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Monday, February 4, 2019

Basketball: Be a Sponge, 10 Dimensions

Hubris was a crime in ancient Athens. To humiliate a defeated foe was a crime.” - Rick Pitino, The One-Day Contract: How to Add Value to Every Minute of Your Life

How can the upstart, young player or coach, smooth the path to success? 

1. Priorities. Focus on becoming our better version, improving every day. 

2. Mindset. "Invest time don't spend it.

3. Culture and core values. Our core values are teamwork, improvement, and accountability. Players are accountable to each other. 


via @WindsorLRSD

4. Inversion. Use mental models. Charlie Munger's inversion examines the factors that will guarantee failure.  

5. Commitment. Commitment means not only discipline to do the work but also to stay the course

6. Mentoring. We derive experience and training from many around us. We share our experience with coworkers and trainees. Without leadership there is no team. Without followers there is no leadership



7. Curiosity. Innovators are curious. Leonardo was fascinated by the interplay of light and shadow (chiaroscuro), color, focus, perspective and more. His 'drapery' studies illustrate these principles. How are we exhibiting curiosity today? 

8. Organization. "Plan your trade. Trade your plan." Does everyone understand Commander's Intent? What should the 'end-state' look like and what intermediate stages are necessary to that achievement.



9. Lesson plans use learning principles like pomodoro (concentrated work in a defined time) and spaced repetition to reinforce learning.  

10. Reflect on progress and problems. Games remind us about problems and practice is the opportunity to correct them. Yesterday we continually dribbled into traps, struggled with awareness, violated spacing by "playing on the edges," didn't dominate 50-50 balls, and didn't get into early offense. Winning doesn't mean good basketball. Our first goal is playing well, allowing the score to take care of itself. 

I own the problems and we need to fix them together. 

Lagniappe: via @RadiusAthletics

Give yourself a chance to exploit dribble penetration and passing lanes. Simple principles make quality scoring chances a possibility.