Dear Coach, Parents, Players
Hello to this addition of our JAM Newsletter. If your team has any potential tournament conflicts with games, please let us know so we can work with your schedule. Earl Boykins of NBA fame, will be partnering with our summer camps this year. Register quickly on line we do not want your children to miss this amazing experience. Information for summer tournaments and camps can be found on our site – www.jamball.com. Remember Our #1 priority for JAM continues helping coaches and parents build confidence in today’s youth. Continue setting goals making sure plans are in line to improve your game.
- Mark Sharpley
Synergistic Offensive and Defensive Philosophies from the coaching toolbox
Earlier this week while reading some clinic notes from Mike Dunlap this is something he asks at coaching clinics -“does your defense compliment your offense?” and further asked the questions “Does your offense compliment your defense”. Basketball can not be broken up into two sides of the ball like you can in football, the demands you make on one side of the court effect the execution on the other. Coaches want to develop their offense and defense to work synergistically. Different combined offensive and defensive systems revolve around three factors – depth, talent, and coaching philosophy.
Depth - If you have a team with a lot of depth, you want your defense and offense to maximize pressure on our opponent so conditioning becomes a factor. For example, VCU has an up tempo offensive and defensive system. Their defense leads the NCAA in turnovers forced with their full court “Swarm” pressure. This defensive system is married with an attacking/up tempo offensive attack. With constant offensive and defensive pressure they wear down an opponent physically and mentally and utilize that depth.
Teams that don’t have great depth cannot play a high energy type of offense and defense. I have heard Dick Bennett (and now his son is emulating his father to some extent) talk about how he ran the Blocker-Mover offense to slow down the tempo a keep their players fresh. With this thought in mind, they play a Pack Line Defense which does to extend beyond the 3 point line, thus conserves the energy of their players.
Coaching Philosophy - Certain coaches are offensive coaches while others are defensive coaches. With this in mind, they will focus their time and energy on one side of the court at the expense of the other. This translates that you might teach a simple offense so you can focus on your defense or visa versa.
An example of this is Gary William’s Maryland teams, he ran a simplistic offense known as the flex so that he could have the time to perfect his half court man, half court zone, full and ¾ court pressure systems. He was known as a pressure defense coach and he really emphasized the flex as an offense because he believed it got the ball inside that lead to his team getting to the line. Thus he was able to set up on full court pressure defenses. An example of an offensive team would be Notre Dame, If you look up All Access Notre Dame Practice with Mike Brey, the vast majority of their practice time is spent on their motion and teaching offensive concepts. With this in mind, they run very simple man and zone defenses without much attention to detail. This offensive focused team philosophy works to the skills of the coach and his players.
Personnel - By personnel we mean the type of players that make up a team. Some teams might be smaller in size with a collection of guards, thus they cannot expect to rebound the ball as well as some teams. Their defense might be tilted toward forcing turnovers and their offense might look to take advantage of the driving and shooting ability of these guards. An example of this might be the 4 guard teams that Villanova teams of 5 years ago. Bigger teams, might look to have a more controlled offense that looks to minimize their bigs touching the ball in high turnover positions so that they can focus on their rebounding advantage, while their defense would looks to challenge shots and own the boards. An example of this might be Baylor which uses their length in one of the great zones in basketball.
Best of luck in the post season and don't forget to register for our upcoming summer events!
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