Alex Sarama is joined by Will Twigg to discuss their experiences and insights into the implementation of a Constraint-Led Approach (CLA) in basketball coaching,…
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In this episode, Alex Sarama is joined by Will Twigg to discuss their experiences and insights into the implementation of a Constraint-Led Approach (CLA) in basketball coaching, highlighting the shifts in coaching philosophy and the impact on player development. They explore the principles of play, intentional use of constraints in small-sided games, and the transformative effects of adopting contemporary skill acquisition ideas within basketball.
Learn about player development with our FREE activities book. Inside, you'll find 50 activity diagrams for your workouts and team practices: https://transformingbball.com/small-sided-games-book
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This is the Transforming Basketball Podcast hosted by Alex Sarama. 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.
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George is joined by João Pacheco, a coach from Portugal who has been living and coaching in Germany for nearly 14 years.
George Vaz addresses the common challenges coaches face when transitioning from traditional pattern-based offenses to a conceptual offense using the Constraints-Led Approach…
George is joined by Coaches Jared, Tom, and Henry to reflect on their experiences at the Transforming Basketball Summer Camp.
Head to the show notes to access this incredible free resource.
Welcome back to the Transforming Basketball Podcast. Very happy today to be joined by a friend and colleague, Will Twig. Had the pleasure of working with Will at the London Lions Academy this year. Well, thanks for joining the podcast.
Hey Alex, yeah, really great to be here. So thank you for the opportunity. Appreciate it.
Absolutely. So Well, I want to start off with your first thoughts and impressions of the CLA. I believe it was when— it was probably, what, about a year and a half ago when I did the first online kind of coach-dev sessions. And obviously we'd known about each other before, but that was our first proper interaction.
Is that correct? That was your first kind of exposure to it?
Yeah. So actually the experience of it in basketball, 100%. The only other interaction I had previous was the year During that year, actually, I was at university. And it was interesting to learn about the CLA through more of an academic element to it without the basketball.
But obviously, when we first came into contact, that was where actually putting 2 and 2 together for a clearer understanding of how we can use CLA in basketball.
Love it. Will, what do you think were any aha moments you had as we were going through that and you just kind of reflected on it, tried things out? Do you remember any obvious things that might help other coaches as they navigate this approach?
Yeah, 100%. It was a challenge. It was a real challenge to understand and try and implement a different way and style of coaching. Obviously, every coach has their own philosophy and what they believe in. I'm a big believer in trying to be a sponge.
And I kind of went away from that thinking, being a bit arrogant in the sense of knowing what I knew. And I thought it was to quite a good high level. Obviously, that thing I went away from being my philosophy. So the challenge is obviously that it's okay to fail in a sense, because that's the best element of where you're going to learn more about yourself as well as the players, but even more about yourself and how to get the most out of them.
100%. So I want to ask you this in terms of how understanding the CLA has allowed you to be more intentional and purposeful With how you're using constraints, why you're using them, and applying these to small-sided games, as opposed to what a lot of people still think, which is coaching with small-sided games using a games approach, as opposed to being really, really specific through the CLA.
Sure.
So with my under-14 boys group at London Lions, it's really important to hold them to their constraints that we set in each small-sided game. And that being is to actually get the message clear enough for them to progress and develop. And for an example, we had 2v1 of one of our gets where they would pitch and slip the ball.
So a player would pass the ball from the 45 to the trail, and they would pitch the ball up to create a 2v1 advantage. A lot of the things that we saw was they were not being direct on drives, on the pitch, on the catch, which would then lose an element of the advantage of drawing the defender.
And this is where we added constraints to really make sure That really guided them and held them accountable for them to create success. Now we're in a situation where they're able to recognize them solutions just through by using different constraints to give them the best advantage to create offense.
I love it. I think the best ones that stand out there with our under-14s group were the wall constraint, where instead of taking that loopy drive, we just constrain the space they have available.
100%.
They have to be direct. I like how you use the one opportunity very intensively with them. It's pretty incredible to see what an under 14 group can do when they're actually challenged in terms of running sophisticated conceptual offense. Like I watched them running gets and correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd say we would see probably at least eight coverage solutions in a practice.
Like we'd see reject where they don't even use the get; they just reject. We'd see backdoor cuts. The passer and receiver, so that's three right there. We see keeps, so where you know we don't pitch it back. We see the pitch and slip.
That's five. They've started twisting, and that's now you've started doing pick and roll with them. They've started doing what else curls, just giving it late and going. So it's pretty incredible just to see how creative they are doing this out of one trigger and just more purposeful intentions.
So. This is my next question, principles of play. And this is something we're obsessed with, I can say, in the academy. And it's a part of my crusade. You hear this a lot, Will, unfortunately. You must be sick of my voice by now, is stopping pass and cut, moving away from pass and cut.
And a lot of youth coaches unfortunately don't grasp that yet. And I think our 14s boys team is a perfect flagship to be like, all right, this is the alternative to what you can do if you don't do these things. This is probably going to be quite a long answer, and it's very general, but I would love for you to talk through our principles of play under 14 age group.
And we might branch off, and I might ask you questions along the way.
So one of the biggest things that we look at is obviously we color code our offense and also our defense, in a sense. So if we're starting with offense, we're looking at, obviously, we have green. And that's our first basis of where we're trying to push the ball in transition.
As quick as possible at any point of transition. Even on a score, we'd look to get a quick inbound and go. We have a thing called quarterback. We'd look on a rebound to be a quarterback, looking to obviously push the ball. And that would obviously set the standard and the start of us trying to run and be the team with quick advantage in transition.
I think the thing that we've noticed in our very early days when we started this journey, when we started our first game in the EYBL, And getting blown out by a good point score. Not that that matters, but it's part of it. And they're growing and learning from that, where we would just build and put the focus on how they're going to play out of green and how they're going to create advantages as early on as possible within the offense.
That's really our main focus in the early days. In terms of our defense with the under-14s, on ball, we're always looking to start with forcing weak, putting the player on their weak hand. as much as possible to try and disrupt the player with the ball.
This obviously allows us to make us be in a sense of where we can achieve what we want to on defense to create stops.
Question for you on that, Will. I think the force weak's been so disruptive. How have you developed the ball pressure as part of it? Because I remember early on, all the players were used to guarding inside the 3-point line. Why? Because typically kids in England haven't been able to shoot well, so they could get away with that, sagging heavily.
Very heavily. It's weird. I've never really seen that anywhere else. And we were demanding that they're right up on the ball because we wanted to develop adaptive ball handlers who can handle pressure. And obviously, if they want to get to the next level, they need to do that.
How did you develop that force with the intense ball pressure?
So yeah, constraints. There's a one-word answer for you. And we would create small-sided games, one-on-one, in the full court, off a rebound, or off changing the different starting positions at each time. Where they start their one-on-one in the full court. This obviously allowed to create repetition without repetition and allowing our defender to obviously experience and make it situational to the game of what it actually is like picking up the ball full court with full court pressure.
That's where we'd start. And the moment they would switch off or they were getting beat on their strong hand or they were late to recover, they'd be subbed off straight away and then the next pair would go. And we would try and get it to 2 weeks rest.
Immediate, straight away. Because the moment we pulled them up on it, they then understand, okay, can't do this, this is how we've got to do it. And then that actually allowed, just by having that small constraining, that then allowed them to progress quicker.
Love it.
That's some of our defense. And we've even got peel switching in and some coverages on, like, we started doing coverages on get DHOs and We even did post defense. One of the highlights were when we did the practice last week where Sean, an under-12, double-teamed the post.
We've got 3 post coverages, white, red, black. He saw a mismatch, he called the red, and he went, forced the turnover. And he was 12 years old. I was like, this is incredible. Never seen this at U14 where they actually mix the coverages up themselves based on KYP, know your personnel.
So let's get to—
I want to come back to defense and disruptive half-court defense. Let's go to offense. The spacing, when I watch the boys play, that's something that you've done an incredible job with. I think they space better than a lot of pro teams that I've seen.
Can you talk about how we space and the reason behind that? And then what triggers that we get to without using motion offense, passing cut, all this rubbish?
We would start using the current spacing of, we would play out the 45s, the corners, the trail spot, and obviously the weak side dunker at our age group. So we would look to try and create advantages out of that through our gets. The biggest early— the early days and early stages, we had a really big intentional focus on that weak side dunker.
We were trying to create as many 2v1 opportunities using the dunker in a wheel under or wheel over motion to create that advantage on the defender. I think that had a really big impact. We've got an Italian kid called Gio, Gioelli, and see his growth playing outside the perimeter as well as in the weak side dunker.
Playing on the dunker. His development. He's started to master that wheel under and wheel over more than ever now. And he's trying to dunk it up. It was great because he's 13 and he's trying to dunk it over them now at this point, which is great.
Attempting and failing, but it's not going to stop him, which is great. But he's really started to understand that he has the control from based on what the team provides in the environment of how his action is going to affect the game. So if a drive would happen from the strong side 45, And he would attack middle, he would then wheel under to create a 2v1 advantage.
If it was the drive came from the outside on the 45, we would then look for him to then wheel over.
Yeah.
Or he might even hold at certain times, depending on where the positioning of his defender at that time. Having that basic level of understanding and spacing with that weak side dunker has really given him a big aspect of understanding the environment of how he can be successful.
And the seals were amazing too. We were sealing them like— we called it a wedge because we wanted to distinguish it with a go-to pick with our 16s because we do the go-to obviously to punish drop in some zones. So we called it wedge where you basically do the go-to but not off a roll or slip, but literally just from that dunker position.
And seeing different U14s, we obviously put different players in the dunker. So even Gio, who's obviously really tall, like you said. What I love was you diverging. You, 2 months ago, He came to me, Alex, I want to put Gio as a target for one game, as a target player, where he's handling the ball and the picks.
And I was like, hell yeah, this is exactly what it means to develop a prospect. That was awesome. But anyway, seeing just how they're all knowing, instead of just leaving one player down there, they're all alternating every possession. They're going to wedge, to seal, to wheel under, wheel over.
It's been amazing. And also what I've seen is they convert dominoes easier because you're getting more gold medals when you do that. And I think for 14s, that's very, very important. And the passes we've been seeing too, not just kickouts to 3, but some of the creative like wrap dump-off behind the backs to the dunker.
It's been amazing.
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100%. Just continue to build on the post-ups as well. Obviously, we've recently started introducing the Barkley dribble, and we're looking to try and post up with it off the drive. We've got our guards, our targets are looking to do that more and more now, which is great.
And it puts them in a situation that they would— a typical club, they would not be in that situation. So again, it continues to grow that development. And the thing with the wheel under as well is obviously that Nash dribble. Obviously, we like to use that Nash dribble and create a wheel under from the Nash dribble as well.
Triggers. So we started the year just with 1-on-1, very quick, just a couple weeks to obviously get them into dominoes. It's the easiest way because then obviously the main focus is all on the spacing dominoes. But then very quickly we got to different triggers.
Do you want to talk a little bit about that process throughout the season in terms of where we started, when we added stuff, and just what our triggers are?
Sure. So through our coaches meetings where we'd all speak together that we each led and obviously had them discussions on of where creating our limits. Correct me if I'm wrong, what's the limit list? And that really allowed—
The rate limiters.
Rate limiters, sorry. Rate limiters, apologies. And that allowed us to really identify the next steps of where we're going to take each team. And with that, that allowed us to really identify, right, we're going to start with gets and learning different types of gets.
Now we're into our triggers. And obviously we started to play out of the pick and roll. The first trigger that we look to play out is side and rub. So side obviously playing from the 45 and the rub playing from the trail spot.
This really allowed us to create different advantages in a pick and roll situation. The thing that I've really seen the success in with the boys and with the guys is that crack angle.
Yeah.
If they don't have a crack angle, they'd be out of any small-sided game. And that's one of our big constraints. But when they've really adopted that, I think in Tyler Jarvey-Williams, he's really great reading and recognizing that crack angle, create that 2v1. And that's the start of where we started after that first EYBL about Christmas time.
Yeah. What is important context is the, what were we doing in what, the first August, September, October, November, December? Well, we were literally just playing with one trigger that was gets. And I think that was what allowed them to get all the dynamic one-on-one reads really well established.
Understand spacing and just the whole concept of conceptual offense. It's not to run a pattern, but it's just to start dominoes. So I think it was really well done because we were so intentional on doing less, but doing it really well. And that's why their shot selection became amazing.
We didn't take any mid-rangers, even at 14s, or catch-and-shoot 3s and rim. That's why their finishing got so good and their spacing got so good. And their 3-point shooting is not what you see for an under-14 team in the UK. So the gets were really good.
Then I think we did some post-up stuff. Then correct me if I'm wrong, then right before we introduced pick and roll, I think we had turtle spacings.
Correct.
All right, Paul, I'm going to come back to that. And then we did pick and roll. And to complete the context, I think to coaches listening, the way we do pick and roll is so different to what we normally see in youth basketball pick and roll.
Like you said, where we got these spacings, which are incredibly clearly identified, side and rub. We're always in a side or a rub. Side is 2-side ahead, ball on the side. Rub is ball in the middle, 2-side behind, single side, double gap. And then boom, coverage solutions.
So we got rejects, crack and slip, crack and roll. We got flips, reading tags. We got short roll, cut and slide. And we're doing this at U14s. And this is why you can't— people say, oh, they're under 14, you can't do pick and roll.
And I think that's rubbish. Pick and roll is so complex to do it well. You have to start early because it's Good luck, you know, them, if they're not gonna do all this stuff till then much later on, how on earth are they gonna be good pros?
100%. It's that element of the skill of actually how they set a crack angle in a pick and roll, which actually creates the advantage, as you've said. That's the key for them to be successful out of it as being a picker.
That's it. All right, let's talk about the turtle stuff because it was really funny. I got back from Portland and I was running practice and it was incredible. Without me saying anything, They were like savages. They were calling out turtles against each other and getting in turtle spacing, which is where you get the ball on the side, the strong side corner, 2 side weak side, and the dunker.
And then basically going to work, trying to get a paint touch attacking that turtle. Talk maybe, Will, about the turtle attack and how we developed that with the CLA. Sure.
So for us to understand why and when we were turtle, the guys They were tasked to actually create like a mini scout on their teammates. It's actually then they actually started to think a bit more deeply of how they're going to play against their teammates when they're going in any small-sided game.
And this actually allowed them to now start to actually go, right, I know that I have a turtle advantage on this player, so then I can identify that. And a big one is Matthew, one of our younger kids, 12 again. He would identify—
Matthew can do amazing.
Yeah, and he would identify if he's got a bigger, slower kid on him. He would know, like, turtle, turtle, turtle. He'd scream at the top of his lungs because he knows he's got to call all five of them. All five, all five. They would know that's their best advantage in that moment, that possession.
And that's where it's obviously built from our principles of play and our triggers that we run is that because they've had the opportunity and they've been tasked with creating a bit of a portfolio. portfolio on each of them from their point of view, and with coaching staff reviewing it, it's really allowed them to really come into their own and flourish and give them the freedom under— still with constraints in the environment through our principles of play— for them to be successful.
Fantastic. Well, I don't want to talk about it too long. I think I'm always going to have the what-if through my whole career because I want to do a separate podcast just on this year and everything summing up London Lions. But I would've loved to have seen how we could have changed UK basketball if we just had 2 or 3 years With players doing these principles of play from 12 years old up, where you have 12-year-olds changing coverages, identifying mismatch spacings, running triggers with COVID solutions.
I wanted to show the world what you can do when you're really having amazing principles of play and using the CLA. And credit to you for going all in with it and running with it, Will.
Definitely. And I think it's something that I wouldn't step away from ever again, like having this approach and adopting this. Well, pedagogy and using it to the best of my ability and being on that path, being on that pathway along with the players, as well as myself, trying to learn at the same time, trying to actually learn a lot faster than them, be able to deliver.
It's definitely shown an effect of what we're missing actually in British basketball for player youth development and for us to get players into the next level. And I think it's a credit to what we've done within this year.
Yeah.
Aside of, I'll always be asking that question as well as the what if. But it just shone. And I think if anything, made our coaching staff stronger going forward. And there'll be pockets of us that believe in this and we'll be providing and preaching and helping wherever we can to the basketball community of how to do this.
And I'm happy to go on record on this podcast, but if I become a millionaire, it's a lifetime goal of mine to do my own academy, maybe a Transforming Academy in the UK somewhere, and do this again with like a strategy, 3 years of funding.
And just show what you can do with UK kids because the talent is all here. We just need to show— and coaches mean well. A lot of coaches will have connected with Transforming recently. A lot have bought the book in the UK. And it's like, there's a lot of conversation now.
Coaches want to learn, but they just need to see it and actually have the opportunity. And that's— I think the potential is still staggering here for basketball to blow up.
100%, Alex. I mean, just something I'd like to just touch on as well. See, I've been doing the Welsh national team this year since August, and I've been putting in a CLA approach to very similar triggers and gets and principles of offense and defense that we do at Lions with Wales.
And it's about a 5-hour contact time each month. And to see the growth within them from when we started, even within 5 hours a session, is incredible because it's still giving them the freedom and it's not overloading them.
Yeah.
with all these robotic patterns on how they're going to play the game. And it allows to create that creativity based on the environment. So 100%, it's the way forward.
The director of a club spoke to me yesterday and was like, quite a big European club. And they're like, oh, we're considering going all in with transforming next year and basically doing this with every team. But some of the coaches are saying, oh, what if we start losing games?
And I just said to him, well, The CLA is accelerated learning. You're learning 10 times more, if not 50 times more in a practice than the dominant approach. It's a no-brainer, man. So I was counting up yesterday, Will, and we've spent something ridiculous like 150 hours together as a coaching staff doing coach development this year, 7 months.
So it's been crazy. I'd love to ask you what you've enjoyed the most within our development sessions and our scheduled workshops? And then what you've enjoyed the least that we could improve, say we're theoretically coming back next year, how we could improve our coach delivery education internally?
Sure. So I think the thing that I've enjoyed the most, and it was probably the thing that I thought I wouldn't enjoy the most, it's actually the amount we've worked together, all of us as a unit, and having our terminology all together, all of our principles.
of offense and defense all together. And that's really allowed us to see the growth within each of the players and each of the teams. And because we're all on the same page of where we're trying to get to, and throughout all our contact time of being in workshops and learning from each other, because we're all at different levels from our academy staff, it's been a real asset for each of us to learn and grow.
So I think that's been the thing that I've really enjoyed the most throughout Workshops, definitely. The thing least enjoyed, I think partly is the contact time that we've had going throughout, if I'm honest. Yeah, it's the— in the sense of we've not been able to— it's a shame that on the senior sides we've not necessarily had collaboration with them.
Yeah, 100%.
And I think if there was that as well, it would be even bigger and better. And I think even the senior players would enjoy more For sure. The style of how they were playing and enjoying the game.
Yeah. And sadly, on the men's side, I didn't get the chance to have a conversation with anyone on the men's staff. And I think if we'd have been able to integrate there, doing CLA, it doesn't necessarily have to be that, but at least, look, these are the principles of play we're developing.
And new people all over the world who are coming here to see what we had, 20 coaches from abroad, including as far as New Zealand come, to spend time with the academy this year, which was amazing. It's just a shame we didn't crack that one, but it's on me as much as it's not just the senior team, the men's team, it's on me too.
So, you know, I should have figured it out. So as we wrap up, Will, it's been a really cool experience working with you over these last 8 months, and I think I'm really excited to see where you end up next in your coaching journey.
At the time of recording this, I don't know where that is. I'm speaking to multiple clubs who have an interest in you right now. What's next for you, Will? Where do you want to go with your learning and the time we spent working together, your experience here at London?
How are you going to use that as a momentum to continue down this path and just spreading the message?
Sure.
In my short term, I'm going to be heading back to Snow Valley Basketball. It's on Show Water.
Love it.
From the US in Iowa. I've been privileged to go there for the last 6 years, 7 years. And I've been in a situation where I'm now a lead clinician coach and I get to lead clinics.
And you're going to be showing CLA to all these coaches there, which is—
I'm so excited about that. And the amount of contact and staying time on task. Because I've been in situations where I've been in part of some of them clinics and coaches will speak longer than half the session and put the kids to sleep in a very intense, high-level camp.
So it's in the short term, I'm excited to show off the CLA and help develop if anyone's interested, obviously, with that and how we can really maximize the time on task, definitely in them camps and clinics.
Love it.
In the long term, I'm really trying to push professionally. I'd like to go to a route where I can continue to develop myself. As I said, I'm always willing to be a sponge, and I think you learn in different environments and different situations.
Yeah.
And I'm always hopeful that the next big opportunity will come. And my stepping stones have always led to the next best thing, and I've been very fortunate. And I think that's just a credit to how I've networked. So I'm really hoping that either a club or an organization, there's an opportunity in the future where I can help build or be a part of.
There will be opportunities aplenty, Will. And the exciting thing is the basketball world is changing and organizations now are actually coming to us at Transforming saying, who can I hire to do this? I've never had that before, really ever. It's just been like isolated individuals and coaches who are hiring an assistant.
So it's, the basketball world is literally transforming and I think it's just the pinnacle of it, and there's going to be wide-scale changes over the next decade. So excited to see where you end up, buddy. And yeah, it's been a pleasure to work with you, Will, and excited to follow your journey.
So thanks for joining us today.
Thank you, buddy. Much appreciated. Take care.
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