George is joined by Coaches Jared, Tom, and Henry to reflect on their experiences at the Transforming Basketball Summer Camp.
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In this episode, George is joined by Coaches Jared, Tom, and Henry to reflect on their experiences at the Transforming Basketball Summer Camp. They share key takeaways around creativity in practice design, the use of constraints and small-sided games, and the importance of curiosity and collaboration among coaches.
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This is the Transforming Basketball Podcast. This is the podcast helping coaches and practitioners change the way we think about basketball performance. Our goal is to provide the ultimate resource for making sense of applying contemporary skill acquisition ideas within basketball. Within this podcast, we unpack how an ecological dynamics framework Impacts our perspective of the game.
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Welcome to the Transforming Basketball Podcast. On today's episode, we have 3 very special guests. We have Jared, who is a— Jared, varsity coach in New Jersey. Is that right?
Explore Transforming Basketball membership and continue your coach development.
George is joined by Jamie Ransberry during the Transforming Summer Camp 2026 in Roseto, Italy.
George is joined by João Pacheco, a coach from Portugal who has been living and coaching in Germany for nearly 14 years.
Use deception, tag games and live opponents to build basketball agility, perception and decision-making in your warm-up.
Yes, correct.
Yep, absolutely. We got Tom, who coaches in Holland, or he prefers Netherlands. And then Henri, who is from France, but is living in Taiwan, is coaching varsity basketball over there as well. So guys, welcome to the show. Great to have you on.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having us, George.
Yep. So obviously we got connected at the Transforming Summer Camp 2025. It was a great experience, not only to get to know you guys on a more personal level, But just to get to learn to have conversations during practice. My first question for all of you, and Henry, I know you really wanted to go first, is what was your main takeaways from the summer camp?
Like not having any expectations going to it because it was such a new experience.
Yeah. Yeah. So thanks, George, for having us again. I think because the camp, I think we can all agree that it was just, we're all super happy with the results and that we all learned a lot and we're We love the community, but I feel like if it's one thing I could take away is that you can be really creative with your practices and you shouldn't limit yourself in any activity that you do, whether it be like warmups or like if you're trying to break down a tactic or something.
Like, can you give an example, Henri?
Yeah, sure. So for me, like one thing that's been very, like completely different from before is like the pregame warmups, for example. Like right from the go, I try to always put some elements of that you could see in the game where you not only, like for example, the layup line, you add a defender that's gonna close out on the guy that goes up for a layup.
And right away you have to make some decisions and all your layups are a little bit different. It's like repetitions without repetitions. And I think it gets you a lot, you're a lot more prepared for what's going, you're gonna face during the game.
Things like this, for example, I'd say.
Yeah, well, for me was I really loved the discussions we had with all the coaches. So we were looking at a practice, maybe George was giving practice, and we were there with like 30 coaches discussing what do we see, how do you do that, how do you, your kids.
So that makes it really a really learning experience for me and thinking experience. How am I giving practice? Yeah, it was really great, great to see. And I already did a lot of games, but now I do it more on purpose because I saw someone do it and we had a discussion about it.
Say, this is why you do it, or this you get out of it.
So yeah, it was a really good experience for me.
From my perspective, I don't necessarily get that because I'm, you know, kind of giving the practice the whole time. But you guys, they're actively talking about, all right, maybe this is what I can do with my guys. You know, my guy's not necessarily a good left-handed finisher, so how can I make it?
And then you're having those conversations with the other coaches to design in real time the small-sided games for your team.
Yeah, and it keeps you thinking, right? Because it gets your kids in your head and you're saying, hey, I see you using this constraint, that constraint. Is that going to work with my kids? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Why should I use it?
Or why should I use it not, maybe? So yeah, it keeps you thinking. And just the thinking part was, for me, a very interesting part because now when I'm preparing a practice, I'm actually thinking the same thing. What would other coaches do? And how would they do it?
And would that work? And that kind of stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah, 100%. I think the number one thing I took away from it was just the, the level of curiosity from everybody. I felt like that was the main thing. Like, you don't go to a camp like this for 6 days if you're not curious, you know?
And I think everyone's, everyone's conversations were just top-notch, whether you were taking from other people or you were giving advice. And just like you said, Tom, like, you, you copy and paste first, and then you see how it works for your team, and then you just adjust it and adapt it to how, how it better fit your squad.
And Henry, just like you said, especially too with the pregame warmups specifically, just getting your team ready to go using like small, small-sided games. Even I just did it for the first time this past game we played. We did 3v3 on both sides and just replicating whatever the coverage that we saw on film for the opponent that was coming up.
And then just continue to be curious and just adapt to what you're, what you're seeing is like, was the main takeaway that I took from the camp.
Yeah. Just learning from the players. Based on what they're going through during the practice environments. I do want to ask specifically, I know, Henry, you mentioned the small-sided games you added, but, you know, that first Monday back practice, you know, that first time you left the camp and now, you know, season started, that first practice, what's the one thing or the first thing that you're like, all right, we're definitely going to have to try this on the very first practice?
What was that for you guys?
You know, it's funny because I remember exactly coming back from the camp and I was so inspired and I was like, I'm going to change the world. I'm going to have all those nice Nice ideas. And then you arrive and you're back to the real world.
And I think it's the same for a lot of people. And you work within the context of an organization and they have no clue what's transforming or what's CLA. And then you come back and you're like, who's this crazy guy? Like with all those ideas and stuff.
And I feel like, I think I'm talking for a lot of people here because I saw François, the other French coach last Christmas. And once you get back, it takes time to convince other people that, oh, this is well-researched, well-versed, and it works, and it's really the best method, and it's fun, it's engaging, and you get results on top of that.
And slowly but surely, it picks up, and you can prove that, oh yeah, it works, and it's nice. But I don't think you can really change everything all at once. And now I've had We just, we're almost done with our season now. And it's nice that you see that we are warming up with the CLA, our practices.
We're really starting to build something. Yesterday we did a lot of DL. I stole a lot of stuff from you, George, all the DL from you and Jonathan. I stole a bunch of stuff for the DL shooting. And it's really nice. It's really a great feeling.
Yeah. For me, it was maybe different than for you, Henri, because in our academy, we were already full in for the last 5 years on CLA. Because Alex Rema was a colleague of Mike, who was the head of the academy a few years back.
See, it was a bit different, but the best take with the best. Yeah, the thing I tried to do, and it's still my goal actually, is the pace that you guys were having on the camp. But of course, it's a camp, but still I was like, I saw the under twelve kids on the camp, and Alex was doing post work with it, and I was like, yeah, they're never going to learn that.
And then two hours later, they were just standing there posting and doing a kind of something. Wow, he's he's just going so fast through all the information with all the different. And little exercises with new constraints and helping them so much learn in such a small amount of time.
So yeah, that's still a goal for me to keep the pace up and keep those guys challenging or give them challenges and teach them things that maybe on first hand they would say they're not that quick learners, and I will still teach them.
Yeah. So that was the first thing I did.
No, for sure. It's like increasing the time on task makes such a big difference in the long Scheme of things. And it's something as simple as counting down from 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, as opposed to saying, let's go, let's go. Because what does that even mean?
So it's like 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and they instinctively know, all right, we have to do it before 1. So, you know, just those things to speed up the pace of practice for sure.
Yeah. And then all the fun games in between, right? So it's really small, fun games to keep the kids engaging and let's keep the energy high and effort high. So yeah, that works.
And I think the creativity within the constraints that you give from the players themselves, they rapidly and over time, they kind of gradually get more creative. Like, especially with what I did for probably the first practice, I let them be very creative with their movements just on, you know, sideline to sideline, let them do whatever.
And they're all so hesitant when you first start. They don't want to be the first guy to try new things. And then you see one person do something crazy and then another person tries to top it. Then it just starts to flow as a team on how they move.
And of course, from a development standpoint, you want to just make the players individually better and better movers all around, because that's just going to help the team overall and just have them play more confidently on the court, whether it's in practice or in game.
Is that when you were like sideline to sideline warmup, like dynamical movements, and then you encourage them to move different ways?
Exactly. Exactly. And I mean, I know it was You, Jonathan, Alex, Kerry, like it was all, you know, you have all the different constraints that you could do, whether it was 3 points of contact on the floor, you know, having 2 feet and 1 hand, all the different types of, you know, just different constraints that you're giving them, they just get so creative.
And then of course, on top of that, the DL shooting, you see, you know, players doing behind the back with a 360 spin, landing on 1 foot, getting a shot up, and they're making it, you know, over time. They're just getting more comfortable with how they move, especially for the guys that are specialized players, so early that we're trying to make them better movers for the game of basketball.
What is that first task constraint that you designed that you felt like, whoa, this is a major win? What's that first constraint that you kind of came up with yourself or that you rediscovered or discovered that you're like, this is the one?
What comes up in my mind is paint touches. I use that so much. You have to get one paint touch or multiple paint touches or a paint touch and a pass and/or catch outside. 3, that kind of stuff. So to keep the spacing and keep them moving, that's one I use the most and probably which I like the most.
Yeah.
Yeah. I don't know about you guys in, in Europe or in the States. If you— in Taiwan, it's very common that they don't really teach man-to-man defense and that you face a lot of zone defense, especially at a young age, which in Europe, I remember when I was growing, I grew up in France, I was playing, it was not allowed to play zone defense.
Yeah, it's illegal. And so for us, like, there's a lot of lazy zone defense where they force you to shoot from the outside. And one of my task constraints, when I feel it's really important, it really helps us, is to, you have to get the ball to the high post before you can get a shot off.
And the guy at the high post does not necessarily have to shoot it. Most generally, he's gonna pass the ball to an open guy, but it has to touch the high post before we can find a shot.
Yeah.
Which is similar to you, Tom. It's like a paint touch basically, but through a pass or a drive, get the ball to the high post and make a decision from here.
Yeah, man. The zone's weak spot, right? You have to, you have to attack the weak spot and then play out of that first.
Yeah. 'Cause sometimes like the younger players, like they get, they're good against man, like, but against the zone, they don't dare to drive the gap 'cause they're like, oh, if I get here, then everyone's in the paint and what do I do? And And then it becomes, uh, everyone's shooting 3s.
And if you're having a bad day, then—
I think for constraints, I think my favorite right now has been, uh, just the turnover, but being specific, like, to the individual player when they do something that we need to get rid of. Like, for one of my players, he, he likes to take one dribble outside the 3-point line and pick his dribble up.
So he's stuck playing off one foot instead of being able to play off 2 because he's just not getting deep enough. So, and he'll do, he'll do like a low scoop. And he's a 6'1 guard, but we're also playing against other 6'1 players.
We're not playing against, you know, 6'10s, which is like if you see in the NBA, this is where they're learning it from. It's little guards scooping to split, you know, big men. And now my guy's just getting ripped and he's one of my best players.
I need him to not turn the ball over. So as soon as he does that habit, I just call turnover and he's like, but what do I do? I was like, you got to find it out. You know, you got to, you got to, you know, you got to keep it.
You Take one more dribble. Don't pick your dribble up so early because you could dribble past these guys that are, especially when you have the advantage going downhill, you know, it's most likely going to be a turtle stepping up in a pick and roll, you know?
So that's been my favorite. And then just kind of experimenting with other players on certain stuff that they need to get rid of as well.
I love that. It's like individual constraint, like the individual turnover constraints. It's like, you know, having the rate limiters for the players and then you call turnovers. For the players, I would say for me, and I don't know about you guys, it's really hard.
Like, for example, I can't come in and give 12 players their individual turnovers because I just can't remember. You know, it's very hard. It's like, how do you do it, Jared? Is it like one player a day or is it just, all right, we're going to focus on this guy's rate limiter?
Like, I think it kind of helps too because, you know, you do have the players that have more touches than others on the court, you know, and it just gradually finds their hands because the team, the team knows as well. So that makes it kind of easier because they just have more reps at it.
So you're able to ref it more and it's easier to see, you know, especially when you're one of our target players. I think that's what makes it the easiest because everyone else is able to just kind of play off beating long closeouts or just reading, you know, our 0.5 or 0-second decisions.
So I think, I think that's what makes it easier. And then of course, as you go along, you kind of understand the roles of all the players and the players also understand the roles of their teammates. That's kind of what makes it easier, you know, instead of having to individualize the entire, you know, my entire 22-man roster from varsity to JV.
While you were saying that, I was actually thinking about like, you know, play calls. Like whenever we as coaches give, instead of just calling, you know, let's say we got a play call where it's like, you know, Ram veer wide, right? Where it's like a Ram screen and they, instead of setting the middle pick and roll, they, you know, they just ghosted into the Into a wide pin-down action, so it's like we can call it that, and it's so much easier for me to remember.
It's so much easier for the players to remember versus calling it. All right, we're going to call this you know give it a name like we're going to call this our five play, and then it's like well what's the five play versus you know because he's already a target player, we know exactly what he needs to work on because you know we see it all the time.
No, I was thinking when Javert was talking about the turnover. I do a lot with with dominoes. That's I think. The main goal of our principles, our principles. And I think the same with transforming basketball. And then if they cannot keep the domino, then it's a turnover.
And then for some guy it is because they're making super dribbles or too many dribbles or not passing enough or maybe passing too much or whatever. But the difference from player to player. Yeah. And individually, I'll just, I'll write maybe 2 or 3 names down on every practice and I focus on those 3 guys the most at practice because, yeah, it's hard to have 12 players and Constrain them individually.
Yeah. Well, to be honest, I'm a little bit picky. So the players who train the best get the most attention on their side. So yeah, that's true.
And in terms of observing, so we just spoke about it. What changed from when you were at camp in terms of, you know, maybe what you saw us observing or other coaches observing? Now when you're at your practice environments, what are you looking for at practice?
You know, Whatever that is.
For me, I learned so much from Kerry. I loved how Kerry said, and yeah, during the camps he said, oh, looking at silhouettes. So I'm not looking at the player, but looking just the silhouette and how they move. If something fails and try to find a rate limit, I'm also looking at, hey, how they move, where are their feet, where, how do they step, how they get their body in balance, that kind of stuff.
And it's really helping, not every time, but a lot of times helping the player to To help me to put constraints, help the player to move in a different way.
Yeah, it's true. This was very striking, her image of the silhouette. I remember of a figure moving like a shadow and every movement is like you're unlocking new skills, like new badges basically in your 2K game. It's like, oh, now you can move this way.
Now you acquire this Eurostep move or something like this. And I really try to see it from this point of view now. How good of a mover are you? Especially with like, like some kids you see that they're, maybe they're talented athletically, but they're like new to the sport.
Like you're tall with long arms, maybe doesn't have the basketball skills of like dribbling, passing, moving without the ball, reading the game. And you can see it. And like, I, I think specifically about this warmup where you're allowed to run with the ball a bit like you're playing rugby and trying to go finish with a gold medal.
I'm thinking about this, especially how it's going to unlock your brain to be like, oh, I can actually move in this kind of way. And actually, I really like this to get going and get moving and finishing at the basket.
I think the balance kind of for me was learning when to not overcoach, just kind of embracing some of the chaos, but also again, finding the balance whether to, you know, stop a bad habit right away when you first see it so that it doesn't linger on and, you know, create an even bigger habit.
To build on that, and all you guys can answer this as well, like, how do you balance, like, when to fix it and when to just let them play?
I think that's one of the, like, the major things that I kind of took away too, specifically with the TLC, like, for the practice plans. You kind of— now, of course, you can make a practice plan and you got to be adaptable, and sometimes it doesn't go as planned, of course, because you kind of just got to, you know, tailor the practice to how it's going.
But trying to be as consistent as possible is You know, maybe like the first or second rep you could coach and, you know, try to stop a habit there. But after those first two, you kind of got to let them, you know, make mistakes really honestly, you know, got to let them make mistakes.
And then if they're really struggling, then you can give them that 30-second, you know, team timeout to discuss themselves and then let them try to figure it out themselves without you having to step in. Because I think one, that, that just makes them better communicators overall and just opens them up because they have to communicate.
They're not just going to stand in a huddle and not speak to each other. So trying to find that balance. I know I've been a little inconsistent this year with it, but, you know, just trying to, you know, daily, you get daily reps at it.
So you're just trying to get more efficient with it as time goes. And as you learn, you know, your team specifically, who's the leaders, who's vocal, who leads by example, who doesn't really like to speak at all. You know, you kind of try and get the players to open up to each other and fix it on their own, because especially when you play in like a hostile environment where you're at an away game and you don't really have the crowd support.
They're not going to really hear you, especially live, you know, even when you're right next to them. I remember, probably, I think it was last week. I'll just give a quick example. We're doing a flip screen, you know, to end our quarters just to get, you know, a quick advantage because most of our teams, I mean, it's very hard to, to guard a flip screen, especially if it's a big man being involved in the pick and roll.
And I'm screaming at my player because he's not seeing the time and he's legit 5 feet away from me. And I'm like, last shot, last shot, screaming at him. And he doesn't hear me and he just continues to keep flipping the screen. And my point guard is trying to hold it and then he's getting a 5-second count from the ref because that's a rule for us.
And it was just hysterical because it gave me, you know, a reflection point. Like, these guys can't hear you even how close you are, you know what I'm saying? Because they're so locked into the game and trying to execute what you've taught them that it's very difficult for them to hear you.
Especially when they're in live play, right? So I think that's been a major thing for me that I'm trying to continue to learn and get better at.
Do you guys all use the principles? Because that's, that's what I'm working on for the last few months a lot that I, that I try to teach the players the principles. So every time something goes wrong or, or it's a bad habit, I'm gonna remind them, hey, what principle are we working on?
So, and then let them figure them out themselves. Hey, does this help me get to that principle? And, and, and for me that really helps because now in the game when they have the huddle up or whatever, they're talking about principles and, hey, how are we doing actually?
And how are we getting there? So that really helps me addressing the rate limiters. Yeah.
Yeah. I think there's a lot to unpack here.
Yeah.
Wait, George, you wanna go?
No, no, please.
You're, you're the host. You're the host.
No, I was just, I was just gonna say, um, at practice I always keep, and even in games, I, I try to keep it super specific. In terms of what principles we actually want to get. So it's like, instead of overcomplicating it by making it like, all right, we want to do these 3 things on offense and these 3 things on defense really well.
And they could be anything. It could be like, all right, we're going to aggressively switch both feet outside the 3-point line. We're going to be communicating on our pick and roll coverage. And we're going to be making sure we're tagging. Those are our 3 defensive intentions if we're playing a pick and roll heavy team, for example.
So instead of doing that, it can just be like, I'm just going to simplify it to one thing. And then it's like, are we like excellent at this one thing, which could be like tagging the roller? Like, how good are we at tagging this roller to not allow even the short roll?
Like, we don't even want to allow catches in the short roll. We want to give up that skip pass if it's there. And it's like, so that in itself really helps not only me, but I think more importantly, the players. And to your point, Jared, instead of them having to focus on so many things, they're focusing on the habits we've already built, but with these very clear intention.
Yeah.
That I think helps them be very great at this, but then also helps them be good at the other thing. Because I think it's hard to do one without the other.
Yeah.
And it keeps them focusing, right? Keep them focusing. Hey, if you're saying, hey, I want to attack this, or I want to pass quickly, or I want to be in 3 seconds over the middle line, keep them focused on, hey, what do you have to do?
So if I want to get over the middle line in 3 seconds, I have to run fast and I have to be leg-free and I have to land like a quarterback and rebound. All those simple concepts are coming together in one principle. Yeah.
And maybe for one player it's this, for another player something else. Yeah.
And maybe one game it's this, in another game it's something else, right? And it's like, what's that one principle offensively and defensively that's going to give our team the biggest chance at being successful? And so maybe it's, you know, the tagging on the pick and roll.
Maybe another game is just on-ball pressure. Maybe it's the other game is just an active make. And it's like these really simple things, but it's like these are going to give our team a great chance. And then, you know, as the team gets more advanced and they can handle more things, And they're doing these things instinctively now as part of the team's DNA, you can focus on, on like more specific nuances.
But I always start with the simple, you know, I was, I was listening to Jordan Oates and he was just saying like how sometimes we overcomplicate the game and it's like, just keep it simple. And I think it's probably the best recipe for success.
Oh man, we talk about so many things now, but yeah, to bounce back on the last thing you were talking about, I feel like there's a lot of very great coaches nowadays, like you and I, we were talking about Isalo the other day, Thomas Isalo, who just had a great coaching clinic in Germany this week.
And Jordan Oates, also a former colleague of Alex with the Cavs. I feel like very smart coaches, they can explain very difficult concepts in simple terms so that all their players can execute really complex coverages, but with one simple intention. One simple intention, like, oh, you have to communicate on defense.
Like, for example, if your small-sided game is, oh, you focus on your intention is that, oh, I want my players to talk more and call out screens. Then maybe you get a, you lose a point every time you don't call out, oh, left, left, left on the pick or something like this.
I think like, yeah, like you say, like you don't overcomplicate. It's like, that's the one thing I want you to do well. And then a lot of other things, good things can come with it maybe. With that intention in mind, I think. Yeah.
Well said. And in terms of, you know, let's say you try all this and you're at practice, you design these small-sided games and it's a failure. Like, can you guys share maybe like one small-sided game failure or constraint failure where you tried it, it didn't work, and what did you do?
I have to think.
How many times happens? It definitely happens.
But I quickly forget as good as I can. Oh yeah, definitely happened.
I remember I designed the— it's like it was basically a 2-on-2 pick and roll game and they had to just play in a square, you know, like maybe the key. And all it was is like you can take one dribble only for every catch and then you have to pass the ball to the roller and that was it.
But then it became an impossible game because I didn't design the rules correctly because then the defense would just cheat and there was no kind of— the goal was to get the pass off. Right. But then like, then the defense would just cheat and then it would be less about making the pocket pass and more about making this really hard pass.
And, and that's not what we wanted to do. So I was like, guys, we tried it, didn't work, scrapped it. So I changed it. And then I literally just came back the next day and be like, all right, we're going to be playing full court and it's 2 on 2.
And all you're trying to make as many pocket passes, whether it's over the top or bounce pass to the roller. And then when the roller catches the ball, he's the point guard and then you're setting the screen. But you can't advance the ball if the roller or the picker is behind you.
So you have to wait for them to get back in front. And then the whole point is to advance the ball to the baseline as quickly as possible. And then it became a much better game. And it was repetition without repetition. And I really love that small-sided game.
Yeah, I think most of the time the players are cheating. Yeah, they are very good at cheating, especially when you try to— well, I think under 14, so we don't play pick and roll, we play the show and get. And then, um, of course I teach them to do the reject beforehand, so I have to get some spacing and kind of stuff.
But they're getting really good at the reject, so now they try to reject everything. And well, it's very hard if you try to teach DHO when they're rejecting every time. So most of the time I have to say, no rejects today, guys. Let's have to put a constraint in, otherwise they're cheating.
Yeah.
I think the first thing that comes to mind for me is like, how do you call this when you con— is it constrained defense when you force them to play a certain way on defense? Like you say, oh, for example, you need to switch the away screen.
And then I feel like maybe they won't switch it. They'll try, because, you know, they want to win that game and they'll be like, oh, if I switch, we're going to get beat on the— because I tell them maybe a good solution for the switching defense is just to slip the screen to the basket.
But then the players are smart and they're like, oh, if we switch and then he's going to slip the screen, but it's not going to work. So then they try to win the small-sided game by not switching or by going under or doing something like this.
I'm not exactly sure how to be like, usually I would do this and say, okay, just do it again, but you have to switch or something. But I'm not sure if you have a better solution for this.
Personally, I always call, I have like multiple teams and then I just call turnover on the defense if they don't execute the coverage. And then it's like the next defense will come on and the team that messes up the coverage doesn't get to play.
Like, you know, they go to the end of the line. I always find that works great.
Because, you know, like you say, maybe I'm going to expand the topic a bit, but like sometimes, you know, because you want everyone to be on task. And so you, I would have like maybe 4 groups on 2 baskets at the same time, but you're doing something that's like very specific, you know, it's like, oh, the coverage you want to do.
And a lot of kids, like they're kind of new to those ideas. Oh, there's coverages on screens and stuff like this. It's not just random. And so. I'll be like, oh, I have my eyes on these 2 groups maybe, but then the other group, I don't know really what's going on.
So I have to be a helicopter coach kind of. And I feel like unless you really have a great team of coaches, like at Transforming, where we can trust like everyone basically to have a good eye on the player, it's not always easy in your club to be like, okay, I can see everything, make sure everyone's on the same page.
Yeah, I think With the constraints, like you said, George, for messing up, I feel like exactly like you said with the cheating. Like specifically, I can remember with the, with the Rondo passing specifically, you know, if you don't, if you don't score the game correctly, you know, they just take away the passes, the passing, you know, the teammates.
So the ball is just with the player and he's not passing the ball because everyone else is guarded. So that was the one thing. And I was like, all right, well, I just got to score this better. You know, I just pause it real quick, give the defense an incentive to, you know, With the deflections or whatnot, because I definitely explained it wrong originally.
And then the second one would be just not constraining something properly. You know, it may work out specifically for a get action, right? If we get the entry pass in, I feel like in game my players are taking way too long to decide if they're going backdoor or actually going to use the get, you know?
And I think just putting maybe a shot clock or just a clock on that, on the decision, would make us much more efficient and flow better. Because even if Let's say the player does backdoor and he doesn't, he's not able to have the passing angle to make the pass or deliver the pocket pass.
Well, then we just got to flip to the other side of the floor and go into a DHO. You know, I think we're struggling a little bit with that, but that was just something I thought of that, you know, just watching film yesterday, watching our last game, we were taking way too long trying to decide or trying to score when you're the target player in the get action, rather than just taking what the defense gives you.
If you don't get it, then we move on to the next action.
You know, that's a great point. I do want to ask you guys, because I know we're— I'm conscious of time as well, but I want to ask you guys the biggest realization, maybe pivoting a little bit now. What's one concept that you learned at the camp that at the time you were like, you know, this is great, but, you know, it's maybe a little bit too theoretical or it's just not going to work for me.
But now you apply it and you use it all the time in your practice.
For me, that was the posting up, Alex said, with the kids, with the little kids. Because I'm coaching you 13, you're 14, right? Those are 12, 13 years old. We're not going to post up. I don't have any post players. And even if I have post players, that would be ridiculous because in 6 years they're not post players anymore.
So why would you do that? But just having the moves there, just getting used to moving around the basket. And I saw how Alex did that. That was just great to see. And I started doing that. And now a few weeks back, we had a game and one of my smallest kids, he's like, it's like this tall.
He was just posting up against another, gets the ball, spin around, finish. And I was like, wow, this is so fun. It's so great.
Yeah. No, yeah, I wanted to bounce back off what Tom said because that practice, I was really like it because it was maybe the first one we saw at the camp with the young group of like maybe 12 and under. They were practicing posting up and doing the Gortat screens and all that kind of movements.
And I feel like actually it's really, it was very helpful and beneficial. Because we kind of forget those parts of holistic development for the youth. But actually, like, sometimes your best post player might be short. Like, Jalen Bronson is great at posting up and he's like 6 foot tall.
And sometimes your big is not going to like posting up. He's going to be more of a shooter or something. And it's— I think anyone can learn from that part of setting screens, rolling, moving.
Transferable skills as well, like, you know, with the footwork. Jalen Brunson is a great post. He doesn't post all the time, but when he gets in the lane, his footwork is second to none.
So yeah, playing off 2 feet, pivoting and stuff.
Yeah, I think, um, specifically like for small-sided games, just constraining the space, you know, make it more realistic for us because, you know, uh, when you're playing 3v3, like full court and you get, you don't constrain the space. I mean, that's very difficult for the defense to get stops, you know.
Now, of course you could do it in, you know, some moderation because it does open up different opportunities that you normally won't see from specific players, like a kind of like a stretch 4. And when we do play 3v3, you know, he gets in his bag, as they like to say, you know, he'll shaffe, get all the way to the rim, do a crazy finish, and he'll make it, you know.
And then over time, he's been getting more and more aggressive getting downhill rather than just settling for 3s in game. So I think that's been huge for us, just constraining space and breaking down You know, as we all know, breaking down our kind of triggers into 2v2 or to 3v3 has been huge for us.
Can I bounce off what you just said? Well, because you said get in your bag and it just inspired me. George, maybe you have some answers too. There's some players, usually they're very talented and you see them play 1-on-1s or 3-on-3s and you can tell like, oh, he's fast, he can jump, he's very good.
And he can finish. And when he has a lot of space and a lot of time, he can also shoot. But then in 5-on-5, maybe they don't feel as confident. There's less space, it's more physical. And then they become almost non-factors because the jumper goes away.
It's too physical for them. And I'm trying to find a way to be, especially if you have to play against the zone, all of a sudden you have to play team basketball, move without the ball, and then all hell's break loose. And then you're just like, oh, What do we do now?
And I was trying to find ways to be like, oh, how can I get more out of these players? Because I know they're good players, but in 5-on-5, they're unplayable basically. And I was like, oh, what can you do?
Yeah. Do you guys want to try to take on that?
I was just thinking when you were talking, Jerry, and Henry as well, by constraining the space, you're actually doing a 5-on-5 on a smaller space on 2-on-2 because they don't have the room. So try to teach that a lot. And now lately, I only had practice with 4 guys.
We actually had a game and it didn't go on, was canceled. So I asked who wants to come for practice. So 4 guys, and I just looked on my phone and gave them all kinds of calculations to do. So while they were dribbling, I'd say, you have to do 5 calculations before you can go.
So really get that cognitive mind in. So now they have to be quick, but also be thinking. And the one player, I even just showed hands, so 4 times 3 or 2, and he has to look and then give me the answer. So really trying to also teach the cognitive skill and keeping their vision open towards the court, et cetera, et cetera, and keep the thinking of the dribbling and handling the ball.
What I think, maybe it's not working, but what I think, what I'm hoping is that they are now by doing that more open to seeing opportunities and seeing maybe triggers if they need to do it ahead and that kind of stuff.
Yeah, 100%. I think just the plus one has been big for us. I think now we haven't been able to do it too much. Just, we play every other day, basically, like Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. So a lot of our practices are from low intensity to moderate.
So like, just trying to keep the load down as much as possible for my guys so they're ready for the games has been a little bit difficult. And that's probably been my biggest challenge. But I think the plus one, because you could do that guided, right?
If you just make them a perfect wall-up kind of guy, or maybe give them an A or B where they could run through, if it's like a smaller guy, they could try and swipe at the ball. Because they won't be much of a contest if they're walling up, right?
I think that's probably the biggest thing. And then even, I haven't done it yet, but I'm thinking about, you know, when we do 3v3s and we kind of constrain space, you know, it's on one side of the floor. But what about if we just put the strong side corner and switch them to the weak side corner, right?
To make them read the full floor instead of reading the strong side, we just go right into reading the weak side tagger, you know, to try and get their eyes up even more instead of keeping on one side of the floor.
We've done something where it's like a coach goes out and he holds his hands out any place on the court. So you like, and the cool thing about having a coach instead of a cone is that they can just constantly adjust. So to your point, Tom, about the cognitive and getting that going as well, it's like, all right, so if a coach is standing on the free throw line facing the basket like this, then the players can only use the free throw line and below.
Right. And then let's say they're standing on the 45 or maybe one step inside the 45 and they're facing the basket. Then they can use the whole court except that kind of 45 area. And so it's like they have 4 of the 5 spots of the court available.
But then, you know, it's just about, let's say we're standing at the elbow area facing the sideline, then they can only use that kind of strong side of the court. So it's like, you know, maybe just continue to put their cognitive load on.
And I always find that, especially for younger kids, like it can be really challenging at times. But yeah, I think what they said, Henry, I think, you know, Make it more challenging for them. So add defenders, shrink the space. And then I think the ultimate constraint is the clock.
And I really think like it's the biggest difference between European basketball and American basketball really, and just the development rate and like just watching high school basketball games. Like they'll literally, it's a minute possession, right? And it's crazy to me because in a minute, players can get anywhere between 3 to 5 to 6 to 7 possessions.
So it's like 7 times the rate of development. You know, it's 7 times the decision-making in high-level games that you're not getting just by not having a clock. So it's the same thing in practice, you know, adding a very short clock. Definitely.
Jared, there's no shot clock in your league?
No shot clock.
That's wild.
Yeah. And in May, they're supposed to be voting on it. So I'm praying that they add it.
So you can just—
that's like the '50s. Like you can keep the ball as long as you want.
So, you know, like if a team on paper is, you know, Worse than another team, what you see a lot, they go up, if they start hot and they go up 5 points or 10 points, they just hold the ball out.
5-0.
It's crazy, but it's unfortunate because, you know, you're, of course, you're trying to win games, right? But the development is impacted so much because of the shot clock not being implemented. You know what I mean? That's why we have the 5-second count for the refs.
So if you're, if you're 6 feet If you're arm's length distance, you're getting a five-second count, and as soon as the five-second counts, it's a turnover. You know, so that's why they have that. But I can't stand the rule because it's ref different every game.
You mean the guy with the ball can only hold the ball for five seconds if he's?
Yes. So he so he could hold it for like for five seconds. Once he dribbles, he gets another five seconds, and then he could pick it back up for another five seconds.
Oh, okay.
Henry's learning about high school basketball.
Right now, for me, it's a ref. Brave new world.
Well, that's actually a rule in Europe as well, Henry, but it's almost never used.
I've heard of the 5 seconds in Europe, but we have a shot clock.
Yeah, we have a shot clock and it is never called. Maybe in my 20 years, maybe 2 calls that I have 5-second violation.
Yeah. And again, it's just the reality of the USA hoops. But hopefully, I reckon soon they'll all have a shot clock, even if it's a 35-second shot clock. So it's still better than nothing.
Now, you said shot clock, but a shot clock is not everything, of course. I think a shot clock combining where they have to get scores or have to get paint touches is making it more interesting. So if you want to do a pick and roll, you want to do a DHO, I don't want you to take 8 seconds to do a DHO.
That would be ridiculous. I want you to do maybe 3 or 4 seconds to organize a DHO. So you have to get a DHO and a paint touch and a pass out before you can actually score something like that. So now they have to really start moving.
Winning the strong rim instead of what some point guards are doing, dribbling for 5 seconds and then do something. So try to speed it up. Yeah.
So guys, last question I want to ask you, and I just want to thank you for your time. Really enjoyed the conversation. I think very insightful for a lot of the coaches listening just to hear where you guys are in, you know, I guess your first season after coming to the camp.
So I do want to ask, it's a question we have for all our guests. You know, you guys decide who wants to go first with the transformative tip. If you could leave coaches with one piece of advice that will instantly change their practice environments, what would that be?
Go, Henry.
You go.
Would you put me on the spot like this?
Okay, I will go for it. I will go first.
No, I can go.
I can go. Okay, let's go.
I feel like for me, it would be like, don't be afraid of making mistakes. It would be like, if it kind of scares you, if the idea kind of scares you, you should probably try it. And we're going back to like empowering the players to like make decisions.
And like with the DL, for example, like, oh, come up with your own drill or like discuss what worked in the last game and what didn't work and come up with something because, or come up with your own warmup and like try to be as creative as possible because maybe the first time it's gonna look kind of crappy and, and you'll be like, oh, why did I do this?
But you're unlocking a new part of their brain where you can, like, the world becomes wide open after for you. And then you have endless possibilities. And you guys at the Transforming Basketball Camp, like, the kids were familiar with it, and it's awesome.
Like, you have those kids and they do amazing stuff in warm-up. They can come up with amazing activities that really challenge them. And I feel like, yeah, my piece of advice, I think, and it helped, I think it helped me too. It's like, don't be afraid of failing, trying new stuff, and being creative.
I want to do the same thing, Henri. That's wonderful. That's the most important job. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. But I want to add something.
You can't take mine.
You can hold it. You can hold it. I'm just going to add to it.
Okay.
I just want to add one thing. Also, trust your players to think about constraints. The players really know what they are good at, what they are not good at, and trust them to make constraints for themselves. That really worked for me. And also, also looking back practices, just record yourself and look back and see what kind of constraints you could have used and then maybe use next time.
Yeah, those two things.
Yeah, I think, you know, we're transforming like the CLA. It can be overwhelming and it's okay to be, to copy and paste to start, right? I think you're a lot of times, myself included, want to be so creative and, you know, create my own thing.
But you gotta copy and paste first before you start putting on your own spin. You know, I think I'm not— George, I'm not sure if it was you that said it or if it was one of the other coaches at the camp, but, or maybe some, maybe even a different coach, but just, you have to be a cook before you could be a chef.
I know I have that written down somewhere. Right. And it's changed my perspective a lot. Like it's okay to copy and paste first and then you tailor it to how your players need it to make them better for themselves. And for the team, of course.
And as you get more comfortable as a coach as well, right?
Yeah.
Yes, exactly.
That's great, guys. Awesome. Love it. Thank you so much once again, and I wish you all have a great day.
Thank you, guys.
It was a great chat.
No, no, it was great.
Seriously great. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Transforming Basketball Podcast. If you'd like to learn more about the work that we do, Head to transformingbball.com to access our free resources and spread these ideas throughout the basketball world. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform.
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