I love this quote, and it is a perfect analogy for where I am in my coaching career. A friend of mine motivated me out of semi-retirement last year to be his lead Varsity Assistant at our local high school. It was a fun yet bumpy year for a lot of reasons out of our control, but it very much reminded me that I had a lot left to give and that the game still had a lot left to give to me. The kids still made me hungry to teach, and they still made me laugh. As tired as I was after last season, I felt a renaissance of sorts.
With a busy scouting schedule and both of my kids playing sports, I really did not want the intensity of long practices six days a week and a full late night and weekend game schedule this season, so I asked our Head Coach if I could take over the Sophomore Team this year and help develop his lower levels and get the young guys better prepared for the rigors of varsity basketball. He thought that was a good idea; and fast-forward, we played our first game tonight.
We only had 9 practices before tonight, and we never had the same 10 players at the same practice (i.e. holiday travel, injury, illness). With that said, I had to accept some limitations and get creative in how we are building a foundation of significance.
My first thought early this fall was to teach the kids what I saw Mark Edwards do at Washington University for many years. Mark does not get near the credit he deserves. I would put him up against any of the top D1 coaches in the country, and he would give them all a run for their money. His multiple NCAA D3 National Championships give him the respect he deserves from us small school coaches, but he's as good as anybody. Mark is a master of the 1-4 High Offense. Watching his teams play reminds me a lot of watching really good NHL hockey right on the glass. I'm not a very big hockey fan at all, but seeing it live and right on ice level is like nothing else. Hockey is fast. Explosive. Powerful. Yet, it is extremely graceful and the talent at that level is effortless. Hockey at that level is like watching Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel at NASCAR speed. Its beautiful, but hard to keep up.
Coach Edwards kids play with similar balance, power and grace...and sneaky speed, and they understand how to counter every little thing you throw at them as if they already knew what you were going to do. What I learned is that 1. I'm not near the coach Mark is, and 2. I don't have near the patience he has.
So, I very quickly scrapped the idea of running the 1-4 High with a bunch of kids whose skill set and court discipline would take me much more than one season to develop them and teach them the way I'd like. I also realized I didn't want all my hair to turn Gandalf white by the end of February.
Here we are...rebuilding The System from the ground up.
Ok. What have I learned after nearly 18 years of running this crazy basketball philosophy? Unlike 99% of learning in life, The System is one of the few things that you should start running at full speed before you learn to walk. Let's get right to the WHY:
1. If kids get a glimpse that The System can be slowed down or sets can be added or the defense can become passive for a while, they will lose their entire focus on what The System is designed to do: wear down the opponent, so there is nothing left at the end, and your opponent simply gives up.
2. As I have said many times before, you cannot do The System half way and expect positive results. The more you slow down, the more the other team plays with a thankful glee, and their energy levels explode back to life once they see you have allowed them to breathe. It's like a charging, barking, snarling dog all of a sudden stopping right in front of you, rolling over on its back, sticking out its tongue and begging for a belly a rub. You sort of go from complete fear to letting your guard down a bit. I want my kids to learn how to put a team away right from the gates and never let up until the other team quits.
3. Also, its just a lot more fun to teach when you just let them go with a few basic lessons and philosophies and then tweak where needed. I literally spent 25 minutes in 9 practices on our very simple Diamond Press. We had kids that had never ran it before, and we created 25+ turnovers tonight. What was amazing, as the game progressed, the kids started to shift and read and adapt the way I would have eventually taught them. They just figured it out and started simplifying.
Alright then, so what do we do in practice every day?
1. We shoot a lot. I probably have 10-15 half and full court shooting drills where we are running, cutting, setting up defenders, passing at game speed and getting up tons game type shots.
2. We do a ton of 45 second and 1 minute scrimmages where we make them attack and score every possession in under 6-10 seconds. We want that possession time to drop as the season progresses. If you are practicing getting the ball up the court faster and faster every day, it becomes so ingrained in you that you don't ever want to go backwards.
3. We do a ton of continuity drills (i.e. 512/513 Break, Princeton Lay-ups, 3v2, 2 v1, etc.) where every member of the team is constantly moving, reacting and attempting to hit a goal in a short amount of time.
4. When we do shoot free throws, and we don't shoot many in practice, they are all under great duress and pressure. I want every free throw we shoot to be the difference between saving your team from a sprint or causing your team to run sprints. We don't shoot for repetition. We shoot to win the game.
5. We defend and rebound with the same type of pressure. If my team doesn't get to 7 defensive rebounds before they do, we lose. Every close out. Every block out. Every decision is the difference between celebration and disappointment.
6. Don't get me wrong. Discipline. Skill development. IQ progression. Sacrifice for the brotherhood. Respecting the game and playing with integrity. These things are the core of who I am as a coach, so most of our lessons and drills are bathed in those principles.
So, why The System for me? Why do I have this infatuation and addiction to it?
Well, you should have seen the smiles on these kids tonight. We shot maybe 30% from the field. We may have executed our routes properly 4 times. We had at least 2 kids each time they shot forget to even consider blocking out and going to get the rebound. Nobody played well enough individually to feel excited about their stats. And, you would have thought we won the World Series, Super Bowl and the NBA Championship after the game. They simply loved playing TOGETHER this way, and can't wait now to get back at it and learn more tomorrow. I simply do not know how NOT to give that gift to every kid who plays for me.
Coach Matt Rogers
Email: coachrogers12@gmail.com
Twitter: @madcoachdiary
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/rogersmatt16
Blog: madcoachdiary.blogspot.com
Phone: (312) 610-6045
With a busy scouting schedule and both of my kids playing sports, I really did not want the intensity of long practices six days a week and a full late night and weekend game schedule this season, so I asked our Head Coach if I could take over the Sophomore Team this year and help develop his lower levels and get the young guys better prepared for the rigors of varsity basketball. He thought that was a good idea; and fast-forward, we played our first game tonight.
We only had 9 practices before tonight, and we never had the same 10 players at the same practice (i.e. holiday travel, injury, illness). With that said, I had to accept some limitations and get creative in how we are building a foundation of significance.
My first thought early this fall was to teach the kids what I saw Mark Edwards do at Washington University for many years. Mark does not get near the credit he deserves. I would put him up against any of the top D1 coaches in the country, and he would give them all a run for their money. His multiple NCAA D3 National Championships give him the respect he deserves from us small school coaches, but he's as good as anybody. Mark is a master of the 1-4 High Offense. Watching his teams play reminds me a lot of watching really good NHL hockey right on the glass. I'm not a very big hockey fan at all, but seeing it live and right on ice level is like nothing else. Hockey is fast. Explosive. Powerful. Yet, it is extremely graceful and the talent at that level is effortless. Hockey at that level is like watching Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel at NASCAR speed. Its beautiful, but hard to keep up.
Coach Edwards kids play with similar balance, power and grace...and sneaky speed, and they understand how to counter every little thing you throw at them as if they already knew what you were going to do. What I learned is that 1. I'm not near the coach Mark is, and 2. I don't have near the patience he has.
So, I very quickly scrapped the idea of running the 1-4 High with a bunch of kids whose skill set and court discipline would take me much more than one season to develop them and teach them the way I'd like. I also realized I didn't want all my hair to turn Gandalf white by the end of February.
Here we are...rebuilding The System from the ground up.
Ok. What have I learned after nearly 18 years of running this crazy basketball philosophy? Unlike 99% of learning in life, The System is one of the few things that you should start running at full speed before you learn to walk. Let's get right to the WHY:
1. If kids get a glimpse that The System can be slowed down or sets can be added or the defense can become passive for a while, they will lose their entire focus on what The System is designed to do: wear down the opponent, so there is nothing left at the end, and your opponent simply gives up.
2. As I have said many times before, you cannot do The System half way and expect positive results. The more you slow down, the more the other team plays with a thankful glee, and their energy levels explode back to life once they see you have allowed them to breathe. It's like a charging, barking, snarling dog all of a sudden stopping right in front of you, rolling over on its back, sticking out its tongue and begging for a belly a rub. You sort of go from complete fear to letting your guard down a bit. I want my kids to learn how to put a team away right from the gates and never let up until the other team quits.
3. Also, its just a lot more fun to teach when you just let them go with a few basic lessons and philosophies and then tweak where needed. I literally spent 25 minutes in 9 practices on our very simple Diamond Press. We had kids that had never ran it before, and we created 25+ turnovers tonight. What was amazing, as the game progressed, the kids started to shift and read and adapt the way I would have eventually taught them. They just figured it out and started simplifying.
Alright then, so what do we do in practice every day?
1. We shoot a lot. I probably have 10-15 half and full court shooting drills where we are running, cutting, setting up defenders, passing at game speed and getting up tons game type shots.
2. We do a ton of 45 second and 1 minute scrimmages where we make them attack and score every possession in under 6-10 seconds. We want that possession time to drop as the season progresses. If you are practicing getting the ball up the court faster and faster every day, it becomes so ingrained in you that you don't ever want to go backwards.
3. We do a ton of continuity drills (i.e. 512/513 Break, Princeton Lay-ups, 3v2, 2 v1, etc.) where every member of the team is constantly moving, reacting and attempting to hit a goal in a short amount of time.
4. When we do shoot free throws, and we don't shoot many in practice, they are all under great duress and pressure. I want every free throw we shoot to be the difference between saving your team from a sprint or causing your team to run sprints. We don't shoot for repetition. We shoot to win the game.
5. We defend and rebound with the same type of pressure. If my team doesn't get to 7 defensive rebounds before they do, we lose. Every close out. Every block out. Every decision is the difference between celebration and disappointment.
6. Don't get me wrong. Discipline. Skill development. IQ progression. Sacrifice for the brotherhood. Respecting the game and playing with integrity. These things are the core of who I am as a coach, so most of our lessons and drills are bathed in those principles.
So, why The System for me? Why do I have this infatuation and addiction to it?
Well, you should have seen the smiles on these kids tonight. We shot maybe 30% from the field. We may have executed our routes properly 4 times. We had at least 2 kids each time they shot forget to even consider blocking out and going to get the rebound. Nobody played well enough individually to feel excited about their stats. And, you would have thought we won the World Series, Super Bowl and the NBA Championship after the game. They simply loved playing TOGETHER this way, and can't wait now to get back at it and learn more tomorrow. I simply do not know how NOT to give that gift to every kid who plays for me.
Coach Matt Rogers
Twitter: @madcoachdiary
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/rogersmatt16
Blog: madcoachdiary.blogspot.com
Phone: (312) 610-6045
Matt Rogers is a 20-year high school and college coach veteran. He has led two teams to the NCAA National Tournament and one team to a High School State Championship. His teams hold numerous school and one NCAA record. He has mentored and coached players at every collegiate level while serving as an athletics administrator at the high school and NCAA levels. He currently is the Head National Scout/Recruiting Specialist for NCSA - Next College Student Athlete where he has helped thousands of young men and women from around the world achieve their dreams of playing at the college level. Coach presently lives in the Denver, CO area with his wife of 20 years and his two children.
To request Coach Rogers to speak at your school or event, you can reach him through any of his contact information above.
