Defence video & Fab 5

I showed this video to James about Defence. It’s a great video about positioning, denying the ball, moving poeple out of their sweet spots (favourite positions), and how to front defenders. Bruce Bowen is a great defender and also one of the most annoying defenders (cause he is known to kick and play a bit dirty).

I came across this article today about the Fab 5, a group of 5 young men who changed the game of basketball forever. They popularised wearing baggy shorts, shaved heads, talking trash, black shoes with black socks and backing down to no one. Made up of Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, Ray Jackson and Jalen Rose, they were a bunch of 18 year olds that made the NCAA finals as freshmen. Never been done before. First time that a team with a starting 5 of first year college players would make the finals. They did it 2 years in a row. Their impact on basketball is enormous, and 4 out of the 5 would later join the NBA.  Chris Webber, Juwan and Jalen being the more successful of the group in the NBA.

Training update

Yesterday, a few of us went down to Cook & Phillip to train.

We worked on the following:

- layup drills

- rebounding drills: boxing out, this game where everyone shoots off the backboard and the next person runs up, grabs it and shoots it back up.

- defence: explaining where everyone should be in the zone.

We then split up the groups. Aaron worked with James & Jamie on passing drills. Nick and Matt did some post work, showing Nick how to score down low.

Some things that Nick and I worked on are:

- shooting close to the ring using the backboard.

- hook shot: sky hook, baby hook. Nick seemed to pick this one one up pretty quick.

- passing and catching in the post.

I think the main thing is when you play in the low post, is to have an awareness of where you are, and a good touch around the basket. I’m showing Nick a variety of moves, to give him some more weapons to use.

Other interesting points from training:

- triple threat position: showing jamie that to be a true threat and to be unguardable you need to be a triple threat – ability to dribble, shoot, pass.

- pick & roll defence: showing the guys how to defend a pick and roll. If you see the defender about to be screened, you have to call out “screen left” or “screen right” to indicate where the screen is coming from to help the defender. The defender needs to be aware and fight to get around the screen with the knowledge now of where the screen is.  The help defender can also call out “help left” or “help right ” to assist or to call a “switch”.

- calling the cutters on defence: we got ripped to shreds by cutters in the last game. It is crucial to call the cutters coming through the lane so everyone is aware of where the opposition is. And I showed Jamie a trick or two, you bump into the cutters to put them off / make it uncomfortable for them /let them know you’re there.