Basketball Study: Timing, Rhythm, and Tempo (Patreon)

• LMA Curriculum

Introduction

In The Joe Louis Story study, I mentioned how basketball could teach us a lot about timing, rhythm, and tempo. For the purposes of sport, think of rhythm as the expression of timing. Timing is the spacing of events in time. For physical movement, timing is best defined as periods of tension and relaxation. Rhythm is the alternation between periods of tension and relaxation. Think of a beat as the basic unit of time. Most often, it's a regularly repeating pulse.

Not all of us can dance, but we all have a natural beat pattern. Our own embodied rhythm. When we can't dance or keep a beat, it means we can't sync with an external rhythm, only our own. All fighters have a rhythm and tempo, whether they recognize it or not. This is important to know because then you can understand your opponent's pattern and the pattern you're feeding your opponent.

Breakdown

This is an edit I made of a basketball coach working with two young players.

First, the coach explains how these drills are meant to "break" speed and the defender's rhythm. What is speed? Pace, or more precisely, ground contact time. If the origin of rhythm is walking, the musical connections make even more sense.

To defeat a defender, the goal is to disrupt their movement pattern or rhythm and force an increase in their ground contact time, e.g., you made them go the wrong way, and now they're playing catch-up.

For pattern disruptions to be effective, you must be close enough to your opponent to reduce time-space or the time and space your opponent needs to adjust to your movements. Going back to ground contact time, you want your opponent to consume lots of time and space to keep up with you.

As a defender then, it sometimes makes sense to create distance so you can see more of your opponent but also have the space to adjust. Space creates time, more time for you to adjust, but also more time for your opponent to get away.

Having a wide base gives you balance, and balance gives you the ability to go left or right, forward or backward.

It's easier to go forward and back. It's our default. So your opponent will either move forward or expect you to move forward. By going laterally, you're already disrupting their pattern.

The coach pulls up to the opponent, then bounces the ball, bounces the ball twice, pauses, and then shoots. It's a 4-count pattern: 1-2-0-1. The count represents the number of beats, and the number represents the number of ball movements per beat.

Four beats. First beat, one bounce. Second beat, two bounces in quick succession. Third beat, wait for a reaction. Fourth beat, shoot the ball.

A 4-count is also common in dance and combat sports. For example, in a beginner dance class, how do they start? "5, 6, 7, 8!" 4-count. What about the muay Thai march? Left, right, left, right. In boxing or kickboxing, it might be bouncing forward-back, forward-back. In a punching pattern, it could be jab, straight, jab, straight.

So the opponent expects a standard 4-count pattern of 1-1-1-1: bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce. But, going bounce, double bounce, pause, and shoot will throw off their expected pattern—their rhythm.

I previously used the example of mouse clicks: 1-2-0-1 would be click, double-click, pause, click. Or in boxing: jab, double jab, wait, right straight. In a game of tag or Brazilian jiu-jitsu guard passing, it could be fake left, fake left-right, wait, go left.

The coach points out the issues with crossing the legs. It's not that it's wrong, but in thinking of opportunities, when you cross your legs, you can only go that one way. If you cross your legs to the left, you can go left, but now you can't go right, and you can't go forward or back without falling over. This is not only a potential mechanical problem but also a timing problem because you'll be playing catch-up.

Open hips give you balance, and balance affords you timing. Efficient mechanics aren't important for aesthetics or for the sake of efficiency. Efficient mechanics is only important for the sake of timing. Unfortunately, too many coaches don't recognize this. Doing it "the right way" does not matter if it doesn't improve timing (unless it's causing injury).

Fakes and feints are also products of timing. They set, disrupt, and draw out timing.

"Hips open," for our purposes, means keep your legs apart and face your opponent.

"Where are you selling?" It's misdirection. Timing is about fakes and feints, and fakes and feints are about timing.

Though fakes and feints can be used interchangeably, for our purposes, they're similar but different. If I feint paying the bill, I'm pretending I'm going for my wallet because I know you will pay anyway. A fake would be pulling out my wallet and paying with counterfeit money. Ultimately, I don't pay and you're tricked in both scenarios, but in two different ways.

When I feint, I have plausible deniability, and with a fake, I don't. Think celebrity look-alike vs. someone pretending to be the celebrity.

People can read feints when there are none because they're subtle and implied. A fake is explicit. Someone who moves herky-jerky is hard to read because everything looks like a feint, but that doesn't mean they're doing any fakes. Whereas a fake is sometimes best sold during moments of stillness.

When it comes to attacks, a feint is an implied attack, whereas a fake is a false attack. Half-hearted vs. committed.

When your legs are apart, and you face your opponent, your opponent can't tell which direction you're going because you can go both ways. "Slide and change" direction.

With a wide base, you can sell one direction and go the other way. But, if you cross your legs or step forward, you're committed. You can't easily change directions. Feint vs. fake.

"Stay with it" is one of my favorite parts of this study. It's only about information; it's about repeating the movement until you have embodied it.

Of course it's not going to go right, you haven't embodied it. You will only embody it if you stick with it. Even when you do it exactly, it doesn't mean it's been embodied. You still have to keep practicing. Look at The Joe Louis Story. Louis, played by Wallace, got the jab right away, but even as a champion, he still had to practice the jab. Stay with it.

Sometimes doing it "right" right away is the worst thing that could happen because that creates the illusion of embodiment when there is none. Think about all the times someone has been able to do a movement they couldn't replicate. They did it, but that doesn't mean they embodied it.

Next is another 4-count: 1-2-1-1. Bounce, double-bounce, bounce, shoot. Within a 4-count are infinite possibilities.

The coach tells a player she's standing too tall. Not only does this destabilize you, but it exposes more "gaps." In the case of boxing, if you stand tall, covering your head exposes your body, and covering your body exposes your head. You can't cover both because standing tall extends the gap between your body and head.

The coach tells the other player to slow down. Going fast and rushing doesn't allow her to embody the movement, so she defaults to a different movement she already knows.

The coach isolates the movement to sliding left and right so the player can work through the part she's stuck on.

I love how the coach tells the player, "What you're doing is not wrong," but that this is a different task. Like telling a boxer that the right straight is not wrong, but we're working on the left hook. It's a different task.

The coach wants feints, not fakes. He wants his players to be in positions with multiple attack options. You can't beat the best defenders with one attack option. Going forward is the most direct, but lateral gives you the most options.

Staying open means your options are open.

Along with slowing down is being smooth. It's more important to be smooth than fast. Smooth means no snags, hitches, or interruptions, just consistent and smooth lines.

The coach has his players practice to both sides. What's the point of having options if you can't take advantage of those options? Once your opponent sees you can go to both sides, you will be that much harder to predict.

The first movement sets the expectation, then when you speed up, the opponent plays catch up, trying to speed up with you. When you slow down, they're already moving too fast, which is when you'll go past them.

If you attack right away, they'll be waiting for you. Timing means timing the opponent. You don't need timing if you're going to go, regardless of what the opponent does.

Make feints but keep your level the same, so you aren't committing, exposing yourself, or off-balanced. Now you can read your opponent's reactions.

Misdirection causes physical reactions. It's not just about your balance but also theirs. Misdirection makes them shift their weight the wrong way. They'll be stuck for a split second as you get past them. If they change their levels (raise up) or cross their legs, they might fall over. This is why you have to make sure you're not making the same mistakes they are, or you'll be the one falling over.

If you hesitate, you'll lose your opportunity or, even worse, your balance.

If you change your count altogether to a 3-count or a 5-count, you can off-balance your opponent even more, but only if you've already set (or know) their expectation.

"No hesitation" also means trusting yourself and the move. Shoot the ball, don't check to see if it worked because you won't have that time. Even a slight delay or hesitation will have your opponent catch up to you. Don't overthink it.

Trust is a critical part of sports because doubt causes delays. A lack of trust leads to quicksand. Doubt causes delays that cause failures that cause more doubt, more delays, and more failures. A confidence problem is actually a trust problem, and trust problems cause physical problems.

Without trust, your timing be off, and you'll be slow to react. Inversely, you don't need to be a confident person to do well in sports as long as you trust your coaches, your team, and your training. This is why some athletes say they gain confidence from training.

Confidence in yourself is not the same as confidence in your training. All kinds of people can be confident in their training. You can be nervous as hell but trust your training. This is why a safe, comfortable training environment you trust is critical for confidence because if you don't trust your training environment or training, you will doubt.

You want "one move to give you three options" rather than lots of moves that give you one option. Simplicity. This is why the jab is such an effective weapon. Feint the jab and see what they do. If they do nothing, then jab them. If they step forward, then hook. If they back up, take their space.

Being predictable makes you unpredictable. If you set their expectations or give them what they already expect, they'll calibrate to that. But since you know what they'll do, you can switch it up on them. Having a few moves makes your game more predictable and less confusing for both you and your opponent. With predictability, they can follow along. If they follow along, you can mislead them. However, if they have no expectations, they'll be open to anything. You'll be sloppy and hesitant if you can't predict your own game.

1-2-0-1. Going slow, fast, then waiting will draw out a reaction from your opponent. Make your read. Based on what they do, choose option A, B, or C.

When one of the players "raised up," she lost the ball because the gap between the ball, the floor, and her hands increased.

Being good at misdirection also means predicting behaviors. So it's not just about knowing your opponent but also knowing typical and trending behaviors in your sport. This goes back to gaining confidence from training. The more you practice and play, the more experience you gain. From experience, you'll gain an understanding of typical behaviors. That understanding gives you confidence over your opponents.

The coach is generalizing behaviors at the regional level vs. the pro level. He's explaining to his players that they're calibrated to the regional level, but he's trying to calibrate them to the behaviors of the pros.

The pros are used to immediate false attacks. Instead of you reading them, they'll read you. But if you already know that's what they're expecting, take charge of the fight by drawing them in. Make them come to you, then go.

Calibrating to the pros is hard. It takes practice. Stay with it. Don't give up on embodiment because you're not already embodied. That's the whole point of embodied practice.

"Once you get it down," once you're embodied, "it's over." Trust the process. Trust the coach. Trust the strategy. Trust the move.

Timing might be enough to misdirect most opponents, but at the pro level, you also need the ability to attack to both sides. To attack to both sides, you need a wide base.

Training hard and sticking with it makes "easy work."

– Sam