Plyometric & High Intensity Interval Training

If you have access to plyometrics boxes and a gym (staircase is easier to find), here’s a very good training exercise for you. This sequence of drills will improve your agility, quickness, footwork, jumping ability. It will make you more explosive on offense and you’ll be able to keep pace on defense.

Josh Childress’ Favorite Player

In my daily basketball readings certain things stick out. Over time they may become teaching points. Today, I read an interview with Josh Childress about the start of his European career in Greece. The interview was published at B92, a leading Serbian news source. Among other things, they asked Josh who was his favorite player of all time and his answer was Scottie Pippen. The reason is that Scottie did a lot of little things right. Then Josh said this sticky point: “Scottie was a born winner, he had capability to take over a game without scoring a single point.”

My first reaction was, hm, I heard people say this so many times, is it really true. Then, I thought, there are many aspects of the game, other than scoring: rebounding, assists, blocks, defense. I am not sure that’s what Josh is talking about. I think he is talking about intangibles. I’ve seen players whose quality transcends the stats. They make shooters on their team more confident, they toughen their team’s defense just a notch, they make opponent’s determination shakier – just enough to WIN. One European player who never played in the NBA was a Serb Zoran Savic. His stats were never great, but every team he played for was a winner.

Good luck in Europe, Josh!

Doc Rivers on The Value Of Ball Possession

Doc Rivers, in The Boston Globe of October 20, 2008, puts an emphasis on the value of the ball, aka cutting down the number of turnovers. He mentions the 2008 Playoffs in which the Celtics lowered the number of turnovers by  one and a half, which contributed to their victory:

The Celtics are stressing limiting turnovers, Rivers said.

“We’re starting to understand the value of the basketball but we haven’t exhibited it,” Rivers said. “I think they get that – what turnovers do to your team. But I don’t think we’ve put it in play yet. Our young guys are starting to understand how we want to play every night. They don’t have it yet, but they are playing with a heightened sense of urgency. I don’t think we were great last year in that department.

“In the playoffs, our turnovers were cut down by a turnover and a half. The speed of play was slower in the playoffs, that is part of reason for that. We want to score, we want to run, we want to push it up, and we want to value the ball. We play so hard defensively, it’s a shame to get it back and give it right back to the other team.”