Tag: Basketball

  • To punish or not to punish?

    Punishment or no punishment? To me it comes down to how you think about it.

    Every time I have a competition at practice I like to have everybody run afterwards. Everybody. But… At the end the winners get to shoot a foul shot. If they make the shot they don’t run. If they miss they run half the distance.

    To me that’s positive reinforcement. You do something well and good things happen. That means you want to do more things well. Also you know that if the game is on the line good things happen if you do well.

    If you punish for mistakes you teach kids that bad things happen if they mess up. That makes them afraid of making mistakes. At the end of the game they are afraid to make the mistake and to have bad things happen – so they make the mistake because that’s all they can think about.

    In general, in coaching you don’t want to coach mistakes. If you say “don’t throw the ball away” you create the image of throwing the ball away in the mind and that’s what the mind focuses on. If you say “take care of the ball” the mind focuses on that.

    Could you have everybody run – but then REWARD the kids that do it right by giving them a free pass and some praise?

    I know a lot of big time college programs use punishment a lot. Could you imagine the energy it would bring to the film sessions if you started taking away runs when good things happened? Wouldn’t they really want to do better, strive to be perfect? Instead of dreading mistakes?

    You could still point out the same mistakes and just say “We have to keep this run in because…”.

    I don’t know, but to me it makes sense…

  • Quick Hitters: Zone Up

    For the last almost two seasons I’ve been the head coach of the Aalborg Vikings in the Basketball League in Denmark, Europe. I took over mid-season for the first year, and we weren’t able to run the Dribble Drive, as we had to focus on defense.

    For year two we started out running the Dribble Drive but mid season we replaced our import players with three new ones. I didn’t think we’d have time to teach it to the new players in time for the playoffs, so we went with set plays.

    However, we ran a lot of set plays and quick hitters out of the Dribble Drive formation, as we were already used to playing out of that set.

    Now I’ve made the transition to the GM job in the club, so I’m going to share the best of those quick hitters with you this summer. Some are in the Dribble Drive book I published, but this first one is not.

    Zone Lob Play

    This is a very simple screen-the-zone alley-oop lob play against most zones except the 1-3-1. One TV-announcer told me this season that he couldn’t figure out why the other teams didn’t catch on to it, as we used it every time we faced zone defense.

    The answer to that question is in the deception. All of the real action takes place behind the defense and away from the ball:

    Diagrammed it looks like this:

    zone_-_up_animation

  • Paperback available at Championship Productions

    I’m happy to announce that the paperback version of The Dribble Drive Offense – A Complete Instruction Manual is now available to purchase from probably the best resource of coaching books, videos etc. in the world.

    The book was accepted into Championship Productions‘ website in August and they have already ordered a second printing.

    You can order the book from Championship Productions here: The Dribble Drive Offense

    The paperback is also still available at Lulu.com and as a PDF download right here from the site.

    Also the book will be available in Japanese before long.

  • Limited time offer for Paperback

    At the moment Lulu.com are having a promotion which means you can buy the paperback version of the book at 30% off.

    The offer is only valid when you make your purchase in US Dollars, but you can easily change your preferences here, if you’re not from the US: http://www.lulu.com/shop/stores.ep

    The promotion code is: SPRING 315

    Note: This is a time limited offer, and I have no chance of knowing when it will finish.

    Go to LULU.com by clicking here
    Dribble Drive Manual Black White
    Lulu.com paperback

    Learn more about the book by clicking here:

    Dribble Drive Offense

     

     

  • DVD Reviews

    One thing I hear a lot of questions about are the various DVD sets about the Dribble Drive Motion. Are they any good? Are they good enough? Who are they for? Below I’m reviewing some of the best known Dribble Drive DVD’s on the market.

    Just press the cover picture for the review.

    Vance Walberg DVD Reviews


    John Calipari DVD Reviews

    Fundamentals: Dave Smart 2-Set Review

    Zone: Jerry Petitgoue’s Open Post Motion Offense

  • A National Championship Coach Shares His Experiences

    Coach Bart Sengers of the Netherlands is a coach at Eurosped Twente in Tubbergen and is also involved with the Team Holland Under 18 womens team as an assistant coach. With his club coach Sengers coaches the women and the Under 16 ladies.

    With a very young womens team coach Sengers got some upsets playing quick basketball which helped Sengers get elected as an all star coach and runner up for coach of the year. The Under-16 girls did even better as they won the national title.

    Here’s coach Sengers account of the 2010-11 season.

    (more…)

  • The Dribble Drive Warmup Reads Drill

    The two lines Dribble Drive Warmup Reads Drill combines dynamic stretching drills, ball handling and Break Down Zone moves from the Dribble Drive Offense.

    I use the drill all the time with my 16’s and under boys team. In fact, this is the only drill we’ve used to practice the moves and reads of theBreak Down Zone.

    The line on the right performs ball handling moves in a zig zag line to half court. Any ball handling and/or dribbling moves can be used. We currently use basic moves like the cross-over, behind the back and so on.

    (more…)

  • Dribble Drive Game Film Sharing

    I’ve had a request from a coach – and I think it’s a fantastic idea. This coach wants to make game film exchange for dribble drive coaches. Would anyone be interested in doing a Dropbox file exchange where we put out game film for others to watch?

    I’ll be happy to share game film of my Under 16’s team from Northern Europe.I’ve only coached them for a couple of months but they’ve already made great strides with the Dribble Drive. An article will be up soonish – I currently coach 4-6 games a week between the pro mens team and the Under16 varsity and junior varsity, so time is super limited.

  • Paperback Dribble Drive Book Offer

    As most European leagues are now in pre-season, and our friends in the US are gearing up for it, we’ve also put the price of the Dribble Drive paperback down from $21.99 to $19.99.

    Find the offer on the right.

  • Walberg Advanced Dribble Drive Review

    Last spring Coach Walberg released three new Dribble Drive DVD ses through Championship Productions, and after having used them (and a lot of other sources) to write my last book, it’s time for a review. The DVD’s released were:

    Advanced Dribble-Drive Offense: Zone & Transition Game, $119.99

    100 Drills and Sets for Implementing the Dribble Drive Offense, $79.99

    Walberg also released a defensive DVD set at the same time:

    Vance Walberg: Half-Court Pressure Defensive System, 79.99

    I don’t personally use Walberg’s defensive sets, so I’ll leave the defensive DVD out of the review.

    See the reviews below. (more…)