Review
This past year we were able to review the Lenny Wilkens Legacy Basketball Clinic Series: The Basics videos. We can now announce that this exceptionally good lesson set targeted for teaching basketball basics to youth coaches, parents teaching their own kids, and kids can now be enjoyed in interactive format with the release of their 4 set CD-ROM series. Rather than repeat a review of the material which we have already thoroughly covered in our review of the video set we want to focus on the advantages and wonderful creative effort that Gilbert Creative has put forth in releasing Coach Wilkens material on CD-ROM.
Why CD-ROM you ask? The nature of digitally stored information, like you find on this CD, is that you can quickly navigate to virtually any skill or lesson you would want to find including the 1 minute video clips presented by NBA Assistant Dick Helm and wonderfully telestrated by NBA Hawks Hall of Fame Coach Lenny Wilkens at a click of your mouse. Instead of having to watch the full video, you can locate the skill you want to better understand within seconds and the nature of interactive CD-ROM's actually makes learning fun. A Case of What You Get More Than You See
There are hundreds of excellent videos and books on the market that teach the complexities of the game. There are all too few excellent products that teach very basic fundamental basketball by the experts. Coaches Wilkens and Helm teach the basics: passing, ball handling, shooting and defense. This CD-ROM series is targeted for the youth basketball market. As an experienced coach there are many good basic tips and terminology however that can help you become a better coach. I think the best coaches have loads of knowledge yet know how to explain the game in the simplest terms. This is such as effort by Coach Wilkens and Helm. If you are a very young coach, working with kids, a parent trying to help you child learn the game, or just a young player wanting to know on what details to concentrate during the execution of basketball basics this is an outstanding piece of material. So How Does the CD-ROM Work?
What you get when you first open this CD you will be guided through an installation process. You may be asked to install to additional applications (they come on the CD-ROM) called Active Movie and Adobe Acrobat Reader, if they are not already previously installed. The Acrobat Reader allows you to print the workbook and notes that accompany the CD-ROM without having to have Microsoft Word on your system.
Once you have installed the program you will be asked to open the Start Menu. It looks like this. You are given clear instructions on what monitor settings will work best for both color and to view the high quality video clips at this time. Gilbert Creative even gives you a tech support web address and E-mail address to help you debug a problem if you encounter one. We did not have any problems with the installation and it worked very smoothly. When you click one of the four basic skills you are taken to the next menu called the Video Chooser (if the current CD-ROM in your computer is the one you have chosen) or you are asked to insert the CD-ROM for another skill area. This all works exceptionally well and is simple to use. The video chooser allows you to view the video teaching clips in two ways. You can simply click play tape and the video player will begin the basic skill set and continue on through until you stop it or the complete skill set if finished much like watching a video tape. The second option is to click on a specific exercise or drill and then click play tape which allows you to navigate to the skills you want to study or review. All four basic skills CD-ROM's have this same format and the video clips are broken down into exercises and at least 3-4 drills you can practice for improving those skills. Once you have clicked the Play Tape button, the video begins playing in a window with buttons on the screen as show in the diagram to the left here. These buttons include a Coaches Button that lets you toggle between the Exercise setup led by Coach Helm and the Chalkboard section where Coach Wilkens uses the telestrator to highlight key position and teaching techniques for coaches and players. From our perspective we feel the young inexperienced coach will learn critical teaching details by spending time with Coach Wilkens and focusing on using these important teaching cues. The right arrow button when clicked take you forward to the next video, the left arrow takes you back. The Video chooser button takes you back to the Video Chooser (selecting other topics). One of the key and exciting features of this CD-ROM is the Directors Cut button which when clicked moves you quickly to an uncut version of the video used in the Exercise and Telestration sections. This Director's Cut allows you even more viewing control over the video clip which we will cover shortly. The last buttons take you to the Notes: section where you can enter your own notes or observations for teaching and save them along with the outline and teaching tip notes already provided by the Coaches. Clicking the main menu takes you quickly back to the screen where you can choose a different basketball basic, and exit closes the program.
Director's Cut a Cut Above
This feature of the Lenny Wilken's Legacy Series makes this an exceptional learning tool. The Director's Cut let you change the camera angle from horizontal to slightly above the action and with the Playback Speed Slider click and drag the slider bar to change playback speed from full speed to still in 10% increments. (This graphic doesn't show the fully loaded camera angle and speed tools). We think this tool let's the coach and player visually fully see key teaching points and are an exceptional good use of interactive graphics tools by Gilbert Creative. You can also click the note button to take you to the notes screen for writing down your comments or click the ball to return to the main menu.
Any time you hit the Notes button a screen with blank space that allows you to type in notes. Clicking on the accompanying printer icon will merge your notes with those included by Coach Wilkens on the CD-ROM. Additionally of value is that you can print out a full set of the teaching points either through Microsoft Word (loaded and opened automatically via interface with this CD-ROM) or the Acrobat Reader to take with you to practice. Well thought out and without question adding additional value to this teaching CD-ROM. You can also print half and full-court diagrams to use in practice from the Notes screen.
There are some additional Special key commands which let you type a set key to get additional features during the viewing of the video clips. The one we liked best was the "Z" key which let's you zoom in closer to the action or zoom away for the big picture. The "S" key also lets you quickly toggle between the floor camera and the boom camera above.
Our Closing Thoughts
The information in the CD-ROM series is very basic. If you are a skilled coach with substantial teaching knowledge this series at best might give you a few additional teaching pointers. However if you are just starting out, feel you often don't have enough knowledge or expertise on teaching your young players on what details to focus this CD-ROM series hits the game winning shot. We believe it's a great introductory teaching tool for young coaches, parents, and players and you even have fun using it, we did. There are several drills in each basic skills set as well to help you plan your practices and the ability to make notes and print them out along the way demonstrates that the Coaches and creators of this CD-ROM know more than basketball basics. They understand fundamentally correct teaching methodology and were able to use innovative technology to make it a great learning tool. We understand that more advanced skills versions from Coach Wilkens and Coach Helm and Gilbert Creative are in the works and we can hardly wait get our hands on them. -- Alan Lambert @ BBHighway
The staff was anxious to view the CD set. The video set was excellent, so we had to assume that the CD set was the same. We were not disappointed. The CD set is awesome. They pick up where the video, if it does, leaves off. The video and CD's are similar. However, the CD set offers bonus video of each drill. It is nice to see uneditted video of the drills. We all know that not everything works the first time. This is your chance to see it first hand. The demonstration videos are concise, while the uneditted offers what can happen when not strictly following what Coach Wilkens offers.
The interface on the CD set is simple yet attractive. The menu system will prompt you to insert the correct CD, if it has not been loaded. Any questions are answered directly on the screen. There is no mistaking what path you are about to take. Ball handling,passing, shooting, and defense make the CD set complete. Each CD is full of relevant data to make your "life" easy. How can you go wrong? Lenny Wilkens, the winningest coach in NBA history, is right there to guide your odyssey to become a complete play.
Does it work? Absolutely. When I installed the system and began to "play" around, several players indicated that they found the CD quality much higher than the video, and they were watching basically the same as the video. The ability to interact appealed to them. The players ended up using the set more than myself and I must have spent over 2 hours enjoying the different camera angles the CD set offers. The camera angles may be a strong point for the CD set. Floor level and birds-eye offer different perspectives on the same drills. Neat stuff. Don't deny yourself the option of making a decision, buy it. -- Guy Power @ PowerBasketball
Product Description
This CD-ROM series utilizes multiple camera angles, a video chalk board, and telestration technology. It also offers extensive interactive controls including a coaches cut or "directors cut" that allows the viewer to change camera angles, slow program speed, zoom in/out, and print personal notes pertaining to each drill and exercise. This series is the interactive version of the Lenny Wilkens Video Series that is also available at Amazon.com. There is a workbook that you can print from this program via either Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat Reader.
