Behind the back pass

Well, I´m a fan of showtime basketball, I grew up with Earvin "Magic" Johnson and showtime basketball at the forum like they always said. I have always liked players that do that little extra and as a coach does kind of players can give you lots of headaches but also so much more success if you can get them to use their showtime skills in the right time and in the right way.




Had two games with my kids boys98 this weekend and in a game which we won big there is one fastbreak that sticks to my mind. I have some players that I expect to do behind the back pass in some games, but this time is was a player that I never would have thought would do it.

It was a nice fastbreak, with 3 passes and 3 dribbles and finished off with a behind the back pass for the layup.

At the moment we have 3 focuses in the games and that is Rebounding, Fastbreak and Energy.
Starting with rebounding its so much easier to play  this game and even the old goats in coaching are changing their styles of play to adept to a defense in 5-5 that has developed into a wall and new ways is coming. You have use the speed and quickness of the players that are so athletic.

Well we try to play that way and its starting to look good. Rebounding is still a weakness, but will be a weakness for only a short while more.

Fastbreak is not just that we are trying to run like like crazy, but with a purpose and filling the 3 lanes and getting the ball up the court quickly to see what the defense gives us. If there aint a easy one, 1vs1 opertunity, 2-1,3-2 we get into motion offense and move the ball. If their is no quick pass up the court the PG can dribble the ball to side, middle or diagonaly to the other side.

Hard part about playing this way is at ealy ages and old ages making the right choices.


Energy is the third big part, my kids are so focused in doing the things right that they sometimes forget energy. I`m tlaking about givining energy to others and also I as a coach want players to play with a smile on their lips, not like robots that are programmed to do a certain thing. If they reach the higher levels they have lots of time beeing robots :-)

In pratises we have some other things we focus on
- Defense on ball, off ball
- Moving without the ball, backcut, frontcut, getting open, handoffs.(of course passing)
- Shooting technic
- Cordination, phsyical training, quickness

The third one shooting I see as a very important thing to learn early, I know some coaches dont think this way and thats fine, but we can see the problems with many american players, star players that first learn how to shoot when the reach the NBA or with personal coaches in the summers.

Being able to shoot the ball, opens up the game so much more and makes it so much easier doing all the things you practise. If you are a good team, many teams will just back off and play 2-3 meters away from the ball and stack up the 3 second area. A little bit older teams will eventuelllay go to zone and stand there.

Everyody agress that 1 vs 1 skills is very important and with a shoot at a early stage the players can reallt play one on one and the teams that dont try to play "real" defense not zagging all the time will be punished time and time.

Somebody said the behind back is used to little and I agree, but we need to teach WHEN and HOW it should be used or else, we get a whole other game.

Many of the nice things that we see on the court we have very few players to be thankful for starting with it.
Two of them is my favourite Magic Johnson and Pistol Pete

Here is a video of the great Pistol Pete


Showtime!

Night ends with black mamba

Sunday and just taking some minutes to write a little while waiting for the coffee to be ready :-)

I will fix some personal stuff tonight, but otherwise this will be a great basketball sunday. Starting with The final in Copa Del Rey in Basketball between Regal Barcelona and Real Madrid at 18:00 european time. That game I have to watch on the internet, but the ACB has great webb TV:e so thats gonna be nice if my internet is up in gear.

Later in at 21:30 my favourite danish TV channel DK4 will show Los Angeles Lakers vs Orlando Magic and there is only one reason why I watch it and thats the black mamba Kobe Bryant. I couldn`t care less about the other players. He is a pure joy the study on the court........

But a week ago I actually saw Dwight Howard do a move in a game that was a huge surprise :-)

Coffee is ready have a great night.

Christmas silence has....

...been a big part of my daily life lately, just relaxing and visiting my family in Sweden and thats why My World Of Basketball has been taking very little of my time.

But I can never totally stop doing something with basketball, when I`m free from practises or work there are nobody that beautiful living to make me totally just be normal.

So I have been free since the 23th of december and I`m of course watching games on TV and online and searching the net for great basketball stuff. I have came across some great links and my digital library becomes bigger and better.

Watched the hyped game between Lakers and Miami and I have to say Dwayne Wade did impress me and he has done that in other games also this season. He is carrying that team and if he stays healthy they can make it to the final and maybe also win it, but I believe more in Boston, Lakers, Spurs to win, but liek I wrote if D-Wade stays healthy they have a chance, but if he goes down they are in deep deep trouble.

Lakers are just like Boston cruising the season along and waiting for the playoffs, but still I was very surprised that Lakers played like they did on the pick and roll that was just horrible. Zenmaster Phil maybe just doesn`t give a flying f*ck right now, but that was very ugly. I would be very surprised if thet try to go out in D-Wade again and "hedge", double or whatever they tried to do next game. Thats the wrong kind of player to do that as he proved in the game time after time. He sliced that PAR defense like Jack the ripper.....

Have watched some swedish league games since I came home and can come to the conclusion that tactically we are miles behind, talents are coming but our seniorlevel plays like they are their own coaches and run their own offenses. I`m not just talking about setplays but choices fo shoots, choices of passes and choosing the tempo, when to run and not, inside/outside game using the posts and reading the pick and roll are just some where we are miles behind.

In defense I cant really see somebody being a specialist and it doesn`t look like teams are trying to shut down a shooter on a team with that pain in the ass defense its more just straight up man to man or normal zon.
I havent seen all teams but defense is not trying to make offense change to something else it looks more like they are just accepting and reacting to what they do.

In offense I miss very much and I have written about that before and that are more plays for certain players if you dont have plays for some players you can as a coach make them totally useless since they are not creators, they need a play or somebody else to create for them. To get your players out of a set to do what they are best at....could be shooting, 1vs 1, pick and roll, inside and so on...why have insideplayers if you will not use them as a coach?

Why have the best 1vs1 player in the league if he/she doesn`t get to play 1 vs1 out of a teamconcept in games. Why have the tallest player in the league standing at the freethrow line like a statue, when she/he can only score close to the basket.
Why play fast when you are slow?, Why play slow when you are fast......

Why stay up when I should sleep :-)

Sitting and watching a NBA game

Sunday and its been a very calm day today. I started of today with watching danish U18 nationalteam practise and I have written it before, but there really are some very interesting players in that team.

Now some hours later after some well deserved sleep I´m watching DK4 and the game between Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Lakers and for the first time since jerebko`s last game I haven`t switched it off. A good game with great sequenses and of course class players like Kobe Bryant and Linus Kleiza.

But back too U18 team and watching their practise I shook my head a couple of times, when I see players not even trying to do what they are supposed to do. I get confused how these players are thinking when they do halfass pushups or dont take the dynamic streching seriously. Do they really think coaches dont see that?

Have they already decided that they will not make the team or are they just "talents" that always have cheated in doing things right, well they will wake up sooner or later and discover that the endstation for them will not be the one that they wanted to end up on and propably stop playing or blame all of their coaches.

And in some sense its their clubcoaches fault, since that attitude should be wiped of the planet, but many "talented" players get away with it since they score their points and do their stuff in youth levels, but there are basketball after youth basketball.

Once again I was alone watching the practise I think thats sad, but at least I had a good time :-)