I'm Back!

It's been 15 months since I last posted in this space, and in that time my career has taken a number of sharp turns from where it was headed in the spring of 2012. In May of 2012 I made the difficult decision to leave Houghton College, where I had spent the previous 6 years - first as a student assistant and then as the head assitant coach for the men's basketball program. In the time that has passed, I've had three fantastic coaching opportunities open up for me.

The first is that I started my own skill training business, called Dynamic Basketball Development. DBD opened in June of 2012, and since that time I have hosted two camps, been invited to speak at 4 others, hosted multiple skills clinics, and worked with other 200 individual athletes. Additionally, in the spring of 2013 I was able to lead the first ever DBD AAU team - a select U17 team made up of 10 players from 7 high schools. We what I would call a successful first year, and ended the season on a high note by finishing 2nd in our last tournament.

The second opportunity, which was brought about through my work with DBD, was to become and Alpha Trainer for Point 3 Basketball. Point 3 is a performance-based apparel company out of Atlanta, and the Alpha program is made up of skills trainers around the nation who are dedicated to teaching the game at the grassroots level. As both Point 3 and the Alpha program have expanded since I joined them in March, I have developed great relationships with a strong network of coaches and trainers, who have inspired me to be a better coach myself.

Lastly, but certainly not least, I was hired in August of 2012 as the head coach of the Campbell-Savona Central School varsity boy's basketball team. Some people may see the move from full-time college assistant to high school coach as at the very least a lateral move, and probably a downgrade. For me, that could not be farther from the truth. To have a chance to become the head coach of the school that I proudly played for, and to be given the opportunity to restore the program my family had helped build into a sectional power and state championship contender, was a dream come true.

Taking the Campbell-Savona job is actually what prompted the hiatus in my blogging. Being a first year coach, I wanted to focus completely on the court. With a new business, new job, and new players I felt like I wouldn't be able to devote the time necessary to continue this project with the standards I had set. Entering year two of all of those opportunities, I feel ready to again produce content that is thought-provoking, motivational, and instructional. I am excited to begin writing again, and looking forward to sharing a number of the lessons I learned over the course of the last year in the coming days. From there, it'll be full steam ahead with skills development, leadership, coaching, and motivation.

In the mean time, please feel free to browse through older posts and comment on any that you enjoy!

#purposefulpickup Thread

After my entry about Purposeful Pick-Up became the most successful one-day post I've ever done on Monday I decided to try to get a #purposefulpickup thread going on twitter that night. I was amazed at some of the responses that came in during that time, and wanted to share some of them. Thanks to everyone who joined in!

"Everybody sprint back on D after a turnover" - @NBNBball
"Don't get lazy on the boards and just rely on jumping; get a solid, intentional box out on every shot." - @adubb928
"best be closing out with high hands and getting on the floor" - @CoachEvans12 (my favorite response of the night, coming from one of my former players)
"never getting out played by alumni or anyone else for that fact" - @CoachAndrewWeb
"letting your play and wins do the talking, not the mouths." - @CoachAndrewWeb
"Take charges" - @cammu51

Purposeful Pick-Up

Over the summer months many players get the majority of their time on the court in pick-up games. This isn't the ideal setting for improvement - that would be drills. But drills become monotonous, and the fact is that most high school players don't want to stand around and do actual drill work. They want to get out and run and play. With that in mind, I'd like to present the concept of "Purposeful Pick-Up".

I do not advocate abandoning drill work in the summer. The specific, purposeful repetition of skills is really how you grow and develop as and athlete. But if you're going to say that pick-up is how you'll be working on your game, then you need to identify specific areas of weakness and deliberately target those aspects throughout your workout.

Some examples of "Purposeful Pick-Up":

• All penetration will be to your weak hand.
• You will go find your man and box out on every shot, regardless of if it takes you away from the rim and the rebound.
• You'll only shoot jumpers off of a certain action
• pull-up jumper, using ball screen, catch and shoot, specific location (corner/wing/top)
• You'll only shoot off of a "2nd cut"
• This is the cut you make after you have set a screen
• All passes will be thrown with your weak hand.
• Jump stop for every pass.
• Hard hedge every ball screen.
• Deny your man the ball at all times.
• Full court pressure on the ball.

When deciding what to focus on before you play, you need to take 3 things into consideration:

1. What does my team do?
2. What is my role on the team?
3. How am I trying to improve, thereby expanding my role?

You need to understand the system your coach wants you to be able to run, in order to know what to work on. You also need to know and understand your current role - the expectations your coach has of you. When you know those two things, you can target a specific area of your game to improve, and develop additional skills that will expand your role.

As you can see, some of these may require you to communicate with your team ahead of time. And some people you'll play with won't like it if you're focusing on a specific aspect and your team loses because of your concentration. To put it bluntly - too bad. If you want to get to the next level - whether it's playing in college, becoming a starter for your team, or just making the squad - you have to improve. And focusing on one aspect at a time is the most efficient way to do that when you're not doing drill work.

What are some other things that "Purposeful Pick-Up" could focus on? Leave suggestions in the comments section. Also, follow @CoachCW_51 for #purposefulpickup, where I'll be generating conversation about the concept on twitter.