Things go wrong. We had a competitive 26-24 loss today.
As events unfold, can we impute 'cause and effect', correlation, trends, or randomness? Can we intervene earlier via strategy, personnel, or operations?
Have we planned and practiced foreseeable scenarios? In Extreme Ownership, Navy SEAL Jocko Willink writes, "Implementing Extreme Ownership requires checking your ego and operating with a high degree of humility. Admitting mistakes, taking ownership, and developing a plan to overcome challenges are integral to any successful team."
Effective training informs performance. We worked a lot this week on passing, moving, and layups. We need more work and continued emphasis on player and ball movement leading to high quality shots. We had enough good shots. Don't dribble the air out of the ball and play north and south to attack, instead of ball reversible by dribbling.
After the game I reviewed the importance of possession and possessions - getting the ball, limiting turnovers, creating opportunities, and forcing opponents into low quality shots.
Military operations project a desired "end state," the successful operational conclusion. But they succeed via 'intermediate stages'. For example, in transition defense, intermediate steps include conversion, sprinting, ball awareness, basket protection, and shaping up (geometrically).
Operational success (what went well?) needs more implementation and repetition. Need areas (rebounding) encouraged reminders about d-boards (position and toughness) and o-boards (anticipation and aggressiveness).
Were there any enduring lessons from today? I told the players the story of Coach John Wooden and his father's mule. Wooden yelled at the mule and pushed it but it wouldn't budge. His father, Joshua, went over and whispered in the mule's ear and she responded. Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote, "everything seems stupid when it fails." The lesson is that you don't always get more by yelling more.
One of our inbounds plays against the 2-3 zone created repeated easy shots but few hoops. We could have easily scored another eight points on this alone.
Great gym today at Peabody High School.