In Part I, I discussed my ideas for building a formal and organized off-season skills training program. For our program to take the next step, especially from an offensive perspective, we need to work on the essential skills of shooting, passing, and ball handling. I, also, outlined our offensive philosophy and the importance of developing a skills training program that reflects the ideal athlete in our program. In this part, I want to develop the idea of our ideal program athlete and discuss drill philosophy as it relates to our off-season skill development program.<\/p>\n
If you had the ability to clone an ideal athlete for your program and philosophy who would that athlete be? As a proponent of positionless basketball, I would clone Giannis Antetokounmpo. Giannis, for one, is super athletic with natural length. That type of athlete would be utilized well in our up-tempo attacking offense and full court man to man run and jump defense. My team of Giannis would be able to guard all 5 positions. Unfortunately, our skills training program will not be able genetically to modify our players to be bigger, faster, and stronger. I don\u2019t even think our strength and conditioning program would be able to create a team of Giannis.<\/p>\n
I do believe, though, that we can look at our ideal program athlete to understand the areas and skills that we want to improve in our athletes. From an athletic standpoint, we want to build quickness, agility, and explosion. From a basketball skills point of view, we want positionless players that can guard anyone. We want our players to be able to handle the ball and make plays for teammates. We want our players to stretch the floor with the three-point shot and attack the basket with strength and determination. Understanding our ideal program athlete provides a template for the skills we want to build in our skills training program.<\/p>\n
Since visualizing the ideal program athlete I have been busy muddling through the endless black hole of training drills found in publication and the internet. I often wonder about the development of drills. What was the creator’s purpose? For instance, I do not understand three-man weave. I mean I get it that it develops passing, catching, movement, teamwork, etc., but I don\u2019t understand its application to competition. In our society, today time is a serious limitation. Our athletes are involved in other sports, organizations, and hobbies. Anytime I present off-season skill training I get a look of dread. A look of, \u201cI do not have time for that.\u201d Our skills training needs to be efficient. I\u2019m looking at three sessions a week, with each session at or under one hour. I need drills that improve skill in game-like situations.<\/p>\n
Click here to download all the Skill Drills from below!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n