The Secrets Behind ALBA Berlin's Coaching Philosophy with Norbert Opitz

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Hello and welcome to the Transforming Basketball Podcast. On today's episode, I'm joined by Norbert Opitz. He is a cornerstone of Alba Berlin's developmental philosophy. Norbert holds a record of on-court achievements. And he continues to mold Alba Berlin's next generation of elite basketball players and coaches.

So Norbert, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

So Norbert, I got to know, how have you done it with Alba? They've had tremendous success, especially in youth competitions. What's the secret?

I mean, obviously, there is no secret at all. There are a high number of coaches for many years, same like I am. And we have been in various talks over the last years trying to constantly improve our coaching, our educational part. And I think that's one of the biggest keys at all.

What does that consist of? Like, if you guys sit down to talk, what do you do?

I mean, actually, we were always driven by the question, how could we do even better? So now looking back to the history of the last almost 20 years of— we have tried out so many different things and put the things that didn't work well to the side and added new things, always trying new methods.

Trying to accomplish goals faster, hearing a lot of opinions on different things that we did, stuff like this.

What specifically in terms of new methods have you guys tried out and that's helped you reach your goals faster? Can you share? I don't know if you can share.

Like everybody, especially I, we were all educated by more or less the same way of coaching. But once we got going, we always ask ourselves, like, is this kind of representative? Like, why are we doing this stuff? Like, and as I said before, shouldn't there be a way to do things better?

And I think one of the first comparisons we always did is, is this something that we do in games? And if yes, like, how could we even practice it better? Or let's say more efficient, so to speak. Or if we don't do this in games at all, like, why do we do it in practice?

So that realization, when did you come to that realization as a coaching staff at ALBA? So for example, we talked before and you've been there about 20 years. Was it always like this to the point where you're trying new things? Or when you started, was it a little bit more traditional in the approach in the sense that you're doing on air, most of practices maybe on air?

And then what point did you guys, oh, actually we're going to make this more representative of the game? When did that change happen?

I have to say by year or how long ago, but As you have had so many examples before here on the podcast of teams, coaches made experiences playing about foreign countries, different teams, and realizing for whatever reason they are not better than we are from the technical part, but like they beat us kind of easy just because they play the game the way it should be played, like without, let's say, big instructions from outside.

And we were trying to implement this more and more, talking to people. And always being on the path of constantly improvements.

We had a group of coaches that visited us when I was at London Lions, and they went to watch Alba practice, and they went to watch a number of practices in Europe. Coaches in Australia, I forget their names right now. But anyways, they came and they spoke very highly of the practices at Alba.

Like, said they were super representative, a high time on task. And my question is, what is it that sets you guys apart in the practice environment so that when, you know, these coaches that are coming out that also use the CLA in their own practices will watch you guys practice and say, wow, this is a, you know, an elite-level practice?

What is that?

Let's say I want to speak for myself at this point. I'm willing to drive good ideas to the extreme. So I will give you an example. Last year, by the beginning of the season, we were kind of merging players from a different club to my team, and we had to spend the only 15 minutes we spent on zero, like on air, like to introduce to the new guys the principles of transition offense.

And one of my best players stood right next to me and didn't participate. And I was asking like, why are you not taking part in here? Because I don't understand what to do. It's like, what do you mean? There's no defender. Like, why should I run to the corner?

I don't get it. And so from this kind of Push me even more of we don't do stuff on zero at all. And maybe only shooting for some reasons, but everything else, if it's finishing, if it's defense, obviously, if it's fast break, we do everything as a competition, like simply everything.

And what are some constraints that you use? So for example, obviously sometimes, especially with the younger age groups, it may be hard for them to go one-on-one. So what are some of the constraints if you're coaching under 12, under 14, even under 16 to an extent?

What are some constraints that you use to simplify the game?

Like, I hear this question very often, but I have to say that it's not the one constraint at all. It's always the mixture of all of them. If whether it's space, like limited space or changing spaces throughout the drill, if it's number of passes, if it's the beginning, like it has to be 2 passes or you have to reach a certain goal before you're allowed to do something else.

There has to be a screen, the ball has to touch the paint, the ball has to touch the post, whatever. It's always like a big mixture of trying to create an environment that will get to the, like, the environment the players will go into when they head to games.

And so pivoting now, I want to ask you about, so you've coached under 16 mostly at Alba, right? So I want to ask you about what are some of your principles of play and how do you coach them at practice?

I think one of the biggest principles is we want to be much faster than everybody else is. So we are, in order to achieve this, usually I would say up to maybe 70, 80%, who knows, the time of practice, we want to cross backcourt without a dribble.

So it's mandatory to cross with passes. Like, this is one. We want to change sides after transition, like after the first possible attack. I want us to shoot open shots. Not as much as we could, but for sure I don't want anybody to be afraid.

And apart from this, we have some, let's say, with the team of last year, we had some basic triggers that we were flowing into right away.

Yeah.

And this is basically this, which comes together with aggressive defense and with the, let's say, core principles we have as ALBA, as the whole club.

Yeah. And what you're doing at that younger age group, is that going into the, you know, the senior men's team as well?

It is. I have to be honest. Let's say, especially the level of defensive aggressiveness, let's say, changes over the course of time. Like, we can be much more aggressive than it would be useful for a men's team. But we are convinced by this idea that once you have been aggressive in your youth time, you can step down a little bit.

But to flip this around, to be aggressive at an adult age, I think this doesn't work.

For sure. It's like when you're teaching pick and roll coverages at the start of the season, my conversation with coaches are always, we're going to teach an aggressive coverage first, whether it's a switch, you know, or a show. And then we teach the, you know, a drop because it's a lot easier for the players because they're naturally going to be in the drop anyway.

And so it's a lot easier. Yeah. So I agree completely with that. Now I want to go back. You mentioned something about your principles of play and getting open shots. How do you, at practice, maybe what are some constraints? How do you maybe penalize the players or reward them for taking the shots that you want and maybe penalize them for not taking those shots?

I think there are 2 main ways. Like, first of all, like, we put a lot of emphasis to shooting. So once we lost like a big under-16 national game like 3 years ago and I took over the new team, I promised to myself like, I will never lose a game because somebody's hesitating to shoot that actually can shoot.

So from this point on, we spend always from a typical 90-minute practice time, we spend like 25 minutes on shooting, which was divided for 10 minutes in a more technical part with differential learning stuff. And the other 50 minutes could be either competition or competition in the sense of counting in different ways, maybe between teams.

But most of the times in 1-on-1 or 2-on-1. situations, like game-like defenders coming from the right, defenders coming from— pass is coming from the left, defenders coming from the right, defenders coming from the basket, something like this. So to make them feel comfortable even in uncomfortable situations.

And then for games that we played in practice, like for every 2-on-2, 3-on-3, like we were shifting a little bit because obviously we also got to a point where we shot too much. And then we flipped it around, like, to value finishes close to the basket a little higher.

But basically, this is it, like, where we wanted to go. And mostly we played with, let's say, like, a low number shot clock. So you simply haven't been able to hesitate because then the shot clock would have been over.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I had the same problem this last season, especially at the start of the year, because, you know, like, we want to play fast. Our catch-and-shoot 3-point shots are a high-value shot for us. So then a big thing with the team and throughout the players early in the season was, you know, any open 3-point shot, whether it's the first pass of the possession, is a jump shot.

And like you said, we still want to hunt those layups or those gold medals. So that was something that I had a challenge with at the start of last season. Like, so I tried lots of different things. I had conversations with team, you know, to explain that we want to— we still want to hunt the gold medal shots and not just settle for the silver medal shots, like different scoring systems for the gold medals versus the silver medals and so on.

So what are some of the things that you did to try to pull that out?

Yeah, first of all, the same like you did, talking, explaining why, like, everybody is same, but everybody is different at the same time. Like the last season to beginning of the season, I handed out let's say, different roles to players. I explained to them what this role means to me.

And it was a lot of like, are you allowed to shoot? And when are you allowed to shoot? And like, typically, I mean, the most easier one is a kick-out for a 3-pointer in the corner. I think everybody is more or less allowed to do, to shoot this every single time.

But the more difficult ones, let's say, from the dribble out of fast break, so these were only given to like certain people. And everybody was just let's say, allowed to pass or look for some other solutions. This is one, but at the end, we were talking a lot about where are the shots we want to take.

And I totally feel your challenge of, and this is also what happens to the beginning of the season with us in Germany, that for the standards of our practice situations, like every single ball touch could be a shot. And to handle this the right way of when to pass, like when is the right time to shoot, I think every team is different.

And I'm totally convinced you have to talk to your players.

Yeah, I agree. So now I want to dig a little deeper into that in terms of the triggers that you run. How do you teach the triggers? What are some of the, you know, useful external cues that you use when you're talking to your team and teaching?

I mean, basically we have this advantage principle. Like, with us, we don't call it like the dominoes. We just talk about this advantage, and either we want to create it, we want to Let's say increase it, or we want to use it in some kind of finish.

But for example, one of the basic triggers that we had was a simple handoff. And whatever, I would do it with every team the same. I would just make them go do it. And then let's see, let's see what happens. And then explain, what do you think?

Why are we doing this? Okay, you want to create advantages. Who out of this handoff situation will be the one to have an advantage? And then we will play around with this. We will put more emphasis on shooting, then we put an even higher value there.

Then we mix up with some, let's say, different levels of aggressiveness of the defense to introduce some new ideas, either if we want to cut it, destroy it, disrupt, double team it, whatever. And then we will just make them play and then figure out, and this is always my big advice to coaches, it's not only about making them play, but it's to watch properly what's happening, what are the key effects, why Things are not happening the way you expected them.

And it could be either— I mean, this is my typical example for handoff. If the handoff guy, let's say the giver, I don't know how you say it in English, you have to use your body somehow. Like, if you don't screen, then nobody will be open.

And you have to see this.

Right. And you don't teach them that initially. You just go play. And then as they explore, then maybe you might tell them to Get wider, make contact or whatever the case, or get out early, whatever.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, and this is how I teach to other coaches as well. Whenever I look at the situation in practices, I ask myself, like, who needs help now? Is it too easy for defense? Then let's put some, like, 2 ways. Then I could either make the life harder for offense if I kind of constrain them a little more, or the other way around, I empower the defense with some new tools.

Like, even if it's a Like a new method of how to do it, or even I give them some more rules, some more freedom of what to do. Maybe sometimes, or many times, it's just enough to say, like, be more physical in this spot.

And this is how we evolve throughout all the games.

That's amazing. So it's like you give them freedom, and then you kind of have to see where you can take that freedom away so that they are more intentional about finding the correct solution to create an advantage.

Like, why do you think it's not working anymore? It worked before, now it didn't. So what has changed apart from the defense did something else? Like, what could you do in order to be still successful the way you have been before? And then I don't wait for weeks, then maybe I say like, just get into a wider stance and then that's it.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's, I guess that's the challenge, isn't it? Like as coaches, it would be great if we could just let the players experiment, but the season's, you know, less than a year long. So it's not like we have a long time.

We have to get results and get results quick. So that balance between, I'm gonna let you explore, but I also have to give you the answer or guide you to the answer sometimes.

To create a feeling for the players in the team, at what point are you going to start wasting time? Or like, is there— if there's a shortcut, then maybe just take it.

Yeah.

So moving on, you spoke about adjusting the constraints for the defense, maybe changing it for the offense. When you start the season, what are you more focused on? Teaching the defense, teaching the offense? Like, what's more important for you? Is it for the offense to find the coverage solutions, then we, you know, kind of change up the defense, or you want the defense to be extremely good and then the offense will learn from there?

I would try to answer it in an even bigger manner, in a way of I don't separate between offense and defense at all. Sure, we have, let's say, exercises that we use, they have more kind of an offensive emphasis, but this always has something to do with defense.

So I'm in a good position. I do have an assistant coach and we always split test. So it will be always when I usually I am, I'm the offensive guy then, and I ask him to take a look at the defense and he is, let's say, empowered to also stop practices and take players out that don't act according to our rules.

And then if we feel that the offense gets too easy and the defense has problems, then again, we will constrain in the same exercise the offense. Okay, then just one dribble per catch, whatever, in order to make the life for defense easy. Because I made this experience years ago that we got to a point where we couldn't defend ourselves anymore because offense developed so much more than defense did.

Yeah.

I will never experience this again.

So what did you do? Sorry, like, you, you know, you got to a point where you focused on the offense and then they developed so much more, whereas now you just start them together. They're like a holistic approach. But then back then, just, you know, my curiosity, what did you do at that point?

You just focus more on the defense at practice?

Yeah, I mean, somehow we fell in love with the idea of getting to some new things offensively because Let's say the things we did before, they worked kind of well against our own defense. So then it was time to move on. And so we got— we handed over too much opportunities of how to punish defense.

Then we gave the defense opportunities to stay strong no matter what the offense does. And then we got to a point where we couldn't defend ourselves anymore. And we also haven't been smart enough to just stop and constrain the offense. So it was a weird time somehow.

I guess it's a great job that it happened because I'm sure you learned a lot from that experience as well.

Yeah, this is more than true.

So, you know, it's like you're coaching under-16 mostly. Like you said, against your team's defense, you're scoring very well. But how do you use scout for this age group? How do you use it? Do you change during that week at practice? Are you changing what you're doing offensively, what you're doing defensively?

How do you go about it?

No, I mean, actually, throughout the regular season, we don't scout at all. The funny part is always like, if that happened to us a couple of months ago when we went into the playoffs, that we were facing teams that were preparing their team for us.

And I was like, please hand it over to me because I don't even know what's going to happen next. So no matter what you figured out, tell me, because I am also curious about this. So like, actually, throughout the season, This comes also always from the point that usually we're one of the better teams in the nation.

So there's no need to prepare in order to make sure to win. So usually our basic stuff, let's call it stuff at this point, is good enough. The one thing I do, and I will continue, is since all of our German leagues are recorded, the games in my league, I constantly watch teams that we might face.

At a certain point in the season, and I look for their triggers. I look for what they do, and then I played it every here and then in our practice just to make sure that we know how to adapt our defensive principles to these triggers.

And then I think we only prepared, let's say, the semifinal this season, kind of, but also this because we played against, I would say, the best team apart from us already in semifinal, and we know them very well. It was more about the players.

It was not about the way what they do, it's who does it.

That's great. You know, it's less focused on changing what you're doing at practice and just more focused on how can we taking a little bit of what the other team does, sprinkling it in at practice, and then seeing how your players adapt. And I always find it interesting how quickly, like, let's say you haven't worked on a flare screen, for example, and the other team loves a flare screen and you put it in.

I always find it really interesting how quickly players can pick up on defending, let's say, a flare screen once, you know, you put it in like that. I always find it really fascinating.

I agree. The flare screen would have been the example that I would have taken because the same happened to us.

Nice, nice. And I guess as well, like, you don't really see— and I don't know, maybe you can speak more about this— but you don't really see a lot of slips on the flare screen. I don't know if you guys did, if that was something for you to look out for.

No, like, we didn't. But at the end, because our players were so in love with being out of 3-point line, and we actually, we played without a real big. So in this slip, and actually in German Under-16 league, let's say the zone is crowded anyways, so the possibility to slip in and to find a more or less easy situation is not that easy to create.

But we had some slips every here and then, like if there was a team trying to play aggressive against us, then we were looking for the slip. But most of the teams, they had problems to cover our speed anyways.

So And something you said earlier is like, I've never spoken to a coach on this podcast that have said, oh, we want to play slow as a principle of play. And I always just, obviously for obvious reasons, but I'm waiting, I'm waiting for the day.

I want to talk about your covered solutions when that paint is crowded. So I think like a heavy MIG, I like to call it like a MIG that's just permanently in the paint. What are some of the things that your team can do to still create good quality shots if, you know, that paint is crowded?

I mean, first of all, I really like to play with this like 4-out, 1-in alignment and keep this guy, how do you say it, like active, like looking for cuts behind this, as you call it, the big defender, changing sides. Maybe even now the new team that just took over, they got practiced well, very well before, so they They already start looking for some alley-oops for like those small to also use this vertical space in order to make this mid defender come late anyways.

Basically, we want them to use to like to find paint touches. Like I think we don't do nothing special apart from like being quick and identifying when there is the second defender coming in to help the mid defender then find the ball out.

And obviously, somehow this was a big advantage we had last year. We played a lot of Out of get actions. So we took the big man out, and this was kind of a clearing moment for the zone because this was also like a very good player in there that had the ability to drive left and right and also was kind of a threat as a shooter.

So they had to go out with him. And I think this is somehow would be the easiest to give other teams the challenge of, okay, then defend me outside.

Right. So essentially take that big defender's player that they're guarding and get them into the action. So that's a way. No, excellent. So just coming, wrapping up here, I want to ask you, what's it like working for a club like Alba Berlin? It seems like you have a lot of autonomy in what you do.

Obviously, the results speak for themselves, especially at the youth level. You guys have a lot of wins, basically a lot of success. So what's it like working for that club?

First of all, it's an honor for sure. I think just talking about Germany, I think many, many coaches would take my job. And have it as their profession. I mean, it's pretty nice because it has a very good environment with all the different coaches.

I think we are more than 100 coaches overall. Many of them are employed in the primary school sector, like doing the talent identification work. So whatever we do, we will always have kind of a standard, like our players won't be bad, so to speak.

At the same time, let's say, our expectations on ourselves always getting higher and higher and higher. We want to produce the next player. And obviously we are not working for the ending of one season. Like everybody says, but for us it's really true, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon.

We want players to be good by the end, and maybe in U19 or U20. And to go throughout these challenges of players that want to reach German championships by the age of 13, parents to deal with, Let's say the obstacles that I have in my way might be a little different than in teams that just play for one year because my job gets evaluated by the development of players, not by the success of the team.

I think that's a major— it's different, right? I don't know if there's many clubs out there at all where I think a lot of clubs are looking for the results and they may be overlooking the development of players that is inevitably going to bring results in the future.

And I think it's fascinating that you've been able to have both the results and the development of players as well.

I mean, it goes hand in hand. If the player is developing right, then it gets harder to lose. But sometimes you have to do decisions, have to make decisions that are not helping the team at all, like to players that are not as good as they will be, hopefully, and to take players out that could help at this moment.

This is also like an inner fight that Also, I have still. I'm not free of this. But again, everybody wants to win and we want our teams to win. But at the end, it's not about us.

It's not the priority for sure. Credit to you guys. You know, you've still been able to win at a high level. So great stuff. Norbert, where can coaches reach out to you? You're, you know, it's hard to find you online. Is there any place coaches can reach out if they want to ask questions or get in touch?

I mean, actually, I'm, for whatever reason, regarding this, I'm very old school. I mean, I have my YouTube channel where I upload all of our games that got kind of I wouldn't say famous, but gave me some followers. Apart from this, actually, I mean, I do have an X account, but I'm not going there because of, let's say, all the stuff that's going on in the world.

So basically it would be email. If somebody would like to have a question or whatever, then just write me an email. It's pretty easy. It's norbert.opitz@alba-berlin.de. So pretty easy. It's for sure the easiest way to reach out to me.

Awesome. And your YouTube channel there as well. And we'll put the links in the show notes. So last question I have for you, and I just want to say thank you for your time. It's been an excellent conversation just hearing your perspective about what you guys do at ALBA Berlin.

Last question I have for you is the transformative tip. If you could leave coaches with one piece of advice that could instantly change their environment, their practice environment, what would that be?

Like, a very good question. I would like to answer different somehow. Like, it's a typical quote that I have at the end of a typical presentation that I do for coaches' education is a quote of Carlo Ancelotti, like a famous football manager, that he said there are 2 types of managers, and this type coaches, one that do nothing and one that do a lot of damage.

The game belongs to the players, so talk less, make them do more. This would be it.

Excellent. Thank you so much, Norbert.

Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.

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