Let The Games Begin!

I don't care if you are an NBA fan or not- these games are exciting!

I couldn't believe the finish to the Celtic and Bulls game. It was a double overtime thriller. I thought each team had the game in the bag several times and the other team would hit a remarkable shot. Which leads me to my post...

How many times have you been apart of a high school game where the final shot was going to determine the outcome of the game? I have been in many of them as a player, coach, and spectator. More than not- the final shot is a "brick." But yet at the NBA level these players make or come close nearly every time. Automatic! Automatic! Automatic!

When pressure is on and the shot to be taken is a long range jumper the players that have shot thousands of shots and have grooved the pattern are the ones hitting or nearly hitting the game winning shot.

In the final moments of an exciting barn burner the players get overtaken many times by emotions and don't think as clearly as they do in practice when there is little pressure to make the shot. But in games that are close and the crowd is going wild the only thing you have to rely on is the fact that your body has rehearsed the shot so many times it is basically on auto-pilot. These are why game winning shots occur at the highest level. The NBA guys shoot for a living. But can you imagine if you could get high school kids to practice each and every day for at least 100 shots. What a difference in their confidence level. One of my nephews hit over 250 3 pointers in high school. He practiced his shot all the time. It was common for him to hit 7 3 pointers in a game. As where many players hardly can hit one.

Now, lets take this same philosophy of grooving the shooting pattern with other areas such as footwork, dribbling, passing, and defense. If you practiced these skills over and over eventually they would become automatic patterns, or default patterns. Great low post players have rehearsed the footwork patterns so much they can take a low post defender to school almost at will. Great ball handlers can dribble through pressure in the final seconds just as easy as they can in practice or at the park. It is because they are automatic play. They don't think about it- they just do it. It is so natural and common.

The difficult part is finding that player that is willing to work at any skill long enough to become great at it. Putting the work in when they are not feeling up to it is a difficult task- but those who succeed know this and are willing to pay the price.

Our task as coaches is to create situations where players can get tons of repetitions and concentration during the session. The thing you don't want is sloppy reps where they don't practice the skill correctly. If you are creative you can use many different drills to accomplish virtually the same skill- but it looks and feels different to the player so they work hard at it.

I would love to hear some ideas you have on this subject.

Play Hard,

Lee

PS: We know that great players have to work hard at their skills but we also know that great coaches must do the same thing. Coaches that are willing to take the time to research, attend clinics, and invest in resources to help their skills are going to be successful. Basketball Speed is a resource dedicated to improving how coaches can teach on the court speed. If you want to become a top notch basketball speed coach you need to check out www.MyBasketballSpeed.com