I think it was Hubie Brown who once said that every player should come back the following season with a new move. (or maybe it was Kevin Loughery, Red Holzman, Larry Brown, Dick Motta, Al Attles, Floyd Bank, Danny Pisselli, Lou Carnesecca or Johnny Bach)
You see it all the time, a player works on his game all summer long and when the season begins, he has added something to his game.
Indiana University D.J. White has a new move; a hook! It amazes me why more players don’t work on this? I can’t understand why coaches do not teach their post players even a jump-hook? One of the greatest offensive players of all-time, Kareem Abdul-Jabber used the sky hook to score 38, 387 points.
When the D stretched to account for Foster’s hot hand, White assaulted Jason Fraser with an array of hook shots and drop steps inside. D.J.’s hook is a throw-back to an earlier era with a contemporary influence. Both the traditional sky hook and White’s “power hook” are released with one hand with the off-arm pointed directly at the basket. The sky hook circa 1976 was a finesse shot, taken from a slight running start. But White doesn’t need the momentum or the leg kick often associated with the move to pour in his points. By dropping his beefy shoulder into his defender’s chest, he adds a powerful component to the high release point in order to hit this shot from the low post.
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There are a lot of AAU teams in Las Vegas as we speak. These high school players are staying in hotels, going from gym-to-gym playing up to three, maybe four games a day. The 20 days that college coaches have to recruit this month is coming to an end (end of July finishes things until Sept.) Next weekend they will be playing in Florida, Michigan and New York. As a player, finish up strong. Behave in public, act like a mature adult. Play with energy, share the ball, defend and run the floor hard. Take good shots, run off the court when you are taken out, and remember, you will be watched by many.
Then, hopefully during the month of August (when nothing is going on) players take the time to work on their skills. Dribbling, shooting, lifting and conditioning. Conduct yourself with class and always do the right thing.
Here is a story about an AAU program that does the right thing. The Palm Beach Post has the story of Harvey Gold and his program.
“They stress character, especially school work,” said Chuck Coley, who plays forward at John I. Leonard. “It’s not all about basketball. They want you to be a better person and that’s opened up some doors to colleges who are recruiting more because of playing on this AAU team.”
As I have been saying all along, there are some very good AAU programs out there. And these guys prepare you for the future.
“This is all about preparing them for college and getting them the exposure they need,” White said. “We go over the clearinghouse with the parents and explain the core courses they need to get a college scholarship. This isn’t run like a high school program. We run a college system because that’s what they’ll be doing.”
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The other night I caught the NBA players on t.v. who are trying out for a spot for Team USA. To me, they were playing hard. They were defending, sharing the ball and to top it off, the arena was excited. Towards the end of the game, with the game on the line, the fans were on their feet, watching with excitement to see what would happen.
All aspiring point guards, point guard wanna-be’s and point guards, please watch Jason Kidd. Buy his video, read his book and tape as many New Jersey Nets games as possible.
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Alwyn Cosgrove, a Blogger talks about his basketball camp experience a few years ago.
I read the above quote and realized that fitness training is the same way. Focus on the fundamentals. I’ve said before that most good coaches have more similarities in their approaches than they have differences. And at the end of the day – everyone agrees that you should do some form of strength, endurance, speed and flexibility training with pretty much all your athletes or clients.
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