Basketball Speed- How to get it?

Hello,

It has been an awesome hoop season. But I do want to take a moment and mention the loss the entire basketball community had this past week. Kay Yow, coach of North Carolina State Women's Program, died at the age of 66 after a long battle with cancer. The reason she will be missed, aside from her incredible coaching ability, is her true unmatched integrity as a person and coach. She did it the right way. Gracious and caring. When I heard of her story and how others loved her because of the type of person she was it made me wish more coaches could represent themselves, their players, and their schools with such character. Players tend to take on the personality of their coaches (good or bad) and I am sure Coach Yow raised some great players over the years. She will be missed.

Weekly Basketball Tip... The Ickey Shuffle Ladder Drill

Purpose: To improve foot quickness, coordination, and cutting ability

How to execute: Start on the right side corner of the first box. Step in with the left foot then the right foot and finally the left foot step out (this foot pattern is done on a forward diagonal pattern). With the weight on the left foot step into the next box with the right foot followed by the left foot and then out with the right foot. So basically you are back on the right side of the ladder with only the right foot outside the box. Continue this pattern the length of the ladder.

Key coaching points: Keep the shoulders in the center of the ladder at all times and let the feet move outside the ladder (one foot at a time, never both feet outside the ladder). This creates a cutting angle with the plant foot outside the body. The great thing about this drill is that in basketball often players make short little stutter step and cuts. The players should keep the knees bent, back flat, shoulders slightly forward, and the head up (use the eyes to look down at the ladder but don't drop the head).

Perform 5-8 reps. Eventually the player will get better and you can add "Skip a box" Ickey.

How to get faster on the basketball court

The foundation of speed in any sport is strength and power. As the player gets stronger and produce more force quickly they have greater potential for speed. So get em in the Wt Room!

Aside from strength and power the key to speed on the court is body control and quickness. The player that can change direction the quickest usually is the fastest on the court. He or she may not be really fast in a foot race, but they can sure move on a court.

One of the first skills I want a basketball player to learn is how to change direction from a shuffle. I am looking to see they are able to control the hips from moving up and down too much and the shoulders from swaying right and left. If they do this well I will move on. But if they do not I start looking at foot and leg position while they plant. If the plant foot is facing out I know they are not going to be as quick due to the fact the ankle isn't set up for a great stretch reflex- it is in a weaker position to push off (not to mention if the foot is turned out there is a greater chance for an ankle sprain). How to fix it; if there isn't a mobility issue in the ankle joint I tend to correct the defensive stance. I will make sure the knees are pushed forward while the hips are pushed back. By pushing the knees forward it creates a greater dorsi-flexed position of the ankle which in tern allows for greater push off speed. The reason I push the hips back (and shoulders forward) is to stabilize the joints. When the hips are back, shoulders forward, and the knees forward (heels are down but weight is on the ball of the foot) the muscles are on stretch and ready to fire in an instance.

Once I have an athlete in the correct positions I can now start to work on them being quicker on the court.

So I start with the lateral shuffle. Once the player moves well with this skill I move on to the crossover and then add in shuttle runs and cutting drills. The entire time I am still looking at if they control the hips, shoulders, and if the feet are in the correct position. Without fail, if the players get out of position with either of the things I mentioned they end up moving slowly.

OK. We covered how the technique should look. Real important to be sound in how we move. But next I am going to tell you the secret to getting the players to be quicker...

INTENSITY OF SPEED!
I once wrote an article on this and it had a big impact on many coaches. The intensity of speed means how the athlete attacks his or her movements on the court.

Let's take the lateral shuffle for example. I can have a player shuffle to the other side of the foul lane and back quickly. But if I emphasize to the player to not think about the the change of direction at all; ONLY THINK ABOUT GETTING BACK TO THE STARTING POSITION AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE! What I have done is created a mindset of speed. I am not telling them to change directions and worry about how to plant their feet, those details are for me to worry about initially, I am telling them to get back as quick as possible. NOW THE INTENSITY RAISES! The athlete gets super aggressive in his or her push off and plant. They instinctively become more powerful because I set a benchmark for them; GET BACK FAST!!

When you give a player too many details they slow down due to over thinking. But if you give them a directive like; Do it fast, or get back now. They immediately go into a higher gear.

I have corrective many poor movement patterns regarding change of direction speed simply by making the athlete go faster into and out of their change of direction.

To really tell if your players are moving well have them perform some chaotic agility. You know, the drill where you point in several different directions and they must react to you. You can have them shuffle to the right, then to the left, then backwards and forwards, add is some angled crossovers retreating. The entire time the players are performing this drill they should be real calm with the shoulders and the hips should remain fairly level. The feet should continue to re-position outside the body on a good push off and stopping angle. It really looks good when players get this down.

I would like to hear from you on this topic. I love talking about on-court basketball speed!

Play Hard

Coach Taft

PS: This is a great blog post to pass along to other coaches. This information can make a big difference in their players speed. Tell them to go to www.BasketballSpeedInsiders.com so they can get their hands on the NEW 2009 Basketball Speed Insiders "The Game Plan" Newsletter. It is full of information.