In his MasterClass, Malcolm Gladwell shares a chapter on jargon, using an example of Kaplan-Meier curves that visually display medical treatment effects.
If the treatment works, the survival plot of treated patients (blue) separates above those not treated. The visual "punch line" leaves an impression on doctors (and patients).
We use jargon every day - naming offenses, defenses, drills, tactics, and techniques. With young players and with learning disabled players (dyslexia, ADD, other), jargon adds confusion. Beware.
Use jargon to up tempo and to get players into and out of actions during practice and games. For example, "specials" signals players to start our O-D-O (offense-defense-offense) segment of three possession scrimmages from BOBs, SLOBs, or free throws.
Our players should know and define "back door cut," a cut toward the ball, then away. But they don't all know face/front cut, UCLA cut, zipper cut, shuffle cut, Iverson cut, and so forth. They should, but it's not their top priority. They know nutmeg, through passes, chest traps, triangle passes and various soccer terms, because many are 'soccer first' athletes. Tant pis!
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski called defending the high pick-and-roll "fake trap," more descriptive and intuitive than hedge or show. Kudos. Of course, KNOW THAT and KNOW HOW aren't the same. How many times have we heard, "I know, I know" after failed execution?
"Camera" replaces "the ball is a camera," reminding players to move to open spots. "Wide" means run wide on the break, forcing defenses to cover more space. "Pinch" signals tight pressure when the dribbler has picked up the dribble. Yes, we need jargon.
We could call full court pressure "Annexation of Puerto Rico," red, X, 99, 14, donuts, use hand signals or color cards, or simply UP! Use jargon well but can excessive jargon. Make jargon work for us not on us.
Lagniappe: Road warriors?
Lagniappe 2: Quick reminders about road games:"Winning on the road against good teams as comes down to three controllables: free throws, turnovers & rebounding." — @Chris__Oliver— theLLaBB (@theLLaBB) February 12, 2013
1. Discover the 'lines' (court boundaries) and asymmetries. Players catch the ball out of bounds when they don't know the boundaries. We've saved many possessions this way. One or two possessions often defines success and failure.
2. Find the blind spots (bad lighting, dead spots on the floor)
3. Accept reality. The officiating won't be the same...five second calls come a little quicker and lack of hand discipline gets called more. I'm not asking officials for favors... just keep the kids safe (moving screens, wild elbows, dead legs, etc.). Girls can be brutal.
Lagniappe 3: Know the power of fortune cookies. In Tribe of Mentors, Tim Ferriss interviews Graphic Art maven Debbie Millman. She shares a fortune cookie message, "Avoid compulsively making things worse." Sometimes, hold your fire.