Re: Yao Ming's training with CD <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>http://nba.sports.tom.com/2007-06-20/0424/84198214.htmlReporter Yang Yi ReportsAfter 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 hope all this training pays off next season.
Re: Yao Ming's training with CD f*ck, 5 hours every day? The general consensus is that NBA players mainly rest in the off season, that's gonna be intense.
Re: Yao Ming's training with CD <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (tHe_pEsTiLeNcE @ Jun 22 2007, 04:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>f*ck, 5 hours every day? The general consensus is that NBA players mainly rest in the off season, that's gonna be intense.</div>Rest in the offseason? And become overweight and even slower than he is already, great idea.
