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Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Basketball: Fast Five - Tether Ourselves to Process

Reduce complexity to simplicity. Where do we start? 
Franklin's Virtues

 Commit to improvement every day. Have a written routine built on habit. 

 Invest time wisely. I'm not saying that my morning routine is best. It works for me:

 - MasterClass (30 minutes)
- Writing (30 minutes)
- Reading (30 minutes)...the more we read, the more ideas we combine unusually
- Meditation (10 minutes...needs work)

Focus. Eliminate diversions (computers multi-task, people distract). There's work and there's goofing off time. "The magic is in the work." 

 Be a learning machine. Consider an idea book (e.g. commonplace book) or idea files. I use the blog and also Google Drive spreadsheets. 

 Establish core values. "This is who we are; that is who we are not." I want ours to fit in the palm of your hand - teamwork, identity, and accountability. The best players and teams embrace and demonstrate them daily. 

Teach, teach, teach. "Teach players to see the game." - Pete Newell   Players have to figure it out. Use the best methods available. Nobody can fill the ocean with a teaspoon. 

 Excerpts from a summary of Lemov et al. Teach Like a Champion. 

Setting High Academic Expectations

  • Technique One: No Opt Out Teachers with high expectations don't accept "I don't know," but expect students to be engaged and "give it a shot."
  • Technique Two: Right is Right This technique accepts no half answers, but asks for complete and correct answers to questions.
  • Technique Three: Stretch It This technique pushes a teacher to take correct answers and ask students to add depth or nuance to their answers.
  • Technique Four: Format Matters High expectations also means only accepting students answers in complete sentence with good grammar.
  • Technique Five: No Apologies Teachers with high expectations don't apologize for what they teach. No more "Sorry I have to teach you Shakespeare."
  • Technique 39: Do It Again Repetition is one way to be sure that students understand what you expect and that it is done to your standards.
Be specific and detail oriented. There's a scene in Salaam Bombay where Manju is an intermediary delivering cookies. Director Mira Nair tells the child, "eat the biscuits each one of them like you were eating Sola Saal, like you'd never let her have a piece."

Telling people to "play hard" isn't specific enough. Test to assure that everyone is on the same page. 

Lagniappe: NCAA Women's Analytics on the Road to the Final Four (Radius Athletics)
Lagniappe 2. "He couldn't dispute a single fact. That's what we do. We're not here to make anyone happy." - Bob Woodward, in his MasterClass on Investigative Journalism

 Our record is whatever it is. We control our process not the results. If we're in development, develop. 

Lagniappe 3: "What's the next story?" Keep developing new stories. 
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