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The Tribe

In this episode of the Hardwood Hustle Basketball Podcast, Alan Stein (Stronger Team) and Adam Bradley (Ball Hogs Radio) make light of the fact that American-born ‘white guys’ are a dying breed in the NBA. Alan (white) and Adam (really white) allow Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) (really, really white) to moderate...

Installing the Entire Read & React in 5 Days

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The Read & React Offense took over a year to produce and I’m pretty confident that I covered every detail of every layer of the offense. But regardless, I continue to hear the following question: “What is the best method for teaching the Read & React?” And regardless of THAT answer, the follow-up question is always, “How long will it take?” So, when Mike Bona, coach of the Emmanuel College Lady Lions, asked me the same question, I boldly answered: “One week! In one week, I can put in the entire Read & React – all 20 Layers!” And he took me up on it! Now, some of you are saying, there’s no way an entire team can master the Read & React in 5 practices (11 hours). And I agree! What CAN you MASTER in 11 hours?! I wasn’t shooting for mastery - I was shooting for the team to acquire the ability to run the entire offense in this short, condensed amount of time. And they did!
To best understand what I did in these 5 practices and why I did it this way, let’s look at the 3 BASIC STAGES OF SKILL ACQUISITION*:

Hand on BasketballYou picked up a basketball because it was fun, right? It was fun to play with your friends and get some exercise. But then your idea of fun began to evolve. Competing began to give you a thrill. Your team winning began to be the definition of real fun. But a team can only be as good as the individuals that make up the team, so you decided to become better. In fact, you want to be “a cut above” the rest and pull your team up with you. Now, playing against average players is not good enough anymore. In fact, whatever the level of your competition, you have a desire to play on the level above them. Basketball is still fun for the same reasons it’s always been, but now the fun goes deeper; it’s now tied up with getting yourself and your team to the next level - maybe even to a championship. If you’re at this point in your life, then you’re ready to train like a champion. There’s not room in this article or any other single article to map out all of the details for training like a champion. So instead, let’s look at the big picture:

In this episode of the Hardwood Hustle Basketball Podcast, Alan Stein (Stronger Team) and Adam Bradley (Ball Hogs Radio) were joined by ESPN’s National Director for High School Basketball Recruiting Paul Biancardi (@PaulBiancardi) and Rich Czeslawski (@CoachCzes) of Better Basketball (@BtrBasketball) in a roundtable discussion whether or not...

Every great endeavor starts with an overriding purpose and a vision of something bigger than yourself. This “vision” will get no traction if it remains only your vision. Your vision must become theirs; in other words, the coach is responsible to create the Team’s Vision. Here are some key ingredients you’ll need:

Turning Things AroundThis letter from Rick Torbett to a concerned parent covers his advice on Motivation, Confidence, Defining Success, Parent-Coach Relationships, Assigning Blame, Handling Adversity, Staying Positive, and creating a Winning Mentality. From: A concerned parent (edited down to the basics of the e-mail) I need to know how to teach my son and his team how to have a winning mentality. This school has lost for many years, and the community does not support the program . He needs also to learn how to have confidence. He is a great shooter. He can shoot free throws under any kind of pressure. He just has these slumps where he can't make a basket if his life depended on it. The slumps seem to be

You’ll need a workout partner for this one, but it’s worth the trouble. A workout partner adds 3 things to your training:
  1. An element of accountability
  2. A defender that you can see and read rather than just imagine.
  3. Intensity: a partner will naturally raise the effort and concentration that you put into your workout.
The first goal of this workout is to get in a wide variety of 50 shots. I should call it a 100 shot workout because both players will get in 50 shots each in a little over 20 minutes. If each player keeps up with the number that they make, then all they need to do is multiply by two and they’ll have their percentage; Very easy to turn into a competition. The workout covers the 3 ranges of shots: outside the arc, the mid-range, and finishes on the goal. The second goal to the workout is to get each player to associate certain shots with certain actions of the defender. An example would be if the defender closes out short, then you should shoot and not drive. A third goal can be seen in the shots where the shooter must ignore the presence of the defender and focus on making the shot. I’ve heard psychologist say that success rates below 50% do not do a good job of reinforcing behavior. They say that the higher the success rates are over 50%, the stronger the reinforcement becomes. Now, what’s that got to do with this workout?