DO YOUR POINT GUARDS KNOW THE CLOCK?

I really liked this concept of teaching your point guards know where their team is in terms of the shot clock.  During our fall workouts, assistant coach Amy Wright was responsible for working with our point guards.  She had a manager on the clock and had instructed her to set the shot clock at :30 and let it run down on a continuous basis.  She then instructed her point guards to start a count down out loud when the shot clock got to :10.  It didn't matter if they were in a shooting drill, a defensive drill, a ball handling drill or even if she was talking to the group.  When the shot clock hit :10, they were to be aware and to count it down.  If they did not count it down out loud, the manager was instructed to let the horn go off -- signifying that they had not paid attention to the clock.  At the end of practice, there was a running penalty for each missed count.  During the course of a 30 minute workout, there would be around 60 opportunities for them to visualize and then verbalize the time on the shot clock.  It was also a great deal to get the point guard to communicate.  Often it would be one of the point guards that first recognized the clock and her verbal count cued the others to join in.