Q&A with Alex Sarama (Part 2)

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I think the biggest thing is just changing the lens from practice. I think, you know, you guys would all do this, but not going to the practice thinking about what drills do I need to do today, or what am I going to fill time with, but more what are the problems that we need, what are the rate limiters we need them to get better at, and now how can I design unique activities around those.

And that's how I came up with all the small-sided games constraints we use at Transforming. It was just solving the problems, so the things my team needed to be better at. And then those activities would be a response to that versus just trying to fill time for, you know, office.

Have you got any tips like being consistent on constraints? For example, like if you have several coaches, like one could watch how they be vocal, one could watch the floor is lava. Could you give some— if you're alone in the gym and you have also a variety of players to focus on the most important one?

But basically, I want them always to be vocal. Do you, like, I don't know, make a player who is responsible for it?

Exactly. 2 things to this. Number one is getting the players officiating the constraints. So that's something I always say, where— because I had so many situations over the years where I'd be by myself or I have an assistant, and I'd go down one end, and then I'd see something happen the other end, and no one called it.

And I'd make a big point of bringing everyone in and being like, look, You are not helping your teammate get better and you're failing the team if you see them get away with something that is not going to help us better. So if you see a teammate travel, if you see a teammate step out of bounds, if we're playing with our shot spectrum, you allow them to take a contested mid-range, that cannot happen.

So it's like a cultural thing where I make a huge deal out of the players' efficiency and the constraints. Even in one-on-one, if we're playing one-on-one and you have a 3-dribble max, If you let that player take 4 dribbles, that's a huge problem.

So the first part. The second part real quick is just certain constraints. I don't like floor is lava. I don't remind them of it. It's just a no-brainer. It's just like an automatic. So maybe the first week, right, you're working with a team that need reminding.

But by week 2, if you're forgetting floor is lava, it's just instant turnover. Same thing with the gold, silver, bronze medals. So the idea is over time you can get way more constraints because just certain things are the identity of how they practice.

So I think like the Gold, silver medals, the floor is lava. Those are to me like 2 constraints which are just in everything. And if it just, if I suddenly see it happen off, I'll just call turnover. And then it allows you to do more unique constraints like, all right, you have one opportunity.

So we're playing 3-on-3, one trigger. If you're still neutral after the trigger, it's a turnover. But you can't get to those cool ones if they're still thinking about floor is lava.

Yeah.

And the medals. So I try to really make sure those constraints are just an automatic in everything we do, and then we can play with more unique ones and say what they are. Kerri, I don't know if you want to speak on that.

Yeah, to just build off of that, so it would be giving them that opportunity to have that autonomy. So if they could start to create that environment where they're fishing themselves, because it'll also help with healthy competition, holding the standard, and at the same time still cultivating the culture that you want.

Now we don't have to focus on like the small little ones. We're now directing our attention to, okay, what do we actually need to get better at? Not like our cultural things or quote unquote rules. But the biggest thing for me when I have athletes myself, and I'm not even dealing with big team practices, most of the time I'm either in smaller groups or I'm bouncing from one to another.

It's, yeah, it's telling them you need to hold each other accountable. But at the same time, for me, it's the autonomy piece because that has been shown where they're going to stay in it longer. They're going to feel that trust from you, and then now they're to be willing to try new things, explore, and then they'll find that more functional solution.

So if you could give them that autonomy and that accountability, then now you kind of relieve that from yourself as well.

And they also try to get success through cheating, and there is always like fighting. And so it's hard, but I think it's good advice to build it up.

I think so. Building on Adriano's question, how do you balance between sticking to your big plan that you Like have at the beginning of the season with reacting to things that you see in games? And is that different if you're working with youth teams in comparison to adult teams?

I do think it's a mix. I think the big problem is like when you allow one game to completely derail things and you like completely change triggers or go to like emotion offense. That to me, I would never do, right? It would be more— the biggest advantage with principles of play is there's so much flexibility.

within that approach, but I would never change, move away from my principles to something completely contradictory. So it would be more dialing certain things up within those principles or making certain things better. But I will say this, I think as you learn throughout a season, you'll naturally learn new principles.

So for instance, you'll see, maybe you're watching a game of— so I remember this, like, this was one example, college prep, we were playing a team, it was the Olimpia Milano under 18s, and they were pressuring us like crazy. And we'd never seen any pressure like it.

And I just didn't have solutions as a coach for what to do against it because we hadn't seen that yet. So by dissecting the game, I basically learned a lot about what we could do principles of play-wise against that type of pressure. And then that was kind of what we did for the next 2 weeks to put it in.

So it's a balance because you will be learning new things as you're doing this approach and seeing what works, what doesn't work. So you should be flexible enough to put those things in without having the lack of flexibility to do that. But then at the same time, you don't want to completely scrap it to do something entirely different, which is what I see too much where coaches will completely change.

I mean, they're using sets, but they completely change their playbook or completely change a defensive coverage. And look, sometimes you might need to do that, but it's more sticking with the principles and thinking about, all right, what's not working? What do we need to do to make this better to be effective?

And I think, yeah, pro-wise, you can prepare the game like a lot more than obviously a youth team.

Yeah.

And a completely different question, but I'm really interested. What do you think about the transfer that the girls showed today in the 3x3? I'm just interested in your view on that. Yeah, great. Really intriguing question, mate. I think the intentions, what stood out to me was number one, they were genuinely trying to call triggers, which was great.

And number two, the spacing was better than I thought it would be in terms of they were actually trying different shapes versus always doing the same thing. I think it was normal to see them revert to small habits like the pass cut, floor is lava, just because of the rushed nature of this week where we did so much in a condensed amount of time.

So I think the intentionality was there, but they didn't necessarily have the skill level yet to be really successful in what we covered. And it was interesting. The biggest thing that caught out to me was obviously the, I think the lack of 3-point shooting with the older girls.

That's what is the biggest hindrance because that's why they creep in. That's why they're like all the floor is lava is happening. So I think over like a couple of months, if they were doing a lot of DL shooting and they just did exactly what we'd done this week at camp with more shooting activities, I think we'd see something completely different.

And I also think we didn't play as much, and this was by design, where we weren't letting them just play during the weeks. I think it's happened so much at camps where they just play 3-on-3, 5-on-5, and it's just random basketball and they do what they always did.

And I purposely didn't do that here because I wanted it to be more about learning and more of a learning environment versus just coming to play these random games. But I think if you have a practice, you're going to be doing more live 3-on-3 stuff, 5-on-5, where you're not stopping it every time, right?

So I think then it's a big jump to go from where they had 4 days with us, where it was more whole teaching, stop for feedback, to then complete freedom. What did you guys think? With what transfer, what didn't?

We're attacking the rim, attacking the body. Yeah, um, there's way more contact. They were like, they were competing as well.

The first one-on-one, it was like they're just doing it, like they're doing it.

But now they were like, yeah, I want to go at this person and try and score, especially with the solo, because it just—

they're like, shit, I've said solos, I've got to try and score now. Yeah, I thought they were getting the slide cut a lot more than the slot cut. But that's cool. The slide was pretty good, actually. It's just they lack the strength right now sometimes to make that pass or shoot the 3.

But, you know, a lot of the girls are so young. So it's like the fact they're trying it already was such a good sign because in 1 or 2 years, it's going to be amazing. And that's the biggest thing. It's like, I'd rather lose games now for them trying the right things that will help them when they get older.

The post-entry, a couple of days ago, there was some like Yeah, we saw someone. It was great.

Yes.

That's a lost art. Yeah. Agree.

Yeah.

And score out of it.

Obviously not those players. Yeah.

I mean, their situation was.

Yeah.

Agree. We were touching on it in one session.

I think we're interested in growth cutting DHOs.

Yeah. So I honestly, I don't like DHOs and I don't like them as a trigger. I think they're too passive. They just let players, if I'm the player dribbling, it's just a recipe for me to just lazily dribble, do this, get out the way, and we do nothing but lose 5 seconds off the shot clock.

So I'm very— analytically, they're not super efficient. The ones that I think can be different is if you're coming full speed out of transition and you're really coming fast. So say this player is really driving to score because they think it's a small advantage.

Yeah.

And then maybe the last minute they veer off and you run a DHO if that's a great shooter coming off. If it's not like a 38% or 40% shooter coming off, I wouldn't even run it. And that's really the only situation I'd do it.

Or run the DHO if it's to get to a pick and roll off the rescreen, off the twist. So I think if you're running the DHO to give it, then you twist, no problem with that because really it's a pick and roll. But I think even because even if you emphasize coverage solutions like reject, the dribble split, The pitch and slip off the DHO, it's just, it's such an easy angle to switch or blow up and do something disruptive versus something like a get or a pick and roll where you can create an advantage so

much better. And I just see with DHOs, I see it all the time in youth basketball, come out DHO, DHO, DHO, and you got 5 seconds left and nothing happens. I'd rather they literally solo than do that. But using it, the DHO, in a re-trigger Like I'm attacking solos, the defense is really good, stop me.

So I go out and instead going out and do— oh yeah, I already go to another 3. So let's look at it. So how I do it, it would be, let's say we're here, right? These 2, say they try and get middle, they don't get it.

Speed dribble out.

Yes.

And I almost prefer where you throw and chase.

Oh, okay.

So it would be come down here, throw, and now maybe you come and ghost screen or something out of it. Okay, throw uphill and Or throw uphill and set.

Yeah.

Instead they do this and she or he stampede.

Yeah.

You could also do that. I like that.

Yeah, you could.

Instead of passing, you know, sometimes, you know, the defender that you are going to pass, you can intercept it.

100%.

The basket, you know, because he's alone and it's a danger zone. Great point, Adriano. I think one thing the DHO is useful if you're getting the ball from a non-target to a target too.

Okay.

So say you've got a non-target who's rebounded, brought the ball up neutral, get the ball to your target player through a DHO.

What about uphill DHO?

So those are very effective from the post. I call them grenades. So that would be out of the post. The next level would be if they don't think they can get the gold medal and they've tried, keep the dribble alive and they uphill DHO, give it and just roll.

So they do that in, uh, after a split?

Exactly. And why do you think that's more effective than the perimeter DHO?

Right through the basket.

It's just the angle, right? Because it's like, like coming from underneath, it's a completely different situation versus east-west.

And it's—

yeah, from a split, the screening angle, and that's exactly it. Exactly. So yeah, so if you do DHOs, like, they've got to be done really fast with intent, north-south and then out, and with good shooters coming off.

How much do you use the T-posts? I mean, solo T-posts.

Okay, way more U12 and U14. U16s, I would only run it if we're trying to get a prospect really good. And I'm not talking a post prospect. If we've got a guard prospect or maybe a big who's really raw, if I just want to get them more touches, could do it.

But it would probably be a U16 class. It would more be a way to exploit a poor defender on the interior. So we call them like turtle and the mouse, right? So a turtle is a bad defender on the perimeter who we'd attack through a solo.

A mouse would be a bad defender on the interior. It's not just a small player. It could be just an average-sized defender who's really slow and really bad. So all we'd do is run the post to try and attack that matchup. And Maybe we do it one game relentlessly, but then we don't do it again for a few games because there's not a matchup that we can really exploit like that.

I have a question.

Marcus, do you have one too?

Yeah, well—

Let's go Francesco and then you. During the season, how much attention do you give to the details?

A lot.

In these days, I hear not a lot of correction. Yeah. So, I mean, the eyes usage.

Yeah. I noticed that the girl who dribbles the ball in a 3-on-3 handicap looks only at the midcourt, not at the rim, not at the teammate.

Why do you want to look at the rim?

Because it's more attractive for the defense.

But who's gonna tell the dribbler what they have to do, the rim or the teammate?

She was looking at the MIG, or was it— you said of the MIG?

Okay.

It starts dribbling and we lost the vision of the court, right?

Okay.

Or being ready to shoot the ball.

Sure.

When the girls catch the ball going down and then make up—

There's a difference where that's where we want their eyes to go because they're going to tell us what decision we have to make. Yes, for a split second, you want to look at the rim for your shoot. But I'm a little water player, and I ask them, where do your eyes go?

To the red. Well, is the red going to move? Is the red going to tell you pass or shoot? It's actually that helps out better. That's just why I ask. They're fast.

Self-drive.

Yeah.

I think he wants to say use your eyes to deceive.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, so I think key thing is just trying to really educate their intention and get them doing new things requires such a level of intentionality. And I think everything we give them is like an extra burden that they have to carry. So I think we have to be so deliberate where— because you want to correct everything as a coach, it's normal.

But it's knowing that by ignoring it, it's going to help them in the long run because they're going to get to a point faster where they can take the correction. Because if we were going in now and Kind of giving all those specific things to the girls, they're just not ready for it, right?

It was more important they had their intentions on things like getting to the trigger, getting to her spacing, right? So then it's like, as soon as you— it could be like a player like Angelina where you just go over one-on-one where maybe she's ready for it and you're like, all right, think about how you can be more deceptive here with your solos.

Or it's like some players, like if you really see there's one thing that they can do, you can give them that individual feedback. But I think that's probably the biggest difference with the older boys group we had last week and this week. And it was kind of similar with the younger players we had at the boys week.

It was similar to this where we're not giving much feedback outside of the really specific principles we're trying to get because they need all their focus on that if they're really going to do it. And then, you know, when the players are ready for it and you can see that there's a really clear understanding of what it is we're trying to achieve, Then you can be far more detailed.

So for instance, you know, with the boys, we're—

I, that's—

I'm trying to think of specific examples, but there are loads of things we're talking about, loads. And that's where you really got to feel out your team, because the problem is if you give those things too early, the previous intentions you try to catch are just going to go.

So it's like the analogy of trying to catch rabbits in a field. So you've got 20 rabbits, right? And if you're just racing around trying to catch each one, you're going to end up With nothing. Whereas if you're really strategic and you like corner one and you put it in the bag, it takes longer, but then you can go to the next one and the next one and the next one versus trying to do it all too early.

I think that's so important at the youth level.

I'll even do that from player development aspect, then like acquiring a new skill. There's 3 things. The first thing is we have to establish that functional coordination. So just like in the macro sense of establishing those principles. Then the second stage, once they got that, cool, now we want to make it a bit more flexible.

By flexible, we mean adaptable. So now in certain, in different situations, they can do that same thing. So that same skill can now evolve and look different, but based on the context of that situation. And then the third one is now, like, as Alex gave an instance, but—

And trading.

That's what we call it. Is now can we optimize it and exploit it? So exploit those tendencies, but make it more efficient and effective. So I even said to some coaches, hey, some girls can get the float dribble right away. Hey, you're good.

Okay, we're moving on because we've established it. Okay, now I want to make it a bit more flexible. So can we add deception into it? And then can we optimize it? Now that we're in, we can say misdirect, and now we're really challenging the seal.

So from the micro, there's those kind of 3, then it just kind of It's the exact same with that. We really wanted to grasp the main things first. And then once they got that, okay, you're good. We're flying now. Then you can start to add a bit more detail.

Good question, Francesco.

Yeah.

Your blocks, are those conceptual as well? Yes. Yes. So let me just give a super simple example, right? So I don't know if you guys will be able to see it from there, but because it's going to be smaller. So let's just say it's a side out, right?

This is one I got an example of. So say we're like 2 side here, man, 2 side 45 corner, block elbow, right? So it could be something like we start with a zipper, right? Come off this pass. And now after this, we're either in a rub or a wide.

And this could be a really simple example. Right. But then the more they get that, sometimes they mix it. So it's like, now, all right, maybe this is a back screen. We look to score off it first instead of a zipper. Now we come into this and now maybe it becomes a horns.

I don't know. And that's what I was doing with my Italy team. But like I said, there's moments you want to script it because maybe there's a matchup or you're just, maybe you're just absolutely destroying their drop coverage in your pick and roll.

So you want to get to the rub.

Right.

So I think it's like having names, but then options to go off script is really powerful. But I do think having the same starting alignments for BOBs and SOBs is really important. So they always start in the same position every time.

Bait clap, where do you usually have them start?

I like this formation because I think it gives you a lot of flexibility where you have someone at the nail, corners, and the player here. And this is something we see a lot in the NBA where it's like, there's so much, you just, this rip screen done at speed is so hard to guard.

And then, you know, you've got this 3rd player coming in. So it's like, they go screen the screener, maybe they come off flex. There's so much you can do just with that alignment. Nail, trail, corners. You could just experiment. There's nothing necessarily wrong.

A question from the past more, but I was thinking, why don't you implement the post? Because yeah, if you pass the post, you have the cutters, but you're only looking for the cuts. So when they, when they're able to—

Good point.

And score off the post, or—

I'd say on the 12s because I think it's such a good skill set and it develops amazing footwork out of it. So not just the ability to make a post entry. And actually what was really cool today was how many of them were getting to the post off the dribble, and we never spoke about that the whole week.

That was really cool. It just emerged where they drive it and that was really cool. But not on the 12s. I'll do it to work on those skills, and I'd say you cannot cut unless you're certain Your defender is not watching. Because that was happening too much today, where they'd automatically pass and cut, and then they'd bring their defender to the post player who was trying to solo middle.

What would you tell the post player? Try to score?

Try to score. Be aggressive. Be aggressive. Try and get to the smile in 1 or 2 dribbles. And if you can't, then you could grenade it or pass out. Someone else goes, you re-space. Solos first, then Posts. And the blasts, you just got to be careful with because if they're running them too slow today and it just doesn't create anything.

So it's better to run less and just do solos.

Also less space.

And the spacing was getting bad. So that's exactly it. So the blasts, you have to be very careful with making sure the spacing is a double gap and they're coming like full speed and then reacting with a drive, 0 seconds. There was one nice one where it was like a blast cut stampede we had today.

I wasn't expecting the stampede to transfer because we had like 20 minutes on it, but the idea is that would happen more.

Cut to create the double gap?

Say that again, Marcus.

Cut to create the double gap?

You can. I prefer just creating the double gap through the space that we're in though. And I think through this stuff, I think the biggest double gap you have is always 45-45, right? So I'd prefer to create it with the space because what I found is if you try and do like 5 out, right?

So I don't understand what you mean.

So let me show you. So let's get a new sheet. So what I prefer is just to make sure that with our 4-out spacing, we've got the double gap opportunity through how we arrive. So that would be corners, 45s, ball here, and let's say we've got a weak side dunk.

So this would be my default youth basketball spacing, U12, U14, with a different player and a dunker every time. And then this now just provides the opportunity for the blast cut because I found the problem is if you have them 5 out here, they just stay.

And if this is a disaster for solos and blast cuts, and it just becomes really stagnant. So different players in the dunker. And then what often will happen now is say this player blast cuts, pass, and for whatever reason they're neutral and there's no dominoes.

Well, now this is the next double gap. So it's like this spacing just affords great double gap opportunities versus playing 5 out. So I'd start with this and then on the 16s, that's when I'd introduce 5 out because that's when we're typically adding pick and rolls, off-ball screening, and they just got a better grasp of all of this.

What about 4 players? What would be your perfect setup with 4 players?

Oh, that's a really interesting question. That's a really interesting question. I think you could do 4 perimeters or you could have 3 out, 1 in. Like we kind of were doing when we did 2 out, 1 in this week when we had 3-on-3.

I do think getting them used to the dunker is huge because you get so many more gold medal attempts versus them just shooting, um, 3s. So I would play with a dunker at U12 and just make sure it's not the same player every time.

Yeah.

Like, let's say I'm back very, very first question in terms of arrival spacing. That will go through one cutball extra.

Yes. So basically you can still say the first— what you could say is first player is always corner, the second player instead of 45, you could say that. Or you could even say the first player on the weak side goes to the dunker first.

You could play around. That would be interesting to try because I haven't had that chance to try it with 4 players. That would be fun. Comes from your experience, studies, or— Good question. I'd say mostly, um, trying stuff out. Mostly like thinking about stuff, watching, watching film, and then, um, trying it with different players and different teams and learning through.

Like, when I remember my first version of conceptual offense, it was like in Antwerp, Belgium, when I first tried this stuff. It was like none of the stuff I was doing I would use now. And that's part of the process. Like, you figure out what works, what doesn't, all of it.

Like, we had a really good discussion, Jan, about turning blast cuts into gets, and that's what I was trying. I was trying to do a concept, and it just— maybe I'm sure I didn't coach it well, just never worked for us. Because what was happening was they'd blast, right?

And then this player never knew if they were driving or if they should come for the get. And then what would happen is they'd start passing, and then they'd start coming for the get, and then that player— it was a nightmare.

Yeah.

So, but the only reason you You only find that out when you do it. And if you're not doing it, then it's— and that's the best part about coaching, I think. So it's like you just see what works, what doesn't work, and just being more— it's so much easier, I'm sure, to like just put in like a flex offense or a pass and cut offense where you know the answer every time.

But it's just like, it's so much more fun to coach this way where you, you can learn more. And I mean, it just works so much better at the end of the day. Thank you, guys.

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