Recommended Reading: David and Goliath

This is definitely an idea I should have had earlier, but I’m glad it popped into my head this morning anyway. As a coach and teacher, some of the most interesting books are on human psychology. Of course basketball books can be great too. This is our first ‘Recommended Reading’ post, but it certainly won’t be the last.

I just finished David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell. It is an excellent book, another in Gladwell’s series of excellent books. At first glance it seems to be about how underdogs overcome the odds to claim victory, which would have obvious value to us as coaches when facing superior opponents. The true content of the book is that what can be perceived as disadvantages are sometimes anything but, and how success can be derived from those disadvantages.

There is a portion of the book dedicated to basketball, and many of you will be familiar with its story. It centers on how underdogs can use the press defense against superior opponents to try and tilt the odds in their favor. This idea, at least in coaching circles I am in, has gained plenty of traction in theory – but many coaches still fail to use it in practice. The difficulty of conditioning and teaching a team to press non-stop is pretty daunting.

There are more lessons than that in this book though, and plenty of ideas that had my brain working overtime. The stories of individuals who use their disadvantages or disabilities to rise high is incredible, and it gave me so much to think about in terms of how we help our players grow as individuals. I have met so many athletes that could have benefited from advice derived from the lessons learned in this book that I really wish I had read it earlier in my career.

I consider this book a must-read for coaches. All three parts of the book; The Advantages of Disadvantages, The Theory of Desirable Difficulty, and The Limits of Power, have powerful messages that can translate to our job as leaders and mentors. I hope you get a chance to read it soon, and good luck this season, especially to our first year coaches.

Monday Matchup - Defense Ends With a Rebound

We've all been there before, watching our teams execute energetic and inspired defense for 25 seconds. The clouds part, angels sing, and the basketball gods are smiling down upon you as your opponent throws up an off-balance shot. Then the feeling collapses on itself like a black hole, sucking the energy and joy from your team as your opponent grabs an offensive rebound, and you have to do it all over again.

Rebounding is a tricky skill to teach, a difficult skill to master, and an easy skill to forget. Failing to practice rebounding is not an option though, and in today's post we will look into ways of improving your team rebounding. It is important to focus on 3 aspects: Culture, Concepts, and Skills.

Fast Break Friday: Training Perimeter Reactions

This is the first Fast Break Friday where we will cover offensive concepts. Every Friday there will be a new post covering concepts, player development, and specific practice drill or techniques. One of the coaching skills that was the focus of my attention recently is building drills that train and teach skills or reactions on the court. Before we get into the specific topic of today - training perimeter decisions, we should discuss the concepts of translating something we want to see on the court into a practice drill that effectively helps the player learn. Going online to write down some drills is fine, but building your own drills is rewarding and usually more effective if you are trying to teach a specific skill.

All offensive reactions can be broken into 'If A, the B' situations. For example, if in shooting range, then shoot. Now, you can add as many qualifiers to the first part, but the fewer there are the more quickly your players will learn. This is the basic foundation to any drill (excluding hustle drills). The method behind this madness is another simple tenet - if you want creative, thoughtful players, you need to free their minds from the simple decisions and turn them into automatic reactions.

So what do we want our players to do when they receive the ball along the perimeter? Training decisions requires at least that the player can receive the pass cleanly and quickly face up to the basketball as a threat. After that, it is time to train reactions.

First, the defense attempts a steal and misses. When this happens I train my players to attack. When starting out, we might just have a single power dribble jump shot or a basket drive. Over time we train the whole attack, practicing our reaction to different help defenders, like a corner kick out or an interior dish.

Second the defense performs a closeout, high and hard. This is another simple read, and the player reaction is the same as our first situation - we attack the basket. Teach whatever footwork you want, but players must attack the rim when defenders close out hard and high

Thirdly the defense performs a closeout, low and slow. If the offensive player is in shooting range this is a shot read.

These habits are easy to train in two or three player groups where the players rotate through offense, defense, and passer.

I'm leaving passing out of this for the time being because you don't want to cloud the primary skill intended for training with too many things at once. Remember, quicker reactions free our players from thinking about everything, there just are not enough seconds in the span of a possession for deep thoughts.

When planning on teaching skills like this I also suggest you don't teach them all in the same day. If you want to create habits, you must continue to provide the read over and over and over again. Once you are satisfied that the reaction is reliable, you can layer decision making situations behind I outlined earlier.

If you are interested in reading more about habit formation I suggest The Power of Habit. It is an excellent book and many of my ideas about drill creation for skills development are a combination of my experience with the Read and React Offense and what I learned about habit formation from the book.

Quick Hitter - NBA Finals

I had to write a quick post here about the NBA Finals after watching Miami win Game 2. Just a few interesting notes:

1. Miami (read: Spoelstra) did a great job adjusting to the pick and roll in Game 2. It looked different and felt different, and it didn't click until Doug Collins made a post game comment about how they mixed more than one type of technique to defend it, going under, hedging, and doubling. Without game tape to review I suspect their decision was based on a combination of Miami personnel and Spurs personnel, which made adjustments for San Antonio difficult. Bosh was much better defensively in Game 2, and while I thought Wade was still weak, it looked like Miami took advantage of the players who were working hard in Game 1 (Chalmers, James, Birdman, etc.) to up the pressure when they were on the floor together. Cool stuff, interested to see what happens in Game 3 when the Spurs look at the game film.

2. The Spurs are going to have to deal with James guarding Parker at the end of the game. It's a great strategy for Miami, and it forces Ginobli to run the Spurs offense. Ginobli is a dynamic, creative, and exciting player. Unfortunately, he also has some bad habits (jump pass anyone?) and is simply not as cool under pressure as Parker. Parker makes better decisions with crucial possessions, and Miami knows it. That doesn't mean Ginobli is a liability - he's an exceptional player as Game 1 proved - but it looks like he's more effective when Parker is a threat and Miami's defense is stretched thin, providing the passing lanes he likes so much. When Parker is guarded by James, it just looks like the floor gets smaller.

3. If the Spurs get aa solid contribution from Leonard, Miami is in trouble. Leonard has been battling foul trouble all series, and he continues to be the Spurs best answer for guarding James. Miami won Game 2 by two points, after the Spurs missed 4 consecutive free throws, and when Leonard spent barely any time guarding James. I think with a better game from Leonard San Antonio is already up 2-0 in the series. Miami deserves some credit here, but Leonard needs to stay on the floor.

4. The Spurs offense is terrifying when it clicks, and I wonder if Miami will have the energy to disrupt it for the entire series, although maybe they only need to disrupt it four out of seven attempts.

Attacking a Defense Through Spacing

The first weekend of the NCAA tournament provided what we have come to expect every March - the unexpected. Somehow despite our anticipation of one time upsets, extended runs by small schools, and last minute drama the tournament continues to surprise us. It is truly a testament to the excitement of the game.

As a convert to the Read and React system I can tell you how different it is to watch basketball on television, and of everything that stands out to me spacing rises above all as the concept that is easiest to identify and dangerous for teams to screw up.

Over the course of the weekend the shining example of excellent spacing was the Florida Gators. I didn't get to see their opening round game, but the game against Pittsburgh was a clinic of using simple (but powerful) concepts and good spacing to attack on offense.

Florida repeatedly used a high wide screen (attacking the middle of the floor) to put help defenders in a bind. This isn't a new concept of course, but doing it correctly requires discipline from the other players on the floor to maintain proper spacing. The spacing affects how quickly defenders can help and recover, how far a pass has to travel, and perhaps most importantly the angle of those passes.

Take a look at this play here. Two really great spacing and passing angle examples.

Sure, it's an exciting shot, a highlight reel three. But notice the two flanking players on the wing, If Wilbekin gets locked up by a defender there are clear passing lanes to two open teammates. Beauty is in the details, and right now the Gators are looking quite attractive to win another National Championship.

As coaches, we are always tasked with the application of these concepts. Lucky coaches will have a player (maybe more) who innately understand spacing and are frequently "in the right spot." What then, do we do about the other players? Spacing has to be a constant discussion for an offensive game plan. Are you going to flood one side of the floor, or maintain balanced spacing? How many post players are you going to use, and will you use spacing to create driving lanes or isolations on post entries? Even if you use set plays, your spacing is critical. After all, maybe that pass was intercepted not because it was a bad decision, but because the receiving teammate had drifted to far away from the ball handler. Understanding spacing allows you to see the game - on both sides of the ball - in a completely different way.

This weekend I'll be pulling for Michigan and Michigan State, teams who have coaches that I like and respect over most others. They are also teams will excellent spacing and ball movement, who are a lot of fun to watch. This weekend I'll be focusing on shot selection, and hopefully have a post written up next week. Thanks for reading.