Friday, June 28, 2019

Basketball: Dilute Less to Do More

Operate like a candidate runs a campaign. Focus on the main things and avoid dilution by peripheral issues. Organizations flourish at the intersection of performance and perception. Both need to fly together. 

 Establish your three main ideas (not saying mine are the best). 

 1. "Get more and better shots than our opponent." - Pete Newell
2. NO EASY BASKETS through transition defense, denying penetration, limiting second shots, and hand discipline to reduce fouling. 
3. Make your teammates better.

 Make less more. Do fewer things and do them well. 

 Keep pounding home the core ideas. 
Spread your mantra via email, a logo, and messages.

Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan prioritized PEOPLE, STRATEGY, and OPERATIONS in Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. "Without execution, the breakthrough thinking breaks down, learning adds no value, people don’t meet their stretch goals, and the revolution stops dead in its tracks. What you get is a change for the worse, because failure drains the energy from your organization."
PEOPLE. Players play, coaches coach. As Jim Collins wrote in Good to Great, get the right people in the right seats on the bus. We owe players a culture where they can become better people. 

 STRATEGY. Our principal strategy prioritizes fundamentals and individual development. Technique over tactics. Embrace the paradox of individual achievement leveraged to team excellence.
Forced shots aren't exclusive to youth and high school basketball. Shot quality is choice and can't be "my turn" shots. Every locker room deserves Jay Bilas' "It's not your shot, it's our shot" rule. 

 OPERATIONS. Examine everything we do (athletic training, skill building, team practice, mindfulness, core teaching, film study). Ask "is it making us better?" Keep what works and cut what doesn't. At the youth level, we don't practice zone defense and seldom (BOB defense initially) play zone defense. 



Find balance. Everything can't be green-lighted or deep-sixed. And everyone needs to understand the concepts and be on the same page (see video above). 

 Lagniappe: from Coach Chris Oliver @BBallImmersion
1. Question everything.
2. Do the research. 

Lagniappe 2: Coach Castellaw teaches mechanics to increase range. 
Note his emphasis on triple extension (loading) to generate power and maintain the integrity of mechanics. 
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