Are the drills we do even that important?
Discussing the next dribble and dribbling development
This week, many ridiculed a tweet in which I highlighted the shell drill’s lack of transfer in offensive videos because everyone does the shell drill. Everyone suggests good and bad alike. If good and bad teams do the same thing, how does the good team prove its usefulness? Isn’t it just as easy to say the bad team does it, therefore proving a lack of utility?
Possibly, everyone (good and bad alike) doing mostly the same things — teaching similar concepts using similar drills and running similar sets and defenses — suggests these things are rather unimportant overall. Likely, what we do matters very little; instead, how we do things, who does them, and why we do them differentiate the successful.
I also said my favorite thing about private basketball trainers is they all will tell you how different they (their workouts) are from everyone else, but the workouts are 90% the same. This goes back almost 20 years, as I remember meeting an NBA trainer who went out of his way to tell me he was different than every other trainer, but when I watched his workout, it was almost identical to the workouts of the NBA trainer he had mentioned specifically as being bad.
The reality is there are only so many ways to perform the basic skills. What we do differs minimally, as everyone, whether a team coach or individual trainer, practices dribbling, passing, shooting, and finishing. There are only so many ways to dribble, pass, or shoot a ball. Too often, to innovate, or differentiate oneself from others, trainers focus on the what and add new elements or complicate drills in an effort to overload the skill. The what may be good or bad; it depends on the why.
I see dribbling drills posted online and want to ask the player’s purpose. Bouncing the ball is the easiest skill in basketball, but most drills seem to focus on this aspect. Doing something with the ball after the dribble or after a move determines success, but the ball control and the speed out of a move garners little attention. Players do harder drills with trainers hitting them with pads or touching cones or whatever, but the dribble out of the move is sloppy: There is a lack of ball control. We used to say, “Control the ball; don’t let the ball control you.” In many of these drills, the ball controls the player, often forcing a hesitation because the player needs a dribble to regain control.
The three-piece dribble combos receive a lot of criticism, as the prime example of Instagram trainers, but I use combo moves: My if you can dodge a wrench drills. It is not so much what we do, but why and how.
The player in the video is a 6’5 14-year-old post player becoming a wing. He is part of my morning workout group with 15 and 16 year-olds, but this was the first time working with him individually, as the gym was available due to a school holiday. I asked what he wanted to improve, and he said he struggled to beat players off the dribble.
We started with some different things. The video is the next to last drill. I use the combo moves — he takes it to the extreme; it was supposed to be three moves, but there is a language barrier — to focus on ball control. If you can make three moves quickly back to back to back, you can make one move quickly with control. If you can dodge a wrench…
He tended to stand tall as he made his moves, and as a growing adolescent, he also demonstrated some characteristics of dis-coordinated patterns. The cone was an attempt to fix these problems. He has long arms, so initially he stayed tall and reached down to touch the cone. I emphasized hitting the cone like he was slapping away a defender’s hand. I generally dislike cones, but with this player and his objective, the cone served a purpose.
When we do the triple moves, I emphasize the quickness through the moves and the acceleration out of the moves and into the next dribble, not the game-likeness. The next dribble determines success in my opinion. I wrote about the next dribble in Winning Hoops in the early ‘00s (see below). Some coaches disagreed a the time and criticized the concept on coaching message boards, but I emphasize the next dribble in most dribbling drills. The action of a crossover dribble is not hard; controlling a tight, low, hard crossover with speed and exploding forward is the challenge. The reception of the ball on a good move is harder than the actual bouncing of the ball.
The final drill was a full speed front crossover finishing with an around-the-back layup. Again, wrapping the ball around his back forced him to maintain control; no sloppy extra dribbles or pushing the ball ahead and chasing. Every part of the repetition required ball control. The constraint exaggerated the purpose and identified his mistakes more clearly for him, so I rarely had to instruct.
I do not want players making these moves in a game. Over-dribbling is a pet peeve. These are drills to develop and improve ball control: This is not game-specific practice. Instead, this is an example of Ericsson’s deliberate practice, as the coach designs an exercise to correct a specific mistake, the player engages in numerous repetitions, the practice is effortful and requires a high level of concentration, and the coach provides immediate informative feedback. The what is the specific drill to achieve a specific purpose (the why) and the how is the player’s diligence and concentration on improving the specific aims, in this case quicker, tighter ball control.
By the end, he could feel when he raised his hips too quickly or slowed down or lost control of the ball. Once he can feel the mistakes, and the difference between more and less optimal moves, he can self-correct and does not need the immediate coach feedback. He can take charge of his own learning. This step often is missed by trainers because of the business side of training, as they need weekly or bi-weekly workouts with returning customers, and they need to talk a lot to show parents they are coaching. Behaviors are dictated largely by business decisions, not optimized for player learning.
We ended when he was tired, but before he lost concentration. We had no set time frame. We did not count repetitions. We did not count made and missed shots. There were no punishments for mistakes; instead, I encouraged them, as mistakes occur when players practice at the edge of their skills. If he performed each repetition and never made a mistake, the challenge would have been insufficient. His energy was high after the workout, and he said he felt confident for his next practice, an important outcome for trainers.
We should always start with the game, as we sign up to play the game and we practice to perform better in the game. The why ultimately determines if the cost of moving away from the game and sacrificing task representation is worth the benefits derived from the drill or activity. Could he have improved his posture, ball control, and more by playing one-vs-one? Possibly, but nobody else was there to play against on the school holiday. The benefits of any drill or activity should be compared to the benefits of playing the game (small-sided games down to one-to-one included), not to the absence of any activity. Otherwise, the argument is based on time on task, not the specific exercises, instructions, coaches, and more. The correct why can determine the best what, and when the player has the right how, these drills can expedite learning, although the test of the learning is performance in competition, not just improvement within an isolated drill.
Everyone may do the same drill, but not everyone will have the same purpose, nor perform the drill with the same emphasis. Plenty of drills look the same on the Internet, and what one does or does not do rarely differentiates the successful. Instead, they how and the why determine the drill’s success, but often the who determines the player’s and team’s ultimate success.
The Next Dribble
Published by Winning Hoops, September/October 2002
In our basketball culture today, dribbling has taken on a life of its own, as evidenced by the And 1 Mix-Tapes, which put a premium on “handles and hops” and “look for players to embarrass each other.” However, the next dribble has been ignored in the new lexicon of dribbling terms, moves, and teaching points. This dribble allows a player to use his tight handle to blow past defenders more so than the actual move.
When I first started coaching, I yelled at dribblers to cross over below their knees, as did many coaches. When I stepped back, the cue made no sense. Of course the crossover dribble is below their knees: It bounces on the ground! As I considered terminology and teaching points, I developed the next dribble.
The next dribble is exactly as it sounds: It is the dribble following the move, the dribble that should take the player past the defender.
Watch most players handle the ball on any move: The ball comes up into their palms and wrists before they regain full control. Study their bodies: Most lower their stance for one dribble — the move — but return to a more upright stance as soon as the ball is transferred from hand to hand. Between straightening up and the lack of control, players slow down and are unable to explode past defenders, despite the nice move.
By emphasizing the next dribble, players develop better ball control and can attack defenders more quickly. First, players must maintain the lower stance through the next dribble. By staying low, the next dribble is quicker, and players step longer past defenders, cutting off their recovery angle. Second, players develop better ball control so the ball remains in their fingertips and calluses while dribbling. With improved control, players push the dribble forward, eliminating hesitations caused by the ball rolling up their palms and wrists.
The double moves and one-dribble crossovers are my main drills to develop this ball control.
Double Moves:
The following are a few drills involving double moves. Dribblers must quickly gain control of the ball after their first move to put the two moves back-to-back. Balls rolling up their wrists slows down ball-handlers and hampers their ability to execute the double move. The goal is to keep the ball in the calluses and fingertips and keep the ball moving forward.
SCISSORS DRIBBLE
Players dribble through their legs on every dribble. No extra dribbles. Players dribble in a straight line and work on quickness. Concentrate on pushing the ball forward as soon as the ball contacts their hands, as opposed to the slight hesitation they often possess.
BETWEEN THE LEGS-AROUND THE BACK
Again, no extra dribbles. Start by dribbling with their right hands through their legs and immediately wrapping the ball around their backs with their left hands. Continue for the length of the court. Dribble in a straight line and increase speed as they gain more proficiency. Concentrate on the feel of the around the back dribble: Check that this occurs with their fingers, under control, rather than the wrist or palm. A player’s shoulder should not rise as he or she dribbles around the back: This is an easy sign of a lack of control, as the player palms the ball around his or her body. Again, ball control is the objective. Repeat starting with a left-hand dribble through the legs followed by the right-hand around the back dribble.
ONE DRIBBLE CROSSOVERS
This drill should be full speed. Concentrate on minimizing the hesitation between dribbles. Dribble in a slight zigzag. Go somewhere with each dribble. Players dribble once in between each crossover. Remain in a stance throughout: There should be no up and down motion with their heads. Start with a right-hand dribble followed by a hard crossover to the left hand: The goal is to continue forward without hesitation for one dribble with the left hand before another crossover. Try with each move: Through-the-legs, behind-the-back, around-the-back, and in-n-out.
Each time players change directions, they plant and cut; do not allow a squiggly line down the court. Minimize the hesitation involved with the plant and cut. At first, players will make a two-footed stop and start again; the goal is to eliminate that motion and create a quicker change of direction. Once the player has mastered the control, it is possible to add a change of pace when necessary.