A coach asked me two weeks ago what was it that caused me to start thinking about coaching and player development differently. There are many things, needless to say; however, one significant contributor was a Italian basketball coach by the name of Mario DeSisti who I was fortunate to have met and learned from in 2004.
Here’s some video of Coach DeSisti I stumbled across last week… (if you can translate it, do let me know!).
This footage is of Mario teaching individual defense. You’ll notice some (philosophical) differences in terms of the technical details; for instance:
- Close Out – hand on top of the ball; as Mario has explained it – to the group of us who worked with him during a FIBA clinic – his belief is that it’s important to bother the ball and change the angle (or ‘line) that a shooter will have to bring the ball up into their shot.
- Defensive Slides – DeSisti’s philosophy is that the on-ball defender is only required to guard the first two dribbles; as such, their job is to ‘fan’ penetration out of the middle. Also, because of the differences in how the FIBA game is officiated, he encourages the defender to chest the ball handler and bump them off their line of penetration.
Ideas… just ideas (worth sharing).
[ SEE ALSO: Mario DeSisti’s Top-25 Teaching Points ]
/sef.
