[quote="Monte" post=359542][quote="Beast of the East" post=359537][quote="redmaninalbany" post=359531]Last week, my grandson was shooting practice with his high school team. Mike Dean, formerly with Siena and Marquette, happened to be visiting the school. He noted something in my grandson's 3 point shot and suggested a mild alteration in where his hands/arms were located at the start of the movement. Although he had been close to a 40% 3 point shooter last year, after a few shots, my grandson was beaming at his improved accuracy. During the last week, his regular coach commented to him how he must have been practicing a lot of shots because the arc, the accuracy and his form all seemed so much better. That's one child during two minutes of professional coaching. There is no doubt in my mind that coaches who truly understand fundamentals of shooting and of defense positioning can vastly alter the performance of the street ball stars.[/quote]
There's a big difference in developing a HS player with poor fundamentals and improving the lot of a 3 start college player who likely was the best player on his team everywhere he has played before college. If anything there are bigs in college who are recruited because of height who have poor fundamentals - some develop, some don't. I'm not saying players don't improve who work hard at this level - I am saying that their improvement is likely more attributable to their own hard work and not because of what a coach taught him.
Fundamentally, kids who starty at a young age often develop bad habits because they aren't strong enough to shoot a ball at a ten foot rim - even a smaller youth call. Some smart former players have their small kids learn on little Tyke rims, and teach kids at a young age to tuck their elbow in, point it at least horizontal to the ground, and shoot with their finger tips, using their shooting hand under the ball and non shooting hand on the side to balance it. Coaches teach that you should be able to get a pencil in a space between the palm and the fingers instead of resting the ball flat on the palm. Nearly all college players have decent shooting technique when they arrive on campus. Many HS kids don't
I cannot think of very many players over the past 40 years at St. John's who improved because of coaching. Far more were what they were when they arrived - George Johnson's, Glen Williams, David Russell, Rencher, Carter, McKoy, Gilroy, etc and on and on and on. In fact if someone made a list of who ever improved radically in terms of overall skills while here at st. Johns and who didn't, the didn't outweigh the dids by an enormous amount.
It's why Frank McGuire - who built outstanding programs at St. John's, UNC, and South Carolina, always stressed that coaching was far less important than recruiting great players.
Best wishes to your grandson and hope the new found shooting touch carries over through the season.[/quote]
Off the top of my head, the 2 biggest improvements in a player that I can recall were David Cain and Dwight Hardy. Both from Junior to Senior year. In both cases the improvement was more a result of opportunity, then coaching IMO.[/quote]
Monte, I agree that Cain and Hardy made the biggest improvements. In Cain's case, it was most definitely opportunity. He excelled when given the opportunity, helped Shawnelle Scott have a breakout year which got him into the League.
However, in the case of Hardy, it was coaching. Hardy was recruited as a Shooting guard. Lavin and staff made the decision to insert him into the starting lineup over Malik Boothe because they realized that on that team they would have three players who could initiate their offense in DJ, Paris, and Hardy. This was better than having a traditional PG such as Boothe. Hardy took advantage of the opportunity that he was given and had an outstanding senior season.
Please remember, it all began with a coaching decision.
There's a big difference in developing a HS player with poor fundamentals and improving the lot of a 3 start college player who likely was the best player on his team everywhere he has played before college. If anything there are bigs in college who are recruited because of height who have poor fundamentals - some develop, some don't. I'm not saying players don't improve who work hard at this level - I am saying that their improvement is likely more attributable to their own hard work and not because of what a coach taught him.
Fundamentally, kids who starty at a young age often develop bad habits because they aren't strong enough to shoot a ball at a ten foot rim - even a smaller youth call. Some smart former players have their small kids learn on little Tyke rims, and teach kids at a young age to tuck their elbow in, point it at least horizontal to the ground, and shoot with their finger tips, using their shooting hand under the ball and non shooting hand on the side to balance it. Coaches teach that you should be able to get a pencil in a space between the palm and the fingers instead of resting the ball flat on the palm. Nearly all college players have decent shooting technique when they arrive on campus. Many HS kids don't
I cannot think of very many players over the past 40 years at St. John's who improved because of coaching. Far more were what they were when they arrived - George Johnson's, Glen Williams, David Russell, Rencher, Carter, McKoy, Gilroy, etc and on and on and on. In fact if someone made a list of who ever improved radically in terms of overall skills while here at st. Johns and who didn't, the didn't outweigh the dids by an enormous amount.
It's why Frank McGuire - who built outstanding programs at St. John's, UNC, and South Carolina, always stressed that coaching was far less important than recruiting great players.
Best wishes to your grandson and hope the new found shooting touch carries over through the season.[/quote]
Off the top of my head, the 2 biggest improvements in a player that I can recall were David Cain and Dwight Hardy. Both from Junior to Senior year. In both cases the improvement was more a result of opportunity, then coaching IMO.[/quote]
Monte, I agree that Cain and Hardy made the biggest improvements. In Cain's case, it was most definitely opportunity. He excelled when given the opportunity, helped Shawnelle Scott have a breakout year which got him into the League.
However, in the case of Hardy, it was coaching. Hardy was recruited as a Shooting guard. Lavin and staff made the decision to insert him into the starting lineup over Malik Boothe because they realized that on that team they would have three players who could initiate their offense in DJ, Paris, and Hardy. This was better than having a traditional PG such as Boothe. Hardy took advantage of the opportunity that he was given and had an outstanding senior season.
Please remember, it all began with a coaching decision.
