: The S.E.L.E.C.T. Coaching Method

"Coaching" is the second leg of the Perfect Trifecta in the S.E.L.E.C.T. acronym. What makes the S.E.L.E.C.T. Coaching Method so important that it's part of our name, and worthy of a seperate set of words to describe it, are the psychological approach to understanding the tools players need to excel, the nonconventional things that are taught which stimulate the mental and physical processes of the player, and the genuine passion for these that the head coach brings -- which is rivaled only by his exceptional experience in each.  

We’re talking about an enhanced approach to developing both players and teams, and even coaches. In order to understand how to do this and take the proper steps to see it through, our coaches needed to identify and agree on the problems inherent with many young athlete’s games. The frustrations with these shortcomings is what directly led to the development of our coaching method.  An AAU-team experience without worthwhile teaching and training is just another incomplete series of used days and hours. Unfortunately, there is some façade out there perpetuating itself around many so-called “coaches” in Michigan AAU that the increased level of athleticism a player has, basically means that they don’t need a lot of coaching anymore. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is, these fraudulent people, masquerading as coaches, don’t really know how to teach the modern theories of the complete game, and rely on being able to push and drive young people to achieve victories based solely on their collective skills being greater than those of the opponent. I’m talking about the teams that are “recruited” or “built” to have a greater pool of talent than the other like-aged teams in the state. What  the game then becomes is an athletic contest, a sloppy mess of a game where the fastest (most out-of-control), strongest (most brutish) and skilled (cockiest, group with more swagger) emerge as the victor, more often than not. These kids still have not learned the game, and they’ll go on to college: athletically-gifted, but not knowing the game – to be on a team of athletically-gifted players who DO know the game. And he or she will wonder why she’s not playing.   

What our staff has witnessed (and in a significant way, what sparked the interest for a new approach to this brand of coaching for AAU) is truly painful to watch. This game, which means so very much to us, has degenerated into something else. Basketball is the most overcoached and undertaught game in the world. The evidence is all around us. Players haven’t been pushed and challenged to grasp the essential fundamentals and the intricate principles of the game. Teams don’t know how to break a press, inbound the basketball consistently, recognize a man defense or zone defense, etc. The coaches are to blame. Girls are still shooting the ball from under their chin (or worse, from the center of their chest) and boys are dribbling way, way, WAY too much. In order to win, are AAU coaches (and school coaches, to a lesser extent) teaching these things? No, they resort to what will “quick-fix” the symptom and not the problem: they drop all pretenses of teaching the game and teach kids to  (a) run plays like a bunch of robots, and  (b) press and trap all over the floor to take advantage of their raw athleticism. Sure enough, the individual players became very good at running plays, but not learning how to play. Once the AAU team gets into late-season (Summer) tournament play and the exposure events and nationals, the plays are scouted, and the opponents feature teams with players who DO know how to play this game, and you can guess the result. When Carmen can’t pass from point A to point B, she passes to anyone (hopefully with the same color jersey) who then uses her 1-on-5 skills to force up a shot. With boys, the same script unfolds (albeit, with more dribbling!) 

At an early brainstorming session before the inception of the S.E.L.E.C.T. initiative, our coaches and staff with the most experience were asked what they would do differently if they could scrap everything they’d done before in teaching the game of basketball and start all over. The consensus was a desire to teach our members how to play the entire game by intelligent rules, guiding principles and open-ended concepts, instead of predefined roles, rigid patterns and inflexible, long-standing convention. The natural follow-up question was “Why don’t you do it?” And the honest answer was that we did not believe that all Legion members would possess the dedication, the special mix of opportunity and ability, and the mental capacity to get it. We decided that there would likely be a select few, who would be best served by these lessons – in particular, since these student-athletes would be continuing their playing careers at the collegian level (where they could certainly use what we’d be teaching them.)  This was not a group decision we arrived at arbitrarily. We analyzed data from some of our games and discovered that fewer than 30% of the points scored in an average game were arrived at by all those post-ups, pick-and-rolls, and dribble-penetration schemes so prevalent in today’s game. The 3-out-2-in, 4-out-1-in, Flex, Shuffle and other patterns were also equally as inept. Truth be told, most of our best shots came from plays off of the play (ie: not “Option 1” or Option 2” – but what the defense left open by taking away those options.) We also got a good number of points from transition, and other heady play based on some of the kids understanding (almost intuitively) the highest percentage play; or, the decision most likely to yield a positive result. Now, think about practice time, in general. Probably 80% of the time is spent on these set plays and patterns – instead of the principles of playing basketball, the reads, the counters, the intuitive stuff that the best at every level just do. That needed to be flipped, and that’s what we’re doing.  

WHY DON'T AAU PLAYERS KNOW THE GAME? AREN’T THEY SUPPOSED TO BE THE “BEST OF THE BEST?”

The answer to the first question is: “They sure think they do!” That’s probably one of the first things that most players figure out when they start in our system – they don’t really know a heck of a lot about basketball. Now, they do know some common catchphrases and long-standing tenets of the game. They’ve been passed down to them from their coach, and to their coach from his coach, etc. Or worse from some commentator on ESPN or TNT. We’ve all heard them. Here are a few:   

>>  Fake a pass to make a pass

>>  Use a jab-step to set up your defender -- fake left, go right (or vise-versa)

>>  If your ballhandler teammate is in trouble, give her some help, go to the ball

>>  Never throw the skip pass

>>  As soon as you catch the ball, get into Triple-Threat position

>>  Always use your left foot (or right, for some coaches) as your pivot foot

>>  Always use a power-dribble when you get into the lane

>>  Defenders should be up in the passing lane, deny all receivers that are one-pass-away

>>  Never switch on screens (or always switch on screens, depends on the coach)

>>  Get the ball inbounded quickly before the press can setup

>>  The point guard has to come back and get the ball so we can setup our play

>>  The post player has to get to the block and “get big” (whatever that means)

>>  Always use a bounce pass to feed the post 

>>  Never pass the ball one-handed, always use two hands on all passes

So many of these come from an era where the skill capacity of the athlete was lessened than it is presently. Additionally, the brand of basketball being played was not as physical and fast. Since that time, offenses have become more intricate, and defenses more sophisticated – so that absolutes and doctrines such as these must be open to careful interpretation, if not eliminated altogether. And while it is fair to say that abiding by these statements (and the hundred-or-so others just like them) may not be incorrect; there is no question that doing so is also not most correct.  

There is a chicken-fighting contest out there right now masquerading as a basketball game. What has happened to this game of beauty, of spontaneity, of creativity, etc.? The answer is simple: Today’s players, while perhaps possessing an array of physical gifts and some skill mastery, are not versed in playing true team basketball. Without this understanding, the game suffers, team performance suffers, and individual frustration sets in (which in turn causes individual performance to also suffer.)  

Every year, the new players at our older teams that have been “conditioned” to think the way presented in the prior list; have a lot of unlearning occur. This is not to say that the time spent in learning the game with the school team or for the school coach was bad. It doesn’t mean that your experiences with other AAU teams were not worthwhile. The current approach to basketball development with the vast majority of high school and Michigan AAU teams fails to effectively transition competitive athletes into elite performers. Our coaching method is designed to teach a system that will enable our players and teams to compete against virtually any opponent.  Fun and social connections are the exclusive motivators for AAU's recreational athletes; that is not the primary function for Legion S.E.L.E.C.T. Our members are seeking next-level skill acquisition, learning and improvement, and we use competition to measure our progress. Athletes coached through this system tend to take the game seriously (in the proper context), they train on and off the court, compete to win and continue their career. The end we cooperatively seek, both players and coaches, is for our graduates to possess genuine college potential and ability. Many "raw athletes" on other teams will demonstrate similar characteristics to our members, but their overall training and the things we've coached to them sets the S.E.L.E.C.T. players apart. Elite athletes require special nurturing to maximize their ability. These are the kind of young men and women that make us want to coach more, they're the kind of young people that make us want to coach better.

Most times, when players move to new AAU teams, two problems occur: (1) The game changes from an objective, player-oriented environment; to an adult-centered, ego-based atmosphere centered exclusively on seeking victories and playing lots of games; and (2) Any realistic expectation of coaching, discipline, or routine disappears. There are a few teams out there, with coaches imploring their players to "Run the Play!", a euphemism for “Do exactly what I say with no deviation or thinking on your part, or you are going to sit on the bench.” That's not the way we view our mission in coaching, at all.  Most of AAU basketball exists in a vacuum, with players going season to season, team to team and coach to coach with eyes fixed on the prize, but no plan to get there. Nowhere is the future so omnipresent in players' minds, yet nowhere is less emphasis given to the path to the desired destination. The Legion S.E.L.E.C.T. Coaching System presents a path, our coaches are the guides.

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