Make Drill Time to Game Time Connections by Craig Shorey
My first year of coaching middle school boys I was trying to teach them real help side, sit on the rim and recover man to man defense. After we played man to man defense for our first couple games and we won. I invited our high school varsity head coach and the JV head coach to come and run my practice. “Teach my boys man to man defense” I asked. The coaches ran a great shell drill one end of the court and a two on two hedging drill.
The next day before the game, we have our hand up to count 1,2,3 and shout our team name and one of the players quickly asks “Coach, our defense or the one we were taught yesterday?” I responded “thank you for asking, let’s stay with ours and we will discuss it next practice” and away we went.
I have several friends who have played for some big time programs and I have asked each of them: What is the one thing you would want your coach to know about practice? Every one of them has answered “to help understand how this drill works in the game.”
Every year it seems I get a bunch of players who can run and of course the best way to beat any defense is to be the first one up the court. We use the 3 on 2, 2 on 1, fast break drill to teach nearly every part of transition offensive/defense and then go into our motion. We do it every day, sometimes 5 minutes and sometimes up to 15 minutes. Most years this is our identity. We have simple keys to success to the break. The first key is passing the ball to any open player ahead of you and I don’t care who it is or what position he plays, especially in practice.
During a game against our cross town rival one of the bigs was refusing to pass the ball to the open man on the break. I take him out and say calmly “stop dribbling the ball and pass it to the open man” and immediately I can tell he is upset. I have no idea why he is so upset. I try again and with a clipboard illustration and he isn’t even looking at me. I ask “what do you hear me saying?” He replies “you don’t think I know how to dribble the ball.”
I was in complete shock. I had said no such thing but realized he wasn’t making the connection from the daily drill to the game because I wasn’t making it for him. I said “I am so very sorry you think I said that. You are the best dribbling center I’ve ever had. You know that drill we do every day; those are game time keys to success. If you want to dribble the ball, be at the front of the break otherwise, pass the ball. If you’re open and don’t get the ball I’ll be talking to whoever doesn’t pass ahead to the open man.” His face lit up and I could see he made the connection because I made it for him. He was ahead of nearly every break the rest of the year either dribbling or waiting for the pass.
Here are my simple keys to making connections from drill to court:
1. Assume if your players are doing it wrong it’s the coach’s fault: Everybody else already does!
2. After you explain the drill, explain the connection to the game.
3. Make the team explain the connection verbally before the drill and after (every time you do the drill)
4. Reward questions, particularly if it is the millionth time you’ve done the drill because that question means your player now gets he doesn’t get it and that is the last step before he gets it. If you punish the late questions you will stunt player understanding.
5. Most importantly, if you can’t give your players a game time connection to the drill you are about to do “Don’t run it, EVER!”
Craig Shorey Bio:
Maricopa, Arizona
Graduated form Western Governors University and is currently pursuing a Masters from Grand Canyon University.
Coaching Experience: Craig is in his 6th season combined at the Middle School, and High School level. He also coached for the Phoenix Suns Basketball Summer Camp program. He has two middle school championships with one undefeated season.
Work: Currently he is teaching U.S. History at a middle school in Maricopa, Arizona. He was also his districts Coach of the Year for the 2013-2014 school year.
Favorite Quote: “Do not let what you cannot do get in the way of what you can do.” John Wooden
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