Never Stop Stressing Fundamentals

Watching the antics of Milton Bradley and Luis Castillo on SportsCenter last week reminded me that there is no level of play that fundamentals aren’t important.

I recently sat in on the practice of an AAU team. This U15 boys team has been pretty successful this year, but, according to the coach (Scott), has been experiencing “melt downs” at critical times.

For instance, they lost the final game of a tournament by committing as many turnovers in the final six minutes of the game as in the previous 34 minutes. Another aspect that he was concerned about was that it seemed that they allowed crucial offensive rebounds during critical times of the game. I wasn’t sure how I could help, but agreed to watch. (I don’t think I have ever attended a practice and not learned something.)

What I noticed in Scott’s practice was that he limited his teaching on a subject to just that drill. For instance, during a passing drill, he made corrections and had the players continue until they did it to his satisfaction.

However, once he went on to the next drill, he no longer emphasized the previously taught basic. In other words, it seemed fine to stop a drill to emphasize passing and catching, but, once they were going over offensive sets, inbounds plays or scrimmaging, he no longer stopped the play and stressed passing.

After the practice, we grabbed some coffee and discussed my observations. Scott felt that if he stopped every drill to correct something, then he would get nothing done. He also explained that he was trying to teach various topics and felt that the players would not learn if he was interrupting the flow every few seconds.

So, I threw in a few suggestions that may help you as well. First, meet with the assistant coach and stress that their job is to watch for bad-passing techniques and to stop play when a bad pass is made. This then allows Scott to focus on the concepts he wants to teach and still catches the errors.

Also, during a scrimmage of a situation where there is offense versus defense, consider bad-passing technique a turnover, even if the pass is completed.

The second suggestion that I gave Scott pertained to offensive rebounds. No matter what drill I am running or what the situation is, if an offensive rebound is allowed, the defensive has to drop and do 10 pushups. After the first practice, you only have to yell “Down” and they know what to do. Scott may not see any difference this late in the season, but, it can’t hurt.

Here is another tip. I have found that finishing around the basket is a weakness in youth basketball players. I believe that this is due to a lack of concentration. One of the techniques I use to combat this is to stress finishing on every drill. The group that is running the drill has one chance after the initial shot to “put the ball in the hole.”

If they don’t, then it is “Down!” A tip in or put back where the player has both feet off the ground is an exception. So, if the initial shot misses and a player follows up with an offensive rebound and also misses, other players can attempt to score the basket as long as they are in the air. This encourages focus on the basket as well as quickness and athleticism around the basket.