Today, you are going to learn a unique concept that makes your players highly creative and adaptable. Your players become better problem solvers. Adaptable, creative, problem solvers... tell me more, right?

First, you need to look at this crazy play by Steph Curry.

It’s flat out ridiculous. And Steve Kerr’s reaction is pretty funny. I think we’ve all had the “No…Yes” moment as a coach.

Now, I don’t think any of us are going to recommend that our players practice this move. I highly doubt that Steph ever practiced this situation.

But it’s important for you to understand why this happened.

The WHY makes players better problems solvers on the basketball court, even with a tad of productive creativity. It also motivates them to work on their skills.

Neocortex, Limbic System, and Making Your Skills Automatic

To better understand this, we have to touch on neuroscience a little bit… the study of the way the brain works.

When you first learn a skill like a dribble move or shooting, you have to think about it. You use a part of your brain called the neocortex. It’s also referred to as your “Thinking Brain.”

Now, once you have repeated a skill for thousands of repetitions that skill becomes a habit. It’s automated. You don’t think about doing it anymore.

When your skills become habits, they are stored in something called your limbic system.

Limbic system = automated skills / habits

This is a highly important aspect of our evolution and advancement as humans. You don’t have to think about every little task that you perform. If you had to think about every little task, you would never get out the door and accomplish anything meaningful.

When the skill has become automated, that makes your neocortex free to use.

How Freeing Your Neocortex Unleashes Creativity and Enhances Problem Solving

In addition to learning a new skill, the neocortex takes care of problem solving, critical thinking, and creative thinking.

Well, you might be thinking… “Okay. Yeah… what the heck does this have to do with Steph Curry and his crazy move?”

What has Steph done over the years? He’s worked on his shooting, ball handling, passing, footwork, and finishing for countless repetitions. All of his skills have become automated.

Now let’s go back to the move above. Since Steph didn’t have to think about his footwork, dribble moves, or even shooting, he was able to use his neocortex to scan the environment (the positioning of the defenders) and solve the problem… AKA look like the tasmanian devil, then throw the ball through the hoop.

So you unleash your creativity and enhance your problem solving through countless repetitions and automating your skill set.

This is a spin off of a phrase from Doug Lemov’s book called Perfect Practice, “Unlock creativity through repetition”.

Why The Attack & Counter System Gets You There Quicker and Ramps It Up Another Notch!

Let’s think back to what we learned in the previous articles of the education series on Don Kelbick’s Attack & Counter Skill Development System.

If you have ever watched the video or been to Don’s camps, you know this phrase...

“Repetition. Repetition. Repetition.”

Do countless repetitions of your basketball moves and practicing skills like ball handling, footwork, shooting, and finishing. That automates your skill set.

The first article even showed you how to develop basketball moves faster through simplifying footwork and showing the similarities among hundreds of different moves.

In the second article, you learned how mapping your moves removes indecision, improves confidence, and ramps the speed of your decision-making to beat the defense.

1 - You catch the ball, you’re open, balanced, and in range, you shoot the ball.

2 - When your shot isn’t open, you drive.

In the third article, you learned how attacking and driving opposite of the pass takes you away from the defense and puts you in great scoring situations.

Not only have you automated your skill set, you’ve automated your decision-making.

Now, think about what happens.

Your neocortex is free to solve problems.

That means you can analyze the defense more quickly. You can quickly see the rotations of the help defense and find the open man or counter the defense with a better scoring move.

That means that you can even do something different! You can unleash some effective creativity.

When necessary, you can deviate from the plan of attack and come up with a better solution.

For example...

Do NOT Go Opposite of the Pass?!

Let’s go back to driving to the opposite of the pass.

In this situation, the pass comes from the left, your shot is defended, so you immediately drive to the right. It’s automated. You don’t even have to think about it.

However, since your neocortex is free to solve problems, you quickly notice something.

Your on-ball defender quickly slid to the right and there appears to be multiple help defenders to your right.

As a result, you quickly plant your right foot and crossover step to the left. In essence, you stop the drive to the right and go to the left instead.

This can be a simple jab and go prior to the dribble, or if you notice it a split second later, it could be a change of direction dribble move.

Don has never said, you HAVE TO or you MUST go opposite of the pass.

Also, initially looking to drive to the right takes the defense even further to the right and even more out of position. This opens up the driving lane to the left.

I’ve seen something similar many times across many different situations.

But What If My Poor Decision-Makers Never Get This Level

Now, also think about your players who lack good decision-making. It doesn’t matter if they are ever able to do this.

The fact that you have them attacking opposite of the pass, you’re eliminating the plethora of times that they make the wrong decision. And if they do learn how to change the plan when appropriate with repetition and experience (playing and watching film), even better!

You’re creating a habit that puts them in a high percentage scoring opportunity much more frequently than not.

You’ve simplified the game, reduced overthinking, increased aggressiveness, and increased the amount of good decisions on the floor.

To learn more, check out the Attack & Counter Skill Development System.

No big deal if you’re not interested. We still hope that this education series still improves your coaching and gives you new concepts to implement.

What do you think? Let us know by leaving your comments, suggestions, and questions...

Comments Most Likes First   Oldest First   Newest First Ruth says: 3/31/2018 at 11:27:49 AM Thanks for a great series of articles - always learning from you guys. Quick query, if I may: I know you say Don's system can be used from youth to high performance players, but what would you say the youngest age level would be? I've seen some comments advocate from middle school up, for us non-Americans, is that age 12? Or, perhaps a better way to ask since our players tend to start at an older age and lag behind American players on skill acquisition, what skill sets or level of understanding of the game should they have before using Don's system? Thank you! Like   1 reply   login   register Joe Haefner says: 3/31/2018 at 2:54:03 PM Ruth, we've had players as young as 8 years old work on these concepts. On average, I would say 11 or 12 years old would be a good age to start. Don's system goes from simple to complex, so I don't know if there is a prerequisite of skills. Of course, they can do more and advance quicker if they have good shooting technique. They can do more challenging drills if they can dribble the ball well and so forth. However, if you find that it's not what you're looking for or doesn't work for your situation, we offer our 100% money-back guarantee. Simply ask for a refund. Like     login   register

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