JUMPBALL ACTION

Just few times I have heard coaches talking about that issue, even when in Europe according some older rules jumpball was taking place more often. But if you think better, a quick basket from jumpball can give to your team the follow advantages:
-the feeling to your players, to the team, that team work is excellent from the very first second, something that increase their confidence and their energy.
-the chance to your scorer to “warm up” early in the game, something that also increase his confidence.
-the chance to your team to be up from the very first seconds and set a press defense after the quick basket even with your centers.
-you put your opponent in a situation to afraid you from the beginning of the game, especially if you have more than one or two jumpball actions.

Generally speaking, of course we don't talk about something that can play a huge role in the game, but for something that you can build a very small base for the future of the game.

At the following video, you can watch two of my jumpball actions, both of them very successful.

THE ZIG ZAG STEP (EUROSTEP)

The biggest asset of a basketball player is his ability to find solutions on difficult moments through his technique and the combination technique-intelligence. The zig zag step (also called as eurostep) is a very simple move and will often need to have it in our coaching program, as also some other various kinds of movements and finishes. Very simple but very effective and quite usefull!!

EXPLOSIVENESS AND FOOTWORK

I believe that the combination footwork and explosiveness is something that helps extremely the basketball player, so I posted 3 videos with some of these exercises.

In the first video, when coach says "left" the player must make a quick 45 degrees turn to the left and back to the inicial position. With the call "half left" the players must make a 90 degrees turn and back. When the call is "full left" the players must make a 180 degrees turn.
Of course, the calls are also for the right side.
This is an Excellant exercise, which I stole from Coach Missas.


The second video is just a small part of training with band resistance. Of course in the internet you can find milions of drills like these.


The third video is also a small part of training with agility ladder. Believe me youtube is the perfect place for finding tons of drills like these.

VALENCIA

The team that I loved to watch during the last two years from the Spanish ACB league, was Valencia of coach Fotis Katsikaris. His team was playing very discipline and it was obvious that everything was done by coach's plan. Usually, most of the teams use common plays with some little differences, rarely we see something special. But Valencia presented very succesfully a new play with many different options for the final shot.

AEROBIC-INTERVAL TRAINING WITH BASKETBALLS

Both during the preparation and in the regular season , it’s necessary to increase or maintain the aerobic capacity. One way is interval training. The athletic works for a given time period and then is given a certain time for recovery. The time given to the athlete to work depends on what we want them to achieve that day. In the following video you will see an example of interval trainings in basketball. These exercises can vary with or without the ball as well as running exercises. The task at hand is to work 6 exercises for a period of 3 minutes work, and 3 minutes rest, matching a one to one ratio. During each exercise, there may be several changes(change of direction, etc), this is done without any interruption to the drill. The athletes enjoy the exercise more if music is applied into the workout. One idea of adding music to the work out, is insert certain sounds. When an athlete hears the sounds it indicates them to change stations or exercises. By adding this addition to the work out, it helps with time and organization with the drills, so the coach doesn’t have to look at his watch or blow the whistle for change. By having the music as the source of time and change, the coach is able to help set up the next drill, without having to worry about interruptions during the drill.

We divide the players into 2 groups of 6 and perform exercises of 3 minutes. The first group does the exercise while the second group waits for their turn.
Exercise 1: Every minute each couple switches stations so that every station is used in the exercise.
Exercise 2: Every 30 seconds players move from one position to the next.
Exercise 3: The players are in groups of three along the line. Each one shoots, gets the rebound, and pass to their teammate who is coming across to shoot. After 90 seconds the players switch sides of the court.
Exercise 4: The players in a straight line, the run and close out at the 3 point line, sprint to half court, back peddle to the foul line, defense slide from one slide line to the other where they receive the ball and go for lay up at the other basket, and after the lay up they get their rebound bring the ball back and repeat the drill. After 90 seconds they change the direction of the first slide which changes the side of the lay up.
Exercise 5: One player underneath the goal passes to the player standing in the corner of half court. The passer goes to half court. After 90 seconds the direction changes.
Exercise 6:.The players slide from left to right depending on what direction the coach shows. After he shots and the players in groups of 5 or 3 run five fast breaks. After the 5 fast breaks they repeat the same exercise for 3 minutes.

SPECIAL SITUATION

When few seconds are remaining in the game, and one team must score to win or send it to overtime, a special play or strategy must be set. We used to call these situations as “special situations”. We saw such as one during the game of Serbia vs Turkey at the European championships of 2009. 3.4 seconds were left on the shot clock when Serbia scored and tied the game. Immediately, the coach of Turkey, Tanjevic, called a timeout for two reasons. First according to the rules, Turkey, after the timeout, had the right to inbound the ball from the middle line, and second because he wanted to set a “special situation” play. Unfortunately for him, his players didn’t manage to score, but the play that he drew was very nice.

MALTSI’S LAW

It has been a long time since the glory days and big success of Greek Women’s Basketball. Our National Team clinched fifth place at the European Championship. This achievement grants us free entrance to the World Championship of 2010 as well as European Championship of 2011. As a result, we can relax and take a moment to explain some of the facts that got us where we are today. Without doubt a good team consist of many good players. Each player is special and has a specific role on the court but let it be known that the lead scorer will be the player that steps up the level of the team. In a tournament in Italy, before the Eurobasket of 2009, the head coach of Serbia said to me, “it is unbelievable the way some of your players perform when they play with the National team, not only do they play better but they play 500% better…you have this player Maltsi who for me is the Michael Jordan of European Women’s Basketball…”. Although I smiled respectfully and have great respect for Coach Antonic as a coach and a person, a friendship of many many years, his statement at the time seemed exaggerated and tortured my mind. However, today, I can say Coach Antonic was right! Evina Maltsi’s achievements can remind us of none other than the legend Michael Jordan. Back in the day, Jordan was the NBA’s leading scorer exactly as Evina is in our league today. Again like Michael, Evina succeeds as the leading scorer without pursuing it and never bringing anything bad to her team. Back in the day the American superstar took his team by the hand and captured titles, much like Evina’s ability to lead our National team to capture the title of 5th place at this years Championship, making the rest of his non-famous teammates perform 500% better than their abilities--Does this remind you of someone? At the same time Michael Jordan was voted best defender of the NBA. I must say I am so proud of our team and our defense. Our team worked excellent together and stats show our National Team as the best defensive team in the European championship, however I can not personally vote any one player as the best defender. But these same stats show Evina Maltsi as leading in steals as well!!! I consider this a unique and unbelievable thing. The fact that a player can be the leading scorer and first in steels in a big tournament, is what I consider the best athlete and player. Jordan was the NBA’s most valuable player as was Maltsi . All journalists voted her this title except one, I want to find this guy and ask him why and decertify his sports license.
People know a lot about Maltsi based on what they read but the most inspiring character traits about Evina you can not read about. Many people say “basketball MAKES character” I believe it not only makes character but REVEALS character. Basketball is a place where you can see the difference between a coward and someone who is mentally strong, has heart, never gives up, and is a true leader. I’m unsure if Evina’s character was built over the years but for sure through basketball she reveals confidence. She has extreme confidence on and off the court. She is a fighter in basketball and in life. Let us not forget when she was young she left her home in Goumenissa and now she is a European superstar. The best thing about Evina is she listens to her coach, always wanting and willing to learn, and observes what you say to her including body language and tone of voice. This makes her a great guard and serves as only a small example of her ability and determination to observe everything going on around her with the intent to learn from it. She is a true leader that vitalizes the spirit of the team and transfers her experience to other players. She is simply a girl that clamps her rules with her personality. Evina’s law on her team is that everybody must give their best and contribute in scoring. Evina’s law to her opponents is to require the whole defense to be centered around guarding her. Evina’s law outside of basketball is to have fun and make everyone’s life around her more beautiful. Evina’s law after a big win is to dance Sirtaki with her teammates at the center of the court. Evina’s law is to promote Greece through her basketball career. Evina’s law was to make the opening ceremony at Euro basket 2009 more “alive”. Evina’s law is fatigue starts in the mind and she will not allow her mind to beat her body. She thinks it is extremely important to encourage her teammates to understand this concept and control their minds as well. Evina’s law says that you must be passionate about everything you do no matter what you do! After a bad game the law of Evina and her teammate Toula Kalentzou (also a great person) is to post their stats outside their door “the room off 3/20 3 point shots”. She has gained the right to put her law everywhere. It is welcome by everybody because she has earned this right based on her personality and value as a player.
In closing, I would like to clarify my intention is not to glorify Maltsi as much as it is to explain the traits that make a great athlete. It just so happens that Evina Maltsi fits this description exactly, it's the perfect example of showing the meaning of the player's personality and character to the road of his progress, and showing how important is to us (as coaches and as parents) to work on it also. The development of player's personality has the same value as the his/her fuel of desire, willingness to progress, an inner fight, and also the ability of knowing who is he as a player and as a person. I have began to see these same traits in Stella Kaltsidou. Stella is the next big hope of another European superstar from Greece. I have slowly began to see these traits in other players of this generation as well.
I know Evina Maltsi very well and I am sure parallelism to Michael Jordan, though flattering, will not make her feel comfortable. I think her law includes making her own name for herself. I think her law makes us looking at her as not anyone other than EVINA MALTSI FROM GREECE.