"The motivational factor" was the title of the SECOND edition of the Clínic Baloncesto Cambre, which was held in July 2014 in the Municipal Pavilion Sofía Toro de Cambre, and which was led by Ricard Casas and Antonio Pérez Cainzos, coaches who had formed the technical staff of CB Valladolid in ACB during that season.
As Technical Director of the Cambre Basketball Club, I had the opportunity to be an active part of this project, and that turned out to be a great experience in terms of continuous training, thanks to the high level of the speakers.
Over the next few weeks I will be making posts on my blog, recalling some significant aspects of those talks.
In this post, I talk about the first conference offered by Ricard Casas, focused on the working methodology regarding the offensive game, highlighting some reflections of the Catalan technician, and with a small video with developed exercises.
I hope it's in your interest.
The performance coach.
We have to adjust to our team, I may like to play more structured or more creative, but my team may need the opposite. It's not just the idea of the coach, it's the coach's reading.
The coach in training.
Three phases to set the offensive game:
- Even fry: free play.
- In children: set first standards (cut and replace, occupy spaces strong side/weak side, etc.).
- From cadet: establish game concepts (not systems) that allow us to apply those gestures that we work on in the individual technique.
Working methodology.
A new approach
We have to overcome lifelong questions and approaches.
When do I play direct lock? We've been questioning this for 40 years, maybe the question is no longer the right one. It probably depends on the level of the group you train, not closed planning, that establishes the work by age.
How do I defend pass line? Open said John Wooden, closed said Bobby Knight, both are two of the great masters of basketball history. What's the right answer? IT'S ALL RIGHT.
I can't limit the player's talent because the book says it has to be any other way. If my player is talented playing direct block in children, he must play it even if it is not the norm in the league. I must promote their development. This will make teammates and rivals better.
Not big closed schedules. Yes clear defined objectives.
The A-B-C
During the years of formation, teach the three basic ideas, the ABC of each foundation, establishing a division between hands and feet + shooting (transversal).
- Hands: boat – direct block.
- Feet: ripped and stopped – game without ball.
- Shot.
Of each of these five sections, dominate the ABC. There will be fifteen ideas, which will be worked on during the 6-8 years of training.
Habits
It is put together either the shot or not, it is spoken or not, it is played without ball or not, it unlocks the wrist or not… the good and bad habits that are then held in senior, must be worked and corrected from mini-basketball.
The establishment of good habits must be marked as the main objective from the beginning, in order to reach "clean" to senior.
Educate or compete?
Training in training is to be in a world of ideas, of illusion, and also of personal struggle between competitive and formative objectives.
We will take advantage of the competition to learn and to educate. How do we do that? Let's try to be protagonists and generate our own response.
Working on individual technique
Two methodologies to be applied in the work of individual technique.
- Mechanical: based on repetition-mechanization. Basic form, of a lifetime.
- Interiorization: correction on what you feel, master the body over the mechanics (balance, speed, strength, space, time).
Execution and correction. It won't be the same depending on the methodology. If I work mechanical IT, it will focus on the technical gesture. If I work ins internalizing IT, it will focus on what you feel (feel the strength of the boat, feel when the ball comes out of the body…).
Choose when to correct from one method or another.
Individual tactics
Individual tactics are the application of individual technique in real, unstyered situations. A training coach must be a coach with great tactical ability.