Breaking Down The Game.

Okay so hopefully by now we all have our gym work nailed down and are on the court working on our game, so lets move on to the next topic, improving our basketball IQ.

Now I’ll admit, this is probably the hardest bit to improve, but in my opinion its the most necessary part. Its what bring everything together.

I belive there are three keys/ must-do’s when trying to work on your IQ:

1. Visualistion/Imagination while training.
2. Watching/Studying basketball
3. Getting out and playing basketball.

I’ll deal with each one individually.

1. Visualisation/Imagination while training:

It goes without saying, if your practising a move, you NEED to use your imagination and imagine how the defense would react OR how you would be reacting to what the defence does when you make your move.

Visualise their body position, their hands, the spacing of your teammates on the floor, where the help defense will be coming from and what other options could be available, like a kickout pass etc.

Using your imagination while you train might sound a bit stupid and childish, but trust me eventually you’ll start seeing what you visualise while practising when your playing, giving you total control over the situation.

Challenge yourself and give it a try. The ability to visualise is a skill that needs constant practise to build up this mental muscle, so don’t give up if it doesn’t click straight away.

Javale McGee told a story once in an interview about when he watched Rajon Rondo workout, and for the whole hour Rondo ran the exect same play imagining absolutely every pass and situationpossible as result of that play and repping it out.

This visualisation is why hes one of the best passers to ever play the game.

Try it out.

2. Studying the Game:

‘Don’t look at what went well or what happened, look for what else was available or what could’ve been done better.’ – Kobe Bryant

Honestly, studying game film is hard, really hard.

Now, I’m no expert at it, but I have developed a few tricks to making it easier.

A) Follow and use pages that break down nba players, games and plays for you.

Instagram and youtube are full of trainers (like DJ Sackmann/Hoopstudy) and coaches (like Coach Daniel) who break down footwork, moves and plays in great detail and post them on their pages. These will really help you learn different types of footwork and reads, which will hopefully give you the power to pick them out yourself in games when you watch them.

B) Watch out for and break down plays.

The flashy passes and wide open shots or ankle breakers very rarely happen out of nowhere. Most of the time open dunks and shots are the result of a play or screening action.

Also learning the different reads off of the Pick and Roll can make studying film way easier. The defensive big mans coverage of the roller in a pick and roll situation tend to dictate what decision the ball handler makes;

If he sags off = pullup

Steps up to stop the ball handler = lob to roller

Switching = ball handler goes iso or they put the ball in the block

Those are three basic and common scenarios, but the more you study the more keys you will uncover. I wont give everything away, not yet.

Also watch the spacing of all the other players on the floor. Watch out for the shooters and try spot when there open, try find where the help defense is coming from and what the best option is as a result of the help.

C) Study the defence.

Learning to read an individual defender is a massive key. This all starts with the defenses feet and their momentum. Learning and spotting common defensive situations and what sort of attack their vulnerable to will really bring on your IQ in leaps and bounds.

An easy way to do this is like I said earlier; find pages that break this stuff down for you and build from there.

D) Look for what should’ve happenend.

I got this idea from Kobe, and its really helped me when trying to break stuff down. Instead of seeing a good move or read and saying ‘I should do that’ and seeing a turnover or missed shot and saying ‘less of that’, try figure out what could’ve been done better in that turnover situation or missed shot.

E.g:

Was there an open player for a kickout pass and shot instead of trying to force a layup?

Was there a communication breakdown?

How would I have attacked the defence? Was it the right read? Was there poor spacing?

Where did the help come from?

D) Watch full games.

Sure highlights are great, but you get five minutes of a player playing a 48 minute game, and you only see the good stuff. If you really want to get better, watch the full games and you’ll see everything, good and bad.

Theres tons of basketball games on Youtube from all over the world at all different levels, and if you google ‘NBA games free’ you’ll find tons of free NBA streaming sites that’ll allow you access the games all year round.

Also, I don’t watch games live. I watch them the day after so i can pause, rewind and slo-mo to completely break down a game. Sure it takes a long time, but its worth it. Also, get a copy or paper and a pen and make notes of what you see and learn. Personally this helps me remember it better.

3. Get out and hoop.

Whats the point in learning all this stuff and not going out and trying it out?

Once you learn to read defenders and the help defense and spacing get out and hoop and make the effort to spot it yourself while playing.

One of the best places to do this is when playing one on one or pick up or practise games and it can be much tougher in proper competitive games.

Don’t be discouraged if you dont figuring it all out the first time you play. It’ll take time to be able to think in terms of reading players both offensively and defensively while playing at the same time.

But keep trying, it will click eventually.

This post is very vague, but I’ve done this on purpose. I’m trying to give you the basic groundwork to build on studying the game yourself. Its great having someone to do it for you, but being able to pick things out yourself will give you great confidence and really quicken your learning of the game.

All thats to to say is get to it.

Aaron.