I recently began Herbie Hancock's MasterClass on Jazz. I know next to nothing about jazz, but I know that jazz musicians communicate with their instruments.
In basketball, we hold many types of conversations - player to player, player to coach, coach to coach. Conversations take many forms and subjects, verbal and non-verbal, role and minutes, instruction, correction, discipline, and more. Some conversations are informal and easy, others quite hard. When the coach doesn't play you, she's having a hard conversation with you. It may not be fair or right, but it's a message.
When players roll their eyes, look away or down, or give the 'hangdog' look, they send attitude, readiness, and resilience messages. Do you want this dog in your fight?
Empower our players when appropriate. Find the magic words. "I believe in you."
Plan hard conversations. Kevin Eastman emphasizes TRUTH in his first chapter on words in Why the Best Are the Best...telling the truth, taking the truth, and living the truth. Players need to hear the truth about role changes, minutes, and expectations.
Improve our conversations during every aspect of practice and games. Be precise and detail-oriented with clarity and simplicity. Basketball demands efficient use of time and space.
Timeout as conversation. Take a "timeout" during practice and simulate a game timeout. Use the whiteboard; then ask players to repeat your commander's intent. When they can't execute in practice, they won't execute during games.
Drill as conversation. We have a "layup" drill that builds a conversation.
The drill progresses through a ball screen drive, screen and pass to roller, slip the screen, and handoff options. Add defenders to make the layup drill more game realistic.
Lagniappe: (via Radius Athletics)
Diagonal advance pass. We're young. We can't execute this pass.