Thursday, July 31, 2008

Fouls.

It's important to remember that you have 5 fouls in a game. If you can space out your 40 minutes and give 5 fouls during that time, you see an average of every 8 minutes you can foul. So plan is to use your fouls wisely. You want to keep people from making those easy points, so make your fouls count.

You want to find the balance between an intentional foul and a valid attempt to make them think about the pain the next time they try the same thing. Never knowingly do something that could injure the opponent, but try to get the full value for your foul. You want him to be distracted, whether he is in pain, or just out for vengeance. Either way, he will not be 100% focused, and you have won the mental game.

Don't waste the foul. A wasted foul means they got an opportunity to go to the line and shoot an uncontested shot, when they weren't already about to make a good play, i.e., an assist to an open player, or an open shot. A foul out front when they were just dribbling, for example, is a wasted foul.

You also waste your fouls if you have more than one or two left over at the end of the game. You do need to save some for overtime if the game is close, but you don't need to save them if your team is behind, and you've got to make a difference.

Unless the player is "in the zone" and has been popping 3-point shots all night, never foul outside the arc. Use distraction, instead.

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