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Sunday, April 6, 2025

Basketball - “Cred Pack” Less Important than Credible Actions

Crime novel enthusiasts hear about the protagonist’s cred pack (credentials pack), credentials such as agency ID, photograph, and badge.

Writers have cred packs, too. Instead of credentials, it’s credibility. Mine is thin compared with many readers'.

  • Over 20 years coaching Middle School basketball (final six as head coach)
  • Helped develop two D1 scholarship athletes out of 25 coached as head coach
  • Author The Simple Guide to Girls Basketball
  • Over 4300 basketball blog posts, Top 50 among Feedspot basketball bloggers
  • Coached multiple players earning All-Scholastics, valedictorians
  • Captain, Massachusetts Division 1 sectional high school basketball champion 1973
  • Wakefield High School Hall of Fame 
  • Wakefield High School valedictorian, Scholar-Athlete Award
  • Board of Directors, Melrose High School Athletic Hall of Fame
  • National Merit Scholar
  • Retired physician, formerly Certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Disease, Critical Care Medicine
None of these add value to your program. That's my daily goal. What can we transmit to players and coaches to add value? Specificity  adds credibility. 

1) Commitment to preparation. Although Bob Knight has received credit for this quote, it's from Fielding Yost in 1930:

"The will to win. We hear a lot about that. The will and the wish to win, but there isn’t a chance for either one of them to be gratified or to have any value unless there has been a will to prepare to win."

Pick it (Write it down). Stick with it. Check it. 

2) The best teams play "harder for longer" according to Dave Smart. That requires focus and fitness. Enhance focus with mindfulness and fitness with jumping rope and sprinting.

3) Toughness is a skill which can be acquired. ChatGPT suggests ideas from Erik Kapitulik's The Program: 

Here are the main ideas he offers about building toughness:

  1. Embrace Hardship on Purpose
    Toughness is built by choosing to do hard things regularly. Kapitulik stresses voluntarily embracing adversity — not waiting for life to throw challenges at you, but seeking them out. This might mean physically demanding workouts, difficult conversations, or leadership challenges that test your resilience.

  2. The Standard is the Standard
    Teams (and individuals) must establish clear standards of behavior and performance — and never lower them, no matter the circumstance. Consistently holding yourself and your teammates accountable to high standards breeds both toughness and trust.

  3. Team Toughness > Individual Toughness
    While personal grit matters, The Program highlights that the toughest teams are those that sacrifice for one another. Toughness means consistently putting the team's needs ahead of your own comfort, ego, or excuses.

  4. Mental Discipline in Small Things
    Daily habits build mental toughness. Kapitulik talks about the importance of discipline in everyday life — being on time, making your bed, finishing what you start. These small acts prepare you mentally for bigger challenges.

  5. Earn Your Role Every Day
    Toughness requires an attitude of constant earning, not entitlement. Whether you're a captain or a rookie, you earn your spot on the team and your influence through daily effort and commitment.

  6. "We Before Me"
    True toughness, especially on a team, requires shifting your mindset from self-centeredness to team-centeredness. Being "tough" isn’t just how much you can endure; it's how much you’re willing to give up for others.

  7. Leadership Through Example
    Leaders must model toughness: doing the hardest tasks, holding themselves to the highest standard, and showing vulnerability when appropriate. Kapitulik calls for "leaders who eat last and serve first."

A few examples:

Celtics' coach Joe Mazzulla starts the day in the cold tub, because nothing will be harder than that over the day. 

When climbers ascend Everest, they acclimate at base camps at elevations over 15,000 feet as altitude subjects them to severe physical challenges - cold, lower oxygen, dramatic rise in metabolism burning calories

At the UNC Women's soccer program, the "competitive cauldron" includes daily scoring and ranking individual performance. 

Jay Bilas's Toughness is a must read for basketball toughness. 

4) "Be a tracker." Darren Hardy writes, "Winners are trackers" in The Compound Effect. Measure athleticism and skill development, continually seeking to improve our personal best. Whether it's the classroom, the weight room, or in the gym, "measure twice, cut once." 

5) Promote competition. "Make practice hard so games are easier." Adding practice constraints (e.g. makes in a given time, scores in the paint, consecutive defensive stops, etc.) creates internal competition. 

Summary: 
  • Commit to preparation.
  • Play harder for longer.
  • Foster toughness.
  • Be a tracker.
  • Promote competition. 
Lagniappe. Meyer rules. 
Lagniappe 2. Shorting the pick-and-roll 


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