Fast Five: Coaching -Teaching Our Players Better Study Habits

Help players buy in to learning as lifestyle. A quarter of Americans don't read books. Between volleyball and basketball, my daughters' senior year, their teams went 47-2, but that was secondary. All six seniors on the basketball team were Honor students, including the valedictorian and the salutatorian. 

Education changes behavior. Help players perform their best on and off the court. Win in the classroom. 

1. Use better technique. Take the Coursera.org "Learning How to Learn" course. Almost 2 million students have taken the course, emphasizing study techniques. This free course requires more than ten hours, more appropriate during academic breaks or summer. It includes concepts like the Pomodoro Technique, self-testing, and spaced repetition. 

Another part of technique is learning "how to read." But I already know how! Read this summary of How to Read a Book (Mortimer Adler). Analytical reading mimics the Feynman Technique - name, define, research, distill. Syntopical (comparative) reading is harder but rewarding. Here's an excerpt:

• Finding the Relevant Passages — You need to find the right books and then the passages that are most relevant to filling your needs. 
• Bringing the Author to Terms — Identify the keywords and how they are used. Restate them.
• Getting the Questions Clear — Focus on the questions that you want answered. 
• Defining the Issues - Understanding multiple perspectives within an issue helps you form an intelligent opinion.
• Analyzing the Discussion - Our answer is the conflict of opposing answers.

Consider The Merchant of Venice and its best known passages: 

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. 
(Antonio, Act 1 Scene 3)

If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? 

(Shylock, Act 3 Scene 1)

The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: 
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. 
(Portia, Act 4 Scene 1)

Shakespeare shares his insights about human nature. 

Farnam Street shares my favorite article on reading. "If I were a Dr., I’d prescribe books. They can be just as powerful as drugs." Prescribe better reading. 

2. Train your mind with Mindfulness. Mindfulness builds attention (in students as young as elementary age), improves grades, teacher satisfaction, and standardized test scores. Free mindfulness lessons are available online. The book Search Inside Yourself provides proof of concept. 

3. Tell better stories. Chip and Dan Heath wrote the book, Made to Stick. Stories help us teach better and learn better. The Heath brothers recommend an acronym "SUCCESs" to formulate the narrative.

S - Simple
U - Unexpected
C - Concrete
C - Credible
E - Emotional
S - Stories 

4. Prioritize academics. Make academics a priority. Read, read, read, read, read. All coaches teach players to play hard, play together, and play smart. Smart teams play better. Smart teams know their WHY. 

5. Win the morning routine. Make habit work for you. My morning routine includes:



- MasterClass (20-30 minutes)
- Writing (including this blog)
- Reading (20-30 minutes)
- Professional study (New England Journal of Medicine online review course)
- Mindfulness (5-10 minutes) 

Lagniappe: We'll devote about ten minutes to the Villanova GET 50 Series...realistically, it may be more 50 shots than 50 makes. We'll see if the stations work. 

Mikan
Reverse Mikan
Flips
Bradleys
1-2 jumpers 

Here's my plan with four baskets - 

Stuff you can use today:
1) Pomodoro technique
2) Mindfulness 
3) SUCCESs acronym in your narratives
4) Better reading
5) "Get 50"