Basketball: Seasonal Cooking, The Guitar Student, and Defensive Lagniappe

Learn from everything and everyone around us. 

Alice Waters explains the impact of 'seasonal eating' in her MasterClass. Writer Michael Pollan discussed the feeling he got when eating the fruit bowl at Chez Panisse, an indelible memory. 

Conversely, Justin Sandercoe teaches guitar at justinguitar.com. Each lesson builds on the prior, reinforcing proper technique with simplicity and clarity. His "ten principles" lesson translates to basketball. 

1. Practice what you're not good at.

2. Don't practice mistakes. Do it right. 

3. Play perfectly slowly first. If you're not good at a skill, slow down. If you were a race car driver going off the course on a turn, would you drive faster? 

4. Set a timer. Spend five minutes of practice using a five minute timer. This is analogous to pomodoro technique from Coursera.org in Learning How to Learn. Don't cheat the drill. 

5. Focus on one element at a time. 

6. Practice every day. Be consistent. "Spaced repetition" is more effective.

7. Keep a practice schedule...note how much you practice. Only you know how much you practice. 

8. "If it sounds good, it is good." 

9. "Playing and practicing are very different." Practice is about developing skill...playing is about letting it happen. 

10. "The more you think, the more you stink." Develop your instincts. 

Lagniappe:

"You can observe a lot by just watching." - Yogi Berra

See this clip of Longo teaching his 5v5 D H/C drill. You can see in 1st rep the young players struggle with the concept. But after a few minutes, their improvement is off the charts! Get the full video & see how an NBA Champ Coach teaches D: https://t.co/PhQYxJbZ7W @drdishbball pic.twitter.com/DWjHjAneOw

— Coach Liam Flynn (@coachliamflynn) August 14, 2018

What do we see in this 5 on 5 shell? 
- Ball pressure
- Jump to the ball.
- Drop to the level of the ball. 
- See both the ball and your man.
- Load to the ball (help side).
- Communicate (early, loud, often).
- No direct drives.
- It's not perfect (note the help without rotation initially).
- Help side defender goes 'through' on the off-ball screen. 
- The followup shows the help AND rotation. 
- Ball reversal challenges the defense forcing long closeouts. 

Lagniappe 2: 

Find ways to put players in positions to succeed.  Everything doesn't belong in our "fruit bowl." Some will go into sherbet, salad, or jam...