JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2006 18 ASSIST FOR … · EDITORIAL by Bob Elphinston 3 COACHES FUNDAMENTALS AND YOUTH BASKETBALL Man-to-Man Offense: Passing Game 6 by Hal Wissel Strategic Planning

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hal wisselMAN-TO-MAN OFFENSE: PASSING GAME

oktay mahmutIDEFENSE: A TEAM CONCEPT

alberto garciaCOMMENTS ON UNSPORTSMANLIKE FOUL

peter frickerThe Australian Institute of Sport

bill foranLOWER BODY STRETCHES

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DUSAN IVKOVIC

HOW TO STARTTHE GAME

SHARINGKNOWLEDGEIS ESSENTIAL

For basketball to maintain its popularity andgrow it further in the less developed countriesof the world, the sharing of quality informationand the .." ability to learn from each other" isvital in this modern world.

The FIBA Assist Magazine, in a short time ofthree years, has done a wonderful job in provi-ding a wide range of quality written articlesdealing with all facets important in the ongoingdevelopment of our great sport.

I congratulate Editor-in-Chief Giorgio Gandolfi,his staff, the FIBA Staff and most importantlythe FIBA Basketball family for regularly produ-cing excellent quality ideas and information oncoaching, officiating, administration, marke-ting, sports medicine, doping and youth deve-lopment.

Each issue, I am always impressed with the wil-lingness of our top coaches across the worldbeing prepared to share their ideas, playing,coaching and training concepts, as we saw thehead coaches of Germany and Greece do in theDecember 2005 Issue, following on their greatsuccesses in Eurobasket 2005 in Belgrade.

Led by the talented and energetic FIBA Staff,FIBA is now producing first class guides, DVDs,manuals, videos and publications, all aimed atproviding high quality information in an easy toread, view or listen style, drawing on the exper-tise of many of the global experts in basket-ball.The recently produced DVDs in coachingand officiating should be accessed by all

FIBA ASSIST MAGAZINE | 18 2006 | PAGE 03

EDITORIAL

National Federations and their member clubs.

The FIBA Organiser, a software package, andthe Manual for National Federations, nowprovides member federations of FIBA and themember clubs and associations, a uniqueopportunity in accessing "leading edge infor-mation", rarely seen in any other InternationalSports Federation or International VolunteerOrganisation.

The year 2006 will also be a great one forbasketball enthusiasts across our 212Member Federations with the 24 Team Men’sWorld Championships in Japan and the the 16Team Women’s World Championships inBrazil in August/September.

The standard of play is expected to be thehighest ever, as will the extent of televisioncoverage across the five continents.

The FIBA World Ranking System will be welltested when the "best of the best" meet inintense competition to find the FIBA WorldChampions and the automatic qualifiers forthe Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Keep up to date with FIBA BASKETBALLacross the five continents throughwww.fiba.com

Bob Elphinston OAM President - FIBA Oceania First Vice-President FIBA

EDITORIALby Bob Elphinston 3

COACHESFUNDAMENTALS AND YOUTH BASKETBALLMan-to-Man Offense: Passing Game 6by Hal Wissel

Strategic Planning for the Brazilian Men's National Team 11by Aluisio (Lula) Ferreira

OFFENSEBaseline Out-Of-Bounds Series 14by Lon Kruger

How to Start the Game 19by Dusan Ivkovic

deFENSE Defense: a Team Concept 24by Oktay Mahmuti

Man-to-Man Defense with Traps 28by Ioannis Ioannidis

PSYCHOLOGY AND MOTIVATIONSix Ways to Win with Better Team Captains 33by Jeff Janssen

PAGE 04 | 18 2006 | FIBA ASSIST MAGAZINE

FIBA ASSIST MAGAZINE IS A PUBLICATION OF FIBAInternational Basketball Federation8, CH. Blandonnet, 1214 Vernier/GenevaSwitzerlandTel. +41-22-545.0000, Fax +41-22-545.0099www.fiba.come-mail: [email protected]

IN COLLABORATION WITH Giganti-BT&M,Cantelli Editore, ItalyPARTNER WABC (World Association of Basketball Coaches), Dusan Ivkovic PresidentEDITOR-IN-CHIEFGiorgio GandolfiEditorial Office: Cantelli Editore, V. Saliceto 22/E, 40013 Castel Maggiore(BO), Italy, Tel. +39-051-6328811, Fax +39-051 6328815E-mail: [email protected]

THE MISSIONOur objective is to help basketball grow globallyand improve in every aspect. Our goal is to pro-duce a technical publication of the highest level,but one that is easily understood and apprecia-ted by everyone. An ample section of the maga-zine is devoted to the coaches - more precisely,youth level coaches - because coaches compri-se the largest part of our readership. Basketballcan improve only if every aspect of this sportimproves and moves forward. For this reasonthe magazine is also devoted to topics of interestfor team executives, referees, doctors, conditio-ning coaches, trainers, and mini-basketballinstructors, as well as national Federations,FIBA Zones, Leagues and teams.

The magazine is published 6 times per year.FIBA, Cantelli Editore and the Editor-in-Chief arenot responsible for the opinions expressed in thearticles. All rights reserved. The National Federation and their affiliates canreproduce any part or all the magazine for theirinternal use, but not sell any part or all of themagazine to an external publisher without thewritten permission of FIBA. All information in this publication is provided asnews matter only and is not to be used to viola-te any local or national laws.

Printed in Italy.

Copyright 2006 by FIBA.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSWe would like to thank the following persons:Corrado de Belvis, Lisa Cavallini, GeraldCouzens, and Raffaele Imbrogno; SteveHenson, assistant coach of UNLV, for thecooperation for the article of coach Kruger;Human Kinetics for the permission topublish the article of coach Wissel.

AN INVITATION TO OUR READERSNo matter what the level of competition you areconcerned about, we invite you (coaches, FIBAZones, Federations, Leagues, and team executi-ves, referees, doctors, trainers, conditioningcoaches, minibasket instructors, journalists) tosend articles to us for publication. The articlemust be no longer than 5/6,000 characters, spa-ces included. If diagrams of plays, drills or sket-ches are used, please limit them to 12 or less. Allmanuscripts must be written in English, trans-mitted by e-mail or faxed to the Editorial Officelisted above. The manuscript will become pro-perty of the Publisher and the author will auto-matically be granted the rigths of publication,without asking any fee now or in the future. TheEditorial Staff will decide if and when articleswill be published. There is no guarantee thatmanuscripts will be published, nor willl manus-cripts be returned.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

2006 FIBA CALENDARFebruary

01 - 28.02 South American League for Men's Clubs

19.02 NBA All-Star Game in Houston, Texas, USA

March

15 - 26.03 Basketball Tournament of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia

14 + 21.03 Finals of the FIBA EuroCup Women (sites tbd)

16 + 23.03 Finals of the FIBA EuroCup Challenge (sites tbd)

31.03 - 02.04 Final Four FIBA EuroLeague Women (site tbd)

31.03 - 01.04 FIBA Central Board Meeting in Hong Kong

APRIL

01 - 03.04 NCAA Men's Final Four in Indianapolis, USA

01 - 02.04 NCAA Women's Final Four inBoston, USA

07 - 09.04 FIBA EuroCup Final Four (site tbd)

28 - 30.04 Euroleague Final Four in Prague, Czech Republic

NATIONAL COACHES ASSOCIATIONSSerbia and Montenegro Basketball Coaches Association 35by Mirko Polivina and Mirko Ocokoljic

HOOP MARKETA Shooting Expert: Hal Wissel 38by Raffaele Imbrogno

REFEREES, SCORER’S TABLEAND COMMISSIONERSSee the Whole Play 40by Fred Horgan

Comments on Unsportsmanlike Foul 43by Alberto Garcia

Right or Wrong? 46

SPORT MARKETING AND MANAGEMENTEXECUTIVES AND MARKETINGThe Australian Institute of Sport 47by Peter Fricker

The Modern Sports Club 52by Enzo Lefebre

FIBA RESEARCH AND STUDY CENTRENew Technologiesby Karen Strahl, FIBA Study Centre 57

DOCTORS, CONDITIONING COACHES AND TRAINERSCONDITIONING COACHESLower Body Stretches 59by Bill Foran and Vincent Aquilino

trainersBirthdate and Basketball Success 64by Santiago Esteva, Francek Drobnic,

Jordi Puigdellìvol, and Luis Serratosa

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE:A one-year (6 issues) subscription to

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May

19 - 23.05 FIBA Women's World League, Preliminary Round Group A, P.R. of China

31.05 - 08.06 Asian Champions Cup for Men in Kuwait

June

02 - 04.06 FIBA Women's World League, Preliminary Round Group B, Pecs, Hungary

28.06 - 02.07 FIBA Americas U18 Championship in San Antonio, USA

July

09 - 17.07 FIBA Asia U18 Championship in the P.R. of China

August

10 - 15.08 Stankovic Continental Champions Cup in Nanjing, P.R. of China

19.08 - 03.09 FIBA World Championship for Men in Japan

28 - 29.08 FIBA World Congress in Tokyo, Japan

September

12 - 23.09 FIBA World Championship for Women in Brazil

October

10 - 15.10 FIBA Women's World League Final, in Yekaterinburg, Russia


FIBA EUROPE

by Hal Wissel

COACHES - FUNDAMENTALS AND YOUTH BASKETBALL

Hal Wissel coached SpringfieldCollege, North Carolina-Charlotte,Florida Southern, Fordham,Lafayette and Trenton State. He wasalso assistant coach of Atlanta,Milwaukee, New Jersey, andMemphis of the NBA. He foundedthe Basketball World, an agencywho organizes camps and clinics,and is author of two books and twonew DVDs, "Basketball Shooting:Confidence, Rhythm andMechanics", and "BasketballShooting: Off the Pass, Off theDribble and In the Post"(www.basketballworld.com).

The passing game, or motion offen-se, is one of the most popular man-to-man offenses in basketball. In thepassing game players are guidedmore by principles than by a strictset of specific assigned responsibili-ties. Every player should learn toexecute the passing game becauseit teaches team play and is an offen-se used by mant teams.The passing game can be startedfrom a variety of offensive forma-tions, or sets, including the 3-2, 2-3,1-3-1, 2-1-2, and 1-4. The 3-2 openset, also called the spread formation,is the most basic formation for lear-ning to play team offense. It involvesthree perimeter players and twobaseline players. The point positionis above the top of the circle. Thewing positions (players 2 and 3) areat the imaginary foul line extendedon each side. The baseline positions(players 4 and 5) are at the midpointbetween the corner and the basketon each side.The 3-2 open set encourages versa-tility rather than forcing players intorestricted roles as center, powerforward, small forward, shootingguard, or point guard. It gives each

player the opportunity to handle theball, cut, screen, and move outsideand inside. The 3-2 set provides ini-tial structure and spacing that allowplayers to execute basic two- andthree-person plays and plays invol-ving all five players, such as a five-player weave or five-player five-and-go offense.When executing the passing game,keep in mind these basic principlesof good teamwork.

TALKCommunication is key to all aspectsof team offense. The passing gameis not a set play offense, and playersare not assigned a specific set ofresponsibilities. Therefore, continualcommunication between playersbecomes especially important whenexecuting the passing game.

SEE THE RIMBy having the rim in view, you seethe entire court. When you have theball, keep the rim in view and look forteammates cutting to the basket,posting up, and cutting off screens.When you do not have the ball, youshould have the rim and the playerwith the ball in view.

MAINTAIN SPACING AND COURT BALANCEStart in an open formation withplayers spread 15 to 20 feet (from m.4,5 to m. 6) apart. Space yourselfhigh at the top, wide on the wing,and at the midpoint between thebasket and corner on the baseline.

BACKDOOR CUT WHEN OVERPLAYEDWhen overplayed by a defender,who denies you the pass, make abackdoor cut all the way to thebasket. When backdoor cuts areused frequently, the passing game

MAN-TO-MANOFFENSE: PASSING GAME

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becomes a great offense for beatingpressure defenses.

FLASH BEETWEEN THE PASSER ANDOVERPLAYED RECEIVERWhen a defender denies your team-mate the pass and you are the nextplayer away from the receiver, auto-matically flash to an open areabetween the passer and the over-played receiver. Flashing to the ballhelps relieve defensive pressure onyour teammates by giving the passeranother outlet. A flash can not onlyprevent a possible turnover, but alsocan create a scoring opportunity ifthe overplayed receiver combines itwith a well-timed backdoor cut.

KEEPTHE MIDDLE OPENWhen you cut to the basket and donot receive the pass, you shouldcontinue on through and fill an openspot on the side of the court withfewer players. This will keep themiddle open and the floor balanced.Do not stay in the post area for morethan one count.

MOVE TO A VACATED SPOT QUICKLYWhen you are the next player awayfrom a cutting player, quickly move tothe vacated spot. It is especiallyimportant to replace a player whohas cut from the point or top position.To replace the player at the point, cuthigh above the three-point line, crea-ting a better passing angle to receivea swing pass from a wing and a bet-ter angle to reverse the ball to theweak side. This will also force thedefense to cover more of the court,thus providing more space for cut-ting, driving, and posting up.

KNOWYOUR OPTIONS ATTHE WING POSITIONWhen you are on the wing, youroptions are to catch and shoot withinyour rhythm and range or to continueyour cut out wide.When you catch the ball outside ofyour range, look to pass inside to acutter or player posting up. On thewing, hold the ball for a count or twoto give cutters and post-up playerstime to get open. If you are unable topass to an open teammate cuttin orposting up, look to penetrate andpass (draw-and-kick) or try to balan-ce the court by quickly dribbling tothe point. Look to pass to a baselineplayers only if that teammate is openfor a catch-and-shoot jump shot

within rhythm and range or canmake an easy pass to a player cuttininside or posting up. You can movethe ball more quickly if you swing itfrom wing to point to wing and keepit off the baseline.

KNOWYOUR OPTIONS ATTHE POINT POSITIONWhen you are at the point position,your options, in order, are to reversethe ball quickly to the weak side, lookinside for a pass to a post-up player,penetrate and pass (draw-and-kick),or fake a pass to the weak side andmake a quick snapback pass to thewing on the side from which youreceived the pass.

KNOWYOU OPTIONS ATTHE BASELINE POSITIONWhen you are at a baseline position,look to set up your defender for a cutoff a down screen or set a back pickfor a wing player. On the baseline,you should be especially alert toflash to the ball when a wing isdenied the pass. Look to receive apass on the baseline only when youare in an open catch-and-shootposition within your rhythm andrange or can make an easy pass to aplayer cutting inside or posting up.The ball can be moved more quicklyif it is kept off the baseline.

KNOWYOUR OPTIONS AS A POST-UP PLAYERWhen you receive the ball in the lowpost, read th defense and look toscore before passing out to a peri-meter player. When you do not recei-ve a pass in the low post, look to seta back pick for a perimeter player.After setting the pick, pop out toreceive a pass on the perimeter for apossible jump shot within you rhythmand range.

MAINTAIN REBOUNDING AND DEFENSIVE BALANCEOn a shot inside, players shouldrebound, while the point guard andanother outside player should getback for defensive balance. Whenyou take a shot outside of the lanearea, you should get back for defen-sive balance. Any time the player atthe point drives to the basket, playersat the wings should get back fordefensive balance.

A member of your team, usually thepoint guard, signals the start of the

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passing game with a simple verbalcall such as "Passing game" or"Motion" or with a hand signal suchas circling one finger upward. Thebest way to start is to pass the ballto the wing and then work together,using basic passing game actions.After receiving a pass on the wing,you should be a triple threat topass, shoot, or drive to the basket.On a drive, look to score or to pene-trate and pass (draw-and-kick)inside or outside to an open team-mate.When the ball is at the point, theclosest wing player should initiatemovement by cutting through tocreate an opena area for a baseli-ne player, who will cut to the wingfor a pass from the point (diagr. 1).When you are at the point and can-not pass to the wing, initiate move-ment by dribbling at the wing andusing a dribble screen or weaveaction (diagr. 2).Some of the basic actions used inthe passing game are the back-door cut, flash, give-and-go, drib-ble screen or weave, down screen,back pick, elbow curl, crossscreen, pick-and-roll, and draw-and-kick.

BACKDOOR CUTYou should automatically use abackdoor cut any time you areoverplayed by a defender and pre-vented from receiving a pass. Youshould also use a backdoor cutwhen your defender's head is tur-ned away from you, causing amomentary loss of visual contact.Use a designated key word suchas "Eyeball" to signal the passerthat you are going backdoor. Thedesignated word indicates that youwill continue your backdoor cut tothe basket once you start it. Whenyou are on the wing, set up yourdefender by taking a step abovethe foul line extended (diagr. 3), orwhen you are at the point, by takinga step above the free throw circle(diagr. 4). After receiving the pass,look to shoot, drive to the basket fora lay-up, or penetrate and pass(draw-and-kick).

FLASHAny time you see a teammatebeing denied the pass and you arethe next player away, you shouldautomatically flash to an open area

between the passer and over-played receiver. Flashing to the ballrelieves defensive pressure onyour teammates by giving the pas-ser another outlet. A flash can notonly prevent a possible turnover,but combined with a well-timedbackdoor cut by the overplayedreceiver, can also create a scoringopportunity. Signal your flash cutwith the key word "Flash". As youreceive the pass, look to pass toyou overplayed teammate cuttingbackdoor to the basket. If yourteammate is covered on the back-door cut, front turn into a triple-threat position for a possible shot,drive to the basket, or pass. Flashhigh when your teammate is pre-vented from receiving a pass onthe perimeter (diagr. 5). You canalso flash to the high post whenyour teammate is being fronted inthe low post (diagr. 6), and you canflash to the low post if your team-mate is being denied at the highpost (diagr. 7).

GIVE-AND-GOThe give-and-go (diagr. 8) is themost basic play in basketball. Give(pass) the ball to your teammateand go (cut) to the basket, lookingto receive a return pass for a lay-up. Read and set up your defenderwith a well-timed fake before thecut. Fake by taking a step or twoaway from the ball (as if you are notinvolved in the play). Then, as yourdefender moves with you, changedirection sharply and use a frontcut to the basket. Another way tofake is by taking a step or twotoward the ball as if you are goingto set a screen for or take a handofffrom the player with the ball. Asyour defender moves with you,change direction sharply and malea backdoor cut behind. Diagram 8and 9 show a five player give-and-go offensive pattern.

DRIBBLE SCREEN OR WEAVEA dribble screen is set by dribblingtoward a teammate and screeningthe defender while handing off theball to a teammate. On a dribblescreen, the defensive reactionusually will be for the screener'sdefender to give defensive help orswitch.Before receiving the handoff, readthe defensive positioning. When

FIBA EUROPECOACHES - FUNDAMENTALS AND YOUTH BASKETBALL


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your defender attempts to preventthe handoff by getting in your path,make a backdoor cut to the basket.After you receive a handoff on a drib-ble screen, read the defense. If thedefenders do not switch and yourdefender is slow getting over thescreen, turn the corner and drive tothe basket. If your defender slidesbehind the screen, look to take theoutside shot, go at least two dribblespast the screen and pass back to thescreener, either rolling to the basketor popping out.One way to defend the dribblescreen is for the dribble screener's


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defender to jump switch into thepath of the receiver with the intentof drawing a charge or changingthe direction of the player receivingthe ball. To combat the jump switchafter the handoff, make a short 5- to10-foot (from m. 1,5 to m. 3) cut to anopen area and look for a quickreturn pass. If you anticipate a jumpswitch, fake the handoff and driveto the basket.Another way to defense may try toovercome the dribble screen is forboth defenders to trap the playerreceiving the ball on the handoff. Ifthe defenders trap you, retreat drib-ble to stretch the defense and thenpass to your teammate, making ashort 5- to 10-foot (from m. 1,5 to m.3) cut to an open area. The defense will then be outnumbe-red, and the player with the ball willbe able to drive or pass to an openteammate for a shot.The dribble screen is used to exe-cute a weave (diagr. 10 and 11), abasic play in basketball. A weaveinvolves at least three players whoset dribble screen for each other. Itstarts with a dribble screen andhandoff to your teammate. Afterreceiving the handoff, shoot frombehind the screen, drive to thebasket, or continue the weave bydribbling toward another teammatefor another dribble screen and han-doff. The weave continues until youor a teammate can take advantageof an opening for a shot or drive tothe basket.

DOWN SCREENA screen is set by a player scree-ning down for a teammate is calleda down screen. By setting a downscreen for a teammate, you createa scoring opportunity. Your team-mate can cut off your down screento get open to receive a pass for ashot or drive. If your defender swit-ches to your cutting teammate, youwill be on the ball side of the defen-der you screened, momentarilyopen. Taking a few steps toward thebasket before setting the screenenables you to get a better angle onthe defender. You want the defen-der to go under the pick. As you setthe down screen, communicatewith your teammate by using adesignated key word such as"Down".Use one of the four basic options forcutting off a screen, depending on

how it is defended: pop-out, curl,backdoor cut, and fade. Be patient.Wait until the screen is set to pre-vent an illegal moving block, andread how the defense is playing it.Before using the screen, slowly setup your move off it. Set a good anglefor cutting off the screen by firstmoving slowly in the direction yourdefender plays you and then cuttingoff the screen in the opposite direc-tion. Cut far enough away from thescreen so that one defender cannotguard both you and the screener.This creates space for a pass to thescreener if there is a defensiveswitch.When you cut off a screen correc-tly, the screener's defender usuallywill give defensive help or switch. Ifyou cut to the outside, the screenerwill be free to roll in toward thebasket and receive a pass for aninside shot. If you cut to the basket,the screener becomes free to popout and receive a pass for an outsi-de shot (diagr. 12).

BACK PICKWhen you screen for a teammateby setting a pick behind the team-mate's defender, it is called a backpick or up screen (diagr. 13). By set-ting a back pick for a teammate, youcreate the opportunity for either theteammate or you to score. Yourteammate can cut off your backpick to get open to receive a passfor a lay-up or drive. If your defen-der switches to the cutter, you willbe on the ball side of your teamma-te's defender, free to pop out to theball to receive a pass for a jumpshot. Take a few steps toward thebasket to get a better angle on thedefender you will back pick, com-municating to your teammate byshouting a designated key wordsuch as "Up".Make sure you set a legal screen.With a back pick, you are notallowed to be closer than a normalstep from a stationary opponent ifthat opponent is unaware of yourscreen. You also may not be soclose that a moving opponent can-not avoid contact whitout changingdirection or stopping. Your oppo-nent's speed determines what yourscreening position may be. Thisposition will vary and might be oneto two normal steps away.As with the down screen, wait untilthe back pick is set before cutting


off it to prevent an illegal screen and toread the defense. Slowly set up your moveoff the screen for a good angle before youcut hard off it in the opposite direction. Ifyou cut to be basket with a front cut orbackdoor cut, the screener will be free topop out and receive a pass for an outsideshot, the screener should cut to the basket.The four basic options for cutting off aback pick, depending on how it is defen-ded, are the front cut, backdoor cut, pop-out, and fade.

ELBOW CURLWhen you set a down screen for a team-mate positioned at the elbow, your team-mate should look to curl off your downscreen. On an elbow curl (diagr. 14), yourdefender usually will give defensive helpor switch. This momentarily frees you topop out and receive a pass for a jump shot.The elbow curl is best used when a smal-ler player sets a down screen at the elbowfor a bigger player. The bigger player cancurl to the basket and the smaller playercan pop out for a catch-and-shoot jumpshot. To set the screen for an elbow curl,again take a few steps toward the basketto get a better angle on the defender.Signal to your teammate to curl off yourdown screen by shouting the word "curl".

CROSS SCREENA cross screen (diagr. 15 and 16) is set bystarting on one block and screeningacross the lane for a teammate at theopposite block. On a cross screen, thescreener's defender usually reacts bygiving defensive help or switching.When you cut off a cross screen, youshould read the defensive positioning andcut either over or under the screen. Whenyou set a cross screen and your teamma-te cuts low to the block by cutting over orunder the cross screen, you should popout high to the elbow area and receive apass for an outside shot. If your teammateflashes high to the elbow to receive a passfor an outside shot, you should roll back tothe ball-side block.

PICK-AND-ROLLThe pick-and-roll (diagr. 17), another basicbasketball play, gets its name from theaction. Your set a pick (screen) for yourteammate, who dribbles past it for an out-side shot or drive. If your defender swit-ches to your teammate, you will momenta-rily be inside the defender you screenedand free to roll toward the basket, lookingto receive a return pass from the dribblerfor a lay-up. Four options with the pick-and-roll, depending on how it is defended,are pick-and-roll, pick-and-pop, slip (early

release), and stretch-the trap. Diagram 17 shows the basic option whendefenders switch.

DRAW-AND-KICKWhen you penetrate past a defender and ateammate's defender leaves to give defen-sive help on you, an open passing lane toyour teammate is created. This action of penetrating and passing iscalled "draw-and-kick". Always be alert for an opportunity to drivepast a defender to score or create an openshot for a teammate whose defender isdrawn to you. Also look for an opening orgap between two defenders to penetratewith one or two dribbles and draw thedefenders to you.Effective use of the draw-and-kickdepends on judging well when and whereto penetrate. But it also depends onplayers without the ball moving to openspots. Because the passing gamedepends primarily on moving the ball, over-dribbling becomes counterproductive. Thedraw-and-kick is best used from the wingafter a swing of the ball from ball side toweak side. Penetrating options include dri-ving to the basket, shooting an in -betweenrunner (pull-up jump shot), penetrating andpassing inside (diagr. 18), and penetratingand passing outside (diagr. 19).

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FIBA EUROPE

by Aluisio (Lula)Ferreira

COACHES - FUNDAMENTALS AND YOUTH BASKETBALL

Aluisio (Lula) Ferreira is the head coach ofthe Brazilian Men's and Youth Nationalteams. He won a gold and a silver medalwith the Junior teams at the SouthAmerican Championships, two silvermedals at the FIBA Pan-American Gameswith the Men's team, and one silver medalat the FIBA South AmericanChampionships.

DEFINITION OF TARGETS AND AIMS The Brazilian Basketball Confederationdefined participation in the BeijingOlympics in 2008 as a great target for themen's team. With many teams fighting forthe podium in the major international com-petitions, the objective we proposeddemanded detailed strategic planning ifwe are to be successful. Considering thisis a new generation in Brazilian basket-ball, some strategic measures are absolu-tely necessary. First of all, it is important todefine exactly the paths which can leadBrazil to a spot in the Olympics, establi-shing targets for each of the stages.These targets include:

2005 FIBA Americas ChampionshipWorld Championship Qual. Tournament Dominican RepublicThe aim in this competition was to takethe group of players-which can play in theOlympic Qualifying tournament in 2007-and have them grow as a team and gaininternational experience. The other targetwas winning the gold medal in order togive confidence to the group, which hasan average of 22 years old. As a third aim,we wanted to qualify the Brazilian teamfor the FIBA World Championship in 2006.We reached this aim.

2006 FIBA World Championship-Japan The target is to reach the podium, since thewinning a medal will enhance the players'confidence and consolidate the group as awinning team. Another aim is to take thebest players, especially those who play inthe NBA and Europe, while at the same

STRATEGIC PLANNINGFOR THE BRAZILIANMEN'S NATIONALTEAM

time keeping up the work we initiated forthe FIBA America's Cup in 2005.

2007 FIBA Pan-American Games-BrazilThe aim is to win gold for the third con-secutive time and lets this serve as apreparation base for the FIBA America'sCup 2007, which qualifies the team forthe Olympics. Since the competition willbe held in Brazil, it can reinforce the win-ning image for players and the Brazilianpublic. Another target is to keep theteam, which was selected from the FIBA

America's Cup 2005, making the neces-sary adjustments regarding the technicalpart (players selection), tactics (gamephilosophy), and strategy (how to use theavailable resources).

2007 FIBA Americas Championship Olympic Qualifying Tournament This is, without any doubt, the most impor-tant competition in order to reach the finaltarget, which is a spot in the BeijingOlympics in 2008. We foresee more than50 international games, from 2005 to the



Olympic Qualifying tournament in 2007.Our second goal is to finish in the FIBAAmericas Championship in at least fifthplace, which would secure Brazil a spotin the World Olympic QualifyingTournament, which will be played in 2008and will indicate the three last countries,which will be represented in theBasketball Tournament of the Olympics.

WORKING PROCEDURESThe Brazilian technical staff is formedby a multidisciplinary team, as shown inthe diagram of page 13:

To assure the work is well done, plan-ning meetings take place with all thetechnical staff to ensure that all mem-bers have the same work philosophyand understand all the tasks that mustbe performed. The technical staff must:▼ Select players.▼ Follow the performances of the

candidates.▼ Select technical practices for the

games. ▼ Select tactical moves for defense

and offense.▼ Collect videos of games involving

possible opponents.▼ Define the game philosophy. ▼ Organize the training plan.▼ Organize the planning of prepara-

tion matches.▼ Edit tapes of the Brazilian team and

their opponents.▼ Systematically evaluate the plan-

ning development.▼ Constantly exchange information

amongst staff members.▼ Participate of all reunions with

other Brazilian coaches andBrazilian Basketball FederationDirectors.

STRATEGIC PLANNINGThis is the most important and delicatesector of the project because it defineshow all the available resources will beused.Winning the gold medal at the FIBAOlympic Qualifying Tournament is apriority for Brazilian basketball.Achieving that goal will depend on: ▼ Selecting the best players.▼ Having a specific training period to

prepare the team. ▼ Playing 8 to 10 friendly matches to

make the final adjustments. ▼ Playing the games in Brazil to gain

and maintain public recognition andsupport.


▼ Correcting mistakes made at the 2003Olympic Qualifying Tournament in PuertoRico (rushing shots and poor three-pointshooting percentage).

▼ Making team matters a top priority. ▼ Maintaining national spirit, the pride of

playing for Brazil. ▼ Forging player talents to the needs of the

group.

All these points were exhaustively debated bythe technical staff in meetings prior to the trai-ning period, and it became very clear that itwas up to the players selected for the team thatwould ultimately help us achieve our goals.

GAME PHILOSOPHYThe technical staff defined that the Brazilianstyle of play should respect our main wea-

THE BRAZILIAN TECHNICAL STAFF

pons, which are our player's speed andcreativity. However, in order to win, thereshould be tactical discipline and respectto some important rules. Therefore, theteam should play with creativity andresponsibility. Developing this way ofplaying brings what all teams look for:consistency, which transmits to positiveresults. The following targets were defined as theones we wanted to achieve: Game volume(number of shots attempted) around 175points with the following distribution: 20three-point shots, converting from 35% to40%; 45 field goals, converting from 55% to60%; and 25 free-throws, converting over80%. With the team achieving between50% and 55%, the final score will bearound 90 points.

On defense, our goal is to limit the oppo-nents to 80 points per game. Emphasis hasto be on defensive rebounding, keepingthe opponent from a second shot at thebasket. In order to ensure a positive performance,turnovers have to be limited. Our goal is 12turnovers per game.These goals must serve as a reference pointfor the technical staff to direct its work. Theplayers must execute their actions on thecourt, receiving all kinds of instruction andinformation from the technical staff in orderto achieve our ultimate goal.

CONCLUSIONConsidering that the initial target-win-ning the FIBA America's Cup-was achie-ved, this stage was very important for theformation of the team that will representBrazil in the fight for a place in the nextOlympic Games. The numbers achievedin the games were very close to our idealtargets. This tells us that our planning isheading in the right direction and that aswe move towards qualification for theOlympics, we will review and adjust ourstrategy as needed.


FIBA EUROPE

by Lon Kruger

COACHES - OFFENSE

For the past two seasons, Lon Krugerhas been coach at the University ofNevada-Las Vegas. Previously, he hadhad been the head coach of the NBAAtlanta Hawks and an assistant coachof the New York Knicks. At the collegelevel he was on the bench of PanAmerican University, Kansas State,Florida, and Illinois. He won the goldmedal with the U.S. Junior Nationalteam at the FIBA Junior WorldChampionship in 1991, as well as thegold medal when he coached the U.S.University National team at theUniversity Games in 1995. As an assi-stant coach, he won the bronze medalwith the U.S. Men's national team at theFIBA Men's World Championship in1998 and at the FIBA Pan AmericanGames in 1983.

We have done a very good job executingour baseline out-of-bounds series in thepast. We must continue to improve inthis area and introduce new looks thatwill increase the effectiveness of ourseries.

The series is designated by a numberand an action. The first number designa-tes the receiver of the inbounds pass.The second number designates thereceiver of the guard-to-guard pass. Theaction is designated by the second partof the call, which will be described in amoment. It is imperative that we get tothe proper spots on the court to receivethe inbounds pass and execute theaction.

▼ The first number (receiver of theinbounds area) must catch the passin the catch area. This is an areaaround the elbow extended on theside of the inbounder.

▼ The second number (receiver of theguard-to-guard pass) must catch theswing pass, even with the catch areaon the opposite side of the free-throw lane.

It is very important that the properreceiver makes himself available tocatch the ball in the proper area at thetime the passer is ready to make thepass. We should also understand that thepass does not have to go directly to thecatch area from the out-of-boundspass. If the defense takes this possiblepass away, the ball can go through thecorner to the catch area and we stillhave the same action.

ACTIONS1. Strong. The big man not involved in

the call comes off a shuffle cut set bythe point guard stepping inbounds.The receiver of the inbounds passscreens down on the point guard.

2. Weak. As the ball is swung, thereceiver of the inbounds pass recei-ves a flair screen from the big mannot involved in the call.

3. Counter. If the swing pass is over-played, the receiver of the guard-to-guard pass steps his man up thefloor and cuts backdoor for the lay-up or the lob. Players not involved inthe back cut must get their defen-ders up the floor.

4. Triple. The smallest player not invol-ved in the call runs a baseline chaseoff three screens for a shot (probablya 3-pointer). The shooter will start inthe widest position opposite theinbounder.

BASELINE OUT-OF-BOUNDSSERIES


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FIBA EUROPECOACHES - OFFENSE


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5. Weak Dive. In the weak action, afterthe ball has been thrown over thetop of the flair screen, the passerdives to the open area of the lane.

42 STRONG▼ 4 is the receiver in the catch area.▼ 2 is the receiver of the guard-to-

guard pass.▼ 5 and 3 are out of the three-point

line.▼ 1 passes to 4 and goes to the low-

post position, while 2 fakes to cutinto the lane and comes out of thethree-point line (diagr. 1).

▼ 4 swings the ball to 2, while 5 comesoff a shuffle screen from 1 and goesto low post on the other side of thearea. After the cut of 5, 4 screensdown on 1 (screen the screener). 2can pass to 5, to 1, or to 4 (diagr. 2).

It is important that we catch the ball inthe catch areas. It is also important forthe receivers to get free when the pas-ser is in a position to pass the ball.

24 WEAK▼ 2 receives the pass in the catch

area.


▼ 4 receives the guard-to-guardpass.

▼ 3 and 5 are out at the three-pointline.

▼ After the pass, 1 goes to theopposite side, in the low-postposition (diagr. 3).

▼ 2 swings the ball to 4.▼ 5 sets a flair screen for 2.▼ 5 reads the defense: if his defen-

der jumps out, 5 slips the screento the basket. 2 can pass to 1, to5, or to 3, and 3 can pass to 1 inlow post (diagr. 4).

43 COUNTER▼ 4 receives in the catch area.

After the pass, 1 goes out to thethree-point line.

▼ 3 pops to swing area, taking hisdefender high.

▼ 2 steps his man up the lane. 5 isout at the three-point line(diagr. 5).

▼ 3 takes his man up the court andcuts for a lob pass (diagr. 6).

43 TRIPLE▼ 4 catches the ball in the catch

area.▼ After the out-of-bounds pass, 1

steps across the lane to begin atriple screen.

▼ 3 pops to catch the guard-to-guard pass.

▼ 5 and 2 are out at the three-pointline (diagr. 7).

▼ 1 screens for 2.▼ 5 screens for 2 in the lane.▼ 4 swings the ball to 3.▼ 4 sets the third screen for 2 for a

triple chase.▼ 3 dribbles to the side where he

received the ball and passes to2. He can also pass to 4 or 5,who are open after the screen(diagr. 8).

The play will be run for the smallestplayer not included in the call.

24 WEAK DIVE▼ 2 receives the pass in the catch

lane.▼ 4 receives the guard-to-guard

pass.▼ 3 and 5 are out at the three-point

line (diagr. 9).▼ 2 swings the ball to 4.▼ 5 sets a flair screen for 2.▼ On the pass over the top to 2, 4

dives to the basket (diagr. 10).


FIBA EUROPE

by Dusan Ivkovic

COACHES - OFFENSE

Dusan Ivkovic started his coaching careerin 1978 with Partizan Belgrade. He thencoached Radnicki Belgrade, SibenkaSibenik, Vojvodina Novi Sad (Yugoslavia),Aris Thessaloniki, PAOK Thessaloniki,Panionios Athens, Olympiacos Athens andAEK Athens (Greece) and CSKA Moscow.He is currently the head coach of DynamoMoscow. During his career he won oneYugoslavian National Championship, twoGreek National Championships, and threeRussian National Championships; oneYugoslavian National Cup, three GreekNational Cups, and one Russian NationalCup; one Euroleague, two Saporta Cups,and one Korac Cup. He also coached theYugoslavian National Team, winning threegold medals at the 1989, 1991 and 1995 FIBAEuropean Championship, a gold medal atthe 1990 FIBA World Championship, andtwo silver medals at the 1988 and 1996Olympic Games.

What is the best way to approach a decisi-ve game, a game that puts coach andplayers under great psychological and com-petitive pressure? Many of these gamesdecide the ultimate destiny of a coach.Preparing for an important game that has tobe won is extremely difficult. How do yougain the advantage over an opponent whenthe game is played on their home court?How do you beat a team that has players,who are equally talented to your own, whomatch up in size and speed? Here are someof my thoughts on what can be done, star-ting right at the beginning of the game.Although it's hard to resist, I've never lookedforward to a quick and easy lead of ten ormore points at the beginning of the game. Asa rule, there is a drop in concentration ofyour players and it's only a matter of timebefore the opponent starts to score basketsand ties the game. I never use a newly desi-gned offense or defense at the beginning ofthe game. That's because I know that myopposing coach will read my strategy andquickly make changes in his offense ordefense. The easily achieved points fromthe new offenses or defenses are ones thatI want to save for key game moments, when

HOW TO STARTTHE GAME



the game has slowed down, for example. In thisway I have a new solution when a basket isdesperately needed. One should patiently waituntil the second half, giving the opponents littletime to adapt to your changes. Key mismatchsituations should be exploited at this time.The introduction of the 8-second and 24-secondrules into the FIBA competitions has been apositive move, making the game more aggressi-ve, increasing the number of stolen balls.Offensive output has increased (12.5 points pergame in women's competitions and 14 pointsper game in men's competitions), and shootingpercent has not fallen. We now have fewergames with low scores. In the past, many obser-vers considered low-scoring games the conse-quence of good defense. However, what turnedout to be the case was that there were too fewopportunities for well-executed offensive plays!The 8-second and 24-second rule hasn't affec-ted my coaching philosophy a great deal.Aggressive defense from baseline to baselinehas always been my desire. My offensive stra-tegies have remained the same. My objectivehas always been to score more than 50 percentof our points from the fastbreak and secondaryoffense. This will bring us the highest shootingpercentage as well. That said, choosing theright offense is a decisive factor for game con-trol and a successful score.The half-court offense should be balanced. I willtell my players, jokingly, that at least at thebeginning of the game they all have the possibi-lity to touch the ball. Cutting without ball shouldbe executed by all players in order to providecontinuity and passing flow. My initial settingmust impose its own style of playing:1) On offense, have a "post up" game with a

strong rebounding triangle and good balan-ce, which will lead to

2) A well organized defense transition that, atleast until the foul bonus, will limit the oppo-nent's fastbreak points.

This is the offense set that I most often use tostart the game. The initial set has to be the onethat players use while in a fastbreak (diagr. 1).The playmaker, 1, is at the elbow position, 5, adominant center, is in the low post, with 2, theshooting guard, at the same side, placed in thetriangle with 1 and 5. 4, the power forward, is atthe high post and he has to receive the ball afteran aggressive cut within four or five seconds ofstarting the offense. 3, the other forward on thehelp side, should be active and ready if thedefense tries to deny the first pass to 4 and workwith him. After the pass by 1 to 4, 2 running at fullspeed, uses the screens of 5 and 3 and changeshis position from one to the other side. In this introductory offensive setting, a coachshould not look for solutions at the left offensiveside if the opposing team aggressively conteststhere and doesn't let a pass go to 3 in the low-post position (diagr. 2) or if ball is passed to 2 inthe corner (diagr. 3 and 4). If the ball is not pas-sed to the left side, and 4 has the ball, then thereis a down screen for 1 and a pass to 5, while 4immediately attacks the basket with a backdoorcut, using the back screen of 3. In the meantime,1 goes in the corner to create more space (diagr.5). When 1 sets the second screen for 4 to recei-ve the ball in the low-post area, 5 passes to 4, 3screens 2, and immediately after the pass, 5screens for 2 (diagr. 6). I believe that this deser-ves further analysis. In modern basketball,where vertical cutting towards the basket andscreens dominate, we have three horizontalscreens. 4 has the option to shoot from the cor-ner; he may pass to 2, so he can shoot; or he canmake a "U" cut around the screener or 1, after

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the screen is made for 4, makes a back screenfor 5 and 5 receives the ball under the basket(diagr. 7).In early 1990s, when coaching PAOKThessaloniki (Greece), I had a player at the 4position, who was excellent at reading theoffensive situations. After the shot from thecorner by 5, Fassoulas, the famous Greek cen-ter, often used the back screen of 1, Korfas, theplaymaker, and went aggressively to thebasket to rebound. He was a master at readingthe defense and he knew that after a fake passtowards 2, Prelevic, the guard, would receive aback screen from Korfas to play one-on-one,with the possibility of an easy dunk on the otherside of basket. 2 and 3, along with 4 and 5, mustbe always aggressive rebounders, while 1,with 2 or 3, should be ready to run back ondefense and prevent the fast break. It is oftenpossible in this set offense to change some,sometimes even all, playing positions. If theopponent has extremely tall players (over 7 feet

tall) or talented shot blockers, then the post 4and 5 should exchange their positions. If youhave a good shooter in the 5 position, someonelike Victor Alexander, then he could go in thecorner, which would force the shot blocker tofollow him to the corner as well, taking hisdefensive presence out of the three-secondlane. This creates space under the basket andopportunities to score inside.

ANOTHER OFFENSIVE SET1 is positioned at the left elbow; the powerforward 4 is on the low post on the left; theshooting guard 2 is on the left side; 5, the cen-ter, is in the middle post, on the right side; andthe forward 3 is at the high post on the rightside. 3 makes a screen for 5, who receives theball at the high post. 3 opens up at a 45-degreeangle. 2, 4, and 1 run into "flex" movement onthe left side of the court (diagr. 8). 5 passes theball to 4 at the high post, and 4 then passes to 1at the left side of the court. In the continuation

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D.13

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of the offense, 2 makes a back screen for 3(diagr. 9). If 3 has not gone under the basket,then 1 and 4 play pick-and-pop. 2 sets the backscreen for 5 and 3 sets a back screen for 4(diagr. 10). In this situation 1, the player with the ball, hasthe possibility to shoot from a pick-and-roll. Healso has four pass options. If none of theseoptions work, the ball is passed to the post side(diagr. 11). If the ball goes to 3 and the defendersswitch (after the back screen), there is a 1-on-1possibility (diagr. 12). Please note that I preferthat pick-and-roll plays not be the chosen offen-se at the beginning of the match.The early offense is flowing on the offensiveposition directly from the primary break: afterthe pass to 5 in the low post, 3 cuts around 5with the possibility of a hand-off pass and aneasy shot under the basket. 1 replaces 3, andthe second big player 4 makes a screen for theguard 2 (diagr. 13). If, when 5 receives the ball inthe low-post position and plays 1-on-1, he thendrives hard to the middle of the three-secondlane. The players move as shown in diagr. 14.However, if 5 drives hard to the baseline, thecuts and moves of the rest of his teammates areshown in diagr. 15. When the 5 is guarded infront and he cannot receive the ball from 1, orwhen the power forward 4 is aggressively con-tested at the top of the key, we teach 4 to makea backdoor cut or a quick exchange of positionwith 2. He will receive the ball, as shown in

diagr. 16. Another option: After the clear out of 3,who goes to the opposite corner, and the pene-tration of 1, kick off pass can be made to 2 or 3(diagram 17 and 18). While finishing up this arti-cle on a Sunday in January, I have the statisticsfrom yesterday’s game in front of me. In thisyear’s Russian Super League, my team(Dynamo Moscow) had a bad start and after thefirst part of the season (13 rounds) we had lost 4times. If we had lost a fifth game, we would cer-tainly not have any chance for achieving a goodposition in the play-offs, and this means in thefirst four places. We have lost the game versusKhimki in the first part of the championship with5 points of difference. We should win the gameaway, beating the team that in a game of theFIBA Euroleague beat Juventud Badalona with24 points of difference. We won the game 87 to71 and our defense functioned perfectly. In allcategories of the shoot we achieved better per-centage, we controlled defense, and in theoffense details we had almost 100% of success.Most points we scored from the fast break, 37points, and in the early fast break 13 points, so intotal 50 points, ie. 57% of all points scored.

These are just a few of my thoughts. Rememberthat the game is a live creature and things chan-ge quickly on the court, often in the blink of aneye. The role of the coach is to set the structureof the game right at the beginning, leaving themany options to the great players on the court.


FIBA EUROPE

by Oktay Mahmuti

COACHES - DEFENSE

Oktay Mahmuti is the head coach of Efes PilsenIstanbul (Turkey) since the season 2000. He won twoTurkish Cup, four Turkish Division I League titles,and one Turkish President Cup.

Basketball is one of those special sports in whichsuccess lies within the team concept, fulfilled byplayers interpreting the game as a whole, offensivelyand defensively. A productive offense offers successonly if it is coupled with defense of the same caliber.There is common understanding that the team withthe ball is the one making the decisions on the court,and therefore it is in control of the game. However, Istrongly believe a good defensive team can apply itsdefensive schemes on the court and dictate theopposing offense by taking the offensive weaponsout of their comfort zones. This happens through pre-determined defensive principles and exercisingthem game after game, as well as at each practice. Of course, as there is a huge variety of offensiveplays at each coach's playbook due to the high levelof competition, there are nuances in defense diffe-ring for each game or for some specific situations.However, these are rather minor compared to a sta-ble defensive philosophy. I will now explain mydefensive philosophy that has been in place at EfesPilsen for the last few years.

Our entire defensive system can be characterized bya number of major themes. I call them “macros”. Atthe beginning of each season, these themes(macros) are explained and discussed with theplayers on the roster. They include: ▼ All defensive drills and exercises are to be

performed with maximum intensity. This is theonly way that the defensive approach of the coa-ch can be transferred from theory to practice.

▼ There are two indispensable focal points of de-fense: aggressivity and pressure. These act asthe building blocks of our defense. Constructing ateam defense is not feasible when either of thesebuilding blocks are missing.

▼ There are basic attacking points in a half-courtoffense. Our defense aims to deny the opposingplayers the ball. To achieve this, we apply full-court pressure on the point guard when bringingthe ball down the court. Meanwhile, the otherfour players should be working as well. Theydeny the attacking points, forcing the offense toreceive the ball farther away from the basket.This will force the offense to seek solutions, mostlikely setting screens to free up off the players.

DEFENSE: A TEAM CONCEPT

D.3


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▼ There are certain offensive schemes al-most present in every set play. These aresingle pick, pick-and-roll, staggeredscreens, and post-up plays. Defendingthese is a priority.

Teaching these themes in certain drills isequally important. We prefer to build up frombasic 1-on-1 principles towards more combi-ned drills.

1-ON-1 :THE BASISPreparing for the worst-case scenario is avery common practice in basketball coaching.We want the defender on the ball to think thathe has no help from other players. This willbring out his best defensive efforts. Similarly,the defenders off the ball should be thinkingthat the defender on the ball will be beaten,and they should be ready to help out.However, it should also be clearly indicatedthat independent of the position of the handler,the defender on the ball cannot be beaten inone dribble. Being beaten in one dribble almo-st always guarantees a no-help situation,where team defense cannot play a role. When defending 1-on-1 on the perimeter, it is

absolutely essential to establish a valid defen-sive stance. The body should be in a configu-ration designed to maintain balance at alltimes. Feet should remain parallel to eachother with the upper body in a vertical positionat all times. The common mistake that leads toan unbalanced situation develops with impro-per use of the arms and hands. Players have atendency to try to steal the ball by reaching itout. We prohibit any reaching activity that willcause forward motion of the upper bodybecause this will most likely result in beingbeaten in a single dribble.In our defensive philosophy, helping the ballhandler by establishing early position is a dutyassigned to four players. In other words, hel-ping a penetration is not only the job of the bigman. The defender on the ball takes the timeof the travel of the ball to slide towards thenew location of the ball, creating a triangle(ball - himself - his man, diagr. 1 and 2).Timing matters in the sense that as the ballreaches to the new handler, the triangle musthave already been established. As the pene-tration starts, the defender who had jumped tothe ball shows up for a split second and thenrecovers to his man. This is a very commonpattern, especially for a defender at the top ofthe key who jumps to the ball in a pass to aforward coming off a lateral pick towards thefoul line extended. Designing a 3-on-3 drillwith one guard and two forwards is a realisticexperience for this scenario (diagr. 3, 4, and 5).Defending the post players is a matter of esta-blishing position. Working with the big men, it

FIBA EUROPECOACHES - DEFENSE


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is important to review help situations. Helping apenetration is an active process where the hel-per attacks the ball instead of waiting for it in thepaint. There is no such thing as the "weak side,"as you have to be strong at all times, even on theopposite side of the ball. That is why we prefer tocall it "help side." In defending his own low postmatch-up, we opt for pushing the low post playerout of the paint before he establishes position,denying him the ball from the high post side(diagr. 6, 7, 8, and 9).

2-ON-2 - DEFENDING THE SINGLE SCREENUsing a defensive fake is one of the major wayswe dictate the action defensively. By doing theunexpected, we can take the offensive player offguard. For instance, instead of directly going inbetween in a lateral pick, it would be much moreeffective to keep the contact until the screen andthen use a foot fake to go through in the lastinstance. Forecasting is an integral part of our defensivesystem. This provides a non-obvious advantage,not in the next move, but in the one after it. Forexample, if you push your man out of the blockwhile the ball is being passed from the top to theforward (i. e. a pass earlier), you can find yourselfin an advantageous position to help the penetra-tion to the baseline, as the forward has refused topass the ball to the low post man, who is off hisposition and opted for going baseline instead. Asyou know, things happen rapidly in basketball. Ina matter of milliseconds you will benefit fromforecasting.

4-ON-4 - COMBINING THE CHAPTERSAs the number of players in each drill increases,so does the number of individual and collectivemistakes. However, we try our best to make theclearest observation and clear any mistake withthe vocabulary that we have developed throughour previous drills (e. g. themes, forecasting,defensive faking). My experience with the teamsthat I have worked with has revealed that mostmistakes have to do with the fundamental defen-sive stance than they do with the angle of a cer-tain screen.The pick-and-roll defense, one of the more fre-quent in modern basketball, requires specialattention. We prefer "baseline" defense wherethe on-the-ball defender forces the ballhandlertowards the baseline, and the defender of thescreener places himself between the ball and thebasket. In order not to lose aggressivity, the drib-ble acts as a signal for a quick double team for-cing the ballhandler out of the natural spacing,keeping him contained in a position close to itsstarting location.Good results in games come from all the hardwork players put in during the defensive practicesessions. If 4-on-4 play reaches the desired qua-lity, I am more than happy to finish a practice ses-sion without going into complete 5-on-5 play.



FIBA EUROPE

by Ioannis Ioannidis

COACHES - DEFENSE

Ioannis Ioannidis won 12 Greek cham-pionships (eight with Aris, four withOlympiakos), six Greece Cups (five withAris, and one with Olympiakos). Histeams reached the European Cup (sixFinal Fours, three with ArisThessaloniki, two with Olympiakos, andone with AEK. He became head coach ofthe Greek National Team in 1999 andwas on the bench at the 2003 Eurobasketin Sweden. Today, he is a deputy in theGreek parliament.

One of the most important aspects ofdefense is the man-to-man defense withtraps in the low post and at the wing.When we play defense, it is possible thatwe will have a mismatch. We can try tosolve this problem and not be at a disad-vantage helping the defender of the lowpost make a trap, while the other threedefenders rotate.

TRAPS IN THE LOW POSTThere are five different situations wherewe send help to the low post. Let's sup-pose that in the low post there is amismatch and that 5's defender can bebeaten easily. We have worked hard withour team and we know that each timewhen the ball goes in the low post that wewill send help. When we play defense inthe low post we need to cover the post byguarding him in front, or three-quarters.This is a must in our defensive philo-sophy! The defender should "fight" theoffensive player in the low post near thebasket and not let anybody receive theball there.Therefore, X5, the defender of the lowpost must push 5 as far away from thebasket as possible. We do not want thatthe ball goes to 5 from any other player,except from the wing. If, by some chance,some passes are made from the top ofkey, it means that we have not playedgood defense. Except if he gets the ballfrom the wing, there are no excuses if 5

gets the ball from any other player.

I always used to number the defensiveareas for drills used in doubling the post.The center area was 5. If I say that thehelp comes from zone 1, I mean the wingon the strong side. The 2 area is theplayer on the top, while the 3 area is thewing on the weak side. The 4 area wherethe second center or power forwardplays, independently if he plays in thehigh or in the low post (diagr. 1).

HELP FROM X1The first situation is when the ball goes inthe low post and we send X1 to help. He isfloating a little in order to see the ball andthe player at the same time. X1 traps onlyif the offensive low post starts to dribble.X1 goes to help and he is replaced by thenext defender X2. Consequently, we havetwo defenders low and near the basket(X1 and X5) one defender on the strongside (X2), and two defenders (X3 and X4)on the weak side in the three-second lane(diagr. 2).

X2 contests the pass back to 1, playingvery aggressively. The other defendershave to cover the areas 3 and 4. From thisplace, the offensive player 5 has twochoices:▼ If he passes the ball to 2, X3 goes up

and covers him. At the same time, X1leaves the trap and runs to cover 3(diagr. 3).

▼ If the ball goes from the big man to 3with a skip pass, the wing on theweak side X4 immediately comes outto guard him, and the defender thatwent to trap X1 runs to cover 4 in theopposite low post, making sure toguard him in front so he can't receivea pass.

The first secret to playing a good defenseis putting strong pressure on the ball. If

you do not press the ball and leave theplayer with the ball to move freely andpass as he wants, you create a greatdisadvantage for the defense. Eachdefender must first deal with his assignedoffensive player. We don't want a passivedefense, but strong and aggressive pres-suring defense! The second secret to a good defense-independent of which type of defense youplay-are the defenders on the strong side. As soon as the ball is passed from theoutside to the low post, the defender whowill help out needs to immediately move.A mistake of this defender is to stay in thesame position after the ball is passed tothe low post. If the offensive player goesin the corner, the defender must followhim and prevent him from receiving theball, shooting, or driving to the basketfrom this spot (diagr. 4). There is no otherdefender to help, so the help should comefrom somewhere else. Consequently,when the wing is moving to the corner,we do not want to trap with X1 (diagr. 4).

1 makes a pass to the big man in the lowpost and then cuts along the baseline tothe opposite side of the court: X1 follows1 until he reaches the middle of the three-second lane, and then returns to make atrap on 5. X5 knows that the help willcome from the baseline and so he playsaccordingly (diagr. 5).

If the offensive wing cuts in the middle ofthe three-second lane and then to theopposite side, then the low post's defen-der knows that help will come from thetop from X1. Once this move is made, theoffensive player 2 will spot up. X2 guardshim and anticipates the pass from the bigman to this player. The two defenders onthe weak side, X4 and X3, will stay in thelane as in a zone defense (diagr. 6).

This is the last move that 1 can make. Hegives the ball to the big man in low post

MAN-TO-MAN DEFENSE WITH TRAPS

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FIBA EUROPECOACHES - DEFENSE


and then cuts to the top of the lane. Aslong as 1 stays in this position, the defen-der, X1, is going straight to trap the lowpost and then we have a rotation: X2 rota-tes and anticipates 1 to keep him fromreceiving the ball again, while the defen-ders of the weak side are playing a zone.

Whenever we have a trap in the low postarea and the player is shorter than theoffensive player, we have a distinct

mismatch. For this reason, when the shor-ter defender plays in front of the low post,we tell him to stay very low, bend hisknees, and use his buttocks to pressagainst the legs of the offensive low postplayer in order to push him away from theblock, knocking him off balance as well.

When the low post player is pushed awayand is off balance, he will be in no posi-tion to receive an easy lob pass.

One of the most important details in tea-ching the low-post trap is making thedefenders understand that they must notcommit a foul; we do not want to steal theball and then have it called back becauseof a foul. When we double team the lowpost, we want to obstruct the vision of thepost player who is trying to get the ball. Ifhe does get he ball, we want to make itdifficult for him to pass back to the peri-meter. Our goal is to deflect and steal any

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pass that is made back to a perimeterplayer. This is a major reason why we senda defender to trap on the strong side.

HELP FROM X2Let's review the case where 2 passes to 1.With this pass, X2 should anticipate thereturn pass to 2, and he should be able tomove in a position where he is able to help.We prefer this second option. As soon asX2's assigned offensive player passes theball, he must be always in position wherehe can help. From this spot, he can defenda possible "UCLA" cut of 2 and be the first tohelp out. X2 must know that this is his job. If heremains right on 2 to contest a return pass,the distance between him and the low postis too wide and he cannot effectively help.Besides, if he stays in a help position, and ifthe ball is passed back from 1 to 2, he is cango back to cover 2.

Let's review the case of 1, who passes theball to 5 and then moves to the corner: X2runs to trap the low post with his hands up.X5 and X2 are positioned right next to eachother, so the low post player cannot slide inbetween them. The only thing X5 has to dois to make side steps to prevent 5 from tur-ning toward the baseline to pass the ballinside (diagr. 7).

Here another case: 1, after the pass to 5,cuts to the weak side and the defender fol-lows him. After 1 has cut and positionedhimself on the opposite corner, he is notdangerous anymore, so X1 will come backand defend inside the three second lane(diagr. 8).

If the ball from 5 in the low post is passed to2 at the top of the circle, X3 covers 2. X2runs to guard 3 and contests the pass from2, while X4 anticipates 4s movement, andthe rest of the defenders play as if in a zoneon the weak side of the court (diagr. 9).

TRAP FROM X3Here's another case: 1 passes the ball tothe low post 5. X3 is the player on the weakside, so as soon as this pass is made, heruns inside the three-second lane and hetraps, while X2 fills the gap. It is easier forthe defense if the trap is made with X3because we do not need a big rotation if theball comes out from the trap. That's becau-se each defender will go back to cover theiroriginal assigned offensive player. X4guards 4 in front and pushes with this bodyso 4 cannot get an easy lob pass (diagr. 10).

Previously, I have shown where X1, X2, and

X3 have been sent to trap. Let's now eva-luate the case where we send X4 to trap.

TRAP FROM X4I used many of these defensive moveswhen I was coaching AEK Athens (Greece).Whenever I had a mismatch and the oppo-nent had a big man in the high post, I usedto play with this type of trap. For example,when I played with Panathinaikos, I used totrap Dino Radja, the great Croatian center,because it was impossible for my defen-ders to guard him without any help. WhenRadja received the ball in low post, we trap-ped with any big player in high post: mydefender X4 would run down to trap in thelow post, so Radja had two big men cove-ring him, while the two perimeter defendersplayed as if in a zone, with X2 covering forX4 (diagr. 11).

With the ball in the low post, the offensiveplayer in the high post looks to cut to thebasket. The first thing that X2 must do is keep 4from receiving the ball on the cut. After X2covers the movement of 4, X3 runs to cover2 if 5 passes the ball from low post to thetop of the key. If 5 makes a skip pass to 3,the last player on the line comes out tocover 3 (diagr. 12). The decision on which type of low post trapwe will use depends on the personnel that Ihave at my disposal.

I have demonstrated four particular trapsituations where X1, X2, X3, and X4 form thetrap. If we face an excellent player such asDejan Bodiroga, one of the best all-aroundplayers in Europe, then we must think of thebest way of trapping him in the low post. Heis en excellent scorer, but also an excellentpasser and he reads the situations on thecourt very well. In addition, he is very tall,which gives him a distinct advantage.

Let's imagine this type of player 5 is alsothe best dribbler and passer, and he postsup. In this case, we want to obstruct hisvision as much as possible and preventhim from seeing the entire court. When hereceives the ball, the first thing that thedefender should do is shut down the cen-ter of the three-second lane. As soon as he gets the ball, the defender(X5) must push him low with his elbowstoward the baseline, keeping him fromturning to the middle. We have to double team him with theother big man X4, who comes from thebaseline. X3 covers 4, while X2 coversthe top of the three- second lane and X1stays on 1 (diagr. 13).


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FIBA EUROPE

Jeff Janssen is the Director of the Uni-versity of North Carolina LeadershipAcademy, He helps coaches and athle-tes develop the team chemistry, mentaltoughness, and leadership skills neces-sary to win championships. This articleis based on Jeff's latest book, The TeamCaptain's Leadership Manual(www.jeffjanssen.com).

How important are effective team cap-tains/leaders to your success and sanityas a coach?

Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewskiputs it best when he says: "Talent is im-portant. But the single most important in-gredient after you get the talent is internalleadership. It's not the coaches as muchas one single person or people on theteam, who set higher standards than thatteam would normally set for itself. I reallybelieve that that's been ultimately impor-tant for us."

As you look at your team, do you have theresponsible and respected team leadersyou need to succeed? Do your leadersconsistently hold themselves AND theirteammates accountable? Do your teamleaders understand, embrace, and em-body the values and philosophy of yourprogram? Are they your voice in thelocker room and on the weekends whenyou're not there?

As Hall of Fame North Carolina State wo-men's basketball coach Kay Yow remindsus: "The quality of your team leaders canmake or break your season."

Because your captains are the heart andsoul of your team, they are not a luxury,but a vital necessity to your program'ssuccess. Why?

Because it's your team leaders, who im-pact all the important "intangibles" thatdetermine winning and losing - attitude,

COACHES - PSYCHOLOGY AND MOTIVATION

by Jeff Janssen

SIX WAYS TO WINWITH BETTERTEAM CAPTAINS

chemistry, commitment, confidence, coacha-bility, mental toughness, etc.

In the words of four-time Super Bowl winningcoach Chuck Noll: "On every team there is acore group that sets the tone for everyone el-se. If the tone is positive you have half the bat-tle won. If it is negative, you are beaten beforeyou even walk out on the field."Who are the core leaders on your? Are youconfident in their ability to effectively lead yourteam? Will they set the kind of tone you need towin on and off the court?Here are six critical ways that developing ef-

fective team captains/leaders will help youwin more games.

EFFECTIVE TEAM CAPTAINS

1. ENSURE HIGH STANDARDS AND A STRONGWORK ETHIC

Without effective team leaders, mediocrity isthe goal of the team. The team motto becomes"Do just enough to get by", and "That's goodenough." No one steps up and sets the tone forthe rest of the team to follow. Further, when so-me players inevitably slack off and cut corners,no one is willing to constructively confront


them on it and let them know that their lazi-ness is unacceptable and detrimental tothe team.Great team leaders set and maintain thestandards for everyone else to follow.They consistently give it their all and de-mand that their teammates do the same.This is especially important when you ha-ve newcomers joining the team on a regu-lar basis. The rookies often look to their ve-teran teammates to determine the stan-dards of the team. If the leaders areslacking off and cutting corners, it is veryeasy for the rookies to do the same.

"The second I let down, particularly if I'mperceived as the leader of my team, I giveothers an opening to let down as well.Why not? If the person out front takes aday off or doesn't play hard, why shouldanyone else?" Michael Jordan

2. KEEP YOUR TEAM FROM CRUMBLINGUNDER PRESSURE AND ADVERSITY

Without a team leader, teams oftencrumble under pressure and adversity.Players quickly get frustrated with oppo-nents, officials, teammates, and themsel-ves and lose their composure. They getdistracted by their past mistakes andworry about making future errors.Further, when teams fall apart they tendto blame each other which distracts, divi-des, and destroys your team. Without ateam leader, your players isolate them-selves from the team instead of pullingtogether and staying tough. This lack ofleadership and mental toughness duringadversity often forces you to burn pre-cious time-outs and make unwantedsubstitutions during the game. Worse,your team ends up beating itself becausethey self-destruct rather than stayingtough and forcing your opponents to beatyou. You can likely trace many of yourlosses back to the lack of ineffectiveteam leaders stepping up and refocusingthe team during critical stretches.

Effective team leaders help their teamma-tes weather the inevitable storms of ad-versity that occur during games and throu-ghout the season. When adversity strikesand the other team goes on an 8-0 run,great leaders maintain their own compo-sure which keeps their teammates undercontrol. They then can refocus the teamback on the task at hand. Good team lea-ders are a calming force, who are able tohelp their teammates adjust and refocus.

"Young players are leaders only when theyare playing well... that's not leadership.

FIBA EUROPECOACHES - PSYCHOLOGY AND MOTIVATION

Anyone can lead the league in high fiveswhen things are going well. But, during adver-sity, is when you need leaders in your group..."Rick Pitino, University of Louisville basketballcoach.

3. BUILD BETTER TEAM CHEMISTRYEffective team leaders promote a positivesense of team chemistry. They welcome andtake care of the new members of your team sothe younger players feel accepted and havesomeone to turn to should something gowrong. Effective team leaders prevent cliquesfrom developing as they look to break downbarriers, unify their teammates, and rally themaround a common goal.

"If you want to build an atmosphere in whicheverybody pulls together to win, then you, as aleader have to recognize that it all starts withyou. It starts with your attitude, your commit-ment, your caring, your passion for excellen-ce, your dedication to winning. It starts withthe example you set." Pat Williams, SeniorV.President Orlando Magic

4. HELPYOU TAKE THE PULSE OF TEAMIf you don't have a good leader you can trust,you might miss some important things happe-ning with your players and team. You might notknow why a certain player all of a sudden isn'tplaying well or why another might not be com-municating with you any more. Further, it mi-ght seem like you have lost your players'enthusiasm but you aren't sure why.

Effective team leaders help keep you connec-ted to your team. They keep you informedabout how players might be doing, who isstruggling, and if there is any dissensionbrewing amongst the team. Not only do greatteam leaders keep you up to date on the pulseof the team, they can also provide you with in-put on changes you might be contemplating orones you have already instituted.

5. MINIMIZE AND MANAGE CONFLICTAdditionally, good team leaders will help youmanage the inevitable conflict that occurson every team between players, coaches,parents, and others. They can help theirteammates better understand why they aregetting limited playing time, thus preventingthem from running to their parents and ha-ving them call you to complain about it. Theycan often handle and even solve a lot of pro-blems before you even have to get involved.This frees up your time to focus on what youdo best - coaching. Good leaders then makeyour job easier as a coach by preventing, mi-nimizing, and handling a significant portionof the typical problems that beset teams, soyou don't have to.

"During the championship years, the most im-portant leaders were Bill Cartwright and Mi-chael Jordan. I relied on them to solve minorproblems and give me an accurate reading ofwhat was going on with the team." Phil Jack-son, former Chicago Bulls coach.

6. ARE YOUR BEST INSURANCE AGAINSTSTUPIDITY

Finally, good leaders are your best insurancepolicy against your athletes making stupid de-cisions in the community that could tarnishyou and your program. Good leaders will helpyou control and curb the common off the courttemptations and problems that often end upas the talk of the town or embarrassing headli-nes in the local and even national media. Mini-mizing these problems alone will provide youwith many more restful evenings.

This positive policing role is especially impor-tant because as a coach you can only be withyour athletes so many hours of the day. Ob-viously you get to spend time with them atpractice, but the rest of the day they have avariety of choices which you cannot constan-tly watch and monitor, nor should you want orhave to. However, great team leaders tend tobe around their teammates more and can be apositive influence on them. This is especiallytrue on weekend evenings when players areoften tempted to do things that could poten-tially have negative effects on themselves andthe team, not to mention your program's repu-tation. Great team leaders look out for theirteammates and are willing to constructivelyconfront them when necessary.

"The entire aim of our policies at Tennessee isto get our players to discipline each other...We have evolved a system in which I don't ha-ve to do a whole lot of punishing, penalizing, orpushing them. Our upperclassmen becomethe disciplinarians of our team instead of me."Pat Summitt, women's basketball coach, Uni-versity of Tennessee.

As you can see with the above six ways, yourcaptain's leadership will contribute much mo-re to your team's success than their physicalskills ever will. However, if you want your cap-tains to be extensions of you out on the floor,you must invest the time to extend yourself tothem. Share your philosophy with them, letthem know what you expect, and communi-cate with them often.

RATE YOUR CAPTAINSIf you would like to find out how your currentand/or prospective captains rate as leaders,visit http://www.j effja nssen.com/coaching/evaluation2. html to take the Team Lea-dership Evaluation.


COACHES - NATIONAL COACHES ASSOCIATION

by Mirko Polivina

by Mirko Ocokoljic

SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO BASKETBALL COACHESASSOCIATION

Mirko Polovina has been involved withthe Serbia and MontenegroAssociation of Basketball Coaches(SMABC) since 1994. He is editor of themagazine "Trener" (Coach) and marke-ting director of the YUBAC basketballcamp.

Mirko Ocokoljic is Secretary Generalof Serbia and Montenegro Associationof Basketball Coaches since 2001.Ocokoljic is also working as a basket-ball coach of the youth team.

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION: A PRIORITYSerbia and Montenegro (formerYugoslavian) Association of BasketballCoaches, with about 1,300 members, iscertainly among the largest ones inEurope, and according to the number ofquality coaches, activities program,overall activity, organization, andresults, it is surely a role model for therest of Europe.The late Slobodan Piva Ivkovic, olderbrother of Dusan Ivkovic (coach ofDynamo Moscow, and also President ofWABC, the World Association ofBasketball Coaches) and a group ofenthusiasts interested in basketballdevelopment, founded the Associationof Basketball Coaches of Yugolslavia in1972 and he became its first President.The Association, located in the Houseof Basketball, headquarters of theSerbian and Montenegro BasketballFederation offices and activities, helpedcreate the Constitution, Code of CoachBehavior, Rule Book on Licenses, andthe contracts between coaches andclubs. For the first time, both coachesand the club are protected. In 1997, themagazine “Trener” was launched and ithas played an important role in helpingeducate our members, as well as the

large basketball public too. Our website www.uktscg.com describes theactivities of our organization and visi-tors can view all of the SMABC docu-ments.

Since 1999, the Basketball Academyhas been located in the House ofBasketball. Upon graduation, studentsearn the title of senior basketballcoach. This school is a unique educa-tional institution, where guest lecturersregularly come to speak. These are ourmost eminent experts, among whominclude: Dusan Ivkovic, Ranko Zeravica,Svetislav Pesic, Zelimir Obradovic,Bozidar Maljkovic, Borivoje Cenic,Dusko Vujosevic. These are top Serbiancoaches, who have won at both theclub and National team level. Other visi-ting lecturers, experts in specific fields,contribute to the scope and quality ofthe education of our young coaches.

ORGANIZATION OF THE ASSOCIATIONThe Serbia and Montenegro Association ofBasketball Coaches (SMABC), whose consti-tuent parts are the Association of Serbia andAssociation of Montenegro, acts as a uniqueassociation. The supreme organ of theAssociation is the Assembly, with its 25 mem-bers. Regular sessions are convened annual-

COACHES - NATIONAL COACHES ASSOCIATION

ly. The Managing Board is an executiveorgan of the Assembly and consists ofseven members. The Assembly Presidentis also the President of the ManagingBoard. The only professional is a secretaryof the Managing Board, Mirko Ocokoljic.Within the scope of work of the SMABC,the duties and basic tasks include upda-ting the coach files; analysis of the coa-ching personnel; issuing coach licenses;ensuring legal protection for coaches; ela-boration of plans and annual reports onwork; cooperation with the media; and par-ticipation in the international meetings thatcontribute to the reputation of the SMABC.It is important to mention that theAssociation has extraordinary communi-cation and cooperation with the BasketballFederation of Serbia and Montenegro.

PROGRAM TASKSSerbia and Montenegro Association ofBasketball Coaches considers professio-nal education of its members a priority.Approximately 90 percent of the budgetcovers actions related to professional edu-cation. Great emphasis is placed on:Basketball Clinic Belgrade (BCB), withrenowned lecturers; Coach Days, whichare obligatory for all the junior categorycoaches; Permanent Education, a series oflectures for junior coaches head in variousbasketball centers around the country inorder to provide education to a larger num-ber of participants. Attending the lecturesis mandatory and part of the licensing pro-cedure. Assistance to the Coach is a spe-cial program where, at the specific reque-st of a coach, an experienced coach issent to a club to offer professional helpand advice, all at the expense of theAssociation.Internship in the club means spending timewith an experienced coach within the coun-try or abroad, and gaining new experience.Internship in the national team means moni-toring the preparations of the national teamsbefore big competitions. The Study Stay inthe US is a stay at an NBA team pre-seasoncamp or with some of the top NCAA colle-ges during the pre-season practices.

For an internship in a club, national team orstay in USA, the candidates are chosen ondetermined criteria, always published inthe magazine “Trener” and the selectedones are decided by Board of theAssociation. The schooling programmeenvisages scholarships to the best stu-dents of the Basketball Academy and helpto the coaches from "small environments"for attending the Course for an operativecoach, with objective to equally provide


professional coach personnel in allareas and especially to enhance work inthe smaller basketball centres. Besides the magazine, our well-equip-ped library and video collection with themost up-to-date titles concerningbasketball development contribute to theprofessional education.

According to the Rule Book on Licenses,coaches may obtain white, blue and redlicence. The conditions for obtaining thewhite licence are that the coach has tobe the member of the SMABC and havefinished secondary school studies. Thislicence is intended for coaches leadingteams in the regional competitons, sum-mer league, and minibasket.Coaches with a blue licence may leadteams of the First B female league, I and IISerbian League, and junior teams. Theconditions for getting the blue licence are:membership in the SMABC; current job asa basketball coach, possessing at leasttwo years of coaching experience; or fouryears as a basketball player; and atten-dance to all mandatory seminars. If coachdoes not fullfill all those criterias he/she

has to pay double tax for their licence. The top licence is red. Coaches withthis license may lead teams of the FirstA league in the male and female com-petitions and clubs of the First B lea-gue- group Serbia and groupMontenegro. Conditions for obtainingred licence are: membership in theSMABC; at least four years of coachingexperience, or playing for the seniornational team of Serbia and Montenegro30 times, or eight years as a player in thefederal rank; attending BCB. Coaches ofthe federal rank must have a signed con-tract stored at the SMABC and tax forthe license has to be paid as well.

FINANCIAL PLANSerbia and Montenegro Association ofBasketball Coaches, with its Articles ofAssociation, is defined as a voluntary,interest and professional association. Itacts in accordance with these regula-tions. SCG Association of BasketballCoaches is an independent legal personwith its own current account and overallwork programme is realized on self-finan-cing basis. The financing sources are:


▼ Annual membership (individually) 20euro

▼ Fee for BCB 50-200 euro▼ License taxes 50-300 euro▼ Sponsorship contracts.

Overall planned income for the year 2006should amount to 200.000 euro. Thereport on the work for the previous yearand plan for the following year are adop-ted at the Assembly of the Association,and President and Managing Board arein charge of the realization.

BASKETBALL CLINIC BELGRADEIn order to rise the level of the profes-sional education to the top, the"Managing Board of the SMABC madea decision in 2002 to start BasketballClinic Belgrade"- BCB, an extremelyambitious professional seminar direc-ted by Milan Opacic. Later on it will beshown that both decisions have hit thetarget. Don Nelson, Del Harris, RickMajerus, and Igor Kokoskov were guestlecturers at the first clinic. The lectu-rers at the BCB 2003 were: JavierImbroda (Spain) Greg Popovich, EttoreMessina (Italy) and Dragan Kokovic.The lecturers at BCB 2004 were: LarryBrown, Greg Popovich, Ettore Messina,

MAGAZINE TRENERMagazine Trener is now in its tenthyear. Until 2003 it was published everythree-months, with a circulation of1,500 exclusively for the Associationmembers. Since 2004 it has beenpublished bimonthly, with a circulationof 3,000 copies, with all pages in color.The Association members get it attheir home addresses, and the rest issent to the market, newspaper shopsin all major towns of Serbia andMontenegro and former Yugoslavianrepublics. The special magazine'sissue on BCB Clinic is published inSerbian and English.

BASKETBALL ACADEMY BELGRADESince 1999, more than 70 senior basket-ball coaches have graduated from theAcademy and over 300 lower-levelbasketball coaches have also takenclasses. During the two-year program,students have more than 1,200 lessons,with our most eminent coaches givinglectures.

AWARDSThe Life Work Prize is the greatestrecognition a coach can get in Serbiaand Montenegro. This award is presen-ted annually in honor of Associationfounder and great basketball legendSlobodan Piva Ivkovic Previous winnersinclude Aleksandar Nikolic, BoraStankovic, Nebojsa Popovic, RankoZeravica, Dusan Ivkovic, Milan CigaVasojevic, Zeljko Obradovic, SvetislavPesic, Bora Cenic, Strahinja BracaAlagic, Vladislav Lale Lucic, andBozidar Maljkovic.

Bozidar Maljkovic, Roy Williams, DusanUgarkovic and Miljan Grbovic.In 2005, lectures were given by MikeD'Antoni, 2005 NBA Coach of the Year,Ruben Magnano, Olympic Gold Medal win-ner, Svetislav Pesic, FIBA WorldChampion, Vladan Devedzic, Sead Krdzalicand as a special guest, Vlade Divac, theformer NBA player.

FIBA EUROPECOACHES - HOOP MARKET

by Raffaele Imbrogno

Raffaele Imbrogno, former Director of the Italian BasketballFederation Study Center, is an Instructor with the Italian Na-tional Coaches Commitee of the Federation. Imbrogno is theauthor of several technical basketball pubblications.

Dr. Hal Wissel, a long-time coach,has the keys to his destiny sket-ched out in his curriculum vitae.Wissel studied at Springfield Colle-ge (where basketball was inventedby James Naismith, an instructorthere) and earned a BS in physicaleducation. He earned an MS inphysical education at Indiana Uni-versity, and then returned toSpringfield and obtained a docto-rate in physical education. Wisselis a well-respected coach who isconsidered an outstanding teacherof the game, especially shooting. Wissel has been a succes-sful coach at both the college and pro level. As a head collegecoach, Wissel's teams compiled over 300 victories (at Spring-field College, North Carolina Charlotte, Florida Southern,Fordham, Lafayette, and Trenton State). At the pro level, Wisselserved as assistant coach and/or scout with Atlanta,Milwaukee, New Jersey, Dallas, and Memphis (where he wasthe "tutor" of Pau Gasol). In addition to coaching, he has alsoproduced a wealth of technical material for coaches over theyears. Coach Wissel founded Basketball World in 1972, whichis now owned by his son Paul a Toronto Raptors advancescout. Another son, Scott is an LA Clippers advance scout. Hal,Paul and Scott conduct Basketball World camps, clinics andshooting camps world wide for players from youth to NBA le-vel. Wissel's first book, "Becoming aBasketball Player: Individual Dril-ls" published by Basketball Worldwas produced into a series of te-chnical videos by the Athletic In-stitute in 1990. The videos titled"Becoming a Basketball Player"(Ball Handling, Shooting, Offensi-ve Moves, Offensive Moves OffDribble, Defense and Reboun-ding) are now being made into aDVD.In 1994, Human Kinetics, the mostprestigious and leading U.S. pu-blisher of books and DVDs on te-

In this section, we introduce the latest books, videos, CDs, andother tools that are primarily aimed at coaches, but certainlyuseful for all of our readers. Please send your suggestions andcomments about our basketball-related media for review inthis section.

A SHOOTING EXPERT:HAL WISSEL

chnical aspects of sports, published Wissel's "Basketball: Steps toSuccess," which was a top seller in the U.S. with over 100,000 co-pies sold, and was translated in Spanish, Italian and Japanese. In2004 Human Kinetics printed a second and revised edition(www.humankinetics.com). In addition to this book, Wissel also has written many articles for te-chnical sports magazines, such as "Scholastic Coach." He alsowrote a chapter in "NABC Coaching Basketball," a 1994 book editedby Jerry Krause that featured articles from the top American ba-sketball coaches.Coach Wissel's latest work, two spectacular DVDs, took more thanone year to produce, mainly because of Wissel's attention to coa-ching detail, a trademark of this long-time coach.

Released at the end of 2005, Wissel,along with the help of his two sons,Scott and Paul, both NBA scouts,helps the viewer learn how to shootin step-by-step fashion. No matterwhat age or talent level the DVDsare for everyone and anyone, whowants to improve shooting skillsand raise their shooting percenta-ge. In "Basketball Shooting: Confiden-ce, Rhythm, and Mechanics" Wisselpoints out that shooting a basketballis a matter of these key factors: ha-ving confidence that the shot will goin, which is a mental skill that mustbe practiced; the smooth, fluid

rhythm of the shot, with emphasis on the down and up action of theknees, which helps provide shooting range; and correct mechanicswith particular attention paid to the shooting hand facing the ba-sket and holding the follow through until the ball reaches the rim.In the second DVD, "Basketball Shooting: Off the Pass, Off the Drib-ble, and in the Post," Wissel describes how to best develop all otheraspects of the jump shot, with an accurate description of hand,foot, and overall body position when a player is about to shoot afterreceiving a pass, after a dribble, while playing in the post, and final-ly with the step back move. In short, these DVDs offer the best ofteaching fundamentals and will help form the base of a player's of-fensive arsenal. (www.basketballworld.com ).


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REFEREES , SCORER ’S TABLE AND COMMISSIONERS

Fred Horgan is a member of FIBATechnical Commission. He is a FIBAInternational Referee Instructor, FIBAAmericas Instructor, TechnicalCommissioner for Canada, and a mem-ber of FIBA Americas TechnicalCommission. He was elected in 1996 tothe Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame.

No one could be expected to open abook to its final chapter and expect tohave a clear grasp of the completestory. The same can be said for some-one who enters a discussion when it isalmost finished and is then askedwhich side of the debate he or sheaccepts. Both of these analogies have some-thing in common: before fully under-standing what has happened or beforemaking an accurate judgment ofresponsibility in a conflict that hastaken place, we must first have anappreciation of "the entire story" or ofthe differing points of views that haveinitially led to the disagreement.

This isn't necessarily an easy task. Itdemands concentration, objectivityand the ability to grasp not only what ishappening but also the circumstancesthat have led to the situation beingobserved. The last step, perhaps themost difficult one, is to make a finaljudgment of accountability based on allof these variables.Respected instructors on the rules ofbasketball and the application of thoserules to the game itself have a commonand constant theme in all of their clin-

ics. The message is simple enough: ifofficials hope to make accurate, con-sistent and defensible decisions in thecourse of refereeing a basketballgame, they must first concentrate onseeing "the whole play", rather thansimply picking up the final momentwhen the potential infraction occurs.

This reality is based on what instruc-tors and commissioners perceive as aweakness common to (but, unfortu-nately, not always limited to) less expe-rienced officials. These are the individ-uals, who have, to some degree,grasped the rules of the game but whohave not yet learned how and when toapply these rules. In other words, theyhave yet to appreciate that limitingtheir focus to the actual moment wherea potential infraction occurs is far tooshortsighted and could possibly resultin an assignment of "blame" that istotally in error.

The first evidence that such a flawexists is usually as simple as an offi-cial's failure to observe action awayfrom the ball, action that could eventu-ally result in a potential infraction ofthe rules as the play continues todevelop. In the most blatant situations,an official can clearly be seen observ-ing action in the immediate vicinity ofthe ball, even though that action isn't inhis or her area of primary responsibili-ty. This sometimes leaves as many aseight or even nine players unobserved. This is especially relevant to guardingand/or screening action that initially

by Fred Horgan

SEE THEWHOLE PLAY



develops away from the ball, actionthat would remain unseen if the officialresponsible for off-ball coverage hashis or her eyes elsewhere.

An excellent example can be found inthe principles that determine responsi-bility in these guarding and screeningsituations. Two key terms are too oftenmisunderstood (or missed altogether)in assigning such responsibility for anycontact that might develop. Theseterms are "establishing" and "maintain-ing" and the principles that determineresponsibility for illegal contact differdepending on whether the guarding orscreening player is establishing a legalposition on the court or is maintaining aposition that has already been legallytaken.

The guidelines themselves are quite clearin describing what constitutes a legal orillegal position in relation to the playerwho is doing the guarding/screening, butthe problem develops if the official fails tosee a player initially establish a legal posi-tion because that legal position is taken inan area away from the ball, an area thatthe responsible official unfortunately isnot observing because his or her focus ison the ball itself. If this is the case and ifthe play around the ball then moves to thearea of the floor where the legal positionhas already been established, then theofficial could very possibly misjudge whathas now become a totally legal, "maintain-ing" action to be instead an "establishing"action, and as a consequence erroneous-ly judge that action to be an infraction ofthe rules.

A simple clarification is inorder. To establish a legalguarding position, the guide-line states that the defensiveplayer must have both feeton the floor; however, whenmaintaining such a positionin reaction to a dribbler'sattempt to avoid the defen-sive player, the "both feet onthe floor" requirement is nolonger necessary. Indeed,the defensive play couldvery well be in motion andhave neither foot on the floorat the point of contact with-out being held responsiblefor the contact, providedother guidelines for main-taining a guarding positionare observed.

The same philosophy of"seeing the whole play" canbe applied to an incidentwhere a player without theball is being guarded, espe-cially in post play situations.The rule's guidelines statethat in establishing a legalguarding position the defen-sive player must allow amoving opponent (who doesnot have the ball) the timeand/or distance to stop orchange direction, a maxi-mum of two steps. In relationto a stationary opponent, therequirement is that a guard-ing position taken outsidethe visual range of the oppo-nent must permit that oppo-nent one normal step.

If normal contact then results as a con-sequence of movement by the playerbeing guarded, the defensive player isabsolved of responsibility. If, however,the player who is being guarded sudden-ly receives the ball, then the necessity ofallowing room to stop or change direc-tion, or of allowing one normal step in thecase of a stationary opponent, no longerapplies. In this circumstance, it is crucialthat the official see the whole play inorder to determine which player has aright to a specific position on the courtand therefore who carries the responsi-bility for any contact that might takeplace.

Another important application of the"see the whole play" principle existsinsofar as post play is concerned. Thisis the necessity of observing and penal-izing any initial contact that mightoccur, rather than not ruling an infrac-tion until the second or even the thirdillegal contact takes place. This is asource of great frustration for playerswho see it as unfair and inconsistentwhen it appears the initial foul isignored but the retaliation that followsis promptly penalized. It is an unfortu-nate reality that when a basketballgame deteriorates to the point whererough play dominates and, in extremecases, fights develop, the beginning ofthe deterioration can inevitably betraced to a failure to control contact inthe post positions and to penalize fairlyand consistently such contact before ithas the chance to grow to the point ofunsportsmanlike behavior.

Many other applications of the "see thewhole play" principle can also be identi-fied: the establishing of a pivot foot, therelationship of foot movement to thebeginning of a dribble, game manage-ment (especially as it applies to benchdecorum), legal/illegal movement of theball to the backcourt and other suchresponsibilities that ultimately must bearbitrated by the game officials. The prin-ciple and its applications should be a pri-mary point of discussion during the offi-cials' pre-game discussion, and wellworth repeating and assessing in post-game evaluations as well.

Seeing the whole play is essential todetermining fair and consistent respon-sibility if an infraction is eventually tobe called. Without such awareness,legal offense as well as legal defensewill be seriously compromised.




Alberto Garcia is a former FIBA interna-tional referee and FIBA RefereeInstructor. He is now Sub-SecretaryGeneral of FIBA Americas.

For a number of years, the game of bas-ketball has recognized various problemsregarding the tactics of coaches, theactions of players, and the differentguidelines used by the referees in theapplication of the concept of theunsportsmanlike foul. For this reason, theWorld Technical Commission has seenthe need to make changes to this rule andto the interpretational guidelines thatunderline the spirit of fair play. ThroughFIBA's International Instructors, thesechanges were communicated to NationalInstructors and to the referees of theworld.An example of this philosophy of play isthe limiting of the number of unsports-manlike fouls that players may commit ina game. In doing so, the TechnicalCommission was attempting to develop arule that would eliminate violent actionsand rough play and to distinguishbetween a normal personal foul and anunsportsmanlike foul. This was alsobased on the principle that basketball is anon-contact sport and that the gamerequires the least number of interruptionspossible to maintain its beauty, intensity,and fundamentals without any type ofphysical violence.The topic of these comments, however, isnot the specific wording of Article 36. Thewording leaves one with little doubt as toits real objectives. Instead, it is about theneed for the rule to be properly communi-cated by the instructors and interpretedby referees. Even more important is that itbe uniformly applied in game situations.Because it is a concept where the guide-lines used by the referees are of funda-mental importance if the rule is to beapplied properly and consistently, FIBAattempted, though the instructors of theworld, to make clear what is the differ-

COMMENTS ONUNSPORTSMANLIKEFOUL

by Alberto Garcia



ence between a normal personal foul andan unsportsmanlike foul. Despite this, thesituation remains unresolved and prob-lems of unsportsmanlike tactics duringthe last few minutes of a game continue.In special moments of the game with aclose score and a situation of high ten-sion felt by the players, the referees mightfeel pressured in some way to call foulsthat could influence the final result of thegame. However, the main problem is notso much what is happening at the end ofa game, but rather what has happenedduring the game up to that point. Manyreferees do not apply the unsportsman-like foul correctly when situations arise inthe first half, and this is primarily wherethe problem lies.Previously, when what is now an"unsportsmanlike" foul was called an"intentional" foul, by its own name itbrought different interpretations and con-sequently different criteria to apply, cre-ating confusion for everybody, includingspectators. It should be understood thatmany fouls are committed intentionally byusing different tactics or in strategic situ-ations with the intention of trying to winthe game, causing with it the stopping ofthe game clock, and the sending of a play-er to the free-throw line instead of permit-ting possible shots for two- or three-pointfield goals. Such fouls can be intentional,but not necessarily unsportsmanlike.What this comparison really shows is thatthe simple commission of a foul is not theproblem; the problem is with the tacticsused by coaches and players, tactics notinterpreted in the proper context by thereferees based on the spirit of the gameas applied to the official rules.Article 36.1.4 clearly states the principalconsiderations for judging an unsports-manlike foul. These are:

1. If a player makes NO effort to PLAYTHE BALL and contact occurs, it is anunsportsmanlike foul.

2. If a player, in an effort to play the ball,causes EXCESSIVE CONTACT (hardfoul), then the contact shall be judgedto be unsportsmanlike.

3. If a play that is not normal to basket-ball causes a player to establish con-tact with an opponent, it is anunsportsmanlike foul.

Based on what is written in the rule andits respective interpretation, it should beperfectly clear when what could havebeen a normal foul ceases to be "normal"


and becomes "unsportsmanlike" and mustbe sanctioned as such.There are common examples that the ref-eree instructors use in relation to theabove-mentioned principles and whichcan be used to clarify the three state-ments made above.

1. Each time a player is not trying to playthe ball and makes contact with anopponent, this must be considered anunsportsmanlike foul and be sanc-tioned immediately, especially in thelast seconds of a game and when thefoul is NOT a normal foul.

2. Players know that an attempt to blocka shot or prevent a move to the basketmust not involve contact with anopponent; if contact does occur, anormal personal foul will result. If,however, the player uses excessivelyrough contact, this must be taken intoconsideration and an unsportsman-like foul be charged immediately.

3. When we talk about "normal play" inbasketball, we have to know the rulesand, in addition, the spirit of the rules.Moreover, we also have to under-stand the game itself. We must under-stand that grasping a player's shirtcan be a normal personal foul or canbe unsportsmanlike when, for exam-ple, there is a large space betweenthe two opponents. There are otherexamples as well: during a throw-in,an in-bounds player pushes an oppo-nent in order to make a space toreceive the ball; during post play, thedefensive or offensive player uses hisknee to prevent the opponent frommaintaining his position or from mov-ing to another place on the floor.

These comments will hopefully serve tohelp all involved in basketball-especiallyreferees-understand the importance theyhave in the dynamics and purity of thegame. It is the responsibility of the refer-ees and, through them, the players tounderstand and accept the criteria for theunsportsmanlike foul and apply the rulecorrectly and consistently. Good referees"never fear to sanction an unsportsman-like foul; evaluate the action and do notthink about the penalty."A final personal thought: It is preferable tobe mistaken in sanctioning a normal per-sonal foul as an unsportsmanlike foulrather than mistaken by sanctioning anunsportsmanlike foul as a normal person-al foul.


QUESTIONS1. At the beginning of the 3rd period, team

A has only four team members entitledto participate. Shall the period beginwith only four team A players?

2. A5 commits a 5th foul and is no longerentitled to participate. A5 then commitsa technical foul. Shall the technical foulcount as one of the team fouls leading tothe penalty situation in that period?

3. A shot for a field goal by A3 is within thebasket, when B5 touches the backboard,causing it to vibrate. The ball passesthrough the basket. Shall B5 be chargedwith a technical foul?

4. While team A is in control of the ball withfour seconds remaining in the 24-secondperiod, a technical foul is committed bycoach A, followed by a technical foulcommitted by B4. Team B is entitled tothe next alternating possession throw-in. Shall play resume with a team Bthrow-in?

5. B5 commits a disqualifying foul thatdoes not involve contact with an oppo-nent. Shall any team A player attemptthe resulting free throws?

6. While the ball is in its downward flighton a shot for a goal, A2 commits goaltending and the ball enters the basket.Shall the resulting team B throw-in takeplace at the free throw line extended?

7. A pass by A3 goes out-of-bounds whereit first touches substitute B8. Shall athrow-in be awarded to team A?

8. A 2nd technical foul, entered in thescore sheet as a 2nd "C", is committedby coach A because of personalunsportsmanlike behavior. Two free-throws to be followed by a throw-in atthe center line extended are awardedto team B because of the coach A tech-nical foul. Shall an additional penaltyalso be awarded because of coach A'sdisqualification?

9. A5 is awarded two free-throws. Whilethe ball is dead following the first free-throw, B3 commits a technical foul. B8now asks to enter the game to replaceB3. Shall B8 be permitted to enter thegame immediately?

10. While holding the ball, A4 is being guar-ded by B4. B4 does not allow sufficientroom for A4 to pivot. Is B4 in a legalguarding position?

RIGHT OR WRONG?


ANSWERS1. Yes. (Article 21.1)2. No. (Article 40.2, 38.4.1)3. No. (Article 38.3.1)4. No. (Article 42.2.7)5. Yes. (Article 37.2.3)

6. Yes. (Article 31.3.1)7. No. (Article 23.2.1)8. No. (Article 37.1.4)9. No. (Article 19.4.1)10. Yes. (Article 33.4)


SPORT MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT

by Peter Fricker

the AustralianInstitute of Sport

Peter Fricker, one of Australia's pre-eminent sports scientists, startedhis association with the AustralianInstitute of Sport (AIS) as its firstmedical officer in 1981. In 2001, hebecame the AIS Assistant Directorand more recently, in May 2005, wasappointment Director of the AIS. Hehas been appointed as Medical Di-rector for the 2006 Australian Com-monwealth Games Team, and alsoserved as Medical Director for theAustralian Olympic Team in Athens2004 and the 2002 CommonwealthGames Team. Prior to these appoint-ments, he was the Deputy MedicalDirector and Medical Officer for Au-stralian Olympic Teams at Seoul,Barcelona, Atlanta, and Sydney.

HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF SPORT (AIS)Whilst the catalyst for a national in-stitute of sport was Australia's di-sappoint ing performance at theMontreal Olympic Games in 1976(one silver medal and four bronzemedals), moves had been made ear-lier to adopt a more professional ap-proach to elite sport in Australia.

In 1973, Professor John Bloomfieldwas commissioned by the AustralianGovernment to prepare a sportsplan. Professor Bloomfield conside-red a number of studies of sports in-stitutes in Europe, and their successin developing elite athletes. As a re-sult he suggested to the government

that it should establish a national in-stitute of sport similar to those opera-ting in European countries.The vision for a national sports insti-tute was well received, and on Au-stralian Day (26 January 1981), theAIS was officially opened by then Pri-me Minister Malcolm Fraser. Interna-tionally renowned swimming coach,Don Talbot was appointed as the In-stitute's first Director.

The mission of the AIS was to ad-dress Australia's ailing internationalsporting performances and reputa-tion by developing elite sport in Au-stralia through the provision of facili-ties and funding to sporting organisa-tions and potential elite athletes.

The AIS was initially based in Can-berra with eight sports - basketball,gymnastics, netball, soccer, swim-ming, tennis, track and field and wei-ghtlifting. On the strength of Austra-lia's performance at the 1984 OlympicGames in Los Angeles where AIS ath-letes won seven of Austral ia's 12swimming medals, gymnastics recor-ded a best-ever performance and th-ree track and field athletes finishedin the top six in their events, the Go-vernment announced four moresports to commence at the AIS, thesebeing squash, diving, rowing and wa-ter polo.Today the AIS, as a key program ofthe Australian Sports Commission(ASC) offers assistance to elite athle-



tes in 35 separate programs across26 sports. Whilst the main residential sportsprograms operate from a 65-hecta-re site in Canberra, there are alsotraining programs based in Adelai-de, Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne,Sydney and the Gold Coast. Someprograms are full residential pro-grams, whilst others a camps-ba-sed programs. There are also scholarship pro-grams for athletes with disabilitiesin athletics, skiing and swimming. The AIS employs approximately 70coaches to help these athletesachieve their goals. In addition theAIS has approximately 70 staff thatprovide world-class sports scien-ce sports medicine services to allAIS scholarship programs.

Resul ts f rom the 2000 SydneyOlympic Games highlight the va-luable contribution the AIS makesto Australia's sporting success.More than half of the 620-strongSydney Olympic team were currentor former AIS athletes, and theywon 32 of Austra l ia 's record-breaking 58 medals.In the 2004 Athens Olympic Games,both current and former AIS con-tributed 10 gold, 10 silver, and 12bronze medals-65 percent of Au-stralia's tally of 49 medalsThis is admirable especially whenone remembers that the popula-tions of Australia in 20 million.

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENTSUPPORT FOR THE ASC The Australian Sports Commissionis the Austral ian Government'sbody responsible for coordinatingthe Government's commitment andcontribution to the sporting indu-stry. Its role is to provide nationalleadership in all facets of sport de-velopment from the elite level th-rough national sporting organisa-tions (national governing bodiesfor sport and their affiliated clubsand individuals) to the governmentand private sectors, schools andthe wider sporting community.

In the 2005-06 financial year, theGovernment has al located over$189 mi l l ion to the Austra l ianSports Commission; this repre-sents just 0.09% of total Govern-ment expenditure for the year.

The ASC currently provides funding to68 national sporting organisations forpurposes such as international com-petition, training, camps, coach andofficials development and nationalsport development programs. It alsoprovides funding for specif ic pro-grams such as Indigenous Sport, disa-bility sport and tailored grass rootscommunity participation initiatives ai-

med at increasing membership insporting organisations.

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT SUPPORTFOR BASKETBALL AUSTRALIAThe ASC continues to work closelywith Basketball Australia (BA) throughthe provision of financial resources,advice and support to assist in theconduct of business and programs in


unified approach to the identifica-tion and development of outstan-ding junior basketball players andcoaches. The Program links to-gether both men's and women'sjunior and senior programs andcreates clear pathways for athle-tes as their careers develop andprogress. The Program addressesall aspects of a players' develop-

an effective, efficient and inclusiveway.In 2005/06 the ASC has allocated closeto $4million to Basketball Australia toassist in the delivery of its national hi-gh performance programs, AustralianInstitute of Sport programs (men's andwomen's programs), national commu-nity sport programs and Indigenoussport, coach and official education

and membership promotion. A coupleof highlights of recent successful pro-grams developed and implemented th-rough the working re lat ionshipbetween BA and the ASC include:

▼ The establishment of a National In-tensive Training Centre Program forthe sport of basketball. This Pro-gram provides a systematic and



ment including time management,planning, personal developmentand life management skil ls. TheProgram also provides support forcoaches to develop their ownpract ical coaching techniqueswhilst providing them with profes-sional development opportunities.

▼ BA's "Aussie Hoops" program - aninitiative designed specifically forprimary aged children. The pro-gram is a is player-centred, fun-fo-

cused and affordable program thatprovides a positive environment foryoung children to be introduced tothe sport of basketball. In 2004/05the program reached approxima-tely 700,000 primary school chil-dren across Australia; and

▼ With the assistance of the ASC'snational Project CONNECT initiati-ve, BA has developed a DisabilityAction Plan designed to encouragethe inclusion at all levels of ba-

sketbal l to create c learpathways for athletes with a di-sability to progress from deve-lopmental stages through tothe elite level.

AIS BASKETBALL PROGRAMThe long term objective of theAIS Basketball program is todevelop athletes to representAustralia at World Champion-ships and Olympic Games. Theinfluence of the AIS in the de-velopment of Austral ian ba-sketball is reflected in the num-bers of AIS players progressingto national junior and seniorteams and the improvement inAustralia's ranking at all levelsin men's and women's basket-ball. In fact 18 of the 24 athletesselected for the 2004 AthensOlympics were graduates ofthe AIS.

Since its inception, some formerAIS scholarship holders that ha-ve represented Australia at theOlympic Games, and have alsogone on to play in the NBA andWNBA, include: Mark Bradtke;Luc Longley; Shane Heal; An-drew Bogut; Lauren Jackson;Sandra Brondello, Kristy Har-rower and Penny Taylor.

In 1981, Dr Adrian Hurley wasthe founding coach of the AISprogram and was joined by Pa-trick Hunt in July 1981. In the fir-st year of the program, both themen's and women's team wongold medals in the inauguralOceania tournament.

During his time at the AIS, DrHurley was the Assistant Coachfor the Australian Senior Men'steam from 1981 to 1984 (LAOlympics) and took over asHead Coach from 1985 to 1992

for the Seoul, and Barcelona Olym-pics. He was the first coach to take anAustralian men's team to the medalround of an Olympics. In 1990, Dr Hur-ley was honoured with a Medal of theOrder of Australia for services to ba-sketball.

Patrick Hunt, a former National JuniorMen's Head Coach and AssistantOlympic Coach, is currently the Mana-ger, National Player and Coach Deve-


lopment and Head Coach of BA's Na-tional Intensive Training Centre Pro-gram. The AIS program targets teenage ath-letes and is run as a junior develop-ment program for both men and wo-men. The main aim of the program isto accelerate the athletes' develop-ment and understanding of team prin-ciples and play. The program also in-corporates at least one overseas toureach year to give the athletes a de-gree of international exposure. Themen's program competes in the SouthEast Australian Basketball League,whilst the women compete in the Wo-men's National Basketball League.A clear strength of the AIS across allof i ts sport programs is the com-prehensive and innovat ive sportscience and sport medicine supportservices that it provides. In the caseof the basketbal l , athletes benefitfrom a range of services includingpsychology, nutrition, strength andconditioning, recovery, physiology,physiotherapy and sports medicine,ski l l acquisi t ion and performanceanalysis. The AIS also provides anti-doping education for all scholarshipathletes to increase their awarenessof individual obligations and responsi-bilities in regard to drugs in sport.Whilst the AIS is not an academic in-

stitution, in line with its broader phi-losophy of a holistic development forathletes, AIS programs are also sup-port by a dedicated Athlete Careerand Education unit to support athle-tes' academic progress, employment,welfare and personal growth. The AIS Basketball program has con-tinued to evolve from its time as afoundation program. The AIS now hastwo full-time coaches for both themen's and women's programs and in2006, for the first time, will also havescholarship coaches for both pro-grams. The pro-gram, in colla-borat ion withBA and GriffithUniversity, hasalso recent lyincorporated aPhD scholar toprovide specia-lised physiolo-gical supportservices speci-f ical ly for thesport of basket-ball. Basketball Au-stralia's Natio-nal IntensiveTraining CentreProgram under-

pins the AIS program, with the AISbeing directly linked as feeder pro-grams into the national junior squads.AIS athletes have accounted for 95%of Australian junior teams. The excel-lent working relationship between theAIS and BA has led to a number of out-standing results for Australian juniorbasketball including:▼ Australian Junior Men's Team -

Gold Medal at the 2003 World Ju-nior Championships (eleven out ofthe twelve players were AIS athle-tes) and a Silver Medal at the 1995Championships.

▼ Australian Junior Women's Team -Gold Medal at the 1993 World Ju-nior Championships and a SilverMedal at the 1997 Championships(all players were AIS athletes).

Once athletes have completed their 2-3 year scholarship at the AIS, themajority move into the men's and wo-men's national leagues. Some AISgraduates' progress to colleges andnational leagues in the USA or Europe.The AIS program has also had a signi-ficant impact on the development anddepth of Australian coaching. Manyformer AIS coaches, some being pastAustralian representative players, ha-ve progressed to become national lea-gue and national representative teamcoaches including Phil Smyth, PhilBrown, Carrie Graf, and Jenny Chee-seman. A further example of the inte-gration between the AIS and BA isthat whilst in their role with the AIS,some coaches are also provided theopportunity to be involved with Au-stralian representative teams.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN AIS BASKETBALLSCHOLARSHIP HOLDER

06:30 Early Morning Strength and Conditioning Session08:00 Breakfast in AIS Athletes' Dining Hall08:30 School (local high school or university)10:30 Group Shooting Session

(sometimes recovery sessions)11:30 Return to school14:30 Individual skills session15:30 Return to school16:30 Team Practice (may include nutrition/psychology

education as required)19:00 Dinner in AIS Athletes' Dining Hall19:30 Study Hall (Academic tuition)10:30 Sleep



by Enzo Lefebre

Enzo Lefebre is currently VicePresident of Fortitudo Bologna(Italy), the basketball team thatwon the Italian NationalChampionship in the 2004/2005season. In the past, he has servedas a consultant (Florence), GeneralManager (Fortitudo Bologna,Pavia, and Milan), Vice President(Virtus Bologna), and MarketingDirector (Verde Sport of BenettonTreviso).

Winning forms the foundation ofany sports club. To achieve this im-portant goal, there should be aspecific organization set in placewhere the goals , a ims, andmethods have to intersect and tointeract in a harmonic way.

We, the staff of Fortitudo Basket-ball in Bologna (and I underscorethe word "we" because behind thename of a sports club there arepeople who work every day) workbehind the scenes and interactbetween each other and outside.In the same way like behind thename of a sports club there are theplayers that enter on the court,and the coaches that train andlead them - we express this newconcept of sports club at 360 de-grees. When we made it, we star-ted from the formulat ion of asports - business project. The first step we made, at the eveof 1999/ 2000 season, we began tomanage the operative structurewhere we work, the famous arenacalled PalaDozza, now titled LandRover Arena. According with Bologna City Hallfor a twenty years plan and under-taking to restore and to renovatean historical stadium, not only forthe city of Bologna, but for all theItalian basketball, we organizedmany sports events inside our are-na not only basketball, making it, at

THE MODERN SPORTs CLUB

the same time, effective for other no-sports events, for example concerts,shows, conventions and competi-tions.

First of all, we tried to organize andhave in the Land Rover Arena our allsports - business activities, so it be-came our base. So, our sports clubhas a structure where there are, inthe same building, the executive, ad-

ministrative, technical and medicaloffices, the court, the conditioningand weight gym and the therapeuticalswimming pool for the senior team. Inconclusion, we created a little "sportscity", where the team lives and worksdaily, a particular characteristic thatyou cannot find easily in other Italianand European sports club. In addition,reasserting the double look, sportsand business of a modern sports club,


inside our arena we created not onlythe autonomous "work - spaces", butalways interfaced by our internal orga-nizational zones, from marketing tocommunication, but also the spacesand the "locations" of our services forthe sports, commercial and businessevents, as our areas to receive guestsand journalists.

In this way, the structure of the Land

Rover Arena and all the activities insi-de, we created a modern holding ledby Fortitudo and fully developed: infact, around the ring surrounding thecentral arena, we have not only theshop for the selling of our original mer-chandising, the Fortitudo Point, but al-so a restaurant and a coffee bar, "CaffèAtlantico", and, furthermore, a travelagency called "Travel 42 Beltour", thatevery day give life to the Land Rover

Arena in Azzarita Square, in the histo-rical downtown of Bologna. Finally, ourarena contains also the Modern Azza-rita Center, assigned to physiothera-peutic recovery of sports traumas ornot, that hosts not only our players, butit's also the spectators.All these activities, that get mixed upevery day inside the structure of LandRover Arena directly led by Fortitudo,can show how the term "sports club"



suggests and contains furthermore bu-siness characteristics.

A MODERN SPORTS CLUB This doesn't mean to forget or to ex-ceed the original main concept, the onerelated to the sport activity of the team,but, rather, it means to develop in a mo-dern, well organized and targeted wayall the important looks for the basket-ball events. Behind the activity of a ba-sketball team and its competitions evenabroad, there are always more looks tosupervise and to organize daily in anydetail: executive, technical, admini-strative, medical and marketing areas,all these things concentrate and put to-gether their efforts about the conti-nuous and unavoidable care of "theteam that enters on the court". And, it must be clear, the same teamand its players are the protagonists, re-sponsible of their sports deeds as oftheir role of testimonials of the sportsclub; for example you can look at theimportance that our commercial part-ners combine not only with the nameFortitudo, but also with the players of


the team. A modern sports club, at the same time,cannot set aside and in fact it centresever more even in "the game that deve-lops out of the court". The research of the institutional spon-sors and of commercial partners, as thecare of the continuous relationship withthem, they are the irreplaceable placewhere the sports club exists. But, in addition, the marketing activity isalways more assigned to product, to or-ganize, to manage and to follow alsocontents outside of the same basketball,becoming for example promoters of na-tional competitions and other activities,more related to the world of the sport, asort of parallel base that is added to theone related to the institutional partner-ships or directly related to the basket-ball. Remaining in the sports area, be-cause this is our original vocation andthe goal of a sports club as FortitudoBologna. It is modern, open, dynamic,flexible as much as possible, like a com-pany must be. And, if this company is a sports club,more and more.


FIBA RESEARCH AND STUDY CENTRE

NEWTECHNOLOGIES

We would like to introduce some new te-chnologies produced by some Partners ofthe FIBA Study Center. Some of these products mentioned belowhave not yet been approved by FIBA, ne-vertheless discussions are in progress.

BERTELÈ ELECTRONICSBertelè Electronics is one of the leaders inthe field of electronic basketball score-boards in Europe. They were one of the first companies toreceive the Official Approval by FIBA in1994. Bertelè has supplied more than 2,000 pie-ces of basketball equipment to cover al-most all of the first division teams in Italyand it has also supplied a number of teamsacross Europe, North Africa, and Asia. In the year 2000 the largest scoreboard inEurope was put in place at the indoor sta-dium at Fortitudo, Bologna (Italy). With its 17 metres of diameter and 8 video-screens, it still remains the largest score-board in Europe. Other facilities recently outfitted with Ber-telè scoreboards include the indoor sta-dium in Liège (Belgium); the Algida indoorfacilities in Livorno (Italy), the scoreboardat the indoor stadium in Strasbourg (Fran-ce), and 7 maxi-video scoreboards for theindoor stadium in Qatar. Bertelè scoreboards are now in theirfourth generation and have achieved avery high level of reliability. During the last 15 years, Bertelè has deve-loped a production line of full-color LED (li-ght emitting diode) scoreboards, enablingthe integration of images from video sour-ces into the more traditional numerical di-splay. Some wonderful examples will beused in the Winter Olympic Games 2006 inTurin (Italy).

For further information, please contactBertelè s.n.c.: Fax: +39 031 699 210, Marco Bertelè at: [email protected]

BODETS.A.At the heart of big international events, as

by Karen StrahlFIBA Study Centre

well as at local competitions, the score-board is perhaps one of the most essen-tial technical components in a basketballgame.With its 40 years of experience in theworld of basketball, Bodet has been de-veloping several types of scoreboards inorder to offer their clients multiple pro-ducts that are economical and technical-ly advanced as well as innovative com-

mercial alternatives to what's currentlyavailable. With Bodet's worldwide distri-bution, the company offers excellent af-ter-sale services on all equipment, alongwith a strong technical support teamavailable for important sports events.This technical follow-up is still availabledecades after original installation.While the Range BT 5000 electroma-gnetic display, approved by FIBA, is a

Source: Mondo

Source: Bertelè


FIBA RESEARCH AND STUDY CENTRE

wonderful success, Bodet is now deve-loping two display technologies that meetthe ongoing needs of our clients: electro-magnetic display and luminous displaywith diodes.The Range BT 6000 luminous display withdiodes, currently undergoing the FIBA ap-proval process, was exhibited during theFSB 2005 Fair in Cologne. Bodet still conti-nues to innovate. Thanks to the improve-ment in display technology, the companyintroduced an even newer range of score-boards in 2006 that incorporate luminousLEDs.

For further information, please contact: Bodet, Fax: +33 2 41 71 72 02D. Barre, Marketing Manager: [email protected], Export Manager: [email protected]

MONDO ELECTRONIC SCOREBOARDSIn 1998, Mondo built its first productioncenter of sport equipment for the nationaland international level in Zaragoza(Spain). Their factory, Mondo Iberica S.A., is loca-ted in the Malpica Industrial Area. Mondo Iberica has its own technical de-partment where its line of electronic sco-reboards is designed and manufactured.

Their highly luminous LEDs allow on-going information to be read from greatdistances. During 2005, Mondo installed LED electro-nic scoreboards as a complement to tradi-tional scoreboards in order to provide mo-re information to spectators. These innovative scoreboards allow thedisplay of single-color images that canproject advertising as well. In fact, thisequipment can be supplied in two partsand installed next to the local and visitorpanels. It can be completely independent from theteam scoreboard and loaded with diffe-rent images and information.The Antares, Pegasus, and Fenix Mondomodular electronic scoreboards complywith all the requirements and regulationsof different sports and provide clear andcomprehensive information on all relevantgame parameters. They can be fitted with a shot clock deviceand a console with controls that are veryeasy to use. The company's philosophy is based on in-vesting in new ideas, technological re-search, and human resources. Mondo'sprimary focus has always been researchand development in order to make morecomfortable and durable sports materialand to improve the quality of its products.

Source: Bodet (Range BT 6000)

Source: Schelde International

The constant desire to invest more timeand energy in these areas will ensurethat the achievements obtained todaywill be maintained and get even better inthe future.

For further information, please contactMondo Iberica S.A., Fax: +34 976 574371, Tel.: +34 976 574303Ms. Salas Arguis, Head of Eletronic Sco-reboards:[email protected]

SCHELDE INTERNATIONALSchelde now offers a full range of multi-sport scoreboards, of which four are FI-BA-approved Level 1 boards. Differenceshave to do mainly with the character sizeand number of characters for the teamname panels and individual player namepanels. In addition, Schelde's scoreboards canbe custom-designed by clients to meet FI-BA Level 1 scoreboard criteria; theseboards can include additional full colorLED video screen(s) for instance, or rear-projection videowall(s). Since the boards are modular, customerscan start by buying the basic board, andenlarge it with sideboards later that provi-de additional information (player names,personal and team fouls, assists, or wha-tever information needed). To increase the audience entertainmentfactor, additional running text lines caneasily be incorporated in the design to di-splay player statistics, sponsor messa-ges, or game information in order. All information (or part of it) can be direc-tly connected to an outside broadcastingsystem (television) or to an in-house mo-nitor system (changing rooms, VIP area,for example). Schelde puts great empha-sis on readability: it's not the size of theboard that is important, but what mattersmost is: (1) the size of the digits; (2) thequality of the LEDs; and (3) the number ofLEDs. Even at a sharp angle, the informa-tion displayed must be easy to read. There must be high luminosity withoutblurring, but it cannot be so bright that it isblinding. Schelde products meet these needs. Thescoreboards are designed for at least 15years of trouble-free use (this is an avera-ge expected life span, depending on in-tensity of use).

For further information, please contactSchelde International: Fax: +32 92 82 86 95Walter Dejonghe: [email protected]


Bill Foran is the founder and for-mer President of the NationalBasketball Conditioning CoachesAssociation, he works for theMiami Heat from 14 years, at thebeginning as the conditioningcoach and now as assistant andconditioning coach. He is the co-author, with other NBA conditio-ning coaches, of two books onthis topic.

Vincent Aquilino is a state licen-sed and nationally certified mas-sage therapist since 1986. He hasbeen the full time neuromusculartherapist for the Miami Heat forfive years. His responsibilitiesinclude; providing the playerswith neuromuscular massagetherapy and designing flexibilityexercises to maximize theirperformances on the court.

In the competitive world of sporttoday, athletes need an edge.That edge may be a solid warm-up and stretching routine. Oftenoverlooked by some coaches andmany athletes, flexibility ofmuscles with free range of motionof joints will lead to improved ath-letic performance, fewer injuries,faster recovery of soft tissueinjury, stress relief and morerelaxed connective tissue throu-ghout the body. There are manytypes of stretching techniquesavailable to the athlete. To name afew: proprioceptive neuromuscu-lar facilitation, reciprocal inhibi-tion, and static stretches that areheld for as long as 60 seconds.The style of stretching that wehave found to warm the muscle,increase flexibility and best pre-pare the athlete for competitionwas developed by Aaron L Mattesand is called Active IsolatedStretching (AIS). AIS is differentthan conventional stretching inthat the stretch is held for 11/2 - 2

by Bill Foran and Vincent Aquilino

DOCTORS , TRAINERS AND CONDITIONING COACHES

LOWER BODYSTRETCHES


seconds with several repeti-tions (8-10) of the stretch beingadministered. The premise being, when amuscle is held in a stretchedposition for too long a period oftime the stretch reflex mechani-sm ignites, causing the muscleto contract to protect, whichdefeats the purpose of stret-ching. With each repetition thegoal is to take the stretch a littlefurther within the individualscomfort zone, thereby increa-sing flexibility and ROM.

WARMUPWe start the stretching ses-sion with a good warm-up.Proper warm-up is essentialfor preparing an athlete forpractice or competition. Thewarm-up increases the corebody temperature, which willallow for a better, fuller stret-ch. There are a variety of waysto warm-up. We may start onstationary bikes to increaseour core temperature or dovarious movements up anddown the court before stret-


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ching. These movements inclu-de; High Knee Runs, Butt Kicks,High Knee Skips, Power Skips,Carioca, Lateral Slides, AngleCuts, Lunges, Strides, etc. Wethen lean on the wall to doSide-to-Side Kicks and Front-to-Back Kicks. After the kicks,we circle up and stretch.

BASIC RULES OF AIS1. Isolate muscles being stret-

ched.2. Contract opposing muscles

to the ones being stretched.3. Inhale during the relaxed

stage of the stretch, exhaleduring exertion or whenstretch is being applied.

4. Take stretch only as far asstretch reflex will allow.

5. Complete each repetition(8-10).

6. Try to take stretch a littlefurther with each repetition.

7. Stretch daily.8. Stretch with a positive men-

tal attitude.

Photo 1: Knees-to-Chest StretchLying on your back, begin withyour knees and hips flexed ata 90 degree angle and yourfeet off the floor. Bring your thighs toward yourchest and place your handsjust below your knees and pullthem toward your chest toassist the stretch. Release and return to the star-ting position with each rep.

photo 2: Leg CrossoverStretchLying on your back with yourknees bent and your feet flaton the floor and close to yourbuttocks, cross your right legover your left leg and placeyour hands behind your head. Pull your left leg down to theright with your right leg.Release and return to the star-ting position after each rep. Repeat the stretch with yourleft leg over your right leg andpulling to the left.


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photo 3: Gluteus MaximusStretch Lying on your back with yourknees bent and both feet flat onthe floor, cross your right footover your left knee. Raise yourleft foot off the floor and moveyour left knee toward yourchest. Assist the end move-ment by pulling toward yourchest with your right hand atyour right knee and your lefthand at your right ankle.Release and return the left footto the floor after each rep.Repeat the stretch with yourleft foot over your right knee.

photo 4: Low Back StretchFrom a seated position with yourlegs spread wide and slightlybent, tuck your chin and leanyour torso forward as far aspossible. Assist the end move-ment by grabbing your heels andpulling forward a little further.

Release and return to the star-ting position after each rep.

photo 5: Bent Knee HamstringStretch (with rope)Lie on your back with your rightleg straight and on the floor andyour left knee bent and raisedabove your left hip. Place themiddle of the rope under the midline of your right foot and hold theends of the rope in your left hand.Your right hand should be behindyour right knee to help keep yourleg in proper position. Straightenthe right leg and assist the endmovement with a gentle pull onthe rope. Release and return tothe starting position after eachrep. Repeat with the left leg.

photo 6: Straight Leg HamstringStretch (with rope)Lie on your back with your legsstraight and on the floor. Placethe middle of the rope under the

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mid line of your right foot and holdthe ends of the rope in each hand.Raise your right leg as high aspossible, keeping it straight. Assistthe end movement with a gentlepull on the rope. Return to the star-ting position after each rep.Repeat with the left leg.

photo 7: Seated Groin StretchFrom a seated position with yourknees bent and the bottom of yourfeet facing each other and together,spread your knees toward the flooras far as possible. Assist the endmovement by placing your hands,forearms or elbows on the inside ofyour thighs pressing downward.Release and return to the startingposition after each rep.

photo 8: Quad StretchLie on your right side with bothknees bent and toward yourchest. Grab the top of your rightankle with your left hand, loweryour right knee and take it backand through as far as possible.Assist the end movement by pul-ling a little further with your righthand. Return to the starting posi-tion after each rep. Repeat withthe left leg.

photo 9: Calf Stretch (with rope)From a seated position with yourlegs straight, together, and on thefloor, place the middle of the ropeunder the ball of your right footand hold the ends of the rope ineach hand. Point the toes of yourright foot toward your right knee.Assist the end movement by gen-tly pulling on the rope. Releaseand return to the starting positionafter each rep. Repeat with theleft leg.

photo 10: Achilles StretchFrom a seated position, with yourleft leg straight and on the floorand your right leg bent, moveyour right foot as close to yourbuttocks as possible. Raise thetoes of your right foot towardyour right knee, keeping yourright heel on the floor. Assist theend movement by placing yourhands under the ball of your rightfoot and pulling up. Release andreturn to the starting positionwith each rep. Repeat with theleft leg.


Santiago Esteva is a biologist and re-search Assistant of the Sports Physiolo-gist Department of Barcelona (Spain)Olympic Center.

Francek Drobnic is the Head of SportsPhysiology of the Olympic Center ofBarcelona, and on the medical staff ofthe Barcelona basketball team.

Jordi Puigdellivol is a member of themedical service of the Barcelona bas-ketball team, and Luis Serratosa is amember of the medical service of the Re-al Madrid basketball team. They are co-authors of the article.

INTRODUCTIONThere is an important relationship be-tween the birth date and the final sportsresult. For this reason the birth date isconsidered one of the numerous factorsfor the selection of the talented player. Aninteresting aspect related with the birthdate and with sports progress is the rela-tive age effect, or RAE. The RAE definesthe difference of age between the peopleof the same age. It has been identified asa factor that can have a certain influenceon numerous sociological and psycho-logical aspects, as well as on sportsprogress. It can be used to determinesports talent as well as the possibility of aprofessional sports career.

MATERIALS AND METHODLet's consider the birth date, the birthmonth of every player of every male cate-gory of the sports. On one side, the basicteams (from the youth to the EBA League)of 2004/05 Barcelona and Real Madrid, andon the other side, the first Spanish profes-

sional teams of the same season: ACB,LEB1 and LEB2. With the same method andin a comparative way, let's consider thebirth months of 2004/05 NBA players(www.nba.com), as well as the best 50players in NBA history (www.nba.com).The selection rules exclude foreign play-ers in every group, NBA or Spanish bas-ketball, with the goal being to homogenizeevery group. The birthdates are assembledin four-month groupings. So, no. 1: January- March; no. 2: April - June; no. 3: July -September; no. 4: October - December.The statistic method used is the "CHI -quadrate" test. This is a test that shows usthe differences between the distribution ofthe studied birthdates and the distributionof the expected births.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONThe results are shown in table 1, and fig-ures 1 and 2 and we see important differ-ences between the percentage of birthsfor each group. The professional Spanishbasketball groups have more importantdifferences than the NBA. For this rea-son, the birth date has a certain level offorce in the selection of sports talent inthis sport, at least in the basic basketball.This is a situation that influences the pro-fessional national level. Many authorshave already demonstrated this effect ofselection of sport in general and in someteam sports like soccer, hockey, andbaseball. The effect of relative age re-mains in the professional teams, like con-sequence of the strong selection, in thebasic basketball, of the players born dur-ing the first trimesters of the year with re-spect to the others born at the end of theyear and they have better maturation andphysical development.

We must consider that, depending on theranking of the team about the age in thebasketball and in other team sports, aperson born in December will play withthe players born in his same natural year,while the person that born one month lat-er will play in a lower category. Playersborn in the first day of the month of thenatural year and with a supposed goodphysical condition for basketball, are se-lected because they developed the basicproperties of selection of a young player,before that the ones born at the end ofthe year can do the same. In the prema-ture ages, without doubt, size is one ofthese factors. Most of the players select-ed just for a level of maturation and notfor their true talent, will disappear gradu-ally from the basic teams when theychange category. Then, we deduce thatonly the real and authentic talents andthe players that become sport experts,will develop their skills and go to a bettercategory. This aspect of the developmentlooks very important in the first steps of ateam sport, and in a sport where the sizeis the main standard of selection. Other possible factors that influence theRAE in professional basketball, and inother team sports, are the beginning ofthe selection period and the beginning ofthe season of the sport. Like we alreadydiscussed, the birth date is an indirectreference and an alert of the maturativeaspect of the person, with the exceptionof the people that mature quickly or slow-ly. The birth date defines a period of de-velopment that is previous former to thebeginning or to the prosecution in thesport related with the beginning of thescholastic calendar and the beginning ofthe physical extra - scholastic activity.

by Santiago Esteva

by Francek Drobnic


BIRTHDATE AND BASKETBALLSUCCESS


table 1: Player data and percentages of births/trimester

figure 1: data of youth teams and spanish professionalbasketball teams

Differences in percentage of births/ trimester between the youth basketball (FCB and RM) and the Spanishprofessional basketball.

RAE: Relative Age Effect, index of births between the first and the second trimester, compared with the third and the fourth.

Spanish professional basketball team

RM

FBC


In this, we canlook at the ex-perience ofHelsen and hisc o l l e a g u e s ,who studied theRAE during thechange fromAugust to Janu-ary and theymade this con-s i d e r a t i o n .These authorswatched thatthe change ofthe beginning ofthe season did-n't level the sit-uation but pro-duced a trans-fer of the preva-lence of birth-dates from thethird group tothe first. When we lookat the resultsobtained withNBA players,we can see that the effect of relativeage is not so important. In U.S.A., thebasketball player is selected for highlevel sports competition since a certainage. This situation allows a better evolu-tion of those players with a talent for thissport. The selection of the players isfree during the year and it doesn't de-pend on one season that is really short.Then, the basketball culture is learnedin the streets. A basketball fan plays andconfronts himself, and he learns and de-cides his goals daily. This allows theplay and the application of personal re-sources during an important time periodfor the psycho-physical development ofthe man. One of the problems of thesport for the too structured teams is thatthe team or the club is high level or thegoal is always the same, which is victo-ry. On the other side, the person cannotstay at the same level requested fromthe coach to reach this goal and, thework teaching and learning, it doesn'tpass through these sports groups. Theathlete can train very well, but he does-n't have the opportunity of learning dur-ing the competitive game. The man, withtalent, but who is not so mature or, aboutbasketball, he doesn't yet begun hisgrowth, he will have lower conditionthan the other person who is more de-veloped and if he doesn't care about hiscondition, he can fall and get lost. He

will be a talent for the bench.The players selection of basketball willbe modified and adapted to some tech-niques to plan for the future and not toloose the talented guys. Leave the play-er the time to develop himself and tomature, to grow in all his attitudes, allowhim to practice his sport in agonisticway, to make mistakes and to improve.If we study with attention the state ofmaturity, we will put every player in hiscorrect category, demand him what hecan offer. Aspects like the familiar, so-cial and sports ambient, and, like is nat-ural, the genetic and phenotypic char-acteristics, all these things will influ-ence the player's development.

CONCLUSIONSThere is a relative effect of age be-tween the professional Spanish bas-ketball players and with better inten-sity than those players of basicsports. This relative effect of the agedoesn't exist in professional Ameri-can basketball. This situation must be valued by theexperts, the scientists and the sportspoliticians to establish the work skillsand the correct systems of evalua-tion, like how to supervise and tocoach the sportsmen with the goal tooptimize the players that they canhave in the future.


figure 2: data of the nba and of the top-50 nba players

Percentage of births/trimester of the NBA and of the top-50 NBA players.

Documents

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2006 18 ASSIST FOR … · EDITORIAL by Bob Elphinston 3 COACHES FUNDAMENTALS AND YOUTH BASKETBALL Man-to-Man Offense: Passing Game 6 by Hal Wissel Strategic Planning