Last year Brad Stevens from Butler was at our Wisconsin Coaches Clinic and spoke about their 70/30 philosophy on player development. Work on your strengths 70 % of the time and weaknesses 30% of the time.
My question is how do you expand your game? Also, how do you get to that 70%? I absolutely do not agree with this philosophy for youth players.
We have a kid that we workout here in Milwaukee, who is currently in 7th grade and can really handle the ball. If we spent 70% of our workouts with him focusing on ball handling, how is he ever going to get his game to the next level? The better you are at a skill the more work you have to put in to make improvements. We have another player, Carrington Love, going to UW-Green Bay next year. He can really handle the ball, is quick and can get into the paint. His outside shot and three ball, however, need to be more consistent. He should be working 30% on his handles and 70% on his three point shot.
When I was a junior in high school my strengths were getting to the rim, handling the ball and making plays. In the 6 weeks prior to the start of my senior year I shot 15,000 shots and turned a major weakness into a strength, but didn’t neglect my ball handling.
I will say this, while I added a 3 point shot to my game, mentally I wasn’t as aggressive getting to the rim, which probably hurt my game. However, this was not a skill issue, just a mentality I needed to be aware of and change.
As a freshman Kenny Boyton from Florida shot 29% from the 3 point line and this last season, as a junior, he knocked down 40% of his three point attempts. I highly doubt he spent 30% of his time working shot and 70% working on his strengths. In fact Florida individual instruction workouts in the spring consist of 1,200 made threes per week. That’s the only thing they focus on.
Raymond Felton’s sophomore year at North Carolina he shot 33% from the 3 point line. The next year as junior he upped this to 44%. Why is this important? If you are already good at getting to the rim and making plays becoming a threat from the outside is going to make it easier to use your strengths.
There are a couple cases I do agree with the 70/30 philosophy. If you are playing at the highest level of basketball you are going to play at focus on your strengths. Make them great. If you are a high school player who can really shoot it keep working on that. This past preseason when working with Steve Novak from the Knicks we spent probably 85-90% of the workouts focusing on shooting off penetration, wide pindowns, and 1 dribble pullups. He is the epitome of a specialist in the NBA.
If you want to play at the next level or get your game to the next level you absolutely have to work on your weaknesses AKA Kenny Boyton and Raymond Felton. If Dirk Nowitzki had continued to work on just being a catch and shoot 3 point shooter where would he be right now? I highly doubt he’d have a ring and MVP honors without developing his ability to get to the rim and create off the bounce.
What you do all depends on what your goals are. What level do you want to play at? This is the question you need to answer first before you design your off season plan.
—
Mike Lee
If you are looking for innovative drills and workouts for the off season be sure to check out www.miskillz.com. Close to 200 Drills. 50 Scoring Moves. 20 downloadable workouts.