― Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable
Coaches question your game every day. Supply winning answers. Do you realize that "it's showtime every day?" Santa knows who's been naughty and who's been nice.
What common answers do coaches seek? Validate your size, strength, athleticism, skill, basketball IQ, and resilience.
Learning to drive, you control the vehicle. And you detect hazards...cars around you, intersections, a child by the curb. Don't say, "that child won't run into the street." Anticipate that they will. Similarly, feel your defender, see the help and the helper. Without the ball, relocate to clear the help, move your defender (clear out), screen, cut to the basket or open spots. Constantly build your schema, your representation of what basketball is. You're always in the game mentally.
Basketball 101. What do you bring offensively and defensively one-on-one? Two-on-two? Three-on-three?
What tools do you bring to the shop? Have you achieved competence at elements of the Pierce Wing Series (above), box drills, or Jay Wright swing training?
What sums your vision, decisions, and execution of common scenarios?
1 reads - does x1 go over, under, or through the screen? Does x5 cheat too far allowing 5 to slip or a cutback dribble? Does x5 trap or hedge (fake trap)? If 1 gets a driving lane, does x3 rotate, stunt, or leave? Multiple actions raise many questions and coaches judge your decisions and accuracy.
Coaches judge your vision, skill, and will. Do you do whatever it takes or something less?
What's your attitude? Do you show up on time, fired up, and ready to go? Bring energy to the court and energize your teammates. Do you bring your best to each repetition or do you cheat the drill?
Athleticism manifests in footwork, balance, and maneuvering...the ability to create or deny separation. Coaches see everything.
Coaches seek premium effort. Do you bring your best to each repetition or do you cheat the drill? Are your mistakes from lack of focus or exceeding your comfort zone? What's your compete level?
Coaches assess your talent in ball skills (dribbling, shooting, passing, pivoting) and without (cutting, rebounding, defending). What is the quality of your decisions?
Respond rep by rep, drill by drill, possession to possession, in practice and games. You show intangibles interacting with coaches and teammates, through toughness, and whether you make those around you better. In Anson Dorrance's competitive cauldron commit to continual ascension. Hall of Famer John Stockton (2009) is famous for winning every sprint during practice.
Near the top of Coach Wooden's "Pyramid of Success", justify the FAITH and PATIENCE of your family and coaches. Your actions today determine your career tomorrow.
CAREER = TODAY + TODAY + TODAY....
Your answers have stakes - making the team, finding a role, expanding the role, earning trust of teammates and coaches...finishing games.
Lagniappe: "Throw and go."
"Outrun your pass" to get advantage on your defender."Throw & Go's" ft. the @BrooklynNets https://t.co/BpD57nFk1K— Radius Athletics (@RadiusAthletics) April 20, 2019
Lagniappe 2.
When a player invests time, effort, and money to develop her game, reward her with opportunity. "Burying" her bespeaks our unfairness. Our behaviors define us more than those we disenfranchise. When the player expands her palette, provide her more canvas. A seniority system, randomness, or favoritism destroys player agency.
Happy Easter!