Monday, March 8, 2010

THE ONE SECOND ADVANTAGE

Great post from Chad Songy of the Point Guard College:

During our five-day Director's Team Training Camp recently held just outside Toronto, I was introduced to several new ideas while in the midst of some sharp basketball minds. One of these minds was Coach Mike MacKay, Manager of Coach Education and Development for Canada Basketball. I picked up several 'golden nuggets' from Coach MacKay, including the idea of the 'One Second Advantage'.

As basketball players we should always try to gain a one second advantage. We can do so by using screens, moving on penetration, moving defenders with fakes, etc. Often that one second advantage is the difference between getting a great shot and having a shot contested or coming up with an empty possession and not even getting a shot off at all.

While it's important to create that one second advantage, it's equally as important to maintain it. The following are some habits that cause players to lose their one second advantage:

•where a one second advantage is created by moving a defender with a jab fake, losing it by driving wide around the defender allowing the defender to recover
•catching a pass with straight legs, then forces the player to have to bend down to load for the shot (which takes one second) and losing their one second advantage for that open shot
•off the ball, standing still on penetration and therefore not gaining the one second advantage from the space or separation that's created when the helping defender hedges to slow down that penetration

I found this concept really beneficial, but it wasn't until my participation in the drill below, that I truly understood the value of being aware of your one second advantage by continually catching the ball with loaded legs.

Read the rest of this post at Chad's blog: http://ow.ly/1fyQn