Coaching begins with a philosophy. Communicate with players. Respect the game. Grow your knowledge. Decide where conventional wisdom belongs and disruption encroaches.
The audience can't define the game; exciting game play attracts an audience, trust, and loyalty.
What informs your core? In a developmental program, prioritize fundamentals, sharing the ball, getting and limiting quality shots. "Basketball isn't a running game; it's a sprinting game." Emphasize teamwork, improvement, and accountability to each other.
When do you disrupt? Some teams are all about winning. Limit roster size. Play the best players the most. Get them the most shots. Play zone defense. None are 'bad strategy' yet none are disruptive. It's a stretch to proclaim entrenched ideas about three-point shooting and defensive switching as disruptive. Disproportionate time devoted to small-sided games, a diversity of finishes, and defensive technique might be.
Developing original ideas is hard. It's far easier to repackage ideas or combine 'standard' ideas in different ways. Within our editorial decision-making, we lead and model leadership. Coaching "gorilla basketball" while constantly badgering the officials about calls isn't disruptive or leadership.
Maintain a catalog of ideas in a notebook, commonplace book, or spreadsheet. Refer back to those ideas to measure their validity and durability.
Explore the basketball world. Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour shares that we have to "make the wrong choice." You can't succumb to fear. Coach values and help players on their discovery of the broader world. Above all, we are learners and teachers.
It's worth remembering, that if we think that we're the smartest guy in the room, then we probably need to get out more.
Lagniappe: John Leonzo (@John_Leonzo) shares his newsletter including video and more.
Lagniappe 2: Another shooting drill for more advanced players, combines different shots with conditioning.
