Basketball
Skill Development
2009/03/10 19:14
Unless you can do something under game conditions - tired, pumped with adrenaline, etc. - it isn’t much use to you. As a basketball player we always shot free-throws after doing fitness. As an ultimate player, we always did throwing drills after fitness or drills that combined fitness with throwing.
The problem, however, is that without a certain minimum level of skill and also of fitness, our form often deteriorates significantly when tired. Isn’t getting in high repetitions with poor form simply going to reinforce bad habits and end up with faulty skill development? I’ve seen a lot of shitty throws and shitty cuts in most fitness drills. I’ve also felt the frustration of my free-throw form not feeling “right” when trying to shoot them after suicides.
So if we perform skills while fresh, we’re more likely to perform them correctly, but not likely to have high carry-over to game situations. On the other hand, if we perform skills while tired, we’re a lot more likely to practice them incorrectly. Ideally, we’d have the mental and physical toughness to always focus on perfect form, even when exhausted, or at least have the sense to stop and correct ourselves when our form breaks down, but in the real world this often isn’t the case.
I have ideas on partial solutions to this problem, but I’m not an expert on athletic training, so I’m just putting this out there to hopefully get some feedback...
One thing I’d like to try is doing a drill fresh, doing some fitness drill to tire the team out, and then doing the same drill again. By doing the exhausted training as soon as possible after doing the fresh training, I think there should be a stronger memory of what things are supposed to feel like, and it should be easier to stay on track without deviating from correct form.
The problem, however, is that without a certain minimum level of skill and also of fitness, our form often deteriorates significantly when tired. Isn’t getting in high repetitions with poor form simply going to reinforce bad habits and end up with faulty skill development? I’ve seen a lot of shitty throws and shitty cuts in most fitness drills. I’ve also felt the frustration of my free-throw form not feeling “right” when trying to shoot them after suicides.
So if we perform skills while fresh, we’re more likely to perform them correctly, but not likely to have high carry-over to game situations. On the other hand, if we perform skills while tired, we’re a lot more likely to practice them incorrectly. Ideally, we’d have the mental and physical toughness to always focus on perfect form, even when exhausted, or at least have the sense to stop and correct ourselves when our form breaks down, but in the real world this often isn’t the case.
I have ideas on partial solutions to this problem, but I’m not an expert on athletic training, so I’m just putting this out there to hopefully get some feedback...
- When trying to develop new skills, I think it’s important to be fresh.
- I think it’s important to maintain a balance between fresh and exhausted practice.
- Players should be encouraged to stop and fix mistakes rather than pushing through. If you’re racing to finish a drill and you start screwing up half way through, half the drill is at best a waste and at worst having a negative effect. If you need to stop for 30 seconds to refocus, that’s better than doing things poorly.
One thing I’d like to try is doing a drill fresh, doing some fitness drill to tire the team out, and then doing the same drill again. By doing the exhausted training as soon as possible after doing the fresh training, I think there should be a stronger memory of what things are supposed to feel like, and it should be easier to stay on track without deviating from correct form.
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Free Agency
2009/02/04 10:54
One Thing Bargnani Can Do To Immediately Get Better
2008/12/23 15:44
If I Were Jay Triano
2008/12/23 14:22
Everyone loves to play fantasy GM, dreaming up trades to make their favourite team better. It’s a lot of fun sometimes, but a lot of the trades aren’t realistic, either because they don’t fit NBA salary cap rules, or because you’d have to get the other team’s GM drunk first. Instead, I’m going to play fantasy coach, trying to dream up schemes for how to best utilize the players we have.
I’ve got what I think would be an effective scheme, that would probably turn Chris Bosh into a triple-double machine and maybe an MVP. Read More...
I’ve got what I think would be an effective scheme, that would probably turn Chris Bosh into a triple-double machine and maybe an MVP. Read More...
High Post
2008/12/23 12:03
Thoughts on how to most effectively use talented high-post scorers. I’m not a coach, so this is hardly authoritative, but hopefully some of my ideas are non-obvious and interesting. Read More...
Raptor Frustration
2008/11/27 00:40
The Raptors are an incredibly talented team. The Raptors suck. There’s something wrong here. I make 8 observations about problems the Raptors are having this season, none of which have anything to do with individual players not being very good, despite assertions by our coaching staff that the problem is simply a lack of talent and athleticism on the wings.
When I started this site, I thought I’d write mostly about ultimate, but with the touring season over, and the basketball season in full swing, it seems I have a new obsession. Read More...
When I started this site, I thought I’d write mostly about ultimate, but with the touring season over, and the basketball season in full swing, it seems I have a new obsession. Read More...
2010
2008/11/24 23:34
An incredibly long breakdown of some of my thoughts on the 2010 NBA free agency situation.
I think a lot of teams, in their efforts to clear cap space, are putting themselves in a very dangerous situation, because it is very difficult to build a good team from scratch through free agency. Read More...
I think a lot of teams, in their efforts to clear cap space, are putting themselves in a very dangerous situation, because it is very difficult to build a good team from scratch through free agency. Read More...