#ganonbaker

Last night I went to a coaches clinic run by skills coach Ganon Baker. The guys CV is impressive (Google his name is you don't know who he is). He's worked with some of the best basketball players in the world (LeBron James just to name one) and if not for a few unfortunate injuries, probably could have made it in the NBA himself.

Sitting there for a couple of hours watching him run drills and talk about his experiences and philosophies, you really understand why he is such a good coach. The guy leads by example. He is always energetic, always upbeat and positive, and the intensity of his sessions are insane.

He is BIG on maximising time. Warm up drills are quick, intense and fequently feature two ball dribbling drills to train both hands at once, and use several different skills in one drill.

A lot of his drills are also based on players reacting to stimuli and making decisions. He also likes players to learn and come to conclusions on their own. He talked about creating situations with problems in drills and allowing the players to come up with their own solution, or facilitate their own learning. I'm a big believer in these two methods. In a sport as variable and open as basketball, or most team sports really, making the right decisions in a game is imperative. Allowing players to come up with their own answers allows the players learn in a different way, and after all, encouraging player learning is what coaching is all about.

Ganon also talked about developing and identifying leaders in his sessions. Early on in his program, he will teach his players the majority of his drills and make sure they know them by name. He will then tell the players to set up and run a particular drill in the next 20 seconds, and he will just sit back and watch. From this, he can see which players take charge and identify the potential leaders in his squad.

I found it interesting that his approaches to both grass-root and elite-level coaching did not differ too much from each other. He likes to just sit back and watch in his first session with any athletes and make notes on their strengths and weaknesses. He mentioned times when he had to do repetitive technique drills with NBA players, drills that are designed for 10 year old kids, because they just skipped that stage of their development. He said no matter what level you play at, fundamentals are key.

He also mentioned his approach to male and female players. He says other than not being as hands on with girls, his approach remains pretty much identical. Fundamentals first, intensity in sessions, player decision making and self-learning. He said he didn't do as many athleticism-based drills with women and as he does with men due to females lower absolute physical capacity and athleticism. Another difference he said between males and females was that men tend to overestimate their skill, while women, especially girls, tend to shy away from the spotlight and underestimate their talent. So he tries to pull boys back a bit, and encourage girls to embrace the spotlight.

Many of his coaching methods have been discusses in class by Keith, and it was such a great experience to see such an experienced and acclaimed coach demonstrate the concepts in a practical setting.