A chat with Coach Jong

It isn’t too often that one gets to sit down and have an informal yet productive chat with a professional basketball coach. Some are too expensive. Some can’t be “reached.” And some simply don’t make themselves available. But boy are we glad that some are also surprisingly easy to chat with as if he was a lifetime friend.

This was how it felt when a group of coaches sat down with pro coach Jong Uichico. For basketball buffs, he doesn’t need any introduction. Recognized as one of the best brains in pro coaching today, Coach Jong has coached at just about every level of the sport and has excelled wherever has served. PBA championship(s)? Done that. Coach a Philippine team? Check. Coach at the amateur level? Check: PBL, Collegiate and High School. Played at what levels? All of the above! With all these, does he have the showbiz trait of a big shot superstar? On paper he should, but in reality, very far from it.

Knowing that he was coming to Cebu for the PBA game of Meralco where he sits as a member of the coaching staff, Coach Jong reached out and asked if he could conduct a workshop/clinic with local coaches. This was Monday or Tuesday last week. And so on short notice, invite texts were sent, verbal announcements were made to the local coaches group involved in youth basketball. When texts were sent out, the first question asked by coaches was, “How much?” We said it was for free.

And so Coach Jong gathered with a group of coaches at the Insular Square last Friday for a casual chat on the game of basketball. It was as casual as it could get, with Coach Jong touching base with everyone as they were all drinking buddies from the past. It was a free-wheeling exchange of ideas that didn’t follow any format or agenda and didn’t need all the aid of high tech stuff. In short, it was basic; rightfully so since the main theme of his discussion was the need to preach the fundamentals of the sport when coaching a basketball team. And it all starts in practice. He said the main reason for a successful team is how it practices. What is the purpose of the practice? What is it intended to achieve? And how is it used to prepare for a game (whether or not)? This is where the practice plan is very crucial. Unfortunately, it’s the most often forgotten and ignored practices of coaching. When a team practices daily, the practice plan is often forgotten. Coaches just “go with the flow” and conduct drills for the sake of practicing. No more, no less. A common error is that coaches often spend too much time on the non-fundamentals that ought to be covered more, simply because a practice plan wasn’t put in place. More importantly, the practice plan should’ve been put in place before the practice and not during practice on “widow” or “feel” mode. Every drill has a purpose and every activity must be geared towards something, whether this be for conditioning, mastering a particular offense or learning a new defensive pattern. And when mastering an offensive pattern or play, its counterpart defensive activity mustn’t be ignored, another common coaching error in practice. What good is it to master an offense when the defense is put aside? It’s all about balance and making the team a well grounded on again, the basics.

When asked about motivation of players and the team in general, Coach Jong simply went back again, to the basics. The best motivation tool will always be the game plan. When everyone masters the game plan, everything else follows. And when players stray from the game plan, the team suffers. “Simple lang, di ba?” More basics? There were more discussions on technical aspects such as breaking the press, how to stop a particular player, offensive systems to apply and dealing with referees. It was all the same for all. There are certain basics that need to be mastered for all these different technical matters. And they can all be addressed in the practice plan that should be in place all the time.

We discussed all this and more in an hour and a half. It was fast, spontaneous, productive and fun. How I wish we could have more.

So what’s the plan?

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Time-out: We’d like to thank all the athletes, coaches, parents and friends who made the CYBL Vismin Goodwill Games 2012 a success. Let’s work on having a bigger one next year. >>> You can reach me at [email protected].