RebKell's Junkie Boards

[GlennMacGrady]

For those kiddies under 60, you may not know that Buddy Rich was the greatest drummer who ever lived, as is universally accepted by all people who are intimately familiar with every drummer who ever lived.

In any event, Rich once made some strong comments about drum practice that I've always thought had reasonable validity for basketball practice, at least for adult players. What do you think?

[FrozenLVFan]

I have to disagree with that except for the most accomplished drummers or basketball players. The rest need to practice layups, post moves, free throws, etc., and that requires repetition, which is something that's not going to occur frequently enough in scrimmages and game situations with the team. For example, a player could go weeks without shooting a single free throw, and s/he needs to maintain that skill with practice. (This is not a recommendation that the team eliminate game situations from their "practice time.")

[linkster]

I think the correct analogy to basketball is that practicing basketball alone, in a gym with or without a personal trainer, doing endless dribbling exercises, will never substitute for practicing with a team in a game situation. Alone you can never learn to anticipate the movements of others, never learn to pass, never learn to set a screen or do all the those other things without the ball in your hands that are important to a team's success.

[ClayK]

I think you need to practice and you need to play -- and by "play," I mean "play," not with a coach, not with set plays, just running up and down and getting a feel for the game in motion.

So much of basketball happens outside of sets and situations that have been gone over in practice, and girls need to get experience in those -- and just playing five-on-five or three-on-three pickup will help dramatically.

But obviously, you have to practice individually and as a team too.

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Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā

[beknighted]

Well, as someone who saw Buddy Rich play live (and who regularly listens to the Buddy Rich albums on my phone), I can say he was great. On the other hand, he was so preternaturally gifted that I'm not sure he's the best source for commentary on the utility of practice.

Most pro musicians do practice at least some. I work above a concert hall, and I can tell you that a lot of the musicians spend a lot more time playing before their concerts than a mere sound check would require.

[Homyonkel]

I disagree with your assumption. Whether or not it's true for drummers, it doesn't apply to team sports.

[tfan]

It sounds like he could be saying don't "practice by yourself". "You need to play" - does that mean the playing has to be in front of an audience? Sounds like it could be "group practice". Then the analogy would be "scrimmage, don't do drills". But it all depends on where you are. Beginners benefit more from individual drills than pros. But even pros like Stephon Curry are still doing individual dribbling drills on a regular basis.

[Hoopsmom]

Drills are very important, learning the basics and working with others, increasing the difficulty and intensity as you go. Preferably in game-simulation situations. I volunteered for many years for our local youth basketball Association. We would place the girls and boys on teams based on skills drills during tryouts, and the drills were very heavily guard focused. We ended up with a lot of very small “A” teams, and much taller “B” teams. One problem was that the mail evaluators didn’t understand the girls as well as they could have. One year, we ended up with a very small guard being put on an “A” team. She could dribble around the cones very well, but the cones never tried to take the ball away.... We got to the season, and she rode the bench all year, because as a point guard, she could not break a press. With input from some of us, the evaluations changed from that year going forward. ...