Brian McCormick is a coach and trainer from Irvine, CA. McCormick is certified through the National Academy of Sports Medicine, National Strength and Conditioning Association, USA Weightlifting and USA Track and Field; he also possesses a Master's in Sports Science with an emphasis in Sports Coaching. He has coached professionally in Ireland and Sweden and directed clinics in Canada, China, Greece, Macedonia, Morocco, Trinidad and South Africa.  McCormick has written several books on coaching and basketball: Hard 2 Guard: Skill Development for Perimeter Players, Blitz Basketball: A Strategic Method for Youth Player Development 2nd Edition, and Championship Basketball Plays are three of his books. Brian also writes an excellent weekly newsletter titled "Hard2Guard Player Development Newsletter" which has been used on several occasions in "The Coaches Clipboard." As well he has a great blog which includes many great ideas for coaches as well as lively dialogue. He also trains youth, high school, college and professional players in Southern California.

Coaches Clipboard: What do you believe are the best activities for coaches to do for professional development?

McCormick: I suppose it depends on the coach; what works for me might be different than what works for you. I was a Literature major and enjoy reading, so I read everything I can, from business books to design magazines to sports journals. I use message boards and forums to argue and clarify points. I like to play devil’s advocate and see both sides of a point, so I’ll argue with a point on a site even though I basically agree with it just because I want to hone my persuasive skills and think about every side of an argument. When I was younger, I worked camps and engaged coaches in such discussion, but, truthfully, few coaches actually wanted to think about what they were teaching or why they were teaching it, so my questions angered coaches more than creating a platform for discussion. So, I stopped working camps.

For me, when I was younger, I coached every team and everywhere I could. I coached volleyball even though I never played organized volleyball at any level; I coached Special Olympics. In one year, I went from being a college assistant coach to coaching under-9’s. I coached 11 camps in 8 weeks one summer. I just coached as much as I could, tried different things and listened to different perspectives. That’s my best advice. Personally, I don’t get much from a DVD or a large coaching convention.

Coaches Clipboard:  As a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) you strongly recommend coaches spend time during each practice on movement skills.  Why?  What are the benefits?

McCormick: Every basketball skill builds on a general athletic skill and without the athletic foundation, players peak prematurely or never fully develop their basketball skill. How can I shoot well if I cannot decelerate on balance? How can I make a full speed lay-up if I lack body control in the air?

I’m watching the U.S. Open this week and Andy Roddick’s lack of movement and flexibility really holds him back. He’s being passed by younger players even though he still has the dominant serve on tour because he can’t get to as many balls and he is not on balance when he does get to them. His mistakes often times are not tennis mistakes, like a problem with his forehand, but a balance or quickness issue that causes a miss-hit. The same happens in basketball, but we naturally attribute the mistake to one’s technical skill, like his shooting mechanics, when the true problem is his inability to stop on balance or extend his hips fully.

Coaches Clipboard:  In one of the recent “Hard 2 Guard Player Development Newsletters” you wrote you “would play tag and other similar games for a large part of my practice time with the youngest (6-9) age groups rather than worry about defensive slides and other more traditional skills.”  Can you explain why?

McCormick: So many coaches focus only on the obvious skills. Defensive players do defensive slides so we must practice a defensive slide. But, what is a defensive slide? What skills does it incorporate? Young kids have a small attention span and a short memory. If I explain a skill in detail, will they recall the details at practice next week? However, if we play tag – a game which trains a multitude of athletic skills from changing directions, dynamic balance, body control, acceleration, deceleration and more – we build the skills without having to burden the young athlete with lengthy explanations and details which slow their processing as they think about what to do rather than simply reacting with a natural movement.

Especially with the younger age groups, I favor a global approach to teaching, rather than an analytical approach. Rather than tell players exactly how to move their feet and position their hands, I prefer to use small-sided games to train the desired concepts. Tag incorporates many of the athletic skills that kids need to develop before they can be a great basketball player.

Coaches Clipboard:  You advocate that youth coaches spend 30 minutes of a 1-hour practice scrimmaging.  Isn’t this just letting the kids play with no direction?  Could you explain your thoughts on scrimmaging for youth players?

McCormick: Yes and no. The best way to learn how to play the game is to play the game. When I was young, we went to the beach in Lake Tahoe and there were frequently semi-pro beach volleyball tournaments. I used to shag the balls and watch the guys play. I thought it was the coolest sport. After the tournament ended, I’d find some other little kids to play my own game. I have never had a minute of formal volleyball practice, but through playing and watching others play, I’ve learned the basic skills to the point where I have coached high school volleyball. On the other hand, my dad always wanted me to play golf and always wanted me to take lessons. I never had a reason for lessons because I did not care about being a good golfer. If I had had the chance to watch a golfer up close or to play the game, I might have wanted to improve and would have sought lessons or training of some kind. With young players, we often try to develop players before they want to be developed. We need players to want to play the game before the players have a reason to improve. If we start with a bunch of drills and have a boring practice, do the kids care about the skills the drills train?

If I explain traveling violations and double-dribbles and a dozen other rules to new players, the rules have no meaning. Players need to play the game before they care about playing the game properly or developing the skills to play the game better.

Letting kids “just play” is a part of athletic development. In today’s society, we err too much in favor of dictating all play. Young athletes never control their own environment, as coaches take an analytical approach from an early age, telling players what to do, when to do it and where to go. Kids need an opportunity to “just play” and to experience the game on their terms and explore new skills without a fear of making a mistake.

However, a scrimmage can teach skills. If I want players to pass the ball more and handle pressure, we scrimmage without the dribble. If I want give-and-go cuts, I only score baskets on a give-and-go cut. The scrimmage does not have to be just letting the kids play; however, there also is a time and place for just letting the kids play without the constant pressure of achieving something.

Coaches Clipboard:  You have spent some time in Europe coaching and running basketball camps.  From your experience what are the major differences you see in teaching basketball in Europe in comparison to North America?

McCormick: The biggest difference is the emphasis of the dribble vs. the pass. European teams do not spend much time practicing dribbling. Everything they do is off the pass. Even when kids warm-up, they partner together and pass and shoot rather than getting a rebound, dribbling out and shooting on one’s own. In Europe, there is more emphasis on technique and systems; in the States, the emphasis is playing hard, being fast and attacking.

Coaches Clipboard:  In Blitz Basketball: A Strategic Method for Youth Development you advocate an offence with specific positions.  Does this not go against the more international thought of developing the universally skilled “global” player

McCormick:  Maybe, but the system trains all skills in every player. There is no player who never shoots or never dribbles. The offense only works if every player is a threat to drive or shoot. If players cannot make shots, the spacing suffers because the defense sags into the paint. If players cannot drive, the motion stops because it is predicated on the ball moving with the dribble. If players can’t pass, the team shoots a lot of contested shots. I think the offense creates global players who are more prepared to play in another system because they react quickly, read the defense and shoot, dribble and pass. All the drills to build the system focus on developing a global player. In fact, I finally wrote the book because a high school coach thought it was a great system to develop global players.

Coaches Clipboard:  You mentioned in Blitz Basketball that in California most youth teams press.  Do you advocate this?  Do you feel this is a good way to teach basketball to young players?

McCormick: Yes and no. I hate the “no press” rule that some camps and leagues use. I don’t like this artificial idea and think it becomes a crutch that kids depend on. However, I also think that too many coaches rely strictly on their press and fail to develop other skills. The press works because players are ill-equipped to handle the press because they lack strength and the offensive tools. At this age, I think players are better off playing 3v3 games rather than 5v5. In 5v5 games, I do not favor a “no press” rule, but I think leagues should work to discourage organized presses. If a kid gets a rebound and outlets to the wrong team, I do not think he should get the ball back; however, when the team inbounds after a make, I don’t think they should face five players in the back court running a diamond press.

Coaches Clipboard:  In an article you wrote about “triple moves”.   Can you give an example of a triple move and why you believe they are beneficial to improving player’s ball-handling ability?

McCormick: This is the “if you can dodge a wrench” series based on the classic Dodgeball movie. The coach says, “If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.” Well, if you can make a triple move, you can make a single move. An example would be a behind-the-back, through-the-legs, crossover move.

Coaches Clipboard:  In your Hard 2 Guard: Skill Development for Perimeter Players book one of the basic concepts you mention is “patience defeats pressure, not speed”.  Can you explain what you mean?  And how you attempt to teach this?

McCormick: Pressure defenses are designed to get the offense to move faster than it wants to move or to make decisions quicker than it typically makes decisions. If the offense tries to meet and exceed the defense’s speed, they usually fail because they are unaccustomed to the speed. Even when the offense beats the initial press, they often make a turnover on the 2v1 fast break because they move faster than normal and make a hurried decision.
Instead, offensive players need to understand that they control the action. The offense says “Go!” I teach it by emphasizing the “Go!” concept repeatedly. With young players, I structure situations to give the offense the advantage, either by creating extra space (2v2 full court) or extra numbers (5v4 half court). Young players need the extra space and time to develop confidence with the ball. Once they have confidence, then I give the defense the advantage by shrinking the court or giving them the numbered advantage so the offense has to react quicker and play against more pressure than they face in a game.

However, the confidence has to come first. Many kids are scared of the ball because they play in a competitive league or tournament and face pressure above what they can handle. As 9 or 10 year olds, they lose their confidence and shy away from the ball. That’s just another reason the early bloomers tend to excel – they use their initial size and strength advantage to build their confidence at the expense of the late bloomers. For some kids, once the confidence is lost, they never recover it, as they quit the sport and try another sport or they simply try to fit in without making a mistake, so they avoid the ball against bigger, faster teams and they never give themselves a chance to improve.

Coaches Clipboard:  What are your thoughts on the coach stopping practice to correct errors?  Do you advocate the coach talking consistently during practice i.e. “coaching on the fly”?

McCormick: It depends on the situation and the age and time of season. I tend to talk too much. I want things to be perfect. But, the game is not perfect and players need to be able to adjust and adapt to mistakes in a game. So, there is a time and place for corrections and ensuring players know the proper way to execute and a time and place for allowing players to play through mistakes and adapt to the situations. If you’re teaching a play and you stop it every time there is a mistake and start from the top, what do players do in a game when someone makes a mistake? Do the players know how to adjust? Or, do they get confused or yell at each other or look at the bench to solve their problems? The goal is always to play perfectly, but we know that will never happen, so we have to prepare for mistakes and the imperfectness of the game.

Coaches Clipboard:  You propose that coaches adopt an “empowerment” coaching style.  Can you explain what this is and why you believe this is important?

McCormick: If we view sports as more than just a fun activity to pass the time and hope to use sports to teach something, we cannot develop leaders or communicators if the coach fills the role as a dictator. The more the coach involves the players and questions the players and includes the players in determining their own environment, the more personal responsibility the players will take for their actions and the more they will learn to be active learners, not passive learners.

An empowerment style empowers players. Coaches give players some control of their environment – for instance, rather than the coach giving the players a list of team rules, the players and coach work together to create the team rules. The coach leads the discussion and has final say, but he listens to the players and they work together.

Coaches Clipboard:  What projects do you have on the table now?

McCormick: I have a new shooting program online at www.180shooter.com. The program is based on 180 Shooter and includes sections for players to record their practice shots and tabulate the information by drill or by area of the court. The major function is a coach’s section where he can record players’ shots from any type of game and analyze each player’s shooting by area or type of shot and see his team’s strengths, weaknesses and tendencies. I also have t-shirts on the site designed around the idea of a martial arts belt using the five stages from 180 Shooter and the site incorporates a competition around the 180 concept, with any registered player who shoots 180 during the season winning a free t-shirt (I’m looking for a shoe sponsor, too, to up the ante on the reward!).

I also have my online training site, www.trainforhoops.com. The site is an individual, progressive training tool designed to replicate a real trainer through video and a specialized computer program. Players sign up, download their workout, input the data after a workout and receive their next workout based on their progress and the data from previous workouts. All drills have video and the videos are downloadable to an ipod.

And, I just finished the Third Edition of Cross Over: The New Model of Youth Basketball Development and a re-design of The Cross Over Movement web site. The site is now focused on three broad topics: Player Development, Coach Education and a Development System and the information is more streamlined than before. The book is almost a complete re-write with twice as much information, more drills, more diagrams, more pictures, etc. I eliminated the first five chapters and the last two chapters and now the book centers on the four-stage Long Term Athlete Development and four major skill groups: athletic, tactical, technical and psychological with additional information on practice planning, coaching effectiveness and injury prevention.

To subscribe to the Brian McCormick’s Hard 2 Guard Player Development Newsletter, email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and type "Subscribe" in the Subject box.  The Cross Over Movement website is at www.thecrossovermovement.wordpress.com/.