Thursday, August 2, 2018

Basketball: Lessons from 1972 Still Play...Rise Up



Performance starts at about 2:22. 

We hear about misguided youth, less about guided youth. Source your players and bring them to life like Shaw in Pygmalion. Collaborate. 


Chicken chasing. Frank MacDougall. I spent a lot of time chicken chasing Frank dribbling around practice. Coach was making me quicker. Hans Zimmer discusses the actor "inhabiting the character." The player inhabits the role - scorer, rebounder, playmaker, rim protector, stopper. Chicken chasing wasn't much fun. But winning was. 

 Chicken chasing is random practice, not block practice. Dribble tag and capture the flag work, too. 

"PESTilence." Be a pest. Get under the skin of your opponent. Be hard to play against. Your play speaks. 

Everyone's a critic, a skeptic, a philistine. Prove yourself through your decisions and execution. Players need to find conviction in themselves and their play. 

 "I'm pleased but I'm not satisfied." We heard this a lot. Complacency is stagnation. Winning isn't enough; bring your best. Show what you can do; combine aggressiveness and play under control.  


"Who are those guys?" Be relentless. Successful teams have a conceit or arrogance born of effort. They have no quit. Know your process and legitimize yourself. 

 "Find the fire in your eyes." Nothing replaces internal motivation. Energize yourself AND your teammates. If you can find enough 'guys' who want to win as much as the coach does, you'll have something. 

Use the strengths of your team to inform extraordinary play. 



 The playing, not the notes, defines the sound. 
We had no tradition. So what. "What's the scaffolding for your architecture?" Chris Oliver's podcast advised, ABC, "always build culture." Culture and character allow you to RISE UP. 

Lagniappe 1.

 Villanova uses roll-and-replace to open both the roller and the relocated post. Imitators abound...via Chris Oliver. 

Lagniappe 2. "No dancing." Shoulders, hips, ball get separation. 
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