I want to get thoughts on the way he sets his feet on this shot.

This week I have been to Villanova Camp’s chalk talks with their coaches and players and one thing they emphasize is the first thing you should do everytime you get to gym is start in close. Coach Ashley Howard had the players demonstrate a drill called “get 50” which was 50 close shots and then mikans and reverse mikans. This has been the advice I’ve heard time and time again growing up attending different university camps, listening to high school coaches, etc. The message I’ve always been taught is that you need to start in close to warmup, and that even the best players in the world do it. However, as I’ve been studying and learning from a player development lense, I am starting to challenge that idea of a close range form shot and layup warmup for every single workout. If you already have good mechanics and can make layups, I think there isn’t much value in doing mikan drills as a non-negotiable warmup everytime you walk in the gym. In a game, many players are coming off the bench cold and expected to make shots. Why not prepare for that and build adaptability in your workouts? Come in the gym and practice shooting threes with no warmup. While warming up close can probably help you “feel good” and make more shots in your workouts, it doesn’t prepare you to come in the game off the bench and adapt. I’ve also seen the most common miss with shooters is front rim. One method I’ve used to get them to be able to generate more power is to shoot deeper shots than they would in games, because it forces them to figure out how to generate the power needed to get the ball over the front rim, and makes closer shots feel much easier. Pretty much the exact opposite of what I was taught as a kid. So while it’s hard to argue with legendary coaches that have proven success with the start in close method, and I understand a lot of it is to build good habits, I think shooting from deep range and making your warmups challenging can be more beneficial than the old school start in close and work your way out. I understand it for youth players with bad mechanics but for high school and college elite level shooters, there is move value in challenging them in their warmup or not warming up at all, in my opinion. What do you guys think?

Here are 3 Takeaways I wanted to share from attending the “What Drives Winning” Event at Villanova. These lessons were directed towards college coaches, but I think they can be applied to player development coaches and players as well. 1. Be Your True Authentic Self Early at Hofstra, Jay Wright was losing and almost got fired. He thought he was doing everything right as he was doing exactly what his legendary mentors Rollie Massimino and Pat Riley did to run their teams, but it wasn’t working. He decided that if he was going to get fired, he was going to give it one last shot coaching how he believes he should coach. Not in a selfish way, but everyone leads differently. What one coach excels at, you might be terrible at. Instead of trying to be a clone of your mentors, learn from them but figure out your own strengths and use them. Once he was able to do this and come up with his core values that he believed in, he was able to get his team to buy in and found success. 2. Detach From Results "Give someone everything they’ve ever wanted and see how miserable they become." Human nature makes us feel satisfied after a win, but you have to fight that comfort. Hold your team to a higher standard regardless of the outcome. You can win games on pure talent without playing with toughness or pride, but that won't help you reach your full potential. Did we play as hard as we could have today? Did we play for each other? Build a standard and hold your guys to it, no matter the results, and embrace the journey. 3. Habits > Motivation Jay admitted he was the worst pre-game speech guy in the world because he believes speeches rlly don't matter that much. Real preparation happens when you battle every day in practice to build elite habits. You can write the greatest pre-game script ever, but ten minutes into the game, guys are going to be tired as shit. When exhaustion hits, motivation goes out the window and players revert to their habits. If you prepare them in the offseason and everyday at practice, that is what will help them in high pressure situations, not a motivational speech.

This week I had an incredible experience helping out Danny with his elite players. I wanted to share 3 key takeaways from the workouts. 1- Handle- I never realized how important dribble timing and the ability to move your feet and the ball in sync matters. Mastering this ability allows you to be intentional with footwork and play with a different level of pace and shiftiness. 2- Gamifying drills- Adding a point system, goals, constraints/incentives, adds a level of pressure to workouts that makes them extra locked in. While there are certainly times to teach and explain concepts or moves, if a workout is fully focused on reps with no pressure attached, intensity and focus will eventually drop. 3- Shooting- It’s so much more than just reps. Your pickup, follow through, landing, ball path, balance, release point, and energy transfer all affect your shot. Grinding out thousands of reps on a broken shot isn’t going to get you to the next level as a shooter. Everyone shoots differently but if you are struggling to get better as a shooter, eliminating variability in your shot and tightening up your mechanics will help you to move the needle if reps aren’t doing it. Oftentimes it’s not “changing” your form, but it’s taking away extra variables to make it more consistent. It can be an uncomfortable and frustrating process, but if you are willing to buy in, it will eventually click and transform your shot. And then once your mechanics are down and you are a good shooter, practicing with contests, percentage goals (ex: 10/12 per spot), challenges that force you to get your shot off quicker, and knocking down shots while tired will be able to transform you from a good shooter to a great shooter. What’s one takeaway you guys have had from your workouts recently?

As a young coach, I’m curious to see what mistakes you guys have made when you were starting out or what mistakes you notice other newer coaches often make? And how did you get better/correct it?