Teaching Catching, Pivoting,
and Faking Skills (part 3)

by Alan Lambert
(www.bbhighway.com)

Faking

The best fake is the movement that most resembles the first 2/10th of a second of a players normally executed basketball skills. That is just enough movement on the jump shot (possibly arching the back, or lifting the eyes) to get the defender to respond, and within that time frame initiate the second movement (such as penetration). In boxing they call this the "1-2 Punch". The boxer is defending the jab, and can't respond to stop the big hook and gets knocked out. The reason they can't respond quickly is due to a phenomena called the Psychological Refractory Period (PRP). A PRP describes the situation where that once a movement is initiated by a person, that for a period of about 1/4 of a second, this person is virtually helpless to stop or change that movement due to the wiring of the human nervous system.

In this case any fake lasting longer than 1/4 of a second, may allow a defensive player to respond to a fake, and recover to defend the desired movement by the offensive player. Conversely, if an offensive player, can make a very short fake and begin their second movement within that time frame, the offensive player will have a 1/4 second time advantage on your defender. This effect is multiplied when the initial fake draws a response from a defender moving in the direction opposite of the second movement. Using the penetration fake to pull the defender into a swinging door motion is a good example of this. Learned properly this is a decisive advantage in the game of basketball with today's athletic players.

Now that I may have confused you with scientific jargon, let me try to put this is simpler terms. A fairly large portion of the time it takes a person to make a decision about which response to make is based upon our ability to perceive incoming cues. In other words, what's is my opponent's body language saying. Most coaches call this reading your opponent. When your defender is low in an aggressive defensive position, they are telling you for example "shoot the jump shot on me because I can't get up quick enough to challenge your shot".

Perception is our ability to distinguish one "thing" from "another". It has also been called sensation plus experience. Experience allows us to focus our attention on critical cues. Less experienced players almost always focus on the wrong cues, but even the best players can be fooled.

Freeze The Defender

I believe that by teaching very specific movement cues (when faking), a player will increase the time it takes their opponent to respond, and in many cases put the defender in a position where they cannot (for a quarter of a second or more) respond at all (in coaching terminology called freezing the defender). Freezing your defender means that you have made a fake that will bring a movement response from your defender which cannot be altered  in time to adequately stop your movement. This is where faking becomes a game of "read and react". Larry Bird, during his great NBA career demonstrated the usefulness of a slower less athletic player being able to keep his defender constantly off balance and guess what he was going to do next. This more than leveled the playing field for Larry.

Here are some suggestions which can help your players become better "fakers":

· 1) Keep your fakes believable, the movements relatively small, and be prepared to "react" to the defenders initial movement within a quarter of second in the opposite direction.

· 2) Sometimes, no faking is the best fake, especially if you have a very experienced defender. I call this Sphinx face faking. An experienced defender will pick up whether your fake is a good one. They will know that your shot fake is different than your actually shooting motion by the position of the ball, or that you are not going to penetrate because your penetrate stride to twice as long, as the slight forward step you take to shot your jumper. By being in the triple threat position, a player can gain an advantage by simply waiting for the slightest movement by the defender in one direction (up or down, or right or left) and as Pete Newell says read and react" in the opposite direction.

I have shared with other coaches at clinics what I believe is a good analogy for young players. It's a fishing story. The young fisherman puts his line and worm into the water wanting to catch the grand daddy of all catfish. Well that old catch fish is pretty hungry, but nobody's fool. The young fisherman is getting real impatient and starts yanking his pole trying to get ol' granddaddy to bite. But ol granddaddy is sitting down their at the bottom of the lake and saying, that ain't no fly up there...that's a young lad thinking he's a fly. I'm not biting. Well a couple of months later, the young lad is a little smarter. And ol' granddaddy is a little hungrier. This time the boy throws the line out there and does nothing. Except every once in a while he just bobs the line once or twice. No ol' granddaddy says, hummmmmm., I'm not sure if that's a fly, but I sure am hungry, and it sure ain't no young lad. Pretty soon he takes the bait and the young lad got ol granddaddy". The moral of the story is: When you fake, it better be a fly if you expect to catch the best fish.

· 3) Most players tend to tip off the defender by their body position. I work extremely hard on teaching uniform position (triple threat), where the player can pass, drive, or shoot from that spot. This even goes to the use of the eyes. Virtually every young player I've ever coached tipped off what they were going to do with their eyes, or ball position. If their eyes are on my position, they certainly weren't going to have a good look at the basket.

· 4) Players should be taught to give "phantom cues". Looking away from where you want to pass is a good example. The rule is give false information in the opposite direction you want to move. This seems to more of a lost art as our players become more athletic and spectacular in their play.

It is equally important to know how to fake without the ball, especially in creating a lead to receive a pass.

Here are some additional tips for faking without the ball:

· 1) Always begin your fake away from the ball or where you want to receive the ball.

· 2) You must move enough to get your defender to move or significantly break their balance (this is at a minimum two hard sprint steps). The most common error amongst young players is moving the upper body a lot, and the feet only move a step or so. I call this dancing. I don't want my players dancing with their opponent. They make him respond with movement, or they are open. When they move, you read and react in the opposite direction. The key is beginning your opposite direction movement the moment you feel your defender leaning or initiating the movement away.

· 3) Always cut in a straight line toward and through the ball. What good is a great fake, when you run a circle cut, and the defender recovers and meets you at the pass by sprinting in straight line.

· 4) If the defender is playing between you and the ball, run directly at the defender, and make a cut 90 degrees from your direct path. This is especially useful against full court deny pressure.

· 5) Always make your fakes and cuts sufficient to get the ball where you want to get it. In all offensive patterns spacing is critical to being able have good passing angles, take away defensive help, and getting an advantage for an open shot. If you let the defender force you 3 steps beyond three point line, you will have difficulty executing your plays.

· 6) A good offensive players will keep moving as long as it takes to shake their defender and get open. However, the experienced player knows not to move or fake before the passer is in a position to deliver the ball, and knows how to get open with a minimum amount of energy expended and movement made.

· 7) A good offensive player will attempt to get behind the eyes of a defender. A head turning defender can easily be lost. This is much more difficult with a fundamentally sound defensive player. But remember, make them turn their heads.

Finally, I have discussed primarily techniques for faking without the ball or from a stationary position. There are many times you already have the dribble and must make fakes. The best technique for accomplishing this is "changing speeds and direction". A player who is able to quickly change speed will create a "1-2 punch" or PRP while in motion.

I hope that our clinic has given you some new ideas and refreshed some previously learned techniques. If you want to be a championship team, you will practice catching, pivoting and faking skills and make them a significant part of your daily practice routines.