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Thursday, August 18, 2022

Academic Support

"There is no ability without eligibility."

Support player learning as part of our culture. How?

1. "Read. Read. Read. Read. Read." - Werner Herzog  

Reading exposes us to new people and ideas. Reading bakes in curiosity. Share with players what we're reading and where reading has taken you. Make reading the norm. 

2. Set high expectations. 

Family. School. Basketball. Dawn Staley shared that she performed well in class at Virginia when she embraced the message that academics needed the same commitment as basketball. Don't accept the "dumb jock" stereotype for yourself or your team. Set "honor roll" grades as a priority. 

3. Learn how to learn. 

Formal free courses such as Coursera's "Learning How to Learn" help. Carve out "thinking time" as part of your day.

  • Pomodoro method - build in short study breaks, 25 minutes on, 5 off
  • Spaced repetition - study the same material at intervals
  • Self-testing - what did I learn from this chapter, book, lecture? 
4. Chunking. 

Themes recur in knowledge and in basketball. 

Big words come from little ones. "Great offense comes from multiple actions." Chessmasters see the board as groups of pieces or chunks. 


When players engage "small-sided games," they see multiple opportunities, the "poetry" of the game. 

"To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heav'n in a wild flower.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour."
                             - William Blake

5. Analogies. 

Unrelated domains share similar concepts. The spelling and chess examples above use analogy. 

A coach spoke of watching, "high octane basketball." The meaning was clear. 


A Coach Carril obituary linked him to a musical conductor. 

Some called Coach Bob Knight, "the General" for his hard-nosed, authoritarian style. 

Martial arts master Bruce Lee encouraged students to "be water." 


Learn to play at different speeds with different styles. 

6. Study with breadth. 

Playing for different coaches with differing styles and substance is part of The Education of a Coach and playing education. 

There's value to Range as informed by David Epstein. "The professed necessity of hyperspecialization forms the core of a vast, successful, and sometimes well-meaning marketing machine, in sports and beyond. In reality, the Roger (Federer) path to sports stardom is far more prevalent than the Tiger path, but those athletes’ stories are much more quietly told if they are told at all."

7. Take handwritten notes. Most people 'think' that handwritten notes are better. Now an academic study confirms writing notes are better than digital ones. 

Teaching players critical thinking forges better players and more productive adults. 

Lagniappe (something extra). Learning reveals truth and beauty.
 

Lagniappe 2. 

Lagniappe 3. Obradovic! 

Lagniappe 4. From Dan Pink in Drive

  • Mastery is a mindset. (Carol Dweck)
  • Mastery is a pain. (Consider military academy training)
  • Mastery is an asymptote. (Make achieving our best a quest.)

 

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