of time to sports. Personally, I think, this should not happen until the kid turns 14-15. Young kids that are exposed to a very high level of pressure physically, technically and mentally, usually, cannot stand this kind of pressure. I would like to find a teacher for my kid who will be able to offer a reasonable level of challenge to the young players and develop some kind of group mentality, still respecting everybody’s personality.

For youths, playing multiple sports and participating is more important than specialized training. Several studies confirm that those who specialize early, peak early. In the U.S., many parents rush this specialization to improve a chance for a scholarship, but nobody needs to peak at 15-years-old to receive a scholarship. Colleges want to see potential as much as refined skills.

 

Let’s get down to the key question: how a parent who never played a pro sports could decide what coach is good for his child? First of all, neither the parent nor the coach should be attracted by immediate results. Second, all of us can understand if there is balance in the behavior of another person. Even if my son received more attention in terms of shooting, playing time, I would be suspicious. Because treating him like a superstar when he’s 13 years old is not a good way to develop his personality.

Again, another premise of my book, that the “Peak by Friday” mentality hinders a player’s development and enjoyment of an activity, even though adults believe an experience is not worthwhile unless they win. Remember, we need to use the motivations of kids at their age groups and not super impose adult values on kids sports.

 

Suppose I don’t know basketball and choose a coach for my child. The most important indicators for me would be a) my son’s mood when he comes back home after practices and b) the level of togetherness of his team when I watch their games. If I see that my child comes home perfectly adequate and most of the times positive, and his team is playing with a good sense of togetherness, for me that’s the sign that you might want to stay with this coach. If, by contrast, he comes home frustrated or behaves in some strange way, he’d better leave and find someone else.

This is a huge issue with AAU teams (and high schools to an extent), as parents believe their child needs to play with a certain team. When I was younger, I saw two programs dissolve because of parents worrying about who won the MVP trophy at a tournament or the name of the program or wanting to be with a more prestigious coach or team for more exposure, even though the players were playing with their best friends, learning the game and enjoying the experience. But, there is the “keeping up with the Jones’” mentality, and often times parents ignore their kids’ needs to find the more elite, premier, select team, and the coaches market to this desire.

 

Until kids turn 12-13 it’s not only sport, it’s more a game. By game I mean something that can be played with a lot of mistakes. It should involve a lot of fun. It’s like in school when you experience all the fun when you start to read, to count or to discover something new. It’s more a game for the first 4-5 years. Then it becomes more serious and you should start asking those kids to be much more selective in their understanding and their learning. You start pressing them a little bit more to organize their ability to study.

Many coaches purposely try to drive the fun out of the game and insist on perfection. However, to learn, one must make mistakes. To improve, one must enjoy the activity so he invests the necessary time and energy. Asking for too much, too soon turns kids away from the game, even though my critics say this just means they are soft. I remember watching an u-9 AAU game and the opposing coach yelled and screamed at his players and several left the court crying, to which he criticized even further. The coach, apparently, had one of today’s top high school players playing for him for a couple years. However, is it worth it to drive several kids to tears, even if it helped the one kid eventually become a great player? How many players quit the game so the one kid could achieve greatness? I walked through a gym a couple weeks ago and was astonished that parents allow coaches to treat their kids in such a way. I know that a teacher in a classroom could not get away with calling a kid dumb, but coaches esentially do the same thing.

 

The same in sports, it should not be about fundamentals until at least 10. For sure, you can teach your children to know their body through the use of the ball: how to catch, how to roll, how to run with the ball etc.

I questioned a coach about his offering “professional fundamental training for six-years-old and up,” and many did not understand my question. If something is good for a 10-year-old, starting at eight must give the kid an advantage. If my neighbor starts at eight, I’ll start my kid at seven. This is the mentality. However, as I write about in this week’s newsletter, if kids do not develop the general movement skills early, they eventually struggle with sport-specific skills later. At the young ages, it is far more important to use fun games to teach movement and allow young athletes to explore, rather than to set-up competitive leagues and training.

 

As for fundamentals to be developed until players are 16-17, the most important thing to check is coordination and balance. I would not be so paranoid with all other things. Then, obviously, you teach them how to catch, how to pass, how to shoot, how to dribble, how to move without the ball. But if they don’t have the balance and coordination, it’s difficult for them to become good basketball players. For example, Ricky Rubio is helped a lot by the great balance, coordination and quickness he has. It gives him a great advantage.

Are You Afraid?

By Coach Atwood

Courage is being afraid to do something, but still doing it.

                                                                                                                                   ~Knute Rockne  

What kind of player are you?  Do you play the game with fear, or with courage?  If you say that you’re not afraid of anything, then I question your courage.  Why?  Because showing courage means that you recognize the situation as dangerous, or risky, or difficult, but you still do it in spite of your fear.  That’s real courage- feeling the fear, and overcoming it; like riding a roller coaster even when you’re scared to try it.      

Fear can weaken an athlete’s courage and cause hesitation.  Fear can rob an athlete of her full potential and ability.  Fear is like an invisible cancer that eats away from the inside, destroying an athlete’s performance.  When individual players on a team play with fear instead of courage, that team’s full potential is weakened.    

The obvious question is what is there to be afraid of in a basketball game?  I will answer that with some specific real life observations.  But collectively I believe these are all social fears; like fear of making mistakes in front of people, or the embarrassment associated with having your shot blocked.  

If you’re a good shooter and you’ve missed three shots in a row, do you courageously take the next wide open shot?  Or do you allow fear to make you stop shooting because you’re afraid of missing your fourth in a row?    

If you have possession of the ball near half court, and the half time buzzer is seconds from going off, do you courageously make an attempt at the half court shot?  Or do you just hold the ball, allowing the fear of being embarrassed by a possible “air ball” to keep you from even trying?   

If you consider yourself a good on ball defender, do you show courage by guarding your opponent as close as possible right from the beginning; making them uncomfortable and forcing them to prove that they either can, or cannot beat you with the dribble?  Or do you allow the fear of possibly getting beat of the dribble to cause you to play with a big gap between you and the ball?  It’s meaningless to claim you never get beat off the dribble if you play so far away from the ball that it’s practically impossible to get beat.  

Will you take a “charge?”  Do you have the courage to allow an offensive player with or without the ball to run into you and knock you over?  Have you ever been in good position to take an offensive foul, but allowed fear of contact to cause you to move out of the way at the last second?  Or worse, do you not even put yourself in that position by never stepping in front of the offensive player even though you have enough experience to see opportunities to step in and take a charge?    

When going full speed for a layup that is going to be contested by a defender just behind, or right next to you, do you courageously take the contact, or even lean in and create the contact, looking to draw a foul and putting up a strong shot?  Or do you take an angle away from defensive contact, and away from the basket, allowing fear to cause you to make the shot even more difficult while also avoiding getting fouled? 

In practice when coach has players match up with another player for one on one drills, do you courageously look to partner up with someone who will challenge you and help make you a better player?  Or do you allow fear to motivate you into seeking out someone who you know won’t push you because you don’t want your dribble stolen, or your shot blocked?  There is no better way to improve your skills in any athletic pursuit than by playing against someone who really challenges you because they are a little better than you.  This is called, “playing up,” and the truly courageous athlete seeks out that kind of competition.  

If you are a serious player, do you have the courage to do what it takes to become the best player that you can?  If your answer to that question is yes, then you should make the best use of the time you spend on the court to improve your game.  Playing full court 5 on 5 games in open gym may be more fun than small sided (1 on 1, 2 on 2, 3 on 3) half court games, but it’s truthfully not the best use of your time to get better.  More “touches” (how many times you have the ball) means more opportunity to work on your skills, and small sided half court games give every player more touches.  In a 5 on 5 full court game, a player can literally “hide” from the ball if they allow fear to control them.  But 1 on 1, and 2 on 2, and 3 on 3 games require you to both have to guard another player (not a zone), and to attack a defender when you have the ball.  That takes courage, and the reward for showing courage is that you get better faster.     

I believe that playing without fear is a skill that can be learned, practiced and improved.  For some players, playing without fear comes more naturally than for others and this is probably associated with individual personality types.  Generally as skill level improves, so does confidence, and confidence in your skills should always reduce fear.  One thing is certain- when you play the game from a perspective of fear (afraid to shoot, afraid to handle the ball, afraid to make the pass, afraid to guard the opponent closely) you will often end up making the exact mistakes that you are afraid of making.  Why is that?  I’m not sure, but you can see it by watching a player who hesitates and looks unconfident.  They make the exact mistakes they are so afraid of making and hoping to avoid.    

So what kind of player are you?  Will you take that last second shot, or do you want to get rid of the ball as fast as possible like it’s a hot potato?  Remember- it’s only a game, you have nothing to lose by playing hard and playing without fear.  When all the games are over and you’re old like your coach, be satisfied when you walk off the court that you didn’t allow fear to control your game. 

Next Season Has Already Started

A coaching friend of mine recently told me he was really looking forward to next season because he’s making some personal changes and he will be able to spend a lot more time on coaching than he’s been able to in the past.  That got me to thinking about when “next season” begins for me; and when does “next season” begin for you?    

For me, it began on February 13^th, the day after the last game of the ’07-’08 season.  On that day, I was surfing the web looking for summer team camps and tournaments.  I was also thinking about individual players, because I want to have player evaluations done before the team banquet.  That week I was also lobbying the local college coach to host a summer league.  I was burning DVD’s of game video to mail to college coaches who had asked for game tape.  And I was starting to evaluate my season plan to look for ways we can improve next year through better planning on my part.  

How about you?  If you are a player, when does next season start for you?  In our town –and probably every town- there are essentially two kinds of players.  The first kind of player works in the off season to improve her skills and hopefully turn weakness’ into strengths.  This player is self motivated, she only needs to know when and where there’s an opportunity (summer camp, open gym, summer league, etc) and she’s there.  In High School, the starting line up is generally made up of these kinds of players because they put in the time and effort to get better.  The second kind of player either shows up for off season opportunities once in a while, or not at all.  She will bring with her the same weakness’ and skill deficiencies from one season to the next because nobody gets better without doing the work.  This player may be generally a motivated person, but not about basketball, though she may likely see herself as motivated about basketball.  I honestly believe that some of the young women who play JV and Varsity basketball actually believe that they get better each season just by showing up.  As in, “I’m a senior and you are a freshman, there for I am automatically the better player.”  Nothing could be further from the truth.  

Observation of female players over a period of years shows that those who continue to work on their individual basketball skills (shooting, ball handling, passing, etc), as well as their athleticism (speed, strength, agility, etc) will continue to develop and improve as basketball players throughout High School, and in college if they play at that level.  While those who do not work in the off season generally plateau, or “peak” as athletes and basketball players at about 14-15 years old.  We can readily observe this locally with players who make the JV and Varsity teams at WHS but only participate during the season; they become physically faster and stronger as they mature, but they don’t show much fundamental basketball skill improvement from the 9^th grade, to the 12^th grade.  They don’t really get any better.  They finish High School with essentially the same set of skills they entered with.  

Every season the varsity roster is about half filled with players who never really got any better as basketball players.  They may be a little stronger and faster because they have physically matured, but they have essentially the same skills at 16-17 years old as they did at 14-15 years old.   The same is true with the JV roster, except it’s less apparent because the best varsity players have spent 2-3 more off seasons improving than the best JV players have, so the “skill gap” from one end of the bench to the other end (1^st player to 12^th) is less apparent.  There are numerous ways to observe this.  The easiest is probably statistics.  Over four years of High School basketball, did individual statistics stay about the same, or improve, or even decline?  Another way, while more anecdotal is just by observing.  Did the individual player ever develop their weaker dribbling hand?  Did the player ever learn any real post moves?  Did the player ever progress to using spin dribbles, or cross overs, or look away passes, or off hand lay ups, etc?  Or is their offensive game essentially the same as it was from 9^th grade through 12^th grade?    

When I played High School basketball, I was a marginal player, I never started, I filled one of the last spots on the roster and I worked hard to get it.  Making the varsity roster is something to be proud of, and I don’t intend to diminish anyone else’s accomplishments, but sometimes a little dose of reality in the form of the truth is a good thing for perspective.  And the truth is that from year to year, the most skilled players on JV could take the roster spots away from the least skilled players on Varsity if the two teams were combined into one team.    

The best players, the one’s who play the most get that way for a reason.  They put in the time and do the work to improve.   What kind of player are you?

Looking back on the season

This season was the most fun I’ve ever had coaching a basketball team.  Even though this was the most losses I’ve experienced in six seasons of coaching, I’ve never had more fun.  That is a credit to the character and personalities of the individuals who were on the team.  I’ve honestly never coached a more outstanding group of young women.   They played so hard.  They never gave up –not once- no matter what the score was.  With the lone exception of a 10 minute stretch in one game, they didn’t argue with each other.  Two players had a problem with how physical each played against the other in practice, but with a suggestion from me they were able to deal with it.  Daily practice was a beautiful place to be, it was fun, and enthusiasm was high.  We had the occasional low energy practice, but that sometimes happens.  I can’t wait for next season to arrive.  I know we will have another outstanding group of student athletes, and I know we will win more games.  Winning more will make it even more fun.  

This was going to be a challenging season for JV from the start, and anyone who has been paying attention knew that.  Varsity had pulled up freshmen the last two years in a row.  Potentially one of our best players didn’t make grades and never got to play.  Our team was comprised of a junior who speciously had been cut twice in middle school and once in High School, four sophomores, and nine freshmen.  Of that group, only five of them were serious basketball players who spent time in a gym working on their skills in the off season; and only two of those five were starters all season.  Nine of our players didn’t do anything to get better between last season and this one.  Three of those nine were starters.  Finally, we lost our starting point guard to injury just as the league part of our schedule was beginning.  Under these circumstances, it was going to be very difficult to have a winning season, and we had to make our goals for the season based on this.  Without skilled players, there’s only so much a coach can do.   Coaches can make a difference, but the teams with the best players should win the most games.  Good coaching can help make good players play well together.  Good coaching can help secure a last second win in a tight game, but no coach can make a consistent winner out of players with skills inferior to the opponents.  It takes good players to win, and not winning when you have the best players in the league is a coaching failure.  But that wasn’t the case with the JV team.  We had goals, but winning the league would not have been a realistic goal.    

We had three essential goals for the season.  We wanted to have fun, because practicing and playing a game in High School should be fun.  In 10 years nobody will remember the score of any of the games, but they will remember if they had fun or not, and they will know how to keep it fun if they ever coach a team.  We also wanted to show deliberate and steady improvement over the season.  During the league portion of our schedule, I received so many compliments from fans and parents who watched every game on how much the players and team improved from the start of the season.  Finally, it’s always my goal for any team I coach to be very good at something.  I want my team to be known for something; when teams play us, I want them to be very aware of something we are good at.  This goal is dependent on the talent and experience of the players.  Our biggest team weakness was offensive skills; and while we worked hard to improve that, I knew offense wasn’t something we were going to build a reputation on.  To be competitive, and to have a chance to win games, we had to limit our opponents to one shot, and we had to challenge every shot they took.  We had to rebound, and we had to play excellent defense.  That was what I wanted our team to be known for.  Win or lose, I wanted our opponents to know that, We Play Hard!   Rebounding and defense require skill and knowledge, but they are primarily about effort.  Effort is something the players can control no matter their skill level. 

I feel like we accomplished all three of our team’s goals and on that basis we had a successful season.  I’ve never been more proud of a team.  I challenged the team to improve, and I challenged individuals to improve, and in every instance they improved.  Some of the improvement was directly linked to playing time.  This is after all High School basketball, and if a player turns the ball over to the opponent practically every time they touch it, they are not going to get to play much until they improve that.  Some players I wanted them to play harder and hustle more, they did it.  Some players, I wanted them to make better decisions, to be more careful with the ball, to make better passes and to protect the ball better when they were holding it; they accomplished that.  Some players who showed certain abilities, I wanted them to use those abilities more, and they did.  We needed the players to do a better job of helping each other on defense, despite some lapses, they did it.    

The JV team’s improvement was dramatic.  Early in the season, we experienced some losses that were honestly embarrassing to see the final score.  In mid season we went away from playing pressure man to man defense in favor of zones because we just didn’t have enough players who understood the concepts and strategies of pressure man to man defense, so we had to simplify and continue to practice our full court disruption defense.  But by the time we got to the league games at the end of our schedule, we were playing fantastic disruptive full court man to man defense.  We still had mistakes sometimes, but at times we played defense so well that it actually looked as if we had an extra player on the court.  We were able to disrupt some of our opponents so completely that they were unable to run their offense against us.   Toward the end of the season we were able to keep scores close against teams who had beaten us by large margins earlier in the season.   

Shooting the ball and making layups was our weakness, and we worked on this in every practice session.  We practiced layups with a defender chasing every day.  We shot free throws and recorded results every day.  We shot the ball with no pressure, we shot with a defender closing out, and we shot with the shooting machine.  We did nothing but shoot on some Saturdays.  I feel like we did improve our shooting, a few individuals dramatically.  But we still missed far too many layups, and far too many shots within a few feet of the basket.  Missing close shots really hurt us, and we would have won more games had we just made more “bunny” shots from very close to the basket.  And that is not a criticism of our post players, because our guards missed too many layups, including many uncontested layups.  The biggest improvement in shooting came from some of our least experienced players, and that’s to be expected, as it’s easiest to show fast improvement at the beginning of skill development.  While I am happy for that improvement, and look forward to seeing that improvement on the court next season, it really hurt us that some of our most experienced and best players shot poorly all season and never really improved despite so much shooting practice.   

The players were not the only ones learning and improving.  I made mistakes, and I was learning too.  In mid season I decided to abandon the offense I had installed.  Looking back, it was not suitable to the skills on our players.  That wasn’t the players fault.  It’s up to the coach to recognize the situation and put in team offense that’s appropriate for the skill and experience of the players on the team.  I should have recognized this sooner.  Our original offense (“Regular”) was a very simple concept, and I thought that would be a good thing because we didn’t have a whole lot of basketball experience.  But I didn’t fully realize that despite the simplicity of the concept, all five players on the floor had to have the ability to attack the basket to score or pass, and they had to be able to make perimeter shots.  Those two skills were not our team’s strengths.  So we changed in mid season.  We put in two offensive sets (“13-O”, “23-O”) against zone defense, and three schemes for man to man; a pass & cut (“Spread”). a continuous screening (“Twist”), and a guard isolation (“Flat”), and we also started to work on a pick and roll.  In all our sets we emphasized two primary objectives, getting the ball into the post when we had a height advantage, and getting our best shooters the most shots.   Defensively, I probably should have trusted the players more and stayed with the full court pressure despite the problems we were having.  Had I done that, they probably would have become proficient sooner, and likely would have gotten better at it by the end of the season than they were able to.   

The objective of any offense no matter the scheme is to get your shooters good shots from areas where they can make the shots.   Make or miss, if shooters are getting wide open shots from the same spots they make shots in practice, then the offense is doing what it’s supposed to do.  By that standard, our offense was effective because we got a lot of good looks at the basket.  We had enough different schemes to be able to make adjustments based on the defense, and game video shows we got a lot of open shots.   We just needed to make more of them.  The objective of pressure defense (the way I teach it) is to keep the ball out of the lane, to challenge every shot (no wide open shots), to disrupt the offense so they can’t easily run what they want to run, to force them to dribble by taking away passing lanes, to have one and preferably two bodies in the lane no matter where the ball is, to make them start their offense further from the basket than they are accustomed to, to limit them to one shot per possession, and to take away either there best scorer or what they do best.  By the end of the season we were doing all of these things, some better than others.   

I’d like to thank my Assistant Coach Keith Snyder.  His dedication to the kids and Willits Basketball is inspiring to me, and he helps me to think things thru when I get a crazy idea.  I’d like to thank our fans who supported us loudly all season.  I’d like to thank our score keeper, Jennifer Nunez who put up with me all season.  I’d like to thank the parents who volunteered their vehicles, time and money to drive the team to away games- Dorothy Dalske, Paula & Miguel Nunez, Dana & Phil Eads, and Tony & Melody Sorace.  I’d like to thank our Home Scoreboard Operator, Carl; as well as the shot clock operators- Don Riggs and John Wagenet.   I apologize for anyone deserving my thanks that I left out.  Most of all, I’d like to thank the players who I look forward to watching graduate from WHS, become adults, go to college, invite me to their weddings, have their own families, and name their first born sons or daughters after me- Kyly, Ashanty, Megan, Rachel, Shelli, Kassy, Rebecca, Veronica, Rona, Jordan, Amanda, Joanna, Aleta, and Jennifer.  Your presence in my life has meant more than you know.  You’ve helped make me a better coach.  I love you guys!

Mendocino College Game

On Wednesday 2/6, most of the JV team and several of the Varsity team members were in the stands to watch a team of six Mendocino College Eagles win a very impressive and dramatic over time game against Yuba College. Mendocino actually played the last couple of minutes with only 4 players, the other two on the team having fouled out.In the first half, Mendo played tough defense and shot well from the floor. Mendo’s defense forced a lot of poor shots by Yuba. Mendocino really passed the ball well, and used a lot of basket cuts against both zone and man defenses to make the defense move. Excellent passing led to many wide open shots, and they made more than they missed. Mendo’s lead grew to as much as 17 points in the 1st half.

Yuba made a brief run early in the second half, cutting the lead to less than 10 points (can’t remember exactly). Mendo quickly built the lead back to 17 again, but after that, the game got closer and closer. Finally, with around 4-5 seconds left in the game, Coach Stilega called a time out; the Eagles were down by 3 points. They had the ball in their own front court- a chance to tie the game and send it into overtime. Probably everyone in the building knew that Coach Stilega was going to send them back out with a play to get sophomore guard, and former WHS star Katie Stiles a shot. Katie drained a heavily contested 3 pointer from the corner to send the game into over time.

In over time, Mendo managed to take control of the game again with no subs, because one player had already fouled out. I thought that was very impressive and showed a lot of heart and toughness, as well as excellent conditioning. Mendo built a slight lead and hung on to pull off the huge league game victory.

While the game was exciting, the highlight of the evening for me came when one of our players asked out loud about Katie Stiles, “How come Katie doesn’t just go to High School in Willits? After a moment of puzzled quietness, we all realized that she thought we were watching a High School game! I love these kids!

I’m no Expert

Someone recently asked me why I have a web log (blog)?  As in, what qualifies me to write about basketball?  That’s a fair question.  After all I’ve only been coaching for just over 5 years.  The answer is very simple really.  I enjoy writing, and what better topic to write about than something I enjoy doing?  As I study the game, go to clinics, and read books or articles from more experienced coaches, I keep seeing a recurring theme which happens to be what really draws me to coaching young athletes- that coaching is actually teaching, and a good coach uses the many opportunities found in an ordinary basketball season to teach his players life lessons.  That’s where the real significant value of interschoolastic athletics can be found.  Wins and losses are important in the moment.  Improving individual skills leads to better team play right now.  But what the game teaches us about ourselves and our interactions with others becomes a part of who we are in our everyday lives outside of athletics.  I am interested in learning and writing about these kinds of things more than X’s and O’s.   

But don’t misunderstand me, I do want to gain more knowledge of offensive and defensive tactics and game strategies.  I want to get better at recognizing game situations, and reacting with good adjustments.  But those things are for me, to make me a better game coach.  The truth is, I am more personally invested in learning to be a better life coach for the young people I influence thru coaching basketball.  This comes out in the things I choose to write about.

I can tell you with absolute certainty that there really isn’t anything new in basketball, and there hasn’t been in many decades.   Everyone borrows the offense and defense they teach and run from somewhere, or from someone.  What that means for my Blog from a tactics and strategy perspective is that I’m not just making any of this stuff up on my own.  There’s a source for everything.  Everything I write about in here I read in a book, heard at a coaching clinic, read in a coach’s web site, or gained from a conversation with a coach.  Does that make what I write absolutely correct?  Of course not, there’s always going to be differences of opinion and differences in coaching philosophies.  In fact, as I gain more experience, chances are in a few years that I may not even agree with some of my own current opinions.  And that’s fine, it’s about learning and developing.   

I enjoy coaching basketball, and I enjoy writing, that’s why I have a blog.

Megan Atwood’s season is over

Saturday 1/26 the team traveled to South Fork to take on the Cubs.  We got off to a strong start leading 17-9 after the first quarter.  But in the second quarter, Atwood stole the ball from their point guard and was taking it in for a layup when an opponent ran into her legs, undercutting her after she had jumped.  In trying to protect hersself from a hard fall, Megan stuck her hand out and landed hard on it.   X-rays later confirmed a shattered bone at the base of her thumb. 

Without their starting point guard, the team put up an incredible effort, but in the end the Cubs were able to win 43-38. 

JV Girls take the F.B. Timberwolves down

It’s been a tough season for the JV Wolverines.  With two straight years of taking freshmen athletes up to varsity, almost every game has been an uphill battle for the team.  But this is a great bunch of young women who play very hard every game.  They play hard up until the last second of each game no matter what the score is.  Despite not posting a win since early December, the team continued to compete hard every night.  I never once saw any hint of giving up.  And I’ve never been more proud of any team I’ve coached. 

Friday night (1/25) the Girls took the home court and easily handled  Fort Bragg 54-38.  In talking with the Ft Bragg coach in pre game, I’d learned that they hadn’t won a game since early December either, and they had very similar scores against our common opponents.  So I expected a tough and close game. 

 Earlier in the week, Coach Snyder and I had decided to go back to our original plan for the season and play full court “man to man” pressure defense.   We wanted to take advantage of our quickness while also playing a lot of girls.  But we’d gotten away from that.  Against Fort Bragg, we committed to playing full court pressure defense on every possession for the entire game- made shots or misses.  We call this defense, “disruption,” and that’s a good name for it as Ft Bragg was never able to run any offense in the game.  They just looked confused and harrassed.   

Kyly Moody had a huge game with 21 points.  Megan Atwood had the assist on many of those baskets.  Ashanty Torres came up big with 10 points.  And Joanna Bennet had a break out game with 6 points, but more significantly she was able to break down the defense again and again with dribble penetration.  Cassy Aldaco and Atwood also finished with 6 points. 

“Run a Play!”

Have you ever been at a youth basketball game, and heard a frustrated voice in the stands repeatedly yelling, “run a play, run a play” in a sort of, what’s-wrong-with-you tone of voice?  I used to feel pressure to conform to that voice.  The implication was that teaching a set offense was something that I had to do, or I was failing.  But there is no kind of team offense that is effective unless the players can consistently make layups and wide open shots.  At the youth ages, those 20 minutes of valuable practice time spent teaching the cuts and screens of a flex offense are probably better spent learning how to shoot and make layups, because plays don’t make baskets, players with skills do.  A plays is supposed to help get players good looks at the basket, but the kids have to possess the ability to score or a set offense is a waste.  I believe this is generally true no matter the age of the players.  There’s a way to measure the effectiveness of your offense.  Look at the game video and count how many baskets you get from your team actually running a play correctly.  Then count how many baskets you get off put backs, busted plays, steals, fast breaks, etc.  If your team is spending significant practice time working on a set plays, or continuity offense, and then only making a few baskets a game despite running it over and over, is that good coaching?  I’m not really sure, but I’m leaning toward no. 

Someone once said, “Don’t confuse activity with progress.”  That principle can apply to practicing.  It’s easy to look busy and appear competent by running some organized drills.  Organization implies competence.  I look back on my first season and that’s what I was really doing, and I didn’t realize that.  I was going thru the motions of organized activity, but there wasn’t a whole lot of teaching actually happening.    When I put them into a lay up line, my instruction and attention was just as concerned with getting the mechanics of the drill right as with the actual skill.  I was concerned with their form, but unconcerned at first that they were only going half speed and no one was guarding them.  In my first season coaching middle school kids, the majority of the kids came to me with beginner skills- poor shot form, poor ball handling skills, and the inability to make layups with any consistency.  I had two weeks to prepare them to compete in games.    

While it’s true that any amount of time spent practicing and playing will improve skills, the point of a structured practice session is to make the best use of limited time to prepare a team to play games.  The old coaching saying goes, “Teams are made in the season. Players are made in the off season.”  There is a lot of pressure on a coach to prepare his team to play.  You have to come up with the best plan you can to compete with the talent and skill available.  When I was a kid growing up in a small town, there weren’t any leagues for 7, 8, 9, and10 year olds.  We played outside on pavement.  We learned the essential offensive skills from countless hours of small sided games.  Play to 11, winner’s outs, gotta win by 2, call your own fouls.  That’s where we learned to handle the ball and break a defender down.  That’s where we learned to create space to get a shot off, and finish a layup with someone hanging off of us.  Nowadays most of the kids come into our youth programs without those strong individual skills.  And we make them run offense anyway, because maybe 6-8 of them have the athletic ability and/or skill to make it work, and there’s that guy in the stands yelling, “Run a play!”   I believe that often times, running plays just serves to make our games look organized in the same sense that running drills can serve to make our practices look organized.  And the coach can respond after a loss that, “They didn’t run the offense right.”  But are they ready to run plays?  Do they have the fundamental skills to make an offense work?

In Brian McCormick’s book, Cross Over The New Model of Youth Basketball Development, McCormick makes a strong case for examining and making changes in how we prepare youth to play the game.  McCormick notes the demise of “free play,” and that basketball, and indeed today’s youth’s lives are generally more structured than past generations were.  Basketball is an activity my generation played in parks, school yards and driveways.  There were no grown ups there with us organizing, creating structure, holding down creativity and fun.  Nowadays basketball is something done from 4:00 to 5:30 and virtually every moment of it is structured.    McCormick believes that coaches tend to “over-coach,” that the influence of adults has made it about competing, winning games and tournaments.  He believes the USA youth basketball development model is essentially broken; that it short changes long term athletic development for short term gains (win today).  He calls this the “peak by Friday” mind set.  He believes we need to find ways to return the game to the kids, and that at the youth level we need to focus on teaching players to play, not on preparing teams to win.  Yes basketball is a team game, and yes even the kids want to win.  But this much we know for sure- confident players play well, and good teams are made up of confident players.  I say teaching skills that lead to confidence is far more critical than putting in “passing game,” and a zone offense. 

Let them know you care about them

One of my favorite web sites is iyca.org  I like this site because it stands for a vision of training young athletes that I admire very much and have striven to pattern my own coaching philosophy after.  This article is representative of that philosophy.  Brian Grasso is the Founder of the International Youth Conditioning Association.  Brian is a a well-known, respected and outspoken leader in the youth athletic development industry, Brian has written feature articles for sport training magazines throughout North America including, Men’s Fitness, Men’s Health, SportingKid, American Track & Field and Personal Fitness Professional.

 Brian recently posted this in the IYCA discussion forum.

“In closing out 2007 with my final newsletter to you, I wanted to take a moment to discuss a topic that is of the utmost importance to me.  I’m going to tell you about Kenny.Now, I know you are used to me writing about speed training, strength development or coordination enhancement for young athletes, but with Kenny, I’m going to discuss a different side of the whole youth athletic development spectrum.  So sit back and enjoy where this story is heading…This past weekend, I drove down to Louisville Kentucky for a 3-day meeting with a couple of business-minded folks who are going to become part of Developing Athletics and the IYCA.  As I left my house in northwest Chicago, I decided that in order to make good time, I would resist the urge to stop at my local coffee house and instead, find a Starbucks along the journey… … A couple of hours into the drive and AFTER I had gotten through the horrendous morning Chicago traffic!  At around 8am, I found myself weaving through a small town called Seymour Indiana.  I needed some gas and conveniently, I had noticed a large sign on the highway proclaiming there to be a Starbucks somewhere within Seymour.  After a few minutes of searching without success, I decided to re-fuel first and ask the station attendant if he knew where the local ‘Bucks’ was located.  That’s where I met Kenny. Kenny is a 61 year old gas station employee in Seymour and has never really drifted too far away from the town that he has called home for over half a century.  I know all this because I ended up having a cup of coffee with Kenny and hearing all about his life and times. When I first met him, Kenny was only too happy to tell me exactly where the Seymour Starbucks was, and then added a quip about how he had never tasted anything from the corporate icon before - even though he only lived about 2 minutes from their only Seymour location.  I thanked him for the directions, paid for the gas and was on my way.  A Grande Sugar-Free Caramel Latte seemed like just the ticket I needed to get me the rest of the way to Louisville.When I got to Starbucks, thanks to Kenny’s perfect directions, I became overwhelmed with the feeling that at 61, it was high time that Kenny tasted what I have begun referring to as the ‘Starbucks Goodness’ that helps wake me up every morning.  So, along with my own cup o’ Joe, I took with me a Grande Gingerbread Latte and headed back to pay Kenny a visit.  Why this kind man inspired me to bring him back a $6 cup of coffee I really don’t know, but my story is about to take shape.

When I got back to the gas station, Kenny’s eyes lit up like he was seeing an old friend he hadn’t talked to in years.  I asked him if he enjoyed Gingerbread cookies and was very happy to hear that he absolutely loved them!  I handed him the ‘Starbucks Goodness’ and told him to take a sip.  I’ll never forget what happened next.

Kenny took a sip, smiled big, told me he loved it and then proceeded to walk around his checkout counter and give me a big hug.  “That’s the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for me” Kenny said.  We chatted for about 30 minutes and I was back on my way to Louisville.

My experience with Kenny was more profound and meaningful than I think I realized at the time…

… And of course, I started thinking about how it applies to training and coaching young athletes.

At face value, the fact a man who has lived for 61 years ranks someone buying him a cup of coffee as ‘the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for him’ seems a bit sad.  I mean, it was just a cup of coffee.  But when you dig into that comment just a little, you see something even MORE sad.

That it is ridiculously easy to put a smile on someone’s face.

It is easy to make people feel special.

It takes next to no effort to make people feel good.  The problem is, we seldom do it.

How many times do you give an unprompted ‘high five’ to a young athlete who, even though unable to pick up your new exercise with much proficiency, is working her tail off to try and get better?

How many times do you greet your young athletes at practice, in your facility or during class and tell them how happy you are that they are there?

How many times do you tell your team that you are so proud of how hard they played and couldn’t care less that they lost the game?

How often do you try to make a unique and individual connection with each of your young athletes even though you are working with 30 of them at the same time?

Kenny is an example on a ‘life’ scale of what we could and SHOULD be doing each and every day with the young athletes in our lives.  Go out of your way.  Make them feel special.  Put a smile on there face.  Be sure that they know they matter.  Sports and training are vehicles for life.  We have learned to walk with our heads down and become isolated even though our global community extends into the billions.  My challenge for you in 2008 is to put a smile on your young athletes face every single day.  Through sport and training, let’s work together to make sure the next generation doesn’t walk through life with there heads down.

I’ll be heading back to Louisville several times in 2008.  And yes, I’ll be making a stop to visit my friend Kenny every single time.  Have a wonderful holiday.  I wish you nothing but the best and brightest for 2008. ‘Till next year,”

Brian Grasso

Founder & CEO,International Youth Conditioning Association

http://www.iyca.org/