GAMES APPROACH TO TEACHING BASKETBALL SKILLS

When I speak with coaches about basketball development you'll hear me mention discovery based learning or games approach to teaching basketball.  This is an effective process of taking the drill out of basketball activities and putting the fun into development.  Different games that you've played as a kid can be modified to integrate basketball skill development for a different basketball learning experience than we had as kids.

Games approach also provides a great tool for coaches to load and modify to suit the needs of the group they are coaching.  I've personally had tremendous success with games approach to teaching basketball skills, game strategy amd tactics.

The attached video features the Master of Games Approach, Mike McKay.  Mike was a mentor coach of mine during my coach development and opened a new world of player development tools to me.  This stuff is gold for any coach!!!!  All NT coaches should make it a priority to take the time to watch. 

The video is an hour long, but you can easily watch small segments when you have time to watch. 

Enjoy!

PLAYER ISSUES 2

The term Contingency Coach Leadership is derived from the Contingency Leadership Approach where leaders make decisions considering feedback and complexities from the environment and the needs of the participants. 

Our season plan had our team practicing 5 hours per week on non-competition weeks and 2.5 hours a week on competition weeks.  We averaged 3 hours and 45 minutes per week of practice.  Before the season started one of the players on the team, CH, approached us asking for extra help.  CH stands 6’2, but got into basketball late.  She is a high achiever who also wants to be successful on the court and is willing to put in the work.  But she is raw.  We asked CH to come 30 mins early to practice where one of our coaches would work one on one with her to improve her fundamental skills.

After the first 2 competitive weekends of the season it was apparent that our team needed more hours in the gym to address fundamental gaps and to remediate conceptual understanding.  We just graduated 7 players (whom we had coached for almost 6 seasons) and had an almost brand new team.  We thought their skills and understanding of basketball concepts was better than it actually was.  There was not enough time in our practices to address the fundamental deficiencies, to drive their conceptual understanding and to move forward tactically.  We chose to double our practice time on non-competitive weekends from 5 hours to 10 hours.

Trust me this is not something I wanted to do.  All of our coaches work full time.  Two of the coaches are married and have children who are active and participate in many programs on evenings and weekends.  None of us have a child or relative on our NT team we are coaching.  Approaching our competitive situation through the lens of a Contingency Approach offered us the clarity we needed.  In addition, the understanding that “we serve” our athletes guided decision making.  The players and families all committed fully to the new practice regiment.  The new practice plan gave us the opportunity to address the developmental needs of our players, which is always our first concern, but also drive the other catalysts of team performance to be competitive in our league.  For us it’s always about helping our athletes to be their best selves.

We’ve had situations in the past where we’ve pulled things off the table based on the situation and the needs of the participants.  Several seasons ago we were scheduled to compete in the top recruiting tournament in North America.  The problem was that the experience would only benefit 2 or 3 on the team.  In fact, the level of competition we would face at this event would require us to shorten the bench significantly if we wanted to put up competitive results.  Despite resistance and outright anger from some parents, we withdrew from this event because it didn’t serve the needs of all our participants.  This is another example of a contingency approach to leadership.

PLAYER ISSUES 1

I received a request from a North Toronto coach to provide some insight and advice on the following issues; "dealing with the parent that doesn't care, the child likes it[basketball] but the parent only brings the athlete when it is convenient” and "dealing with the parent that cares too much and is yelling over the coaches, insists that the coaches aren't doing enough, schedules "extra" practices etc.”

The next few blog posts will address these items.

I have coached basketball for 15 years and worked in a leadership capacity in several organizations.  One of the most important tools for success in either environment has been effective communication. 

We make effective communication a priority on our team.  This process starts in tryouts.  We provide each player and parent with a season schedule of practices, tournaments, team events and training camps.  We communicate the number of practices per week and the length of practices.  We provide this information in a handout, but also communicate it verbally to all athletes at our final tryout.  We share general information about the teams recent competitive history, introduce the coaching staff and discuss their experience. In addition we communicate our vision for the team and the season, our values, the culture we want to create and our “look fors” when assessing players.  We share the expectations and commitment we will demand from “families” throughout the season.  We communicate the commitment as a family one, not only an athlete commitment.

We like to do this before people make the team so they have some clarity on expectations and what we plan to deliver.  We like to communicate this information to the athletes and parents both.  We’ve always considered the athlete to be the consumer of our basketball product and the parent, the customer.   The athlete uses the product, but the parent pays for it.  Both have influence in the “buying” decision.  Anyone purchasing a product wants to be fully informed about the product so they can make an educated buying decision.  We give people a chance to pose questions to ensure understanding.

We follow this meeting up with another similar meeting with players and parents once the team is chosen.  Then we further facilitate effective communication by assigning each player an Advisor.  This is a member of the coaching staff who meets with the athlete at least once every two weeks.  The coach facilitates a discussion using executive coaching techniques to ensure that communication flows freely between player, family and coach.  In addition, this process builds relations between players and coach, where players feel comfortable opening up and sharing with coaches.  Coaches will ask probing question get things out in the open, so that issues can be addressed and athletes and parents heard.

Most decisions that need to be made throughout the season are easy. Any big decisions we run by the consumers and customers to get input, insight and participation in the decision making process since decisions can affect a player or families basketball experience.   Effective Communication can help to provide coaches with information about players and parents whom we serve.  It also provides information to players and parents about the structure of the program and what they should expect so they can decide whether to commit or not.

TEACHING IN THE GRID PT 2

I love to run modified games with our teams.  Modified games offer players a discovery based learning opportunity that mimics real competition.  Games modified correctly give players the opportunity to work at game speed, in shared space, making decisions that consider space, defense, teammates, time, score, rules or any other variable the coach would like to use as point of emphasis or development.  Below are some modified games to play in "The Grid".   Modified games The grid allows you to play small-sided games in various areas of the court. In bottom half of the court in diagram 4; the players are playing 1 on 1 in the middle two rectangles of the grid. The ball is inbounded from the sideline by red#1.   In the top of the diagram the players are playing 3 on 3. They can only use the part of the grid shaded yellow.   You as the coach can decide the restriction you place on the players: No dribbles ( encourages passing and cutting to get open) Must pass shoot or dribble within one second of receiving the ball ( encourages penetration and anticipation) No scoring in the key ( work on shooting outside shots)

Using a games approach Allow the players to play the game. The rules are modified to teach various concepts. For example; it is a violation if two players are in the same rectangle of the grid when your team has the ball. The exception is when you get an offensive or defensive rebound. This forces the player to be aware of the positioning of their teammates. It is using whole-part-whole teaching. The next step is to break down the areas where the players are having problems. It is recommended in the Fundamental stage and the start of the Learn to Train stage that the players play 3 on 3 or 4 on 4. This gives them more touches on the ball and more room to execute their skills.

Drills courtesy of Mike Mackay, Canada Basketball, Manager of Coach Education

TEACHING IN THE GRID PT1

NT Midget Girls Coach David Wright asked me how I would teach players to deal with full court pressure or pressure in the backcourt.  My answer to him was to teach in "The Grid".  The next several blog posts will provide coaches with a definition of "The Grid" as well as some helpful examples of how to use the grid to develop ball handling against pressure, passing, neural activation, practice space utility maximization, spacial awareness, defensive footwork, playing in small space and vision.  Wow, that a lot!!!  Yes, the grid is a multi-functional basketball development resource where the developmental outcomes are only limited by your imagination.

THE GRID Many team sports divide the playing area into a grid when teaching the game to younger players. The same idea can work for basketball in helping players understand the concept of space. The court is divided horizontally into four zone Baseline to foul line extended Foul line extended to half court line Half court line to foul line extended   Foul line extended to the baseline. Vertically the court is divided into the three lanes Right lane Centre lane Left lane This creates a court with 12 rectangles.

Finding space This exercise while simple, helps players of all ages become more spacially aware, and helps give coaches and players language to describe areas on the court.   When the coach asks the 12 players on the team to find space each player can find one of the 12 rectangles created. You can do activities to help the players explore the space: Dribble around the perimeter of your space Find the centre of your space Find the part closet to the far basket, side line, centre circle Dribble in  a figure of eight in your space

Small sided activities or drills This example demonstrates great use of space, while also reinforcing lanes and grids on the court to players.  The grid also provides safe boundaries in which the players can do small drills or activities; for example:   1.      Two ball partner passing 2.      Pass and replace with pressure 3.      Partner mirror dribbling 4.      1 on 1 in two spaces 5.      Three player dribble protect

DELAY DRILLS CREATE THE ADVANTAGE

We spend a lot of time in drills where our players work from an artificially created advantage situation.  Players learn to recognize the advantage, play with the advantage and pass on the advantage.  The decision making gathered in drills like this one replicates the types of decisions players will need to make in transition situations in games.  For those who are new to "loading" drills, there is also a nice progression from introducing the drill to modifying it for the needs of the participants or desires of the coaching staff. 

	Three player attack This is a classic drill that many teams have used to teach attacking and creating advantage situation. The defence lines up along the foul line extended. The offence on the baseline (Remember that this drill can be run with 2 3, 4 or 5 players). The coach passes the ball to one of the offensive players. The defender opposite must touch the baseline before returning on defence. It is an excellent drill for the player with the ball to learn to push the ball hard on the dribble. It is not always the best drill to teach pushing the ball to a player open down the court because the two offensive players without the ball are being guarded.
	In this version of the drill we add a wrinkle to the defence. Someone must guard the ball as soon as possible. This means that one of the two players without the ball should be open. It creates many varied situations for the ball handler who must now decide when and who to pass the ball too. The players without the ball must decide to run to the rim, if open, or stay wide to distract the defence and spread the floor.
	Here is an example of the type of situation that occurs when you run this drill. #1 red is picked up by #2 blue. Decisions for #1 red: q  Beat #2 to right or left off the dribble. q  Pass the ball ahead to an open player. q  Slow up and play it safe - this will bring the third defender into play, blue #1. q  Have one of the other players come back and handle the ball. #3 Blue has decided to guard #2 red Decisions for #2 red: q  Keep going straight to the basket. q  Spread the floor to the open wing and hope to draw #3 blue. q  Go back and help #1 red to bring the ball up the floor. Decisions for #3 red q  Cut to the open basket. q  Stay wide. q  Cut back to help red #1.
By running or loading the drill differently you create different scenarios that force the players to think and react differently. Look at the drills you currently run. What concepts and skills do the players need to run these drills? Do they fit the skills and concepts you need to improve to make your players and ultimately or team better?

Info by Mike McKay, Manager Coach Education - Canada Basketball.