I love the simplicity with which Panathinaikos plays. Their concepts are very simple and they are a great example of knowing what you do and do it well.
Panathinaikos in 2012 added another element to the pick and roll.
How does the pick and roll finish if there is not a basket on the roll?
For Panathinaikos the pick is followed by a seal, not a roll. (There is a roll on the way to the pick but the screener sprints to the basket and finds somebody to “seal.”
The Corner
Panathinaikos wants to make the defense defend the corners. The corners are almost always either occupied or somebody is running to a corner to occupy it. On many posessions the defense must defend both corners, forcing the defense to defend the entire court is a recipe to get open shots both on the outside and on the interior.
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Handoff Set
I didn’t want to get into the specific sets but it was hard to watch Panathinaikos and not like and notice the simplicity and effectiveness of this handoff set that they ran.
I’ve watchted the first two games of the Heat vs Knicks series and it is frustrating to watch a player as good as Lebron do so much flopping. It’s not necessary and it’s bad for the game of basketball, and I think if he is dedicating so much energy to try and “attract foul” calls in his favor, then he is lacking attention in other areas. Time will tell but historically I don’t think great players have been great floppers.
I have been watching this video non stop the last week or two and I finally found out why. Because I know exactly what this video is about but there is no way to put that description into words.
Like a great practice or a great day, some things you either understand and enjoy or you don’t, but those feelings can be impossible to describe.
While I was watching the Kentucky vs Kansas National Championship game there was one play that really stood out to me as a difference maker. A play that you make when you win games and that you don’t make when you lose games. Those plays are hustle plays, loose ball plays.
In no way is this play the reason that Kansas lost the National Championship, but to win close games, to win national championships, you have to make these plays.
At the end of June I’ll be speaking at a clinic in Murcia with some fantastic other coaches. I’m really excited about this opportunity. I’ve done a few clinics this year and I feel like it’s a very positive experience that really requires a new type of communication skills. You really need to be clear with your instructions and your feedback because you not only have to make sure that the players on the court hear you and understand you but you also have to make sure the people in the stands are able to follow.
The last couple of weeks I watched a ton of basketball and there were two things that really called my attention in watching Kentucky’s National Championship run and watching Panathinaikos defeat Macabbi in an incredible playoff series:
1. These two teams are championship caliber because of their defense
2. On offense they keep it really simple, PAO with the pick and roll and Kentucky with the dribble handoff
Let’s take a closer look at Kentucky and the dribble handoff
Here are (my) keys to why this was so effective for Kentucky:
Bigs that are a threat off the dribble
Great Cuts by the guy coming to get the ball
Variety in who comes to get the handoff (passer loops, guy recieves a down screen first, etc) and using it as a decoy to set up other things
Playing it on both sides of the court, they did a great job of sometimes playing direct on the first side of the court and other times playing it on the help side of the floor
Never forgetting to react to the defense, they were always looking to attack and never robotic in their movements
I came across this video and thought it was very relevant for all educators…especially basketball coaches. How much do players learn from a typical stat sheet? How could we modify the presentation of the stat sheet or the scouting report so that we are able to better communicate our message?
As some of you know. I have began a project called “Hoopsenglish” with the goal of teaching English through basketball. It is something that I have been working on for the last year or so and it is now functional. As a part of the “launch” I will be doing a series of clinics around Spain…here is a video we made from the clinic and also a video from a local TV station about the clinic that was in collaboration with Club Basquet Vila de Montornés…
“Motivational Styles: Examining the Impact of Personality on hte Self-Talk Patterns of Adolescent Female Soccer Players” by Burton, Fillham and Glen 2011.
What is self talk and why does it matter?
Self-talk is the way an athlete talks to himself/herself. Self-talk has been proven to have strong effects and ability to enhance: (a) motivation, (b) self-confidence, (c) energy management, (d) attention, (e) stress management, (f) skill development and performance. Ulmer (2010) found that self-talk was the most effective mental training tool for enhancing performance.
In other words self-talk goes hand in hand with everything related to motivation and performance in sports. That being said it is
something that we should be aware of while coaching, how does this player talk to themselves?
One of the key indicators of self talk identified in the article was the motivational style of the athlete. In other words, in order to understand how an athlete talks to himself it is important to understand first why that athlete participates in sports. There are three main motivational styles in athletes that we will go over.
Mastery-Oriented (MO) Athletes focus on the process more than the product
Self-Talk-Positive, encouraging and corrective
Competitions-Opportunities to improve
Goal Setting-They set difficult goals to maximize learning and improvement
Performance-Optimal because their focus is on constant improvement
These are the players that come to practice and want to get better and in the games they play well and are constantly pushing themselves to new heights. Even when they are facing a superior opponent they give it 100%
Success-Oriented (SO) Athletes base their success on the competetive outcome, driven by winning. They believe talent is fixed.
Self-Talk- positive, encouraging, and task- focused when winning and encountering few problems, but they may become more negative, critical, outcome-focused and self-destructive when losing and encountering adversity. Focuses on winning or appearing superior to the competition.
Competitions-Opportunities to show supremacy compared to competitors.
Goal Setting-Prefer to set moderate goals which they know they will be successful
Performance-Good in situations of low to moderate difficulty but below that of MO athletes in situations of high difficulty
These are the players who are always trying to win and come in first. They play great against weaker competition but are quick to find excuses when they are faced with real adversity. They are talented but never quite reach their potential.
Failure-Oriented (FO) Athletes also define success in terms of social comparison. However FO athletes have low percieved ability.
Self-Talk-Decrease the risk of failure or providing an excuse in the event of failure. Negative, critical and counterproductive.
Competition-Lots of anxiety
Goal Setting- Avoid failure
Performance-Below capabilities
These are the players who practice great but struggle in games because they don’t have much self-confidence. They remember their failures much more than they remember their successes.
And even if it is not realistic to try and change every athelete to be an MO athlete as coaches it should help us in dealing with our players to be aware of these different motivational profiles to try and help our players to overcome the challenges that they face. But not as we see those challenges…as they see those challenges.
Although it is difficult to try and change the motivational style of a given athlete I think that it is possible to influence the motivational style of the team. As a coach you can define the success to the team based on what you express to them on a daily basis and what you reward the team for. This article really just solidifies from a more academic point of view all of the things that the great John Wooden preached: It’s all about the process. He said that he didn’t coach in the games, he coached in practice and the games were a direct result of wether or not the team was working well in practice.
As this article suggests. The way to achieve your potential is to focus on the process and not the product. The road to winning is a road where you do not spend alot of time thinking about winning, you spend alot of time thinking about how to get better. How to improve, how to maximize the talents that I have in the situation that I am in…not think about the talents that I don’t have or the great situation that the other guys is in. That brings to mind only one person:
Process over Product was one of Wooden's keys to success
