"Disciplines of Success" are the musts that strong teams do and lesser teams don't. Michelin 3-star Chef Thomas Keller shared the concept during his MasterClass.
Organization. "Organization speaks for itself." You know it when you see it. "It is the difference between failure and success."
Specific: Have a drill book, playbook, vision and mission statement, practice schedules...
Efficiency. Efficiency builds execution. Practice at a higher tempo. Use that most valuable resource...time.
Specific: Assess the impact of each activity on winning.
Critical feedback. Understand how our input improves others' output. "It's the critical feedback that we learn from the most." He focuses on the restaurant customer who is not happy...how can we improve their experience? Growth... understanding... self-analysis.
Specific: "Every correction applies to every player."
Repetition. "Repetition makes reputations." John Wooden marveled at how Bill Walton never tired of repeating the same footwork and moves that produced greatness. "Make gnocchi every Sunday...you'll have it in the freezer for convenience meals." Make the gnocchi.
Specific: be a (result) tracker. "Winners are trackers."
Rituals. Great habits build consistent performance. As Aristotle said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." We make our habits and our habits make us. What habits make us?
Specific: Be solution focused. Not scoring enough? Is it shooting, basket attack, turnovers, poor passing, defensive rebounding? Diagnose and treat.
Teamwork. "Without me being part of that team, being efficient, they couldn't do their job (server, chef, bartender)." Unless the twelfth player on the team is punctual, committed, challenging the starter, then the team suffers. Basketball is a collective experience. Do you play on the team or for the team?
Specifics: Be repetitive. It's about the team and making teammates better. Bring energy, purpose, and show we care every day. Erase selfishness. "That is not how we play. This is who we are."
All cooking occurs at the combination of time and temperature. Do you want to be an exceptional player? Put in the time and the intensity needed to excel.
Distill musts into two categories, DECISIONS and EXECUTION. The point guard or quarterback assumes the greatest burden. But each player has 'musts' to carry out. Because without these 'musts' play fails.
What coaches know, most players do not. Never presume they do. A distinction exists - for experienced players, "this is what we must do to succeed" and for young, inexperienced players, "these are what we must avoid to succeed."
1. "Play under control." Young players often lack the 'balance' to make and execute good decisions with the ball. Experience means both vision and skill. I see young guards especially who can't think and play fast. The opposite is "the game slowing down."
2. "Cut urgently." Because basketball is a 'game of separation' failure to cut hard fails at separation. Irony is the need to have the game slow down and yet play fast.
3. "Contain the ball." Some players who are capable of offensive aggression are passive defensively. That makes no sense. Excellent defenders start with will and build the skill.
Burgess Meredith wasn't so far off.
4. "Take better shots." There's no "FIRE, ready, aim." And there's no "my turn." ROB. "Range, open, balanced."
5. "Foul for profit." That's Kevin Sivils' expression. So many young players foul relentlessly - reaching in, bodying the dribbler, blocking down. Most fouls are preventable. Foul when YOU want (prevent a layup, stop the clock, get bad shooters to the line, etc.)
Summary:
- Play under control.
- Cut urgently.
- Contain the ball.
- Take better shots.
- Foul for profit.
Lagniappe.
Zenit Set Plays(VTB League).
— Stavros Evgeneiadis (@stavros_evge) December 3, 2022
We missed Xavi Pascual. So here are some set plays from his current season at VTB.
1. Stagger-Ram-Ghost pic.twitter.com/bdkK8cejjk
Lagniappe 2. Be an energy giver not an energy vampire.
Wish you had more ENERGY GIVERS on your team?
— Luke Gromer (@LukeGromer) December 4, 2022
Show your team this 1:45 second video of @QCook323.
Then, have a discussion with them about...
• How he gives his teammates energy
• What it would feel like to play with him
• Specific ways they can be energy givers pic.twitter.com/LkpJEdqIA1
Lagniappe 3. Bring fight to the court every day. Make excellence matter. No matter what. "Emeritus is when you're not dead, but they don't want you to come in every day." - John Lithgow in "Late Night"
