There’s one on every team, or at least there should be. Teams without “The Guy” tend to be unsuccessful in reaching their teams goals. As a coach, you hope you find this person before practice begins. This will take you one step closer to winning a league or tournament championship.
The benefit of having this player on your team is two fold. First, you don’t have to coach them, they hold themselves accountable and they take the lead. Second, they make others around them better. You can get on “The Guy” and they won’t take EVERYTHING you say literally. This person changes the landscape of your team.
“The Guy”
Leader
Coachable
Holds himself and others accountable
Makes those around him better
Challenges himself to get better
Best player on the team
Can create for himself or others
Does what he can do, doesn’t venture into other lanes
Speaks up
Not afraid to be shot down or told no
LOS ANGELES, CA – DECEMBER 27: Chris Paul #3 of the Los Angeles Clippers directs his teammates against the Boston Celtics on December 27, 2012 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2012 NBAE (Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)
Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) holds out his jersey while on the court in the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Washington Wizards, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014, in Washington. The Wizards won 111-95. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James watches against the Phoenix Suns during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)
San Antonio Spurs’ Tim Duncan points to the bench during a break in play against the Miami Heat in the second half during Game 3 of their NBA Finals basketball playoff in San Antonio, Texas June 11, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT BASKETBALL) – RTX10KLC
LOS ANGELES – APRIL 1: Shaquille O’Neal #34 of the Los Angeles Lakers stands on the court during the game against the Houston Rockets at Staples Center on March 24, 2004 in Los Angeles, California. The Lakers won 93-85. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images)
When I create our travel teams, I am praying that someone will step up and become, “The Guy” for their team. When I was playing travel ball, I used to love the responsibility of doing all of the above, for my team. It provided me a sense of purpose on teams where I had to do it all.
The challenge then becomes, do you want to be “The Guy?” If so, great, what are you doing to put yourself in the best position to be this person?
Are you coming to practice early, leaving late, speaking up when you have an idea or question, challenging your teammates when they do something poorly, going through drills at game speed?
I urge all of those players that are still trying to find themselves, to step out of their shell and become the player you always dreamed of being. The power of positive thinking can do wonders to your life. Change your mindset and you’ll change your game.
What is being down and ready on your basketball shot? Down and ready iw what is done in preparation for your shot. What you want to do is haver your feet set, drop your butt, place your hands where you want to receive the pass and be ready to jump or step into your shot as the pass is received. This allows you to go right into your shot as soon as the basketball reaches your hand.
Checkout this short video on how to prepare for your jump shot.
Klay Thompson: Always Ready
When you look at great shooters, like Klay Thompson, who has a very quick release, his success is largely attributed to being down and ready. Whether he is coming off a down screen or spotting up for a three, he is always down and ready to shoot the ball.
Why Be Down & Ready?
Let’s look at some of the positives of being down and ready.
Being down and ready not only allows you to shoot a higher percentage, but it also allows you to get your shot off quicker.
When you practice being down and ready on the catch you will establish the same kind of reps when you shoot. This is important because if you have practiced your shot the same way over and over you will shoot a much higher percentage when it comes time to shoot in a game.
Lastly, being down and ready avoids telegraphing to defenders that a shot is about to be taken as the player guarding you always sees an offensive player in a ready to shoot/ready to move stance.
The Negatives Of NOT Being Down & Ready
It takes a much longer time to catch the ball straight up and then load to shoot.
This wasted time allows your defender to close out and better contest your shot, and this delay likely takes away from your shot opportunity.
Lowers your shooting percentage because every time you catch the ball you are taking a different approach to your shot.
The Junior Nets hosted a basketball clinic on Saturday at the Barclays Center with about 60 young players in attendance for the event.
Participants received a Jr. Nets reversible jersey, a branded water bottle and a ticket to that night’s Nets-Pacers game.
Six staff members were there to lead the clinic, including members of the Seton Hall and St. John’s men’s basketball teams and NBA legend Tony Campbell.
The clinic began with players going through warm-ups, broken down by age group, and rotated through stations.
They also participated in a question-and-answer session with Campbell and a chalk talk on sportsmanship and teamwork.
Registration is now closed for our Unity Sports Warriors Spring travel team program.
The Spring is our season! This is the time when serious ballers take the floor.
Led by Wellington Smith, Unity is welcoming a handful of new coaches, along with our existing coaches, to help take your kids to the next level.
Unity Sports is proud to welcome back Mike Bruner, Mike Ondrejko and Cap Pazdera. We’d like to welcome, Bryce Lewis, Daryl Blank and Toni Harrell. Bio’s of our coaches will be on our website shortly. All of our coaches have high basketball IQ’s and enjoy teaching your young athletes.
We are excited to announce that Coach Toni Harrell, will lead our first ever 5th through 8th grade girls programs. We look forward to watching the Lady Warriors evolve locally.
Below you’ll find all the necessary information regarding tryouts. Tryouts will be held based on your athlete’s current school grade. After tryouts we will send an email to all those that participated with a link to our blog (unitysportsnj.net) where the final roster will be posted. At this time, information about our parent/coach meeting and practice schedule will be posted.
Decision-making skills (or basketball IQ) is one of the most important skills to develop in a youth basketball player if you want them to succeed long-term.
A lot of coaches know this, yet the way they coach their team completely disregards the importance of this skill.
One of the biggest things holding players back from developing their decision-making skills is the overuse of set plays in youth basketball.
While I’ve been attending many tournaments, I’ve watched team after team run set plays every single time down the floor.
In fact, I was part of many teams that did this throughout my youth basketball career.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as the players get older, but for young players just beginning to learn the game, you should never continuously run set plays.
Let me explain a few reasons why…
Players don’t make decisions.
This is the big one.
When running set plays, players are told where to pass, when to dribble, who to screen, where to cut, etc.
They make zero decisions on their own.
They’re not learning how to read and attack the defense.
They’re not thinking about where and when they should cut.
They’re not deciding who they should pass to.
They’re not looking for gaps in the defense to attack or different spots on the court they can exploit.
Nope. They already know what they’re going to do.
All of the decisions have already been made for them during practice while the coach was explaining the play.
They’re robbed of the ability to experience reading the game and making their own decisions. They’re simply performing specific actions they’ve been told to do.
Sure, this may put them in better shooting positions in their under 10’s game of basketball which will lead to more points, but do you think this is going to help them long-term?
Learning plays steals valuable practice time
This doesn’t require much explanation. It’s simple…
There are far more important things players can do at practice than learning how to run set plays.
Working on fundamental skills and playing different games being the big two.
So can you still use set plays?
Yes.
I don’t want you to think I’m completely against set plays.
I use them and will continue to do so. But my teams will definitely not run them all game and my practice time spent teaching plays will be extremely limited.
How much time should you allocate to set plays specifically?
That’s a tricky answer…
In my blog post on creating a youth basketball practice plan, I recommend spending about 10 minutes each practice focusing on offense or defense (if you’re running a 60 or 90-minute practice).
So if you have practice once a week, you might spend 10 minutes on offense (set plays) one week, and 10 minutes on defense the next week.
I use these 10 minutes to teach 1 or 2 basic in-game, baseline, or sideline plays that we can use a couple of times per game.
I’ll conclude with this…
Too many set plays are hurting youth basketball. Coaches are using them far too much.
Unity Sports Group 
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