The Evils of Competition

One of my good friends from college, Ned, was a high school basketball coach before he wised up and became my insurance man.  But back in the day, when he was not only a coach but also an A.D., a gym floor mopper, and a P.E. teacher, he loved letting his students break the gym class monotony by playing an occasional game of dodgeball. 

Now I know there are all kinds of arguments against using dodgeball in a P.E. curriculum.  I've had those discussions with my principal, and later with my department chair at ONU.  Suffice it to say that despite what the adults claim, kids love to play dodgeball because they love to compete, and they enjoy that slight element of danger that comes from possibly being hit in the head. 

Recognizing this love of dodgeball as a Universal Truth, Ned figured he could get by with keeping the game in his curriculum, so long as he added a simple rule:  any time a player got hit in the head, every one of his teammates who were already "out" could reenter the game. 

This worked fine until the day one team got down to their last man, at which time all of his "out" teammates began chanting in unison to the opposing team, "Hit him in the head!  Hit him in the head!"

This was an unfortunate moment for the principal to drop by for his routine, unannounced teacher evaluation.  But, being a wise principal, he said to Ned, "This doesn't look like a good time... perhaps I can come back tomorrow."

Regardless of the naysayers, I stand by my earlier statement:  Kids love to compete!

Now, hold that thought.  This afternoon, we finished our fourth week of practice with a review of our early and middle break.  As you may recall, we define "early break" as any shot that results from a pass outside the arc.  (Examples: 1-2, 1-3, 1-4).  "Middle break"options take slightly longer to unfold: shots that result from a pass from inside the arc.  These options include a pitch to a ballside wing player, a bounce pass from PG to the low post on the opposite block, a "drag" pass from PG over the top to a weakside wing, and the "Trail" pass behind the PG.

In order to polish the early break, we use one of Paul Westhead's drills called "2 1/2 Cycles."  Here's how it works:

• Have a coach toss the ball off the boards.  5 rebounds and outlets to 1, while 2, 3, and 4 sprint the floor.  1 pushes the ball downcourt, does a stutter dribble at the arc, and explodes to the rim for a layup
• 5, having sprinted the floor, takes the ball out of the net, steps over the endline and inbounds to 1, as 2, 3, and 4 criss-cross and again sprint the floor to the other end.  Our second option has 1 passing ahead to 2 spotted up at the right fade for a 3-point shot.
• Make or miss, 5 outlets (or inbounds) to 1, who passes ahead 1-4 for the layup.
• Then next trip has 1 pushing hard to half-court, then dribbling across the floor towards our 3-guard, who is spotted up on the left fade for a 3-point shot.
• On the last trip, we have 1 driving all the way into the lane, where she pivots and passes back to 5 for our "Trail" option.

Sounds hard, right?  It is.  Very hard.  But it's amazing how, with the addition of a clock and a scoreboard, we can take a really hard drill and transform it into a really fun drill!  Here's how...

With college women, we find that with practice this drill can be completed in about 30-33 seconds.  We start the clock the moment the rebounder gets the ball off the glass, and stop the clock as the Trail releases her 3-point shot on the last option.  You should note that it is possible in this drill to score up to 13 points (two layups, by 1 and 4, and three treys, by 2, 3, and 5).

Anyway, to motivate players we set the shot clock to 35 seconds (or use a stopwatach), and keep track of points on the scoreboard.  If a team makes every shot (13 points), and completes the drill in just 31 seconds, we would give them 4 bonus points (35 minus 31), for a total score of 17.  Another team might make 8 points, and finish in 34 seconds, which would give them a total score of 9 points. 

If we have 3 units competing against each other, we could play 3-4 rounds each, and see which group can accumulate the most points.  Or, to get a snapshot of our entire team's progress, we could see how many total points we can accumulate in, say, 10 rounds. 

There are all kinds of ways to use the clock, and to keep score, to build the element of competition into your System practices.   So don't listen to the Dodgeball Haters of the world who try to tell you that competition is the devil... they're wrong.

Competition is a good thing, as long as you don't get hit in the head.

One on One

Several years ago I did some research on a coach named Anson Dorrance.  You may have heard of him.  He is the women's soccer coach at the University of North Carolina, and let me blow your mind with some numbers:  In 34 years as head coach, he's won 20 NCAA championships.  His career record is 728-44-26 (91.2% wins).

So when Coach Dorrance speaks about anything relative to motivation or skill development, he has my full attention.  And one of the topics he's most passionate about is the use of one-on-one games as the single best way to improve your team. (Being a soccer coach, he refers to this as "1 v. 1").  His idea is that if you can significantly improve each player's 1 v. 1 ability, your whole team will improve in the process.  A rising tide lifts all boats!

About the same time I was learning about this from Coach Dorrance, I came across a DVD by Phil Martelli (St. Joseph's University) on using competive 1 on 1 basketball drills in practice.  I'd heard about this from a post on the runandgun chatgroup by Muhlenberg's Ron Rohn who highly recommended the DVD.  So I ordered it, loved it, and stole three of his drills.  Without further adeiu, here they are!

1/1 CONES-  Place one cone near half-court about 15 feet in from the sideline, with a second cone that is about 10 feet inside the other one.  Pair up players, and start them on the baseline.  The offensive player dribbles towards the outside cone, while the defensive player sprints around the inside cone.  After dribbling around the cone, the ball-handler aggressively attacks the defender and tries to score off the drive.  He gets just one shot! Then the next pair starts.  The next time through the line, offensive players become defenders, etc.  Play for four minutes and keep score.  Purpose: Develops ability of handlers to score off the drive in transition.

1/1 DENY- Here the two opponents start in the lane, with the offensive player standing about 4 feet in front of the rim, and the defender starting with his back to the offensive player, facing a coach who is standing at the top of the arc with a basketball.  The offensive player can break out to either wing, receives a bounce pass from the coach, which he catches outside the arc, faces up and attacks one on one.  He must use only 3-4 dribbles to score.  One shot only... next time through the drill switch from offense to defense.  Play for 4 minutes and keep score. Purpose: Develops ability to score from the wing with a live dribble.

1/1 SLAP & GO-  Two opponents face each other across the FT line.  They start the drill by slapping hands, then the one nearest half-court sprints and touches the center circle, while the other sprints and touches the baseline.  A coach with a basketball is even with the top of the arc, about 5 feet outside the edge of the lane.  As the offensive player nears the arc, the coach tosses him a soft pass.  He catches and shoots the three or (if the defense is too tight) blows by him with a drive.  One shot... switch O to D... play for four minutes... keep score.  Purpose:  Develops ability to score from the trail spot in transition.

A few logistical details: 

• To force defenders to guard the arc (and prevent them from just camping in the lane) we give the shooter 4 points if she can make a three-pointer, and only 1 point for a shot inside the arc.  This format really keeps them honest!  (If I coached guys, I'd probably only reward the offense 3 pts for a trey.)
• We set up a round robin tournament, so over the course of several weeks, everyone on the team will eventually play everyone else.  Guards play guards, forwards, big men... whatever.  It all evens out in the end.
• We post this tournament bracket on the wall, and players must check before each practice to see who they will be playing, and what end of the court they will play at (we like having about 3-4 pairs on each end... just about right in terms of rest vs. work ratio.)
• We get a drink right after this drill, so players can report who won.  We just circle the winner on the bracket, and update each player's win/loss standings each day.
• If there is a tie, the better (preferred) shooter of the two players steps immediately to the top of the arc, catches a pass from the coach, using a bunny hop, and shoots a three.  If he makes it, he wins the game... if he misses, his opponent is the winner.  That's it.
• We do one drill, three days a week.  Each day we use a different drill, and have a different opponent.

Players love this part of practice, and make huge progress throughout the year learning how to attack one on one. It's especially valuable for female players for two reasons.  First, they don't play much one on one growing up, and therefore they can make dramatic progress over the course of the season! 

Second, Coach Dorrance says that he uses 1 v.1 work with his players because it teaches them to compete head-to-head, and this is something which really gives them an edge.  He credits much of his phenomenal success to a series of drills that he calls "The Competitive Cauldron," and 1 v. 1 is one of the drills he uses in the cauldron to teach female players how to develop their competitive instincts.

Works for guys, too! 

Move!

We got home late last night from a scrimmage downstate, and I figured that anything I had to say at 3 a.m. wouldn't be worth the pixels they were printed on.  But now it's 8 p.m. and with four hours of quality sleep to recharge my literary brain cells, I'll start by quickly recapping our scrimmage results. 

We played fairly even with our opponent throughout the game (I think it was 86-84), and had some good moments, but our biggest problem right now is offensive flow.  As you know by now, one of my favorites is John Wooden, who said he never devoted the same amount of time to defense that he did to offense because on offense you have to coordinate both player and ball movement into your plan of attack. 

That's definitely true for us right now.  At this point in our development our drive and kick game looks decent, but our pass and screen away action is stagnant.  We just haven't worked on it enough, and that will be addressed in the next few days. 

How?  Maybe by doing some "20 passes, no dribble" offensive movement drills.  Knight always taught pure motion offense via the "no dribble" restriction, and although we never want to make 20 passes before shooting (or even 2, for that matter), I believe you have to do "excess pass" drills in order to get players into the habit of movement!  That's really all we are doing with a 20-pass rule: ingraining the "pass and screen-away" habit.  (We've already mastered the "pass and stand there" habit.)

After working 5/0, we may run our Half-court 5/5/5 "Cutthroat" drill (Offense stays if they score, if not they are out, defense takes over on offense, and a third group comes in on defense).  Great way to develop the half-court game, and although we definitely prefer a quick shot off the first or second pass in transition, when things bog down it's nice to have some plan for how to move, screen, and maintain spacing. 

Now, I know Paul Westhead claimed that at LMU he didn't even give his players an offense to flow into at the end of the break because, as he lamented, "doggone it if they won't try and run it!"  I'm pretty extreme, but not that extreme, so by giving our players a plan of movement, our hope is that at least they can learn how to stay out of each other's way. 

In our case, we have a very simple rule:  any time you pass outside the arc, screen away.  It's a natural, common sense offensive concept, and as long as you've spent time developing good screening and cutting techniques, the "Pass and Screen Away" series will be running like a top by mid-season.

And, paradoxically, the better you get at making 20 passes in November, the easier it will be to create an open shot after just 3 passes in January.

What's Your Vote?

This being election day reminds me that in much of life we have distinct choices, and how we choose affects our future.

Don't panic... I'm not going to go off on a political discourse, unless you consider System Basketball "politics" (which many people do).  But I am going to point out what a stark a choice you have when you decide on a basketball philosophy, and how this can definitely impact your future in coaching.

Last night I got a text from Michelle.  Her former assistant is now working at Northern Illinois University, so Michelle left right after practice to see NIU's first exhibition game.  There were a couple of interesting things about the matchup. 

First, the head coach at NIU is Kathy Bennett.  Yes, that Bennett.  Kathy is the daughter of former Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett, the high priest of ball-control basketball, and she is clearly her father's daughter.  She's a really great coach, and back in the 1990's when she was head coach at DIII UW-Oshkosh I happened to see her team play in the national championship.  What a great defense they had!  Oshkosh completely shut down a very athletic opponent, and showed that one way to win vs. superior opposition is to hold the ball, get great shots, and give up nothing easy on the defensive end.  Worked very well that night!

The other interesting thing about NIU's exhibition game was their opponent.  They were playing Indiana Wesleyan University, a Division 2 NAIA team who we used to scrimmage every year when I was at ONU.  IWU is also a great team with a great coach, Steve Brooks.  Several years ago they went undefeated and won the national championship, averaging in the 40s defensively.

Talk about "the immovable force" vs. "the immovable force."  Anyway, to get back to Michelle's text, she wrote, "It's 8-8 with 8:00 left in first half." 

Ouch!  Now on the one hand, that's amazing that a small school like IWU could hang with DI NIU.  Coach Bennett obviously believes that in the end her team's discipline will prevail playing this style.  Coach Brookes believes ball-control will keep them close, and that maybe they can sneak out a win at the end. 

I don't know how the game turned out, but I can't imagine a more stark contrast with System ball.  Were we to play NIU at this point in our development, I frankly doubt that we would be tied with them 12 minutes into the game as IWU was... but we'd sure have a lot more than 8 points.

At some point as a System coach you have to answer the question that my good friend and former University of Redlands coach Gary Smith posed several years ago:  "How are you willing to lose?"  Of course none of us wants to go down to defeat, but I'd rather lose 110-102 than 55-51. I'd rather "go down swinging." And, frankly, I'd rather lose 110-102 than win 55-51, because in the end I think the intangible benefits of System ball are worth the risks. 

What's your choice?  Once you "vote"for a philosophy, a style of play, you live with the consequences.  I vote, early and often, for System Basketball.

Practice Intensity

Below I have posted our practice plan for today as we reviewed our press vs. made shots and missed shots, as well as our OB-Side and OB-Under defense.

As often happens after a day off, it took us awhile to get into a groove.  One thing we are trying to develop this time of year is an attitude towards practice that we are going to go at game speed every time we step on the court.  For us, a "light" practice does not mean a half-speed practice.  We vary our practice routine by changing the length (1:45, 1:15, 45 minutes), or the amount of contact work we do:  vs. Press, vs. No Press (half-court defense only), or vs. No Defense (Dummy offense only).

This idea of varying the intensity of practices based on length and amount of defensive contact is something I stole from Bill Walsh (who probably stole it from Paul Brown... we're all thieves!)  Anyway, when Walsh took over the 49ers back in the early 1980s, he was one of the first NFL coaches to assert that every practice didn't have to be a test of manhood.  So practice intensity went from "No Pads" (Helmets, T-shirt, and Shorts only), to "Shoulder Pads" to "Full Pads."  But EVERY practice was at Game Speed.  He was teaching speed as well as technique, so he never liked to "walk through" a drill or play.  Same goes for System practices.  If you need a "light" practice, go full-speed vs. no defense for 30 minutes.  Then go home and watch Dancing with the Stars.

Today was a 1:45 practice (105 minutes), using press defense.  In other words, it was supposed to be a tough workout.  But players don't always come with the same level of intensity and effort.  That's where your ability to motivate comes in.  Once we stopped and challenged the players--once I reminded them in my own, subtle way that they couldn't press my 104 year old Grandma Douglas with the level of effort they were currently giving--they rose to that challenge and we had a pretty good defensive workout from that point forward.

Which was discouraging news to Grandma, given all the extra time she's been putting in lately on her ball-handling.

12:05-12:15    WARMUP
                         Elbow Layups                2 of each
                         Dynamic Warmup

12:15-12:30   SHOOTING

                        12 minute Threes          Sound buzzer at each minute           

12:30-12:40  TRANSITION

                        Carolina Break              # made in 2 minutes after warming up

                        HC 3 on 2

                        HC 3 on 3                       Use Dribble out

12:40-12:50   GROUPS

                        Chase & Turn            Partners, in each corner; start w/toss to partner

                        1/2 Trap (MN); HC 2/1 (DP)   Switch ends after 2½ minutes                                    

                        Water Break

12:50-1:15     TEAM OFFENSE

                        Review 55 vs. 2-up; 3-up;  Show vs. 4-up

                        5-count Drill:  55 vs. 3 up

                        Missed Shot Press Drill vs. our Press Break 

                        Water Break

1:15-1:30       SITUATIONS

                        11 Press vs. Sideline 3, Sideline Stack                                  

                        11 vs. OB 2-3-5

1:30-1:40       COMPETIVE SHOOTING                                

                        4 Minute Shooting                                         Record: 85

What's a Napkin For?

Let's talk about quick hitters today, and then let's not talk about them again.  But first, a review...

For the first three weeks of the year, we've been working on Fast Break vs. M/M (Week One), Press Defense (Week Two), and Fast Break vs. Zone (Week Three).  Throughout each week we've installed our OB and Sideline plays vs. M/M and Zone, and our Sideline & OB defensive schemes.

Now we are ready to move to our "Daily" Schedule.  From this point forward we'll be working on a different area each day, rather than concentrating on something for an entire week.  So today we'll be focusing on Press work, reviewing our On and Off presses, the Missed Shot Press, and Defense vs. OB-Under & OB-Sideline.

Our second practice this week will focus on Fast Break vs. M/M, and we'll review some quick hitters along with our OB-Side & OB-Under offensive sets, preparing us for our Scrimmage #2 on Tuesday.

One thing I should mention is that many System coaches save workout time by limiting their OB-Under and Sideline plays, and by using specific options from their regular offense, rather than creating additional quick-hitters.  Honestly, I think this is possibly a better approach than mine, for one simple reason:  the less you have to work on, the less you have to screw up.

BUT, having defaced thousands of restaurant napkins throughout my career with my amazing play diagrams (a few of which are in the Smithsonian), I've had to compromise with the devil on this one.  I just can't resist the temptation to draw plays, to think about ways to use our personal in different ways. 

However, I also know that if I let this impulse to overcoach get out of control, our team will suffer!  The System itself serves as a deterrent to this "Play a Day" impulse of mine, because it only "allows" quick hitters following a dead ball.  And since there are relatively few dead ball situations in a game (compared to "after a score" and "after a rebound" situations, which--by their very nature within an uptempo system--need to allow for free-lance play unhampered by my play-calling genius), I have to limit my play-calling "creative juices."   (Wow... Mrs. Mitchell--my freshman English teacher at Spearman High School--would have just loved to make me diagram that last sentence!  Hope you could follow my twisted train of thought!)

Anyways, my feeling is that despite my need to draw and install plays, we'd probably be better off with NO quick hitters, and with ONE OBU and OBS play.  Problem is, I'd probably go crazy without the chance to come up with some "neat stuff" to try. 

So, I let myself doodle on those napkins, but then use most of them to blow my nose.

Today's Lesson...

Any of you who are high school teachers will know the answer to the following question...

When one of your students (usually the one with the stud in his tongue and the creatively colored hair) strolls into the your classroom at the beginning of the hour, what's the first thing he asks you?

Right.  "What are we doing today???"  Or, sometimes, my favorite variation of that same question: "Are we gonna do anything today?" 

I used to enjoy replying: "No, nothing.  We're just going to pass out comic books and take the day off."  Not detecting my sense of irony, Mr. Tongue Stud would usually exclaim, "Aw-right!"

We concluded Zone Week on Friday with another day of reviewing:

• Our Zone Offense, starting with 5/0 options, today reminding the trailers to spot up in a curl area when they are attacking an odd zone
• Progressing to 5/0 Zone Offense off the rebound, moving to ORB spots for a second chance three, and jumping into our press after a score
• Playing "HC Defense Breaks" vs. a 1-3-1 (our basic zone).  This drill has us starting a possession with the PG and Trail at halfcourt... after the shot (make or miss) the defense breaks the other way, trying to create a quick shot vs the 1-3-1, then once more having the original offensive team break back. 
• Then reviewed our Half-court zone attack vs. 1-2-2 HC press.
• Then we worked on our Sideline and OB-Under zone plays vs. a 1-3-1 and 2-3 zone.

The point is, if we had any players with creative hair who wanted to know at the beginning of practice, "What are we gonna do today?"  then our answer would be pretty clear: "We're working on our ZONE attack." 

Now, we could have chosen to organize things a little differently (as some System coaches do) by planning the practice around, say, "Fast Breaking after a Score, vs. both M/M and Zone Defenses."  Or, "Pressing after a Dead Ball, from Full-court, Sideline, and OB-Under."  In other words, we could have planned today's lesson around HOW we obtained possession, rather than what defense we are seeing AFTER we gained possession.

With that said, here's the bottom line:  We do not work on everything, every day.  Never, never, never!  Why do you think our practices are 1:30 (or less!)?  Because we don't try to do it all.  Every practice has one topic.  In our case, today it was "Zone Work." But whatever it is, we organize everything around that emphasis. 

I know the conventional approach is to spend the first 45 mintues of practice (or, heaven forbid, the first hour) on "fundamentals," the next 45 minutes on offense, and the last 45 minutes on defense. 

My belief is that a) you cannot possibly get players to go at System pace for that long, b) they'll get more out of practice by focusing on one topic per workout, and c) your practice planning is clarified and streamlined because you merely select the drills or team activities that are consistent with your emphasis for that workout.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is the System.  Get better at one thing, every practice!