Thursday, March 14, 2019

Basketball: Surviving "The Life Parts" of the Game and Triple Lagniappe

Pete Carril writes in The Smart Take from the Strong, "When you teach basketball, it has its technical parts and its life parts." 

Coaches and players deal with humanity within the game. Humanity expresses itself as joy and anger, energy and fatigue, elation and frustration, sacrifice and selfishness, clutch and choking. 

We don't choose what happens; we choose our response. Don't allow frustration from missed shots to translate into sulking or doubling down into an immediate stupid foul. Don't let an officiating call become "halfhearted" disengaged defense. 

Coaches succeed by convincing players to play not by games or quarters but by competing possession by possession

Coaches understand that player relationships with each other, friends, and family affect effort and performance. A 'serious' student who gets a poor test grade can lose focus during practice or games. Take the pulse of individual players and the team. When we ignore the life parts of the game, the technical parts suffer. 


Lagniappe: Chris Oliver shows how teams use horns to slip. 
I teach the post player to be aware of the defender getting her shoulder in front of yours. 

Lagniappe 2: Various Horns actions from BBallImmersion




Sample from above, handback around. 

Lagniappe 3: Tips from Stephen Curry on Pregame professional preparation
- Adequate rest
- Stretching
- Nutrition
- Film study
- Pregame practice routine
- He has a two-ball and one-ball dribbling routine and a form shooting routine

"Hard work calms nerves." 
"Approach every game the same."