Princeton Principles
Watch the man in front of you, he tells you what to do!
July 1, 2009 at 1:49 am · Filed under Uncategorized
This is a challenge at any age, for any level, professionals included. When working with 9-10 year olds it’s a true challenge.
I’ve always said that there are two reasons people don’t do things; they either don’t want to or they don’t know how.
The former is problematic, the later a challenge but one that drives a coach.
These guys certainly want to! They are all great kids but they simply don’t yet know how. Their skills are not yet developed enough and from a sheer developmental perspective they are not yet ready…………..not selfish, just not yet ready.
Stephen Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People) states that humans have three levels of being.
1.Dependent (people getting your food, clothing etc for you as when you’re an infant)
2. Independent (able to get for yourself)
3. Interdependent (which he describes as the highest form of being - the stage where you are comfortable with yourself such that your able to share with others).
This is what we strive for in coaching, this is what drives me personally on the court and off in my “day job”…………creating/facilitating functionality.
Covey says that you must go through the stages of dependence , independence and finally interdependence
Our guys are in stage #2 by the nature of their age so not being innately collaborative is not a character flaw it’s just where they are in their maturity.
Every pass we make, every screen we set, every time we help our teammate defend his man is a step toward their growth and understanding of team and it’s rewarding to see when it occurs.
We work on it daily and demand it be a part of what they do but when it doesn’t happen we simply point it out and move on………….trying to develop their individual skills to the point where they are comfortable enough with themselves and their ability that they’ll share with others moving forward.
It’s a great, fun challenging process that keeps me younger than I am and the opportunity to accept the challenge is a gift!
June 22, 2009 at 12:34 am · Filed under Uncategorized
This will always be a hotly discussed and contentious topic…………
My (empirically based) views, opinions and actions are as follows:
When you put your child into an organized sports program you do so for the purpose of wanting them to improve both at that sport and on a social level.
When you put your child into an organized sports program where the game is a TEAM game the improvement in those areas becomes that much more critical…………….sport specific skill AND socially specific skill.
If you don’t believe in TEAM then don’t put your child into a TEAM setting. IT WILL NOT WORK, for him/her or you.
Your focus will always be on your child and not the good of the team. If your focus is only on your child then your actions and comments will ALWAYS reflect that focus. It’s not necessarily intentional, it’s not necessarily evil but it is absolutely true and as a result there will be disappointment, disconnection and a lack of fun as well as camaraderie between you and your child and his/her and their team.
Your children count on you for so much! You are their providers and they want to please you. (Even if it doesn’t always seem that way……………….I speak from the experience of having two young adult children that my wife and I have raised) Because they want to please you if you make comments that are incongruous with the comments or teaching of their coach they will be in conflict which is bad……………..trust me when I say there is more than enough conflict already in their young lives.
If you put your child into an organized sports program only do so if you trust the coaching; the manner, style, fashion and content that the coach is espousing. If you don’t PLEASE do both you and your child a favor, find another coach/program that you do believe best suits your child BUT THEN TRUST THAT APPROACH.
As stated above your child very much wants to please and if you want him to please and make your interplay with him/her pleasurable try this simple approach: Ask them to teach you what they learned in practice that day, or what coach discussed in the huddle. Don’t suggest what should have been said or taught! You will put your child in conflict, you will make yourself miserable, you will probably make your spouse miserable ……the only thing then gained is MISERY.
One of my mentors in life is Stephen Covey who wrote a book that I have read and continue to use as a personal bible. If you haven’t had a chance to read “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” I’d encourage you to do so and if you have read it pull it out again and get it reread. There are pearls of wisdom contained in those pages that are lessons of a lifetime. Lessons that if we apply and if follow will help guide all of us to a better, more centered life……….with that centering being on what you value most.
In that book Dr. Covey espouses that the best way to learn something is to teach it……..If you want your child to learn what he’s being taught let him/her teach you!
Finally, if you read other entries on this blog you’ll read quite a bit about TEAM. That word, those four letters are the very reason I coach (and a huge part of my professional life). I love and live for functionality.
“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much” Helen Keller once said. Think about it for you, for your child and for your family. We preach TEAM in every huddle, at every practice and in every drill; PLEASE don’t undermine these teachings! Cheer for every child on your child’s team like they are your own and if they are your own be encouraging as much as possible. (Homework and chores first of course but otherwise keep them having fun and interested in coming to pracice, not dreading it because they cannot live up to your expectations). Parents, have you taken the time to introduce yourselves to one and other? Do you know the names of evey parent of every child on the team? If so I commend each of you; if not I’d ask why. Your child will ultimately model your behavior…………teach TEAM, practice TEAM if you want that from them!
Kids are kids and these are games which should be fun. I am strict with my principles and do everything possible to keep your child accountable to what is expected. Ask them what those expectations are and how they are doing to keep up.
If you don’t or can’t leave “setting the bar” up to the coach there is a disconnect which you should act on….with the coach not your child. They are out there fighting the war of their pride, their maturity and everything else they see on television etc.
I’ll end this with one of my favorite Teddy Roosevelt quotes, think of it when you think of your child, it certainly applys………..
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
March 16, 2009 at 12:20 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Basketball is a team game, it always was and it always will be, particularly at the highest levels and, as a result basketball (at it’s most effective) is a game of trust.
If I am going to pass you the ball:
- I TRUST you’ll catch it
- I TRUST you’ll pass it to somebody else or
- I trust (minimally) that you’ll make a good decision that’s in the best interest of our team
If someone is open and didn’t get the ball the person who had the ball either didn’t see the open man or didn’t want to pass it to them. (Michael Jordan was on the receiving end of many passes)
An individual player might be responsible in some cases for winning a game but only TEAMS win championships………….we try to teach TEAM in everything we do.
This past week we began to work on the early stages of TEAM defense. This is a hard concept to teach (even to my high school teams at first) but, once again like everything else in basketball it’s a TEAM game and we will try to teach our players TEAM defense along with individual defense
If you have a chance, ask your son what “HELP’ defense is and if he could explain it to you.
One of my mentors (Stephen Covey) said that the best way to learn something is to teach it; if your son can begin to teach you any of what Coach Brian and I are trying to instill then we will know we are making an impact.
I know this concept of asking your son is a repetitive statement but please know also I’ll say it again and again……it’s the best barometer I know of.
March 10, 2009 at 4:26 am · Filed under Uncategorized
We want to start every practice at every level with fundamentals.
The word itself means different things to different people particularly in the game of basketball and certainly it is a bit different considering the age and level of play.
For me, at it’s essence fundamentals mean:
”THINGS THAT HAPPEN A LOT”!
- Listening
- Passing
- Catching (”Hands UP”)
- Pivoting
- Dribbling
- Shooting (Proper technique - “Low on the catch, high on the finish”)
- Defense (”It all starts in a stance”)
We always “warm-up” with lay-ups and shoot them in varied ways from both sides of the court
At the third grade level we teach proper footwork which means taking off with the foot closest to the basket……………………………………………………………………………………… Left foot for a right handed lay-up/Right foot for a left handed lay-up - We will shoot lay-ups for approx. 8 minutes
Included in our lay-up drill is proper rebounding technique (CHIN THE BALL), pivoting and passing. The focus is ALWAYS on accurate passing to a pair of hands that “you can see”. HANDS READY AT ALL TIMES IS ALWAYS STRESSED
We play a version of “Monkey-in-the-middle” to teach passing, catching and PIVOTING. The catcher must use his/her pivot foot to create space and then make an accurate pass (bounce, overhead, chest) to a pair of hands they can see.
We teach “on ball defense” with a game that is similar to “tag”. The defender MUST “stay in front of the person he/she is guarding with the goal being to prevent the ball from going in a straight line. (As we progress we will stress balance and other technique but for now it’s strictly the concept of being focused on the “simple” task of staying in front of the ball)
We will progress to “help defense” which is collaborative and the ultimate goal. I have found this is best accomplished using rope to demonstrate how you must remain within a certain distance to the ball regardless of where the person you are guarding is located on the court. (This takes some increased awareness by the kids that does not always develop during the first weeks…. or months)
OFFENSE: This is difficult to teach regardless of age but for our THIRD GRADE group we will teach the basics of cutting and screening and spacing…………….not much more. I require a “CUT” after every pass initially and like to use a “goal” that is placed under the rim as a target for the kids to touch each time.
I’ll be adding more to this blog as we progress and hopefully some things you can do with your child.
Ask them to teach you what they learned and please let me know if they say nothing!
My best always,
Coach Barry (510) 432-0983
barry@bckassociates.com
www.barrykleiman.com
March 10, 2009 at 3:30 am · Filed under Uncategorized
From the time I first saw the game of basketball being played back in Philadelphia in the 50’s (I’m admitting my age but so be it) I became captivated with the motion, beauty and synergy of the game and I’ve been hooked ever since.
As I have recently written to my corporate clients in a piece subsequent to the stock market slide of a week or so ago though “the
only thing that’s constant is change”. Certainly the game of basketball has changed since those days, but, what has not changed is that at its highest levels the game remains a TEAM game and synergy is tantamount to TEAM.
Being from Philadelphia I was quiet close to Princeton, N.J. and had an opportunity to watch the great Bill Bradley take his game to
national prominence while at Princeton which was a thrill….when I was 15 he was my idol and I emulated his every move.
The year was 1967 and Bradley was gone from Princeton but the new dawn of Princeton basketball was about to occur in the spirit, body and mind of Coach Pete Carril and his now legendary “Princeton Offense”.
Coach was always reluctant to document his style (I refuse to call it a system because he refuses as well) simply stating “it’s just
basketball”. The Princeton offense is a series of synergies that become intuitive and became the standard by which all others
(offenses) were judged. Cutting, screening, backdoor layups, open 3 pointers etc, etc. Everybody making everybody else better. Basketball, the game I love!
You can imagine my complete joy when I had a chance to sit in the same room with Coach Carril several years ago with another coach and discuss basketball, just the three of us. We watched film of basketball and learned theory and subtleties from the man himself AND, when the three hour session ended he thanked US for spending the time.
Coach loves the game and loves teaching it to anyone willing to listen.
I’ve studied extensively (resources below) and taught semblances of “Princeton” everywhere I’ve coached, believing very deeply that teaching what I call Princeton Principles will benefit every player at every level regardless of what “system” their eventual coach(s) has implemented.
As Coach Carril says “it’s just basketball”!
What follows are links to resources that reference this beautiful, most effective, most emulated style of play.
I hope you take something from these words and from the game itself.
Princeton High Post Offense aka “CHIN”
Princeton Low Post Offense
I titled this page “The Smart Take From the Strong” because that is the title of the only book I know of written by Coach Carril.
When I last checked it is available at Amazon.com