When during the course of a season do you witness "slippage"? How do you correct it? Should you ignore it?
One of the great mysteries of coaching is why do some teams get better during the course of the season while other teams plateau and even regress? Now if you have the answers to all these questions, write a book, make a million, and retire in the Florida Keys!
I don't remember ever having a season in which we did not have at least one or two forgettable games. You know the kind that you "forget" to watch the video after the game because it was bad enough witnessing the
disaster the first time! We are dealing with humans and their natures (including ourselves which at times is the biggest issue.). The topic of this blog is not about have a brutal game or two that we attempt to forget before the lights are turned off in the locker room. Slippage means something different to me.
You notice individually, and certainly team wise, that certain statistics are trending downward over 3-4 or more games. Yes, your opponent certainly may be influencing that downward trend but you sense it is caused by more than that. My personal belief is the majority of times slippage is directly related to a coaching related slippage. For whatever reason, you fail to teach and reinforce the execution of fundamentals. Slippage is often directly related to a "slippage" in the execution of the fundamentals of the game. In my opinion.
All coaches, and especially more inexperienced coaches, are tempted to see game slippage and react by adding more offense or more defense when the opposite approach may very well be the best alternative.
Often, and I do mean often, less is more.
If you see a trend, such as you are consistently committing more fouls than your opponent, do you consider what type of fouls are being committed? Is it reaching? Is it because of shot fakes? Is it related to giving up too many second shots? Are you committing more turnovers because of a lack of "sureness". Looking at your shooting percentage is it related to shot selection? Your opponent's shooting percentage is it related to your
poor defense or because of poor rebounding?
When you evaluate a game consider the following stats:
1. Turnovers .... Yours and Your opponent
2. Rebounds .... How many offensive rebounds did you get and how many did
you give up?
3. How many free throws did you shoot and how many did your opponents
shoot?
4. Field goal percentages .... What you shot and what percentages did you
give up?
Now how do these four areas of play relate to fundamental slippage. Well all of you are smarter than I am but bear with me anyway.
1. Turnovers .... Dribbling, passing, and catching execution determine the
vast majority of turnovers
2. Rebounds .... Are you moving into high percentage areas when shots go
up on offense? On defense are you in the hit and then git mind set.
3. Free Throws .... Teams that shoot a lot of perimeter shots don't get fouled
as often as a team that takes the ball to the rim. Also if you do not
offensive rebound, you won't get fouled as often either.
4. Field Goal % .... Shot selection, shot allocation, and shot distribution. How
many contested shots are you taking? How many contested shot
attempts are you getting on defense.
Some other (maybe crazy) ideas when you sense slippage:
1. TAKE A DAY OFF! Teams are much more likely to grow mentally fatigued
than physically fatigued. (And so do coaches!)
2. Take the varsity team to a lower level practice and let them work with the
younger players. Listen while they coach the younger players. Are they
teaching fundamentals?
3. Start/end practice with a fun drill. Break up the monotony. (If you have
the equipment, end practice with a volleyball game for example or if you
have nerf balls play a game of dodgeball.)
4. We used to use what I called Basketball Decathlon during camps. You
could do the same idea during the season. Come up with 10 events or any
number you want. Have a scoring system for each event. Record
individual scores and at the end of the decathlon determine the gold,
silver, and bronze winners.
5. Have shooting contests with the seniors vs everyone else on the team.
Even better, have the coaches vs the players. (Nothing better for the
players than possibly beating the coaches!)
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