Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Play the game with speed

What a busy Spring. Not much time to blog. Summer is in full swing with travel team action, always a great place to teach.

One of the challenges about a select team is you may have talented players, but the come from many different systems or "lack of systems".

Old habits must be broken and new ones must be taught.

One of the focuses this year is to get players to start playing the game with speed.

Too many hold the ball, dodge too many times, move into double teams, and throw lazy lob passes.

A simple way to change that is to simply have a 3 second count in practices (5 seconds for U15 and younger).

i.e. If you are running a transition drill, or a drill that features game situations, (4v4),(6v6), etc., as soon as a player picks a ball off the ground or receives a pass, start your count out loud. ONE,TWO,THREE.If a player has not moved the ball after the 3 count whistle it dead and start a new ball the other way.

You should see quick results towards an uptempo game. Players who hog the ball will simply be eliminated. Players have to move to space to receive passes and get open.

Stick to you guns, it take discipline to rune the count all day. After time the count won't be needed. The IQ will be built in.

One important note. On even situations such as a 6v6, move the ball through X quickly and attack the back side.