Attitudes Necessary for Basketball Players Explained
One must have that “do-or-die” spirit and wholehearted determination to give his best at all times. A basketball player, no matter how good, is a detriment to the team if he does not have a keen desire to play the game.
Desire
Many deficiencies can be overcome by a strong desire to achieve a goal – whether it is a position on the basketball squad or success in other fields.
Sacrifice for Success
You will find that your most successful basketball players are those who gave up many hours of their time to practice. They not only practiced during the season, but worked hard developing their game all year round.
In order to become an outstanding athlete the beginner must observe certain training rules. A diet of soft drinks, candy, and hot dogs cannot and will not build a strong body. Foods should consist of green and yellow vegetables, meat and eggs, which are high in protein. Fruits and dairy products, including a minimum of three glasses of milk each day, are important.
A boy needs eight to ten hours of sleep every night. Lack of sleep will affect his speed, stamina and skill, which are essential in athletics. Dates and parties should be reserved for weekends that have no games scheduled.
Smoking and drinking do not mix with athletics. Because smoking accelerates heart action and restricts blood vessels it may affect performance in sports which require endurance. Exhaustion and physical illness are partners of the smoking habit.
Alcohol reduces the power to judge distance and speed. Liquor affects coordination to the point where the drinker cannot even stand or walk.
It has been said by many coaches that the boys who drink or smoke are not dependable. When the going gets tough, they will let the team down.
There will be many times when a boy will be tempted to break training rules. One must have strong character to impose self-discipline when necessary.
Proper attitude, constant practice and strict training produce skill which may offset mere physical power.
Accept coaching
It is an honor to play on a team. A player must remember that he is just a small part of it. It takes five players, all working together, to produce a winning team. When each boy plays his part well, a successful team is born.
The best players make the team. Players may not always agree with the coach’s choice of the starting five, but keep in mind that the coach wants to win as much as anyone. He will not permit personal feelings to interfere with the selection of squad members. It is up to you to prove to the coach that you belong in the line-up.
You can do this by reporting to practice on time and by working hard. Above all, be big enough to take constructive criticism. The desire to improve must come from within. No one can help you unless you have a healthy and respected attitude toward improving yourself.
Work hard to develop two or three dependable shots. Learn to use both hands. The player who uses both hands in shooting, passing and dribbling is more valuable to his team than one who uses only one. Master the defensive skills. A player who works only on offense is only half a player.
A player who learns early in his career that defensive skills are just as important as scoring ability will be going a long way toward eventual success. Work hard on the fundamentals, such as dribbling for speed and control, a variety of shots, good footwork and defensive balance.
There is no place on the squad for boys who use unsportsmanlike tactics. Play hard, but fair! Always play to win! A winner never quits, and a quitter never wins. If victory does not come your way, be big enough to accept defeat! Congratulate your opponents for their good playing, and do not offer alibis.
Accept the officials’ decisions. These men work hard and are above reproach. Blaming officials is a poor excuse for your defeat. Be a gentleman at all times!
Remember, athletics, like mathematics or history, is one of the skills in the field of education.
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Modern Basketball Defense Explained
A decent share of the credit for a good defense can be traced to the mental attitude of the team’s players. Their defensive attitude should be aggressive. Too many athletes get the idea that defense is passive. Passivity creates negative actions. Aggressiveness is positive. The top defenders are all aggressive minded and aggressive acting athletes. Even while defending a goal, the players should all be inspired to think and act like attackers.
Where does the offensive attack begin? It starts on the opponent’s end of the floor when ball possession is gained. The outstanding defensive basketball player really believes he can jam the ball down the throat of the man he is guarding. He believes he can “shut him out” that particular evening. He knows that the real fun of basketball – the real sense of satisfaction – is in observing the frustrations of a top scorer he has just stymied for the evening.
The great defensive performer is ready to start guarding his man when he comes out of his dressing room and will guard him if he goes into the balcony and until the final whistle. He is ready to “hook up with” him, to “marry” him for that 32 or 40 minutes of action. The opponent should go home with the vague feeling that a “leech” or giant octopus has attacked him. He should have nightmares dreaming about the aggressive tactics he has been made to submit to, by a wild man who wouldn’t give him one minute of peace.
All our recent great teams have been good defensive clubs. California won the N.C.A.A. championship one year and went to the finals the next year. They lost in the finals the second year because their opponents played great defense even though their reputation was obtained by offense.
Many of the top teams such as West Virginia have developed great reputations for their offensive play, but they readily admit that they win many games with defense. The public wants 100 points a night and some coaches have decided to give them what they want.
In the meantime, they are very careful to develop a sound defense to keep their opponents from scoring 100, too. Coach John Mc-Lendon of Tennessee A. & I. told me that their defense never received the credit it deserved. A. & I. won three straight N.A.I.A. national championships, running up big scores. The casual observer did not take note of the fact that their opponents usually scored in the sixties.
When 100 points are scored, the opponent gets ball possession many times if only after a basket is scored. To hold them to a score in the sixties requires great defense. Usually, too, the team that scores 100 points fast-breaks at a great rate of speed. To return to defense at the same speed requires much more effort than it does for the team that does not fast-break.
The big basketball upsets are nearly always provided by defensive basketball teams. The great scorer left unattended will humiliate mediocre teams with mediocre talent. These same mediocre teams and players can cause some great offensive teams many moments of anguish. Check the scores of all the major upsets that occur in basketball during one season of play. You will find that nine-tenths of them are brought about by an outstanding job of individual and team defensive play.
The current basketball trend is toward defense. I will not say back to defense for I feel that defense was never played any better than at present. Actually, defense is almost new in scope. Never in the history of the game has defense been played as it is currently played by top teams.
It has never received the attention – it has never been played individually and collectively as modern teams are playing it. Some contemporary coaches who have been active for years, such as Hank Iba and Adolph Rupp, have always played good defense. As a matter of fact, they have almost had a corner on the market because for many years no one challenged them defensively.
Now more basketball teams and coaches are realizing the value of defense.
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The Art of Defense in Basketball
In playing basketball, each player must be conditioned to change quickly from offense to defense. This mental trick must be learned before any kind of defense can become operative. Defense is a state of mind. It can be passive, active, weak-kneed, indefinite, or masculine and aggressive. To perform offensive skills properly, an athlete must be relaxed and confident. To execute defensive skills properly, he must be the very antithesis of relaxation.
He must be tense, coiled, and aggressive. He must be in a fighting frame of mind. He must be combative. This switching mentally from offense to defense requires time and experience. The difficult task is turning back to relaxed movement for offense. Most athletes can get themselves in a fighting frame of mind.
In the case of football, they have no need to change that mood during the course of the game. Basketball requires the athlete to play a mental game of hop scotch if he is to reach his potential on offense and on defense. Experience and time will help the young athlete develop this ability.
Defense begins as soon as the ball is lost. The player does not wait until he gets to the other end of the floor to begin to think about defense. He begins to think defense at that very instant. Unless he has been given the task of cutting the outlet pass (to stop an opponent’s fast break), his first thought is to reach the other end of the floor as fast as he can run. This run is known as the defensive fast break.
Some teams are known as fast-break (offensive) teams; others are considered to be slow-break teams. Every good basketball team in the nation fast-breaks. They fast break, to the defensive end of the floor. This break should not be a trot or jog. It must be a full speed run. While the defensive player is executing his fast break he is looking up to spot his opponent. Some opponents are very obliging. They will always go into the pivot area or into a certain corner each time. This makes recognition very simple.
Other players are not so obliging. You never know where these men will line up. That is why it is necessary to be skilled and alert at spotting quickly the number and face of an opponent. As soon as you have spotted your man, determine his relationship to the ball. Is he in position to receive and score quickly? Can you reach him in time to defend your basket? Can you help a teammate who is momentarily in trouble?
As soon as you spot your opponent, go to him and assume a defensive stance, a defensive expression, and a defensive attitude. Let him know by your stance, expression, and attitude that you have come to hook up with him completely and without equivocation as long as his team possesses the ball. Let him know that as far as you are concerned, your life depends on stopping him. Let him know that in order to score he is going to have to break every bone in your body.
In playing the half-court press man-for-man, your first objective is to prevent the opponent from receiving the ball. Get an arm and, if possible, part of your body between your opponent and the ball. Block his vision if possible. Body check his movement to receive every time you can.
That is, stay in front of him and check his break with your body. In general, make a real nuisance of yourself even though your man has not received. You have won nine-tenths of the battle with your man if you keep him from receiving. The only thing left to do is block out when the ball goes up on the boards.
Practice this art and attitude of defense and you have the game half won!
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Pro Basketball General Managers And Scouts
Some people are willing to devote a lot of time to learning about the rules of basketball. These are typically the people that enjoy the game so much that they want to make it a career, but not as a professional basketball player. These people are the people who will be active in basketball as general managers or those that prefer to visit individuals and schools as a scout and serve as a representative of the National Basketball Association.
Some basketball fans might not know how a person becomes affiliated with the National Basketball Association in this way. These basketball sport professionals have to be trained just as thoroughly as the basketball players that will be on the team. Some people might not realize that there are training courses that must be completed before a person can be offered a position of employment with such prestige attached to it. Most of the courses will take 8 weeks to complete and are offered online through the internet just as any academic program would be.
When people enroll in these online courses to be trained for a position as a basketball manager or scout, they must take the courses seriously because there is a lot of information to learn in a very short time. The general manager and scout positions will require a full understanding of how basketball teams are managed and all of the new ways that scouting can be conducted will be taught throughout the course.
There are many theories that must be applied to playing basketball and a general manager is expected to be very fluent in all of them. They must be on the cutting edge of all technologies that are used to promote and conduct a basketball game that is viewed by millions of basketball fans around the globe. They are also expected to keep current in all of the latest training strategies and use their own resources to maintain a pulse on what is happening in the world of basketball on any given day.
The general manager position requires an in depth knowledge of all aspects of professional basketball and there is a lot of money on the line if a team is managed improperly. Some general managers have tried to rely on past successes and have failed their teams in many ways because they got too comfortable with the position of authority that they have been given. Those general managers are usually let go at the end of the season and never understand why.
At times it might be necessary for the general manager to train the team to perform as a group on the court. There are some basketball players that need a certain amount of direction to make the right plays and do not understand what they need to do until someone draws it out on paper. The general manager will learn all of the play combinations that can be done on the court and pass this information on to players throughout the season during their training sessions.
Some people have a natural ability to spot talent from a mile away. Others want to serve as a scout but must learn what the National Basketball Association is looking for in a basketball player by completing the courses online. Some basketball players are good in some areas and lack skills in many others. The true talent of a basketball player will emerge after the scout has seen them play on many different occasions.
James Brown writes about http://www.nbagearshop.com