UMASS Still Alive

After a disappointing regular season in which Umass really seemed to struggle - particuarly on the offensive end - the Minutemen put things together on Tuesday to score an upset victory against Charlotte in the first round of the A10 tourney. I'm rooting for them to keep it going against Richmond tonight! Stranger things have happened...

Unselfishness

We started another season last night and got a good win against likely one of the best teams on the schedule this season. Winning was important because it covers up chemistry problems and will help our young team's confidence, as well as hopefully help them to continue to buy in to what we are teaching each day in practice. After watching the film however,and thinking more about the game, it is clear to me that we have a long way to go if we are going to be any where near as good as we want to be. Shot selection, so important in our offense, was truly abysmal throughout most of the game - particularly in the first half. It has to get better if we are going to improve as a team. The challenge is how do you get your kids to think unselfish thoughts, to speak unselfish words, and most importantly, to demonstrate unselfishness in their actions on the court? I believe how much success we ultimately have meeting that challenge will determine the course of this season.

GCS To Host Coaching Clinic

Glenelg Country School is excited to announce its hosting of a coaching clinic featuring highly respected college basketball coaches Gary Williams, Mark Turgeon, Jeff Capel, and Jimmy Patsos. More info here.

GCS '12 Forward Isaiah Miles Playing Well In Florida

Rising sophomore Isaiah Miles has put in some work this summer to improve his strength and his skills. He played well with his AAU team at the Super Showcase in Orlando, Florida, and has received a mention in this short blurb as a result. Miles has so much basketball potential. His willingness to work and improve will ultimately determine how far he goes with the game.

1Percent Club Training

I have been training our players in the offseason for going 10 seasons now (really amazing how fast the time has passed!) In that time I've experimented with a myriad of gadgets, aids, straps and techniques to help kids improve their shooting and ball-handling skills. Some of these things have proven moderately successful, others have been duds. Over time I've come to believe strongly that there are no shortcuts to improvement. Only correct repetition and long hours working in the gym yield results. As a result I've become very skeptical when I see new products come on the market claiming fast results.

With all that said, I recently came across a program that has simply revolutionized my thought process on the proper way to shoot the basketball. California bio-mechanist Jeremy Russotti has created a product called the "J-Glove" which is flat out the best shooting tool I've ever seen. I've been working out one of our players almost every day this spring as he tries to make the transition from a post player to playing on the perimeter. This player has worked his tail off shooting thousands and thousands of shots this spring, but progress and improvement has been relatively slow. After 20 minutes using the J-Glove my player was making over 60% of his shots from all over the floor with range out to 25 feet - a far higher percentage than he had ever shot in previous practice sessions. The rapid shooting gains this player made after just a week of using the J-Glove has made me a strong believer in a number of Coach Russotti's ideas, in particular his concept of "premature finger flexion."

Furthermore, Russotti's ball-handling program contains the most progressive, innovative dribbling drills I have ever seen. Russotti places a strong emphasis on hand quickness and functional training to prepare players for the most intensive situations they will encounter during game conditions. I am truly invigorated by the ideas and training methods he shares in his videos. I can't wait for our team workouts to begin this summer so that I can share his J-Glove, wrist weights, and hand quickness drills with all of our players and watch their rapid improvement.

Check out Russotti's website http://1percentclub.org/ and watch the sample video clips. I believe it contains perhaps the most cutting-edge skills training that exists anywhere in the world today.

Attack Basketball Camp for boys and girls!

For the tenth consecutive summer, we will be running basketball camps for both boys and girls at Glenelg Country School. Space is limited so get your application in soon!


Attack Basketball Camps for boys and girls at Glenelg Country School:

- Air-conditioned facilities
- Experienced, expert instruction
- Guest speakers
- Lunch included every day
- All campers receive t-shirt and evaluation


Come be a part of one of the top up-and-coming basketball programs in the Baltimore-Washington area! For more information, please click on the link below:

http://glenelg.org/quicklinks/news_detail.asp?pageaction=ViewSinglePublic&LinkID=2205&ModuleID=5

Three Defensive Keys For Halfcourt Man to Man

Wow. It's been a while, I know... Hopefully over the next few months I will be able to do a better job of keeping this blog up to date. Luckily, only two or three people actually read this thing! :)

We have recently started practicing one day a week in preparation for summer league play. These practices have been productive, and we have been pleased overall with the new players' coachability and willingness to adapt to the system and style of play. Defensively, three basic halfcourt keys have been stressed. We believe strongly that these teaching points are three simple things to teach that can make a big impact defensively.

1. "Don't Get Gapped!" - If your man does not have the basketball, move up (towards the ball) the imaginary line between your man and the ball,and off the line. Get in an open stance.Do not allow the ball to split you and your teammate.

2. "Close Out with High Hands" - When closing out, sprint about 2/3 of the distance between you and the man, then break down into a stance and chop your feet (stutter step). Throw your hands up high to take away the ball-handler's vision. Do not close out short!

3. "Help-side Stance" - when your man is on the help-side (weak-side of the floor) stay down in your stance. Get two feet in the lane and put your hands in "pistols" position (one hand pointing towards the ball, the other towards your man. Your backside should be pointed towards the baseline, and your head should be on a swivel, keeping sight of both man and ball.


Obviously, there are many more important teaching points necessary for effective man-to-man defense, but these are a few that in my estimation are easy to teach and will pay immediate dividends on the defensive end of the floor!

Be a Pro!

This past weekend our program was very fortunate to host Coach Mike Moreau, the Director of Basketball for IMG Academies in Florida, and a skills trainer for numerous professional players. All told, Coach Moreau spent over eight hours on the court with our Varsity and JV players instructing them on a myriad of topics pertaining to the game as well as to life in general.

I was impressed and inspired with the intensity and focus that Coach Moreau brought to working with our players. Many of the drills he ran the kids through were not entirely new to me, but it was the manner in which the drills were presented and the effort that he was able to solicit from the kids that was so impressive. I definitely gained a clearer sense of the focus and commitment needed to succeed at the highest levels of the game, and I believe our players did as well. Coach Moreau spoke to the kids in detail about how difficult it is to sustain a career at the NBA level. He also talked to the team about what it means to "Be a Pro" - not in the literal idea of getting paid to play basketball, but in the sense of the commitment, character, and work ethic needed to maximize your potential at any level. Coach Moreau's words were made exponentially more powerful in that it was crystal clear that he personally embodies each of the characteristics of professionalism that he preached.

Clinic featuring Mike Moreau from IMG Academies

We are really excited to offer an offensive skills clinic for boys in grades fourth through eighth (ages 9-14). The clinic will be held on Saturday, November 15, 2008 from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m at Glenelg. Entitled “Training to Beat the Best,” this clinic will feature Coach Mike Moreau. Coach Moreau is the Director of Player Development at IMG Academies and a very experienced individual skills trainer for numerous NBA players, including Chauncey Billups, Kevin Martin and Tyrus Thomas. For more information and to print out a registration form, follow the link below:

http://glenelg.org/quicklinks/news_detai....981&ModuleID=36

This is going to be a great opportunity for our varsity and JV players as well. Coach Moreau will be working with all of our players throughout the weekend in addition to the clinic for younger players. I'm looking forward to learning many new tips and drills to help our players expand their games and improve their skills.

Practice Planning

Below is a link to an article on practice planning I found on Brian McCormick's site. I like a lot of the ideas in this piece, particularly the ideas on making all your practice drills competitive.

After reading this article from Coach John Harmatuk, I realized that I miss practice. We did not really practice at all this summer -- just played a lot of summer league games -- and it was very frustrating at times to see the kids making the same mistakes over and over in the games and be unable to correct those errors the next day in practice.

http://www.thecrossovermovement.com/component/option,com_jd-wp/Itemid,61/p,266/

U.S. Olympic Team

I just finished watching the second half of the final Olympic tuneup for the U.S. team versus Australia this morning. Although the "Redeem Team" (as they have been inanely dubbed by the media) ultimately defeated the Australians by double digits, there was the usual troubling lack of discipline and smart play from the Americans, as the Australians out-executed the vastly superior American athletes on both sides of the floor throughout the half. Defensively, the U.S. continue to demonstrate a bullying mentality marked by habitual gambling and reaching. The international officials seem to allow more physicality and bumping which does help these "feast or famine" tactics. Unfortunately, all the reaching and overplaying also inevitably leads to numerous numbers advantages and easy shots for the opposition.

Apparently the basic strategy for Coach K and his staff is this: since the American players are either unwilling or unable to execute much resembling a half-court offense involving ball movement and intelligent play, the idea is to throw shock and awe tactics at the opponents on the defensive end and hope that phenomenal athleticism, slow international whistles, and intimidation will lead to enough easy transition dunks to overpower the opponents. This formula has been successful thus far in the five exhibition games, but will almost certainly not succeed against teams such as Spain, Greece, and Argentina, just as it didn't in 2004. Unless something radically changes in the opening rounds next week, I would be very surprised if the U.S. wins the gold medal despite having by far the best athletic talent in the world.

Student Accountibilty

The following is a 19th century quotation that I ran across in an autobiography of Abraham Lincoln that I have been enjoying recently. This excerpt pertains to education (specifically literacy), but the parallels to coaching basketball immediately jumped out to me. I'm convinced that to be most effective as a coach or teacher, you don't necessarily teach someone a skill or a concept, you teach a student how to teach themselves the skill or concept. Effective education is not injecting information into the brain of a passive student. The student must be intrinsically motivated to learn as well.


"If your own endeavors are deficient, it is in vain that you have tutors, books, and the external apparatus of literary pursuits. You must love learning, you must possess it. In order to love it, you must feel its delights; in order to feel it delights, you must apply it, however irksome at first, closely, constantly, and for a considerable time. If you have a resolution enough to do this, you cannot but love learning; for the mind always loves that to which it has been so long, steadily, and voluntarily attached. Habits are formed, which render what was at first disagreeable, not only pleasant, but necessary."

- William Scott

Work Ethic

I ran across the following article on the Milwaukee Bucks recent draft pick Joe Alexander, who played at Linganore high school just a little ways up I-70 from us in Frederick County. "Working hard" has become a meaningless cliche for a lot of kids who may believe they are working but have no real concept of what that means. Here is a kid who literally lived the game for years and is now in the NBA. (Of course, it also didn't hurt that he's 6'8''...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/sports/ncaabasketball/25wvu.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5124&en=3cdc4428b4739c4d&ex=1364270400&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Coach Walberg to UMASS

If you are one of the two or three people that actually read this blog, let me apologize for the recent dearth of new posts. After my last post regarding coaches needing to set aside more time for their personal lives, I guess my recent hiatus from blogging was "appropos."

Anyway, in a previous post I half-seriously compared Coach Walberg's system to a guerrilla warfare strategy similar to what the Massachusetts Minutemen employed during the Revolutionary War (scroll down a bit to read it here). Ironically enough, Coach Walberg is now a "Minuteman" himself, as he has taken a job as the lead assistant for new UMASS coach coach Derek Kellogg.
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/college/basketball/view/Kellogg_names_four_assistants_at_UMass/srvc=colbb&position=5

I wasn't particularly surprised by this news, as I had noticed that Kellogg and Walberg seemed to have a very good rapport when I watched them work together last fall at the Mid-South coaches clinic in Memphis. I expect the Minutemen to be good next season as Kellogg inherits a strong group of athletic, penetrating guards and wings (including Ricky Harris from Calvert Hall) from former UMASS coach Travis Ford. I am hopeful that UMASS will at least be on TV more frequently than Pepperdine was, and it is nice that they are on East Coast time. I can't wait to see how much of the true Walberg philosophy Kellogg will actually adopt, as Calipari's version of AASAA was fairly watered-down imho. Regardless, look for UMASS to be among the leaders in points scored per game next year, and look for me to be sporting a UMASS t-shirt.

Rick Majerus

Below is a great SI article that I found on St. Louis' Rick Majerus. Majerus is truly a genius when it comes to coaching basketball, but I almost felt sorry for him (not to mention some of his players) after I read this article. He is so driven and focused on the game that I can't help but wonder if he has missed out on some other important things in life. John Wooden talks a lot about balance in his writing. As a coach, we sometimes forget to keep things in perspective and keep a proper balance between the game and a healthy personal life...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/the_bonus/01/17/majerus/index.html

Coach Walberg Receives National Press!

I was really surprised when I found out last month that Coach Walberg had resigned from Pepperdine. It was unexpected because I truly believed that with another great recruiting class signed for next year Pepperdine basketball was set to blow up. Apparently Coach Walberg had a lot trouble getting some of his players and assistant coaches to believe in what he was trying to do from a tactical standpoint. Amazing... It just goes to show that belief and loyalty from those around you are so important when you are coaching.

It will be interesting to see where Coach Walberg ends up. With top teams in the pros (Celtics), college (Memphis), high school (Bob Hurley at St. Anthony's) and AAU (Nike Team Florida) all running his offense, it is obvious that he will be in demand as an assistant coach and may have other head coaching opportunities as well. I hope Walberg gets another good opportunity and that he has the success he deserves. He is a good guy and he has been very open and helpful about sharing his ideas with me and hundreds of other coaches around the country.

Below is a link to an article about the Dribble-Drive Motion in this week's Sports Illustrated. I actually knew a few weeks ago that this article was coming out because the author, Grant Wahl, sent me an email looking for information. Apparently, since I emailed Coach Walberg so often with questions over the past year or so, he gave this writer my email (along with the emails of a lot of other high school and college coaches across the nation with whom he had corresponded.) I exchanged a couple emails with Grant which was pretty neat, and our school, Glenelg Country, is listed in the print addition as a program that runs the offense. Glenelg Country on the map!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/grant_wahl/02/12/memphis0218/index.html

Parents and Coaches

Let me start off by stating that I am not a parent, and as such perhaps I shouldn't judge. However, I am going to get on my soapbox for a moment here:

It seems like more and more seemingly reasonable, intelligent, well-intentioned adults are becoming overly involved in their children's athletic lives and handicapping them in the process. It is frustrating when I see overzealous parents teaching something that directly contradicts what the player's coach is teaching. Coaches are rarely perfect and will certainly make mistakes, and it is a parent's perogative to not agree with gameplans, strategy, etc -- but when a parent communicates that to the player it undermines the coach's authority and ultimately just hurts their child in the long run. If your son thinks the coach doesn't know what he is doing because that is what you told him, he will become unteachable and uncoachable. Moreover, if a player does not always like his coach or always agree with him, that doesn't mean he cannot learn something from the coach. (Maybe you can learn what not to do in some cases!) Everyone who has played sports has had a coach that maybe we didn't like personally or didn't totally agree with at all times. Conversely, every player (and person in general) needs challenges in order to grow and learn. If a parent constantly protects and makes excuses for his or her child, he or she is not allowing the child to be challenged and is ultimately limiting their potential for growth and improvement. The bottom line is if you don't always agree with your son or daughter's coach, fine. Just don't make the mistake of communicating that attitude to your son or daughter. If you do so, I believe you are only hurting your child in the long run.

A Nation of Wimps?

I found the following on Brian McCormick's blog http://www.thecrossovermovement.com/. I highly recommend his blog. It is a site that I read frequently:

Sefu Bernard’s blog alerted me to the Nation of Wimps. As the author writes:
Armed with hyperconcern and microscrutiny, parents are going to ludicrous lengths to take the lumps and bumps out of life for their children today. However well-intentioned, their efforts have the net effect of making kids more fragile. That may be why the young are breaking down in record numbers or staying stuck in endless adolescence.
I see this every day and hear about it even more from my sister who teaches at a school where nothing is ever allowed to go wrong and no child is ever responsible for his or her own actions. How can a child really learn when a parent is right behind the child making excuses for every error rather than helping the child learn from his or her mistake?
What’s more, parents are seeking status and meaning in the achievements of their children. The trouble with turning tots into trophies is that the developmental needs of the young are sacrificed to the psychological needs of adults.

Competitive Spirit

"Why are some players seemingly content with getting beat while others take it as a personal insult? Why do some players do nothing in between games to prevent embarrassment while others work their tails off to try to fix whatever it was that caused the opponent to score so easily? Why do some have such a cavalier disposition when an opponent makes a score while others appear to burn with a competitive spirit that confidently dares the opponent to come back and try again? Perhaps the answer lies so deep within human nature or is so buried in heredity that we will never know."

- Pete Newell


In our program, the most important characteristic that we look for when evaluating players is competitiveness and a willingness to play hard. It seems to me that playing hard is the most important skill there is, and I just wish I was a better coach so that I could find a way to instill a more competitive spirit in all our players...


The Great Competitor

Beyond the winning and the goal,
Beyond the glory and the fame,
He feels the flame within his soul,
Born of the spirit of the game.

And where the barriers may wait,
Built by the opposing gods,
He finds a thrill in bucking fate
And riding down the endless odds.

Where others whither in the fire,
Or fall below some raw mishap,
Where others lag behind and tire,
Or break beneath the handicap,

He finds a new and deeper thrill
To take him on the uphill spin,
Because the test is greater still
And something he can revel in.

- Grantland Rice

Guerrilla Basketball

Lest I be misunderstood, let me begin this post by stating that basketball is just a game, and should not really be compared in any serious manner to warfare. That said, please humor me as I explain my (very limited!) understanding of 18th century battle tactics, and attempt to extend that understanding as a half-serious metaphor for our style of play this season:

European warfare during the time of the American Revolution was very structured and organized. Soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder in formation lines, faced other soldiers across the field lining up in exactly the same manner, and attempted to blow each other's heads off.This style of battle was effective as long as the enemy adopted the same unspoken customs and rules. However, when the Massachusetts Minutemen refused to line up in a field and instead employed guerrilla tactics of fast moving, smaller scale attacks against the orthodox British lines marching back to Boston, the playing field was evened and the British Redcoats took heavy losses.

Recently, conventional high school basketball has reminded me a bit of orthodox, 18th century European warfare. One team walks the ball up the court, implicitly gives the other team time to set their defense, and then proceeds to attack in a predictable fashion. Both teams play by the traditional rules and customs of what is considered proper play, and inevitably, the team with the greater talent or size (the Redcoats) wins the game.

Our style (based on Coach Walberg's ideas) by comparison, is designed to force teams out of their conventional basketball comfort zones, create confusion and uncertainty, and as a result, be "Minutemen" who defeat teams that we would not beat if we were to play conventionally...