Professionally, we often reach a plateau, which falls below peak performance.
"Surgical mastery is about familiarity and judgment." Quality hoop implies capable vision, decisions, and execution - VDE.
"Even Rafael Nadal has a coach."
"Walter Camp (Yale) established position coaches for individual player development...in those first three decades, it (Harvard) beat Yale only four times." Dark days indeed...
"Coaches are like editors." "Kill your darlings (the obsolete or unhelpful)."
"Dorothy DeLay (Juilliard instructor of Itzhak Perlman and others) saw her role as preparing them to make their way without her...DeLay taught them to try new and difficult things, to perform without fear...expanded their sense of possibility."
"Expertise is thought to be not a static condition." The goalpost of excellence moves.
"How much students learn is not class size or the extent of standardized testing but the quality of their teachers."
"Many teachers see no need for coaching." In many fields, practitioners do not want critiquing.
"Every teacher has something to work on. It could involve student behavior, or class preparation, or time management."
"Good coaches know how to break down performance into its critical individual components." Gregg Popovich reminds us, "technique beats tactics."
"Details create success."
"You have to work at what you're not good at."
"Good coaches were one hundred percent present in the conversation...listened more than they talked."
"Surgical performance begins well before the operation begins." (Echoes of Sun Tzu)
Gawande's mentor (Doctor Osteen) encouraged him to "get them (his students) to think."
"Good coaching fosters effective innovation and judgment."
"With a diploma, a few will achieve sustained mastery; with a good coach, many could."
"Talk about medical progress and people think about technology...what ultimately makes the difference is how well people use technology."
"Most surgery is done in your head...even expert practitioners have significant room for improvement." Basketball is 80 percent mental.
Lagniappe: Questions I regularly ask myself:
1) What does our team need now?
2) How well are we connected - offensively, defensively, personally?
3) Do we need more structure (or less)? I usually think less is better preparation and encourages more creativity.
Lagniappe 2: transition D is more than getting back
Bad teams jog back, in transition D; good teams run back and great teams sprint back. These bolting competitors are rapidly recovering, 2 back tip the dribbler, contain the ball, guard the 3 point line and protect the rim. Effort!— Gordon Chiesa (@gchiesaohmy) January 1, 2020
My favorite short meditation. Most people never take one mindful breath.
