Bringin' It From The Bench
Will You Be the Difference?
Introduction
I think you have to be a special person and player to bring your best game from the bench. Bringin' it from the bench requires that you have a clear focus, stay mentally prepared at all times, and have prepared enough both in terms of your skill work, and understanding your teams needs that you can contribute when the coach calls your name.
Most players I have known do not like coming off the bench. Everyone wants to be a starter and have their name in lights. Well in reality only a very small percentage of players are starters from the minute the first walk on a court at age 7 or 8 until their careers are over. In fact I would almost guarantee to you that the greatest percentage of players who are starters have at one point in their careers had to "bring it from the bench". I am not saying you should like having to come off the bench to get your minutes, but understanding that your contribution off the bench is often equally important to that of the star players and accepting that fact will go a long way toward your overall growth as a player.
What I'm saying is learn to accept your role as a substitute and play it to the best of your abilities. But never accept that you cannot improve enough to break into and become a starting player at some point in your career. Today's Playground Pointer is directed at you...yes the player who gets just a few minutes each quarter, or maybe enters a game only once each half. What can you do to make a difference for your team?
From the Coaches Perspective
Before I go into more specifics today about how to contribute off the bench I want you to understand that coaches are looking for players who are consistent, can maintain the team's playing rhythm when substituted into a game, and make good individual and team court decisions. It has been my experience over the many years I have played and coached that the primary reason a player off the bench gets to quickly return to the bench is because one or more of these three basics have been violated.
No coach can substitute with confidence an inconsistent sub for a consistent starter. It would be like handing a fireman at a burning warehouse a hose that pumps water only on occasion. Secondly, every team has an optimal playing rhythm on offense, defense and in transition. Substitutes who are best able to enter a game, and either maintain that rhythm, or slow it or speed it to regain that rhythm are going to consistently get playing time. Trust me on that one.
Finally, no matter who athletic you are, or what you skill level, your decision making has to reflect your understanding of the team's overall goals. The simplest example is a sub who seldom plays who comes in for 2-3 minutes to rest a key player on a team that is very patient and works the ball over the course of the shot clock to get the highest percentage shot. If that sub shoots the ball the first time they touch it, three consecutive times down the floor, you are bounds to find the pine quickly. There are hundreds of examples of this, but coming off the bench is not necessarily the best position you can be in to test the coaches playing philosophy against your own. Keep these things in mind as you read on to learn more about "bringin' it from the bench."
What Things Can You Do to "Bring It"
1. Know your role you play from the bench and play it. Some players from the bench have the same role each time. For example, your best skill might be rebounding, or making the corner shot versus a tough zone defense. It might be ball handling late in a game, or being an aggressive scorer-rebounder in the trenches. The best substitutes often play a variety of roles and for this reason they get more playing time because like a starter they can move between positions and contribute in a variety of ways to the teams success. If you don't clearly understand your role in given situations from the bench ask your coach to clearly explain it to you. Then go out and perform it to the best of your ability. If your job is to control the game tempo (as a substitute point guard), defend their best player (as a stopper), or create defensive pressure and force game tempo with your speed and quickness, know how you contribute and do your job.
2. Pay attention to the game and anticipate when and where you will likely be used during the course of the game. Nothing irks a coach more than to call on a substitute who should be counted on and their mind is somewhere else. Players whose minds are not alert to game and score situations are like a pilot who doesn't watch his fuel gauge....you are already headed down. If you know that as the back up point guard the starting PG is going about 6 minutes in the first quarter and you are normally subbed at that time, your total focus should be to prepared yourself to enter the game ready to fill his role.
Expect the unexpected however as a player whose spot you take may get into foul trouble early or become injured requiring you to fill a slightly different role. You may not get to play when you think you might, but you must always be prepared to play. Bringin' it from the bench isn't always easy when you sit a long time, but keeping your mind alert to score and situation gives you a big head start when you are called upon to fill a role.
3. Try to fit into your team tempo and rhythm. In other words keep the flow of the game going, especially when your team is on a roll. How do you find this rhythm? Often it is by simply not trying to do too much. Rather focus on doing the small things well such as stopping penetration on the defensive end of the court, not fouling, boxing out, making the extra pass to reverse the ball to an open teammate, pushing up the court to get numbers in transition or sprinting back to take away numbers in defensive transition. Teams have rhythm when they are executing well. Upon substitution, many teams lose that rhythm primarily because a sub presses and tries to do to much too quickly instead of finding the flow of the game after a couple of minutes.
True, as a sub you don't always have a couple of minutes of court time, but the goal should stay the same. Keep the flow going. If your team's rhythm has been disrupted and your job as a substitute is to change it (possibly speeding or slowing the tempo) then understand that and execute it. Speeding the rhythm doesn't necessarily mean rushing into mistakes. It simply might mean that your team does better when on the offensive end of the court each player doesn't hold the ball as long, or the ball is reversed more quickly to stretch the defense to create openings for better shots. It might also mean you slow the tempo and get an out of control game under control so that as a team you can execute and become more efficient.
4. Give yourself a minute or two to find the proper pace and rhythm to the game before you attempt to make all but the most basic plays (like lay-ups, simple passes, or a wide open shot). You know what it's like to walk onto the practice floor and have it take 10-15 minutes to get your focus and execution up to speed. A game is no different. Your first job is to fit in, before you decide when and where you can exert yourself beyond your normal role. In many cases you team may be most successful with you simply fulfilling a basic role. Once you have found your stride and rhythm, and you feel you can lift your team in an area where they need a spark without negatively affecting the team's performance then stretch your wings, always keeping in mind those three basic things I stated at the start of today's Playground Pointer. Be consistent, play into the team's rhythm, and make good decisions.
5. Be defensive if nothing else. I think the toughest role for most players is to bring instant offense from the bench with-in their team's natural rhythm. In most cases players feel they must create offense rather than letting their team's offense create high percentage looks for the best shot which may or may not be you. Forcing offense, alters team rhythm and breaks down the natural and practiced flow of a game. In some games offense comes easy because you might get a couple of easy quick looks through your team's execution. In other games off the bench you might not even get a sniff at the basket. So why am I saying be defensive. Because the bottom line is every single player that subs into a game can at the minimum be a stellar defender.
If your opponent doesn't score on you, than the ebbs and flow of offensive, which is often unpredictable for a sub, is a key way you can contribute to your team's success. Let the offense come to you, but be stellar on the defensive end any time you come off the bench. Any coach will appreciate your ability to contribute to stops. Often team's offensive skills drop off down the bench, but is key substitutes have a coaches confidence they can shut down opponent's no coach will hesitate to use you off the bench.
Growing Your Minutes Off the Bench
Listen up here now. I'm going to give you a few bonus points which I believe will help you increase your playing time from the bench and in many cases can and will contribute to you eventually becoming a starter.
1. Do not take your coach's substitution pattern personally. Yes, there are cases where coaches do not remain objective in substituting players, but virtually all coaches have the same objective, to win (or at least perform to the best of your given ability day in and day out). If you can honestly contribute, the coach is always looking for ways to find playing time for players who can contribute to a positive team performance. If you get overly emotional every time you do not understand why a coach inserts or pulls you from a game, your focus is in the wrong place. Simply think, how can I contribute today with what I am given. It is a good lesson to take on into your professional life down the road as well.
2. Know your opponents, player match-ups and whenever possible adjust your game accordingly. I have known too many players who have missed golden opportunities to earn my confidence and significantly more minutes because when I inserted them into a game, they missed fired in performing on the key reason they entered the game. Maybe they were thinking about that missed open 10 footer, when the critical need for our team was to deny their key scorer the ball for the next 4-5 possessions. Maybe they were worrying about having a teammate not pass them the ball when they were open, only to go back on defense and fail to stop penetration of the player they were defending leading to a foul. The foul put them into the bonus which was a team defensive goal to keep our opponent off the line. I think you see what I mean here.
For example, we know that our opponent likes to break people down with their athleticism and get to the foul line, so when I enter the game, I my brain should be shouting "move my feet, stop penetration at all costs!" Another example is a great zone shooter enters the game, and on my side of the zone I lose track of where they are at. They immediately hit 3 straight 3's and we've dug ourselves a big hole out of which we must climb. Yet, another might be your team has given up four offensive rebounds in the quarter and you are subbed to rebound. My brain would be shouting "box hard and go get the ball on every single possession." If I fail to box out and give up another in that situation, I should be keelhauled. Your ability to adjust not only to your basic role as a substitute, but to recognize and adjust to other critical elements of the game will increase your coach's confidence that you are alert and ready to handle more playing time.
3. Big or small minutes contribute where you can. Coaches look at stats and what is called "unit performance" (how five specific players play together relative to their opponents). Whether you get two minutes a quarter, or five coaches can tell who makes positive contributions and whose performance is detrimental to the team's success. I just love those players who only get two minutes at a time, but contribute 2 rebounds, an assist and take a charge. If your results are consistently positive in limited minutes coaches are not dumb, they will find a way to get you more minutes. Realize however that a contribution in one area does not necessarily off-set poor performances in several others. A player might find they had six points in 3 minutes of play, but upon further analysis realize their opponent scored 10, they fouled 3 times, and failed to block out two other times leading to put-back scores.
This is where "unit performance" tips a coach off to who really contributes. Sometimes a player may contribute not by stats, but simply by helping a team maintain it's rhythm (often the result of a minimal number of mistakes in limited minutes). Ask your coach if they keep this stat and to show you how you perform with specific groups of players. Think too, that if you perform well with various groups of players, it is obviously more likely you will get more playing time in the future. If the coach has to be concerned you perform poorly with a given set of players, his confidence will be stretched to substitute you in those situations.
4. Be mentally and physically prepared to enter the game whenever minutes come. Positive results come off the bench when you recognize this fact. Practice like you expect to play more minutes, and play off the bench like you play all the time. You never know when an injury will come to a starter, or foul trouble will inject you into a critical situation. Many a career has been started by a prepared player who was simply waiting for that break for more minutes. There is no excuse for not being mentally or physically prepared. You cannot control when the coach substitutes you, but you can control how prepared you are.
5. Make your teammates look good by your unselfish play. Nothing brings a coaches attention to your game off the bench like an assist for an easy score, a help and rotate to cover up for a defender that was beaten off of penetration, or getting back to help an isolated teammate defending a fast break to stop it cold. Do not think your teammates who are starters will miss these efforts either. Confidence in players off the bench by a coach, often comes from teammates who believe you will be there to make them look good. Unselfish play is contagious, be contagious off the bench.
6. Work to be a consistent performer on the court once you have entered the game. Almost without exception one key difference between starters and those players called from the bench is consistency in their performance. Yes, it is a chicken and egg sort of question. Some players will argue, "coach if you give me more time I will play better and more consistently." That is true. However, consistency is most often the result of being able to execute all the little important aspects of the game and being alert on the court to changes. Consistency comes from concentration, repetition in practice, understanding and the confidence which builds from the combination of these elements.
So there you go players. There are no easy answers to getting off the bench, but these tips should serve as some useful guidelines to understand the way a coach thinks and assesses your performance. If you can perform well in short blocks of time, confidence is grown to give you more. If your performance is inconsistent, a coaches confidence to use you will also be inconsistent. Remember, do the little things, excel at your role, always make a stand on defense, and row the boat with the same rhythm as the other players when it helps your team maintain their rhythm and produces results.
I was once a sub, eighth guard on a team of eight guards. I played so little I thought I'd never even see the wax shine of the wood in any minutes that would ever count. But a strange thing happened through the course of the year. Two players quit the team, one player flunked out of school, two others were injured and one fouled out in a critical game. Suddenly I was there with all the pressure of a starter and the game on the line. Fortunately I had prepared hard every day in practice, and when it came time to perform, it happened. From there on the minutes just poured.
