POSTING UP ISSUE NO. 1

MISTAKES TO CORRECT IN THE POST 

by George Galiotos, Director of Player Development
Rick Mahorn Big Man Camp

   Recently I attended a college game, where I was particularly interested in the play of the bigs, having myself handled post assignments for top clubs in Greece for a dozen years.

   What I saw was athletic guys running up and down the court ... but failing to seal the player under the basket. Their positioning didn't allow the guards to feed the post so in this particular game I noticed 6 or 7 times a player posted up but only on one of those times did he score. The other times the ball was turned over because the player either had faulty footwork or when the player went up and under, he brought the ball down low rather than keeping it up high, resulting in a turnover.

   I also saw that when the big got open he didn't get the ball because he needed to be more vocal and let teammates know he was ready to get the ball. If a big is inactive just outside the paint and not asking for the ball he isn't going to get it. 

   I also saw that bigs were setting screens at the wrong angles so that they weren't rolling to be able to get the ball. When you set a great screen, you force the defender to help the player caught in your screen and then you have the space to roll successfully and get the ball.

   In some instances, I saw the big just kind of staying where he was and not even rolling or popping out after setting the screen to create space and take advantage of the screen in order to be open to take a shot.

   As far as defense goes, the guys I was watching tended to jump on every shot fake. You do not have to necessarily leave your feet to block a shot. By keeping your hands up and ready  in defensive position you can defend against a shorter player without getting out of position. Not being in position in time - when a player is late to get to where he needs to be and tries to block the shot, that is where bigs get into so much foul trouble. 

   Regarding rebounding, I saw players assuming they could rely on their athleticism, making no attempt to box out their player first. I suggest you stop looking for the ball and box out your player first to slow him down. Then you can use your abilities to grab the rebounds.  

   When the guard drives baseline past his defender, the big should be ready to help by closing the driving lane. You need to be low with hands up and outer foot on the baseline. to keep the opposing guard from trying to go for the reverse layup. You want to force that guard to have to change or reverse direction, make an errant pass or draw the charging foul. But if you are 3-4 feet away from the baseline, and try to block that shot, you are probably going to be the one who gets called for the foul.  

   To sum up, on offense the big should not just be focused on getting up and down the court but getting down quickly for the fast break ... to seal his defender under the basket ... to set great screens and then roll quickly toward the post, getting low and in proper spot close to the basket ... and be loud and active in asking for the ball. On defense, put a higher priority on boxing out to get rebounds instead of overly relying on your athletic abilities ... play with your hands up ... don't jump up on pump fakes ... and make it a habit to be in the proper position to avoid being called for the foul.

   Finally, increase your guards' trust in you by projecting the idea that this is YOUR house, and nobody is going to score on you. You will be getting more touches of the ball and at the same time the defense is going to be a bit more wary of attacking you.

TO PLAY YOUR BEST, REMEMBER:

LESS IS MORE!

                      by Dr. Mitch Smith Director of Mental Performance Coaching

Rick Mahorn Big Man Camp

I recently attended the European Under-20 Men’s Basketball Championships, a major event held every summer, where the best junior national teams from all over Europe compete for top honors.  One day I was talking with one of the coaches about his team’s performance in the early rounds of competition, and the discussion led to the performance of the team’s go-to big man who had played college ball in the U.S. at one of the top teams in the ACC.

   “He is capable of doing a lot, and we really depend on him, but in the past couple of games he has fallen short of expectations,” the coach told me.

   As we discussed the situation further, one aspect that came to light was that a number of different tasks were being laid upon this player’s shoulders, clearly too many for him to successfully handle. It felt like the player was trying to balance too many balls in the air.  I asked the coach what he thought about scaling down the assignments he was placing on this player.  “Less is more,” I told him.

   Narrowing one’s focus down once it’s time to go out and compete helps give an athlete one of the most critical things he can take with him into competition: a sense of control.  Having fewer things to worry about makes the assignment feel more manageable, so that the athlete feels empowered rather than overwhelmed.

   Most players will have a wide range of thoughts going through their mind preparing for a game. Arriving at the gym, an experienced player will put some of those thoughts out of his mind and start to narrow his focus.  As time draws closer to tip-off, the athlete’s focus will continue to narrow down, in the manner of a funnel.

   By the opening tip, a veteran athlete’s focus has narrowed down to ONE specific thought or intention. (One post player I worked with goes into games with the thought "Don't force things - just trust myself." Another reminds himself to go up high when he is going after rebounds).

   At the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, U.S. downhill skier Tommy Moe surprised everyone when he took the gold medal.  Moe, who beat out the competition, had never won an international event in his career. When asked afterwards about his performance, Moe commented: “I just kept my thoughts real simple. I wanted to focus on making my turns with a strong edge on the outside ski and keeping my hands forward. I knew if I concentrated on those two things, I would ski fast. That’s all I wanted to do.”

  

   Bob McKillop, the highly respected men’s basketball coach at Davidson College (6 times conference Coach of the Year and 2008 national Coach of the Year) cites the competitive benefit of keeping things simple when the pressure is on:

   “By the time you get to post-season NCAA tournament, and you’ve got to prepare for whoever your opponent might be, that’s a time to strip your game down to the things you’ve become good at during the season – and let go of the rest, the average stuff, the things you’ve just kind of experimented with.” 

   Jack Nicklaus, one of the greatest golfers of all time, offered similar advice with regard to getting the ideal swing off: “Boil down your swing thoughts to the simplest two or three that have worked for you in the past.” Nicklaus himself came up with two ideas – “Head still” and “Complete the backswing” – and sticking with those two thoughts in crunch time was how he got the job done.

   After speaking with the European coach of that men’s Under-20 team, he went into the next day’s game asking this player to concentrate chiefly on rebounding, and secondarily to look to score inside if the opportunity presented itself.  Giving the player a narrower focus gave him a more manageable task … and helped him to feel MORE IN CONTROL. As a result, his game productivity returned to top form, and he had one of his best games in the tournament, leading his team on to medal round contention.

P.S:  Here is what one player wrote me after I sent him the above article:

I wanted to tell you, the idea you had of focusing on just one thing has been really useful for me. I have had three of my best games and two full weeks of great practices – and it’s all due to this idea of one thought! I just keep telling myself to be an animal.  That’s it… I just say, “Be aggressive and be an animal” and that thought is what makes me able to play with aggressiveness and energy. Because of that I am able to not only play well but to instill confidence in myself and not only that but in my coaches and teammates as well! They want to get me the ball because I showed them what I can do once it is in my hands. All this success is because of that one word. So thank you!! I really appreciate the ideas that you keep sharing with me.”

Shortly after writing to tell me this, this player had his first double-double, followed by his first 20-point game.

Another player wrote to say:  “I used your idea in a recent game to focus only on defense and nothing more and I played well. I didn’t allow my opponent to get the ball – or when he got it I defended his shots so he couldn’t get them off and even blocked some of them.  As it turned out, on offense and on rebounding things went well for me also because of the confidence this idea helped me to maintain. I will continue to use this strategy. Thanks!!

  

 THINK POSITIVE, PART 1
IT’S ALL IN YOUR MIND!

A COLLEGE POST PLAYER with whom I was working told me that one of his goals for the season was to not turn the ball over so much.  When I asked him what steps he was taking to accomplish this, he listed a number of things he was trying NOT to do.  I said to him, “Now tell me how else you can accomplish this, but without using the word ‘NOT’. 

ISN’T IT AMAZING how the mind works?  For example, if I tell you to try very hard for the next 60 seconds NOT to think about a hot fudge sundae (with whipped cream and a cherry on top!), I wonder how successful you would be at accomplishing this task?  (Consider the success of food ads on TV!!)

   WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT, it isn’t so surprising to note that as soon as we are instructed NOT to think about something, our mind zones in paradoxically on the very thing we are trying not to think about.  After all, the mind has to first mentally reference the thing we are intending to NOT think about.  Naturally, it is impossible to think about something and NOT think about it at the same time!  As a result, we can’t get the thing out of our mind that we are trying to get out of our mind.

   In The Mental Book of Baseball, authors Harvey Dorfman and Karl Kuehl recount a story about Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn, who was pitching for the Milwaukee Braves in the opening game of the 1957 World Series against the Yankees.  In the top of the 9^th inning, the Braves were up 4-1.  New York had two men on base, with catcher Elston Howard on deck.  The Braves manager approached the pitcher’s mound to address the pressures of the moment.  In hopes of denying Howard an extra-base hit, he instructed Spahn: “Don’t give him anything up and out over the plate.”

   Spahn’s first pitch was “up and out over the plate”, exactly where the manager had told him NOT to throw it.  Howard hit a home run to tie the game (although the Braves won it in extra innings).  Afterwards, Spahn was overheard muttering, “Why would anyone ever want to give you a negative command?”

   Thinking about the pitch he was trying to AVOID increased the probability of his doing just that!

   GETTING BACK TO THE POST PLAYER who was trying NOT to turn the ball over so much … when I asked him to come up with steps to achieve his goal that were phrased in POSITIVE terms – here is what he came up with:

1.  Keep more mentally focused when handling the ball.

2.  Work on making better decisions when looking to pass.

3. Work on playing with greater confidence, in order to reduce tentative play, traveling calls, etc.

Now the player was focused on the things he was trying to accomplish, and not what he was trying to avoid.

  A study conducted some time ago found that teachers who told a child to STOP doing something had less success in altering the child’s behavior than teachers who gave a child a positively worded suggestion regarding an alternate activity to undertake in place of the disruptive one.  In general, the mind does a better job of grasping a SPECIFIC and DIRECTED action than the idea of trying to NOT do something.

   If you ever received an instruction from a coach like “Don’t miss those free throws”, or “Don’t let your guy score on you”, you can probably relate to the difficulty of a negatively worded suggestion, just like Warren Spahn.  When we are told NOT to do something – or when we tell ourselves this – we create a situation where we end up focusing on the very thing we are trying to avoid.

   BY FOCUSING ON THE POSITIVE, we are not only pointing our thoughts in the desired direction, but we also picture some specific skill we need to call upon to accomplish this task.  By identifying aspects of what we are aiming to do rather than what we are trying to NOT do – by focusing on the behaviors we are trying to increase – we get a better grasp on the steps that will get us to the goal, whether it is a well-placed pitch, fewer turnovers, better defense, etc. At the same time, we create a kind of mental firewall deflecting our focus from the thought or action to be avoided.

   Any instruction (or self-instruction) can be altered to use positive rather than negative language.  By doing this, we formulate a mental picture, or road map, that will help us get to the desired goal.  AND I AM PRETTY POSITIVE ABOUT THAT! 

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