Tool of the Day Archive July 2008

July 31 A NEW RULE With one team of our teams, our coaching staff struggled to keep our players from dribbling across the timeline (or even worse, dribbling to the sideline and then crossing the ten second line into the coffin corner) and picking up their dribble with no way to get out of trouble.  They had no live dribble and no way to pass to our designated outlet behind the ball that we have in every offensive situation without an over and back. Adding a simple rule in practice that it was an automatic turnover to cross the line and pick up the dribble or cross on the sideline eliminated that bad habit in games.   As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words, and we made great strides in that area. Tomorrow will be the first video release in our HoopClinics project.  We hope that you will find it to be useful in your program.

July 30 SHOOTING WARMUP Regardless of whether you are working out, playing in a pickup game, or playing for your team against another, always start out with Rim Flips right at the basket and move your way back one step back at a time after 5-10 shots.  That way you are grooving your shot and keeping your fundamentals sharp.  You will also gain confidence as you make the close in shots.  Each time you move back as you move back slowly, it won't seem like you have even moved from the previous spot and all of the shots from the new distance will feel as easy as the ones from the step before!

July 30 STOP THEM BEFORE THEY START When you are playing against a team that fast breaks off a made free throw, have a substitute at the scorer's bench to go in after the final free throw is made.  That way you can get everyone back and set your half court defense.   If the free throw is missed, you can always pull the sub back from the scorer's table if you want. You can do the same thing if you are pressing and want time to set your press up. Reminder:  We will have the first free video in our HoopClinics partnership with Perfect Practice available this Friday, August 1.

July 29 DEFENSIVE MATCHUPS If you play man to man defense, one idea to consider when assigning your matchups is to put your best block out player on their best offensive rebounder.  Sometimes keeping that player from getting two or three putbacks can be the deciding difference in the game.

July 29 LESS GETS YOU MORE As you work to improve your free throw, the less motion you can have, the better off you are.  When you have fewer parts of your shot you have less that can go wrong in the delivery.  Work on getting the ball set on the shooting side of your body and keeping all of your motion compact and going straight toward the basket with an exaggerated follow through.

July 28 YOU'VE GOT MAIL As summer basketball is coming to an end for a lot of schools as fall sports practices will be starting shortly, we think that sending an e-mail or a postal mail letter to everyone who participated in your summer programs is a positive way to bring closure to the summer.  Whether it is high school participants or young players who came to a youth camp, it is a good way to say thanks for the efforts and point toward your fall conditioning and open gym programs for athletes who won't be in a fall sports.  Everyone likes getting personal e-mails or snail mail.  We believe that the three or four hours that you spend to add a little personal message to each note is something that the players will appreciate, even if they don't tell you.

July 28 TWO IMPORTANT WORDS We encourage you to take just a few minutes to write a thank you note, make a call, or thank in person, the people who helped you with your summer basketball this year.  Whether it was your coach who spent extra time with you in the gym, your parents who made sure that you were able to get to all of your activities, or a teammate who pushed you during workouts, make sure to tell them.  It takes very little effort and the impact you will have on the people you thank cannot be measured.

July 25 CARLOS BOOZER ON POST MOVES Click the link below to see a video from the TNT Fundamentals series: Carlos Boozer on Post Moves.

July 24 IT'S JUST DIFFERENT To read this article on scoring in the post, click here: HoopClinics Blog

July 24 BODY ON BODY We all know that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.  To make the distance when you are driving to the basket as short as possible, step at the defense so that your leg brushes the defensive player's leg.  You can work on that in your workouts by putting something there to practice with like a chair, or a teammate that you are working with.  Any gap between you and the defense makes that line less straight and lowers your chance of being able to get all the way to the basket to score. 

July 23 FOLLOW UP TO YESTERDAY When you are finishing at the basket, get your shoulders parallel to the bankboard (Sorry to throw in that math term, but school will be starting shortly).  Aligning your shoulders will align the rest of your body and you will have a better angle to get the ball up off the glass. This is another reason that having the ability to shoot inside with either hand will help you.  Whichever hand you need to shoot with to square the shoulders and still protect the ball from the defense is the one you should use.

July 23 NEW ANIMATED PLAY The newest of our animated basketball plays is a counter to our UCLA play that we run to isolate any player who has an advantage in the post. Click here for the original: UCLA Click here for the counter to UCLA: Bruin

July 22 BOTH HANDS, BOTH SIDES No matter whether you are a post up player who usually plays in the low post, or a perimeter player who drives or needs to finish at the basket on a fast break, work hard on the ability to score with both hands on both sides of the basket.  Don't just work on right hand, right side, and left hand, left side. The hand you use will be determined by your angle and where the defense is, regardless of what side of the floor you are on.

July 22 MULT-PURPOSE BASKTBALL DRILL We have posted a great drill to run at the end of practice to work on several basketball skills while getting some conditioning as well. We call the drill:  Full Court Layup Drill

July 21 THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE FOR OPEN GYMS We realize that your job will have different rules for different times of the year depending on your athletic governing body.  If you are allowed to have open gyms during the late parts of the summer or during the fall give some consideration to only running one court, even if you have enough for two games if you have players who are the same age.  If you have varied ages, you might consider a younger end and a veteran end. The reason we suggest one court is to make it as competitive as possible.  If you can't coach them, one way to get them to play hard is that if you lose, you have to sit out and wait your turn.  Just throwing this out as an idea, but it might make it more bearable to watch and more worth your time if they are playing hard.

July 21 WHAT YOU GIVE IS WHAT YOU GET The team will give back exactly what you put into it.

July 18 GIVE 'EM YOUR BEST Take some time this summer to tweak your press offense and half court trap attack to get your best player in the middle of those defenses.  If you can get your best player the ball in the heart of the defense, and with the defense spread, you gain the upper hand and can make the defense pay in several ways from there. If it is your best player, he or she is more likely to be active for the ball in the middle.  It is also natural for all players to look to the best in times of trouble, so there is a better chance that your players will look to the middle.  The defense will need to make a more concerted effort to keep your best from getting the ball in the middle which will open up the other options that you have in your attack. Our belief is that spacing, faking, and crisp passing are essential to beating trapping and pressure, but the placement of your personnel to take advantage of their strengths and stay away from their weaknesses is also an critical factor.

July 18 OLD SCHOOL DRIBBLING DRILL Here is a thought if your gyms are closed for maintenance or for the start of fall volleyball practices.  The old school players used to work in dribbling in gravel to work on controlling the ball because it doesn't bounce true.  Make sure that you don't do it anywhere that you could lose the ball in a street and don't do it with a good leather ball.  Get an old outdoor basketball and make sure that you are not near anyplace where cars drive, then see how well you can do your usual ballhandling drills!

July 17 THE WINNING ATTITUDE We have posted a short list of how winners approach challenges and how a loser approaches the same situations.  Click here to see The Winning Attitude. Coaches, As I mentioned last week, Coach Stinson from Perfect Practice and I are working on a project together.  We are putting together an online basketball coaching clinic.  If you have a few minutes and would be willing to participate in a short survey to help us gather some input to finalize the project in a way that coaches will find helpful, here is a link to a short survey that we have put together.  If you do want to participate in the survey, it will give you an overview of what the project will entail.  Thank you in advance!  Here is the link:  HoopClinics

July 16 A FEEL FOR THE FEETWe believe that a player who is positioning for a three point shot needs to keep their eyes focused on catching the ball and then locating the rim (or just on the rim if picking up off the dribble).  We do not want our players looking at the arc at the expense of not looking the pass into their hands or taking their eyes off the target and then moving their heads to look for the arc once they have the ball. They need to look at the arc before the ball is coming and develop a feel for where their feet are on the floor after that.  We would rather have the feet behind the arc, but would also rather have a foot on the arc two than a turnover or a three point shot with the head not in proper alignment and balance.

July 15 COACH PLAYER RAPPORT The relationship between coaches and players is paramount to team success. Communication is critical to building those relationships. As coaches, we should always remember that they we tremendous influence over our players and that our words carry a lot of weight. With that in mind, we all must exercise good judgment when addressing players. In the heat of battle, when emotions are high, it can be difficult to choose the right words or tone of voice.Here is some advice that we once received from a wise coach he seemed to get the most out of his players.  When addressing the team or a player, simply imagine that their mother is sitting right next to them. If it is something that you would not want mom to hear, then maybe it would be better off left unspoken for everyone's sake.

July 15 PICK UP READY Yesterday's e-mail was about working to perfect the art of catching the ball with your hands ready to shoot, today's is to encourage you to do the same when you pick up your dribble. Spend some time at the beginning of each workout picking up that last hard dribble before you go up to shoot with your hands in shooting position.  There should not be a need to adjust your hands on the ball once you have picked it up.   Work at picking it up with your hands ready to shoot. Practice by dribbling to a spot on the court where you can get shots off the dribble in games.  Make sure that you are going at game pace.  Pick the ball up, but don't shoot it, instead look at your hands and see if both of them are exactly where you want them when you shoot.  Repeat this until you can do it perfectly (remember at game speed) 10 times.  Before moving on to the next part of your workout. Again, it takes 21 days to make a skill into a habit, so practicing this once is not enough.  You must correctly repeat, repeat, repeat until you can do it without thinking.  By then, it will have become a habit.

July 14 SEVEN SHOOTING DRILLS I saw a survey recently that a high percentage of coaches who search the Internet would like to find some new drills, so I am going to work at providing more drills in the coming weeks.  I am starting off with these seven shooting drills sample from Coach Heath Millar's e-book called "Shooting Drills Encyclopedia."  If you are interested, the entire book is for sale at Heath's webiste Hoops Help.

July 14 CATCH READY One thing you can do to be able to get your shot off quicker and with more accuracy is to catch the ball with your hands ready to shoot.  Catch the ball with your shooting hand behind it and your guide hand on the side.  With enough practice, you can catch the ball with the proper hand placement so that you can go right into your shot. You can practice by either having someone pass the ball to you, using a tossback, or just spinning the ball out in front of you and then catching it as if you were catching a pass. To start with, don't worry about shooting the ball, just catch it with your hands ready to shoot and then look at your hands to see if you did catch the ball properly.  The worst thing you can do is to catch the ball with your hands placed incorrectly and then shoot.  That will hurt your shot.  If your hands are correct, see if you can do it 10 times in a row before you ever take a shot.  Then, once you reach 10, go ahead and do your daily workout.  Repeat your catching drill the next day in your next workout. Take your time in developing this new habit.  It takes 21 daily practice sessions with correct technique on any skill until you can do it as a habit without having to think about it. 

July 11 WHAT IS A BASKETBALL PLAYER? I first saw this piece titled "An Indiana Basketball Player."  I am not sure if it was written by Coach Bob Knight when he was at Indiana University or not.  It is written with boys teams in mind, but certainly could be used for girls or girls teams with a few adjustments. Here is the link:  A Basketball Player

July 10 THOUGHTS ON PRESSURE FREE THROWS We believe that the best way to practice pressure free throws is to practice them when players are tired and shoot them in streaks of makes.  We feel that when a player gets a streak for them that is a long streak, maybe 10 for younger players or up to 100 for a great varsity free throw shooter, they start to feel some pressure.  It is nothing like game pressure, but it is pressure.  They can sprint a down and back after every 10 makes to increase their heart rate and breathing. It is our opinion that a consistent pre-shot routine, same number of dribbles, same amount of time prior to shooting, same mental picture of perfect form and a swish, etc...  along with a consistent delivery of the shot all help in pressure situations in games.  Shooters with proper mechanics are less likely to be affected by muscle tightness and increased heart and breathing rates  that are natural under pressure. Our final thought is that there is no way to eliminate the pressure of a big free throw in a big game.  But with a lot of perfect and consistent practice along with some fatigue and mental pressure of shooting streaks, you can increase your chances of success under pressure.

July 9 THE HOME STRETCH Depending on your grade in school, the rules of the state you live in, whether or not your gym is being resurfaced, and if you are in a fall sport, your time this summer for basketball workouts may be drawing to a close. If you do not play a fall sport, find out from your coach what you are allowed to do once fall sports and school start up.  If you are allowed to workout, come up with a plan and goals just like you did at the start of the summer. Regardless of whether or not you will be away from basketball in the fall, think about taking the following three steps: 1.  Hone in on your go to scoring and dribbling moves that are your best.  Use these last few weeks of summer to improve them and develop a counter if the defense takes it away from you. 2.  Set your goals even higher for your drills the last few weeks and summon all of your conviction to make the last few weeks your best yet. 3.  Make notes about your drills--what you liked and what you would like to change.  If you don't write things down now before you get going on otgher activities, you will not remember what you need to remember next May when you start thinking about your workouts.  You need to have as specific of a written record as you can make so that you can get off to a great start next year.

July 9 PERFECTING PERFECT PRACTICE Today's Tool of the Day is some information about a great basketball site that you might have already come across.  Coach Josh Stinson is the author of Perfect Practice--a site with a ton of great coaching ideas and information.  Coach Stinson has a newsletter that you can sign up for and receive a free 36 page e-book on the 2-2-1 full court press. Another cool feature of his site is a free 25 minute segment on the flex offense.  If you are interested, you can also upgrade  and purchase his whole program on the flex.  Follow this link to the free flex presentation:  Perfect Practice Free Flex. Josh and I have spent some time talking the past few weeks and are partnering on a project that we will be sending out information about in the coming weeks.

July 8 WATER OR GASOLINE?John Maxwell writes and speaks to leaders in all walks of life.  One of his ideas is that as a leader, we carry two buckets every time we go to put out a fire in any area of your life--one contains gasoline, the other contains water. If we choose to make the situation a personal confrontation, blow it out of proportion, immediately seek to make it a win-lose, place blame, or mishandle it in any other number of ways, we are pouring gasoline on the fire.   If we choose to use our bucket of water to de-escalate the problem, we are improving our ability to effectively handle the current situation and also building our skills to handle the next one. John's message is for us simply to be consciously aware of which bucket we are using and the affect is has on our ability to lead.

July 7 YOUR INBOUNDS PASSER Consider naming a specific inbounds passer for each of your various inbounds plays and situations.  It may or may not be the same player against a fullcourt press as for a last second sideline play or an underneath inbounds play.  In our opinion, having a specific player who has practiced, has experience and confidence, and is prepared for various defensive looks will save you a few turnovers over the course of the season.  Not only that, it will get you some extra baskets due to making the best pass rather than just any pass. Like anything else, you will need backup inbounders if your primary is out of the game.  It is worth taking some time in practice to experiment and try out different players until you find the best one for each situation. A final idea is that we all have players we don't want taking it out, so a better way to address that for everyone is to say who you do want taking it out.

July 7 THE MORE YOU KNOW... Make a commitment to learn every position for every one of your teams, plays, offenses, defenses, special situations, transition... in short everything your team does.  It will help you in many ways. You could get some extra playing time if there is an injury or foul trouble.  Your coach might want to use a special big or small lineup in some situations and you will be ready for that.  If you are a younger player, you might be forced to play other positions as you get older due to size or the abilities of your teammates.  If you have a goal to play in college, you will need new knowledge and skills for that adjustment.  If you are considering coaching, the more you learn, you will be more prepared for that.  There are several benefits. Your team will benefit if for nothing else in that you will know what your teammates are doing and how you can better work together.  You might be able  to balance up a drill or a scrimmage in practice if you know more than just your positions. If you take the time to learn everything that you team does, it can only help you and your team.

JULY 3 TEAM HOYT If you have not seen anything about this father and son team that competes in marathons and triathlons, please take a few minutes to look at it.  It is an amazing story of a father who pushes and pulls his adult handicapped son during these events so that his son can enjoy the exhilaration of competition.  It is truly inspiring in many, many ways and  is tough to watch with a dry eye... Here is the link:  Team Hoyt

JULY 2 WHAT THE DEFENSE DOESN'T KNOW The player guarding you doesn't know what's going on behind them.  You don't have to pass fake to a teammate to get them to react.  You can fake a pass to air and they will still react.  If you are faking to get your defender to react, fake with the purpose of moving their hands, feet, or eyes (or all three) to where you want them to be to open up a shot, pass, or drive that is better for you and your team.   If you only think of faking a pass to where one of your teammates is, that limits they ways you can influence your defender. We have said it before, but it is worth repeating, fake a pass to make a pass.

JULY 1 PRECISION PASSING The best pass is not the fanciest or the no look pass, but simply the best pass is one that is caught by your teammate in a spot where they can do something with it. If you are passing to someone who is open for a shot, hit them in the shooting pocket so they can get the shot off before the defense gets there to pressure the shot.  If you are passing to a post player who is open for a scoring move, hit them so that they don't have to reach to catch the ball and lose their posting position.  Don't pass the ball to a teammate in a bad spot on the floor for them such as giving a post player the ball in the middle of the floor if they are not a strong ballhandler. It is true that great players make those around them better. Being a good passer who makes it easy for teammates to make a play once they catch the ball is one way that you can make your teammates better.  Make making your teammates better an emphasis every time you play.

JULY 1 FEARLESS LEADERS I recently read a newsletter on developing a leadership team in a high school athletic department that I thought was worth passing on to all of you.  It has ideas that can be implemented in an individual basketball team whether that team is a school team or a travel team. In my opinion, spending time developing leaders on your team makes a big difference in the on-court performance of a team, but more importantly, is a great life skill that your players will take from your program. Jeff Janssen, who wrote the newsletter, is the Director of the Janssen Sports Leadership Center.  Here is the link to "Fearless Leaders."