Thursday, March 18, 2010

TEACHING THOUGHTS FROM KEVIN EASTMAN

You can’t be tired and you can’t be bored. It’s not easy getting better. It takes work and discipline. We have a choice of pain of discipline or pain of regret.

Workout discipline:
•Maximum intensity on every repetition.
•Machine like mechanics
•Focus on every repetition - we’re going to take one shot 500 times.

Philosophy:
•Becoming a good shooter is lots of reps.
•Becoming a great shooter is lots of reps at game speed from game spots at a game angle.

Theory of two:
•It takes two minutes to show any skill.
•It takes two weeks doing it every single day to get comfortable with the skill.
•It takes two months working on a skill everyday to get good enough to execute in a game.

Shooting form:
•Be ready on the catch.
•Ten toes to the rim (if you have ten toes to the rim you will be square to the basket).
•Only change his form if the shot doesn’t go in. Make him the best worst form shooter.
•Two second rule: As soon as it’s 1 cm into our players fingers I’m counting one two. Players don’t have a great understanding of game speed when working out.
•The better the shooter you are, the better your shot fake needs to be. Definition of a shot fake is a real shot that you don’t shoot.

Free-throws:
•Shoot free-throws until you miss, and count how many in a row.
•Players tend to fall forward rather than backward.
Give your players statistical feedback:
•When you chart your players’ shots give them percentages for free-throws, lay-ups, jump shots and three-point shots.
•Break it down so they know what to work on.
•Players can be receptive to stats.

Make time to practice shooting:
•You will be surprised how little your guys shoot during practice when you exclude shooting drills.
•We recorded how many shots our players took in a 2.5 hour practice:
•Paul Pierce – 16.
•Ricky Davis – 13.
•Al Jefferson – 7.
•During an hour pickup we shoot on average 12.8 shots per player.
•Average number of shots taken in a game is 16 per player.

My goal right now is to get everything you can teach in the game down to three bullet points. It makes it easier for players to take in:

For shooting:
•Perfect feet.
•Ready for catch.
•Perfect follow through.

Coaches must maintain their intensity everyday:
•A coach can never get bored.
•The intensity that a coach brings to the floor helps the player have a more intense workout.
•Coaches have body language too. Be careful of your body language, and how it could be interpreted by your players.

Three things skill development can do for you:
•It can create a career.
•It can improve a career.
•It can revitalize a career.