Flash versus Fundamentals
The age old question of what skills to work on: Flash or Fundamentals.
As a coach, having a focus of fundamental skills like passing, dribbling, pushing and dribbling are vital to the success of the athlete. In order for the athlete to excel, they will need a foundation of basketball skills to use. There is never an athlete who does not need to work on his/hers mechanics to better advance their gameplay.
If you were to ask young athletes what they wanted to be able to do, they would most likely tell you about the cool trick or play an NBA athlete did during a game. This moment of “Flash” stuck with the individual and is great for selling tickets and merchandise. But is that the only thing it is good for?
Having flash or creating some type of trick move/skills has grown to have a negative shadow because it is not reliable, unpredictable and deemed “showing off”. This should not be the case.
Consider some of the greatest players in the game, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan. All of these men used pass and shot fakes to create opportunities for success. They were so entertaining for fans to watch but their moves were so effective in getting the ball to the right players at the right time with minimal defensive coverage.
As coaches, take a step back and consider your own skills that you teach. Could you develop them further to create some flash that would make the activity more effective and enjoyable for the athlete? Placing focus on pass fakes in practice drills will keep your athletes motivated, interested and alert because if they are not ready to catch the ball, odds are they will catch one in the face!
Adding Pass Fakes, Shot Fakes, Behind-the-Back dribbling/passing and other under-utilized “flash” into normal drills you use, will bring new life to the drills and will cause athletes to expand their minds to the idea of new, creative skills to their game.
