I’ve recently made an effort to post quick clips from workouts with the hashtag #realwork (Shameless plug: @lukemeier on twitter and instagram). My goal for these clips is to show players, coaches, and parents a sample of what we do. However, more importantly, it’s to enforce our philosophy that the best way for player’s to improve is to isolate individual skills and then drill game realistic situations specific to the player.
I recently saw a video on social media of a trainer working with a D1 guard. They were working on a post up, spin, into a fade away off one foot. It was a good drill – the player had to cut, get position, and everything was against “live” defense – and it was a solid move (for Dirk or KD). But, and this is a big but… this player literally posted up ZERO times last year, none. If he’s unable to score off of a post up next season, is it going to affect his playing time, effectiveness, or the success of the team? Absolutely not. Is working on that skill helping him or his team? No.
It’s easy to be tempted to take a drill or move you see on YouTube or a move you see in a game on TV and throw it into a workout or practice, but you have to be careful.
Practice Perfect by Doug Lemov is completely dedicated to improving the ability to get the most out of your practice. In the book, they outline several rules regarding how to accomplish this. Rule #5 – Replace Your Purpose with an Objective, is especially relevant to this topic. Think of it this way:
- A purpose is what you are going to do.
- An objective is defining what you will be able to do by the end of the session(s).
For player’s, coaches, trainers, and parents it’s important to step back and take an honest look at what you’re doing and really ask, “What are you accomplishing with your training or practice?” Are you working on things that are going to result in game carry over? Are you working on skills you are actually going to use and situations you are actually going to be in?