By Dan Barto, Director of Post Graduate Program, IMG Basketball Academy
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2894643
The return of Bang Sung Yoon is here. Bang as he is more widely known made his first appearance at IMG Academies back in 2004. Fresh out of Yon-sei University, south of the river in Seoul, Korea, Bang came to the US to get ready for a run at the NBA. Not officially able to enter the draft, he opted for a free agent contract in the upstart D-league.
Bang's first few days in lovely Bradenton were hilarious. Speaking absolutely not one word of English, Bang was assigned to me since he was represented by IMG Korea. This meant riding him everywhere, helping him with his English homework, partaking in Bul-go-gi three times a week, and rebounding the extra 500 NBA 3 pointers he wanted to shoot after practice.
The very first night Bang broke the leg off of the bed and slept on the futon in the living room. By the second day we had covered a majority of the swear words of importance and how to say every player's name who was training at the time. Of course struggling with his L's and R's, my favorites were Tyronn Lue and Al Harrington.
Bang slowly adjusted to the pace of the training and the NBA players’ harassment. The guys learned that he was an extremely valuable asset in pickup games because he did not miss. Korean players take great pride in their shooting mechanics. They tend to be overly concerned with posture and the concentration of keeping level shoulders (another great translation). The release time is a little slow and not athletically fluid to watch but the physics of it could not be better. Bang is also very difficult to guard with some Rip Hamilton-esque type movements. Since he is not a tremendous lateral athlete he depends on the pacing of his shot fake series and his crafty finishes to get shots off. Considering he has been double and triple-teamed for most of the last three years, I would imagine he has improved in all those areas.
Bang rivals Adam Harrington as the best spot shooter I ever trained. The interesting thing as seen in the article is the legend of Bang. By coming to the NBDL in 2004, Bang Americanized Asian basketball in the sense that he left not only college early but his country all together. After leading his under-18 and under-20 teams to big wins over Yao Ming and China, Bang created a cult following. Had he been able to enter the NBA draft, my feeling is he would have been an early second rounder. The D-league did not stop the decision and leveraging of his superstar status. After his stint with Roanoke, he headed back to take the payday.
Had the D-league been set up the way that it is now and his understanding of English better, he would have definitely been called up. The second time around should be interesting. My prediction is that if he can stay healthy and stay patient that a team will call him up and sign him by December. He is a shot maker and a personality that the media here will fall for if he is given the chance.
By: Dan Barto Director of the Post-Graduate Program, The IMG Basketball Academy
Read the first link, watch the second link.
http://thecrossovermovement.wordpress.com/
http://www.dallasisd.org/keynote.htm
We all want to be elite coach's down the line. We all want to become better at what we do and win more games. We all want to tell the success stories. How much do we want to listen?
By: Dan Barto Director of Post-Graduate Program IMG Basketball Academy
Marcus Williams has a chance that many NBA players never get. The dime dropping, “husky “ point guard who became a household name during his years at Connecticut is starting over in Golden State but it is actually going to be more like “Back to the Future.”
In the spring of 2005, Marcus was part of the pre-draft training group that included Shawnee Williams, Louis Amundson, Thomas Gardner, and DJ Strawberry(declared and then went back for his senior year. Considered a potential lottery pick and the best pure passer in the draft, we all had to sit by as he slid to the late first round. His issues in the past and the same questions that haunt him today were cited but so far no one can say that they missed on him.
The reason I am calling it back to the future is simple. Don Nelson is going to bring back so many memories of Jim Calhoun that Marcus will be having flashbacks. Most would say the screaming and yelling, but I am referring to the off-the-wall antics and sarcasm. Being a very laid back, creative, and sarcastic type of personality, Marcus will feel at home in the less structured, do what you do, Golden State system. He is West Coast at heart and his creative passing style and handle will allow him to gain confidence quickly. The conversations of dribbling angles and timing will be replaced with jokes and jabs about his weak right-handed finishing ability. The fondness for and personalities of Al Harrington, Stephen Jackson, Monta Ellis, and being back on the west coast should lead to a relaxed and empowered player.
The subtraction of Monta leads to Marcus’ number one priority of reaching a certain level of fitness. Well, if you have to play in the Golden State offense in practice everyday chances are you will burn a lot of calories. The genuinely playful locker room jokes will probably lead to a more willing participant in extra conditioning. The improved performances and regained drive should keep the consistency over the season. Oh, and I haven’t yet mentioned the contract thing.
I am not going to go out on the limb and predict the most improved player of the year but I will predict a hell of a fantasy pick. Yes, we are in a world where players should be professional and thrive in any environment but the reality is young players tend to be creatures of habit. This freak of a passer and point guard has now found the environment where he will flourish.
Best of luck Marcus.
By: Dan Barto, Director of the Post Grauate Program IMG Basketball Academy
The Olympics were fascinating and though I could write fifty blogs based on what I saw, my most convincing thoughts about Dwight Howard had to come first. Yes, athletically he is a freak, and not much of a challenge in the grand scheme of things because the packaging is so pretty. However, there are numerous things in my mind that a typical NBA coach or skill trainer might disagree with, but I think would help DW currently and especially down the road when the bounce wears off.
Absolutely no more dunking in practice
I would imagine that a majority of his finishes on James Augustine and Adonal Foyle end in posterizing moments. Since he was old enough to dunk, which was probably around age 12, he has been using a majority of his repetitions accelerating towards the rim. Focusing on his Olympic moments, where he resembled more of a baby giraffe than a fluent scoring threat, I would suggest this constant acceleration makes it difficult to slow the body into a coordinated soft movement. His LEC or leg energy control is so powerful that this motion of verticality is few and far between. Enter contact. The ability for a player to adjust mid-move with tremendous body control in which the skill loop can still be completed even with an outside stimulus distraction, comes from the practicing of creativity and skill.
For those who have studied Dirk, we all know the craziness that his trainer has put both his skill and mind through. Yes, Dirk is a freak when it comes to eye hand coordination, but his outside-the-box style of body control training made up for the lack of physicality and “toughness”. Would dunking have made him mentally a little more physical on the court? Probably, but I do not think too many people would trade his production.
In order for Dwight to reach the next level of feel around the basket, he needs to develop a completely unstructured creative environment each time he enters the court. If I were on staff, I would go as far as to say challenge his creativity on a daily basis by requiring him to only shoot “fade-aways”, “freeze-fakes”, “dream shakes” and “Kobe leans”. Over time his body will adjust to these types of movements resulting in more connected movements.
Force a push shot of all free throws
Leg energy control (LEC) is one of the most unique concepts in all basketball skill development. The legs and squat mechanics of all athletes are completely different based on the biomechanical make up of a player. Dwight is in the most difficult segment for shooting form improvement. His high hipped, long armed build makes him all extremity. If you watch him shoot free throws you can see his knees pop significantly earlier than he releases the ball. One of the keys to ball flight control when shooting a basketball is allowing the energy to smoothly transfer from your extended ankles up through the legs, past the extended knees through the extended hips, into the arms and through the wrist. Dwight never extends his ankles, pops his knees hard as can be, pushes his hips forward, extends his back, brings the ball above his head and sends a variety of ball flights towards the rim.
It is not his wrist, balance, arc, or elbow. I would have him stand around practicing just the feel with his ankles and the ball locked in right above his eye brow. Next we would work on extending the ankles, knees and hips in order with the ball not moving from above the eye. Then we would work with those issues combined into a one-handed, guide hand mirroring work. This would have the energy being transferred all the way through the wrist, but not into a shot. After building into the one-handed shot with the NOAH measuring ball flight control, we would go dead hand/guide hand. We would be focused not on the end result but the softness of every shot with proper ball flight control. If the guide hand sends any second force it will be apparent in the result.
Though he is moving into the 60’s percentage wise, his flaws are correctable with the proper work.
If he is in the 70’s and can demand more double teams because of improved finishing around the rim, the Magic get to that next level quicker. He is at the stage of his career where the motivation for the details of his weaknesses may or may not matter. I would also think that being around the OBCD guys in Beijing he may have a heightened affinity for individual development and preparation. Only time will tell. Good luck Coach Ewing.
