Enjoy the process and teach students to embrace failure. Expecting excellence to arrive in a quantum leap means assured disappointment. Trying to plug innovation (e.g. pace and space) into your system without the discipline of development will only produce undisciplined, low percentage shots and turnovers. That doesn't mean walk before you run but running before running well.
Specifics drive the process. If I expect ball pressure, then players must have literal and figurative representation. "Head on the ball, balls of the feet, active hands" gets supplemented by "smell their breath and breathe fire onto them." The devil lies in the details.
Feedback refines actions. That's dead man defense (six feet under) or "that's great discomfort" informs progress. Correction requires a "performance-focused, feedback-rich" environment with willing learners. Students must value success as much as their instructors.
Local incrementalism precedes broader competitiveness. Imagine a spelling bee. An individual speller must strengthen her skills gradually before seeking a wider climb. The buzzword in system development is MVP (minimum viable product). Establishing a working model allows for testing, failure, and progress.
Iteration drives improvement. Subtle changes in a technique or product repeated applied can create championships. The Mercedes F1 racing team is just one example. They first structured measuring parameters and broke down every aspect of performance from parts to pit stops using slow motion photography en route to winning. Ben Franklin literally cut up manuscripts and resequenced and rewrote them to enhance his writing skills. When Michelangelo was asked about the Pieta at age 26, he answered that he had been doing this for ten hours a day for twenty years.
Capture the power of time. Commitment and patience create transformation. When we convince our students to invest in themselves, powerful change can follow. Edison's lightbulb worked because he suffered a thousand failures. Wooden didn't win immediately at UCLA but he sculpted a transformational process that made time his ally.
Discipline is more important than conviction in fabricating change.
