http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports...kn/4896412.html <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">"Yao, get your head down! Yes, that's it! Get him off you. Good! See how much room you've got? Now go!" Yao Ming raises quickly and fakes a jump shot that gets the defender leaning the wrong way. Seeing an opening, he spins toward the middle of the lane, takes one dribble and throws down a rim-rattling dunk. "There you go!" Carroll Dawson says. "Always dribble away from your man. Don't expose the ball. No more eight-turnover games." Next, Dawson positions Yao in the low post, and for the next 20 minutes, they work on footwork, positioning and an unstoppable sky hook. Yao goes to the middle of the lane and drops one in. Then to the baseline. Then back to the middle. Even in skeleton drills less than four months before training camp, it's easy to be excited about the possibility of a player who averaged 25.1 points per game last season coming up with a shot that should make him even better. "Not a person on this earth can keep you from scoring on that shot," Dawson says. "That's going to be your best move. You're going to find teams overplaying you toward the middle. That's why you need the countermove." Yao nods, says nothing. He takes a pass, steps toward the baseline before sliding back to the middle of the lane and hitting another hook shot. Unstoppable indeed. "You're in control," Dawson says. "Just don't lose that position." At another point, Dawson stops the drill and asks: "OK, what did you do wrong?" Yao tells him he was moving away from the basket when he should have been moving toward it. Establishing his position "You've got to establish your territory," Dawson says. "You know how (Amare) Stoudemire would come around and slap the ball out of your hands? If you stop him a few times, if you get your position, he'll quit trying. That's human nature. I've seen it for 40 years." They're halfway through the latest in a series of two-hour sessions at Toyota Center when I arrive Thursday afternoon. They work on big things, such as blocking out defenders and an unstoppable sky hook. They work on small things, such as the best technique for a dunk. "Never throw the ball at the rim," Dawson tells him. "Just put it over the front. And don't pull the rim down. Why?" "It can kick the ball out," Yao says. He smiles. "I won't be on SportsCenter if I dunk like that," he says. Dawson turns to former NBA center Stanley Roberts, who has been brought in to help with the session. "I didn't hear what he said," Dawson says. "Was he cussing me?" Foul shots? "Let's shoot 10 more," Dawson tells him. "Use your fingertips. You're going to be the first big man to shoot 90 percent from the line." They're an odd couple, this 26-year-old NBA star and 68-year-old former coach and general manager. On this day, they seem perfect for one another. "He has the most unbelievable work ethic I've ever seen," Dawson says. "We're out here two hours, and he wants to keep going. I brought Stanley in because Yao was going to kill me. If you wanted to stay out here 24 hours, he'd do it." Dawson, retired from his position as general manager of the Rockets, is back doing what he did for most of his adult life. He's coaching again and loving every minute of it. He has worked with a variety of NBA big men over the years, most notably Hakeem Olajuwon. Until this month, he'd never had a session with Yao. Jeff Van Gundy had his own coach to work with centers (Tom Thibodeau), and Dawson was busy with front office matters. When Rick Adelman was hired as coach, Dawson approached him with a four-page plan that would focus on cutting down Yao's turnovers, fine-tuning his low-post game and making him more aggressive. "He has been a finesse player his whole career," Dawson said, "and people have beaten the hell out of him. I want him to use his strength and be a power player." It's the sky hook that could transform Yao's game. "Getting it to be instinctive is going to take awhile," Dawson said. "It's just letting the defense tell you what to do. Before, I think he'd made up his mind before he even got the ball." Yao agrees. "I need to do it over and over," he said. "I need to play some real games." Adelman didn't hesitate in saying yes when Dawson approached him. This isn't the norm in a league in which coaches sometimes protect their turf fiercely. "I have so much respect for (Dawson)," Adelman said, "and who knows Yao better? He didn't want to step on anyone's toes, so we talked it through. Look at the work he has done with big men over the years. I think it's a natural. If he's willing to do something more than play golf, something that'll help us, more power to him." When the session ends, Yao and Dawson sit at the end of the practice court discussing everything from Yao's boyhood home to the best technique for hailing a cab in Shanghai. They're having the kind of conversations friends have, easy and playful and respectful. Yao took about a week off after the NBA season before returning to work. On this day, his legs are fatigued from a heavy weightlifting session the previous afternoon. He had run three miles at Rice that morning, then did jump-roping drills before entering the gym. "He wants to get better," Dawson said. "He wants to work on every part of his game. I'm telling you he's so special." Not happy with season After Dawson leaves, I ask Yao what drives someone who had played so well to work so hard. "You think it was a great season?" he said. "I don't. I'm not happy about it. I feel frustrated. We should still be playing. Tracy (McGrady) and I have to take responsibility." I asked if he would watch much of the playoffs. "At first, I couldn't watch," he said. "I've seen most of the games recently." Did he watch Utah, the team that won a first-round Game 7 at Toyota Center? "No," he said. "I can't watch that team." From the moment Yao arrived five years ago, the Rockets have been constantly impressed by his work ethic and sense of responsibility. They've never had a player who cared more or worked harder at improving. During one of the afternoon's drills, Yao goes down hard and rolls over holding an ankle. He gets up quickly and attempts to walk through the pain. "Take a breath, take a breath," Dawson tells him. "No," Yao tells him, "let's keep going." </div>I'm excited to see what the new Yao is going to be like.
Sounds great. If the results of the workouts this summer can show in the regular season, Yao should be a much bigger force to be reckoned with.
<div class="quote_poster">igotask8board Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Now where the hell is T-Mac? </div> Chillin at home having a beer, watching Cribs, contemplating retirement and crying over his back.
sounds really good, i really like yao, he is very humble. he works so hard and never gives up and by the sounds of this article, he's going to be improving pretty fast. last season he scored pretty well but his turnovers were a bit of a problem, if he can be the kind of player who can score at will, kind of like what shaq used to be, he will dominate the league, and with all his extra height, it will be even harder to stop him than it was to stop shaq, that is if he becomes an awesome scorer, with a shot like a sky hook or improvement on his dunk his scoring ability will be intensely good.
I got this post from CF. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> http://nba.sports.tom.com/2007-06-20/0424/84198214.html Reporter Yang Yi Reports After practicing with the 68-year-old Carroll Dawson for a week, Yao Ming somewhat sighed with regret how times had flown by so quickly, and more regretably so was that he found out that the most suitable coach (for centres) for him was no one but this old man who had been watching him from afar by the courtside for the past 5 years. Now everyday, Carroll Dawson has 2 hours to work together with Yao Ming. According to Yao Ming's daily schedule, he will have 1 hour dedicated to some conservative treatment (physical therapy) of his shoulder in the morning; then he will work with Anthony Falsone for another 2 hours in the afternoon on his strength and conditioning; Then another 2 hours with Carroll Dawson, purely on technical training for centres. "It is all purely about techniques (for the centres), extremely delicate and detailed stuff." this is how Yao Ming described about Carroll Dawson's training. "He just nitpicks on my game and techniques as a centre; for 5 years, this is by far the sort of training I never had before." Carroll Dawson has gotten much older; he has already left the position of General Manager of the Houston Rockets, and his belly has grown bigger and bigger; nevertheless, that does not prevent him performing in front of Yao Ming that famous "Dream Shake": a turn-around to the baseline, lower his back while handling the ball, then suddenly moves the other direction back into the centre, and delivers a hook shot with his right hand to complete the offensive move. While Carroll Dawson performed his tricks in front of him, Yao Ming just recalled his rookie season 5 years ago; he still remembered the days training at the Westside Tennis Club; and he fondly remembered Rudy T. After playing his second NBA game, Rudy T invited Carroll Dawson to the training ground to give some instruction/pointers for the rookie. Carroll Dawson then demonstrated to Yao Ming this Dream Shake that he passed over to Hakeem Olajuwon. Yao Ming then inmitated and worked on this move twice. Then 20 minutes later, when the Rockets started their team scrimmage, Carroll Dawson walked slowly towards the door and was about to leave the court, when he heard Rudy T yelling out at his back: "CD (Dawson's nickname)! He has just used this move!" Then, the next day, in the game against the Toronto Raptors, the Dream Shake resurfaced at the Compaq Centre. In the wink of the eyes, 5 years flew by. Yao Ming is no longer a rookie; and there are more white hairs on Dawson's head. After Jeff Van Gundy took over the team in 2003, he specifically let his close aide and assistant coach Tom Thibodeau took over Yao Ming's training, and had not allowed Carroll Dawson to meddle. Tom Thibodeau worked assiduously and helped the transformation of Yao Ming into a 25 ppg centre. Then just one month earlier, Hakeem the Dream Olajuwon prosperously returned to Toyota Centre and held a training clinic for Yao Ming. Yet finally, (between the 3 of them) Yao Ming discovered that the most suitable coach for him during this summer is still Carroll Dawson who has over 30 years of experience coaching big centres. "Maybe CD understands me most; not only he has the experience (on coaching big men), he understood my rhythm and knew my speed. He knew up front whether or not I can complete a particular move.:" Yao Ming said. "Tom Thibodeau is an extremely good coach too. He let me understand the importance of persistence in training. He let me understand it is not about whether you can learn to do a particular move, but it is about repeating the move until it becomes instinctive. But Tom Thibodeau has the abilities and aspiration to become a head coach, and he does not specialize in coaching centres." "As to Hakeem the Dream Olajuwon, I am not worthy even to tie his shoe laces for him; he is over 40 some years old now; but he is still so quick. That kind of speed, that kind of rhythm, that kind of directional change....to tell you the truth, I don't think I can learn much from him, as I just do not have that kind of speed as the foundation. He has taught me alot of moves, but to me, they seemed just like eye-openers that broaden my horizon." Only Carroll Dawson knows and understands Yao Ming better; he understood more about Yao Ming's speed, and how he could use his basketball intelligence to complete a certain move. Yao Ming further said: "In fact, I have planned to further refine and resolve during this summer the technique on how I can get closer to the basketball rim after my spin, and not further away from the rim. I think CD is exactly the person who can help me to achieve this. In the past, particularly when my knees were still weak after I returned from my knee injury, I often just turnaround and made a baseline spin; now that the strength of my knees and my speed have returned, then why can't I just spin and move out to create more space? This will make me more closer to the rim, and let me have better angles for my shots. CD now just teaches me how to dribble, how to move and pivot my feet, and how to protect the ball better." "CD has made alot of recommendations to me; and he will correct me in those areas one by one in our forthcoming training sessions. I am not going to list out for you what those suggestions are, but I can tell you, those are all goodies that will help me to improve my games alot." Carroll Dawson is now too old to be able to play defense against the young Yao Ming; so he had invited the 2.15M (7ft) , 160 Kilogram (352 lbs) Stanley Robert, a 8-year NBA veteran centre to stand under the post like a wall and play defense against Yao Ming. Carroll Dawson himself would stand behind the baseline, and observed how Yao Ming uses his new learnt tricks/footwork to dribble past Stanley Robert. So on this particular training session, Carroll Dawson also invited the veteran reporter, Richard Justice, of the Houston Chronicles to watch Yao Ming in his training. It was this Richard Justice who criticized Yao Ming as the biggest softie and front court/back court problem of the Houston Rockets in his column 2 years ago. Carroll Dawson did not know whether Yao Ming would mind about him bringing Richard Justice along to their training. Yao Ming looked indifferent but happy: "I have forgotten all about it. As long as I play well, who will still bad mouth me ? Come on, CD, let's start our training."</div>
I knew there was a reason why I liked Yao so much. I've given up on Tmac, though. Oh well, that was what I was looking for Yao to improve on. Being more aggresive, going towards the basket to shoot instead of fading away, and powering inside. MANHANDLING people... I'm excited for next season
It's nice to see that some NBA big men are "on a mission" first Amare and now I see that Yao is working really hard too.
Yao's character and how the Rockets organization can be close to its personnel is why I'm so attracted to the Rockets ballclub. Both great reads. Shanghai pride! xP
