You all know the success "adages."
"Success is a choice." - Rick Pitino
Success means making everyone around you better...teaching, inspiring, tweaking, leading, counseling, supporting. People have different needs at different times.
What's your primary basketball job? Make the team better. Imagine you were the 12th player. Show me how you're making the team better. You're engaged, on time, in shape, practice hard, compete, know the team philosophy, and work to fulfill the program identity and culture. If you can't 'buy in', should you bug out?
Success is bringing energy, energizing teammates, and having an edge to execute every day.
We've had five to seven players at our three practices (we got an extra session) this week.
Create progress. Last night we had four hoops, five players, and two coaches, so there was a lot of individual attention. In "elbow to elbow" the player shoots and goes to the opposite elbow for another quick catch and shoot. Track everything. In less than five minutes, the player gets over fifty shots. When my daughters played in high school, I'd expect them to make at least eight out of ten...and they expected to do so. You can't shoot forty percent in practice and expect to be a fifty percent shooter in games. The youngster I worked with last night was consistently making at least six, which is progress for twelves. But better technique - quicker release, consistency of release point and follow-through was short-term success. Later, she made two consecutive three-pointers from the corner...I don't remember seeing her make one before.
Success means attention to detail...and repetition.
For over twenty minutes, we worked against the side of the zone...ball movement, screening the top or bottom, penetrate and pass, understanding and making the types of shots available. At the beginning, the girls weren't scoring very often...but by the end, they improved a lot. But it's unrealistic to expect huge carryover, with only five players available during school vacation. Celebrate small wins.
What are our values and vision? Create opportunity for everyone to play at some level of high school. "Control what you can control." You control ACE - attitude, choices, and effort. You differentiate yourself with exceptional attitude, choices, and effort.
Mental model - Inversion. What will destroy us? Don't fall victims to the success killers of sloth (laziness), selfishness, and softness.
Fight to impact the world around you every day.
Lagniappe: simple actions against the 2-3 zone (Pass Behind, Crossbow)
Misdirect and pass behind.
Screening can work remarkably well, but don't expect a layup every time.