― Frankenstein
We make monsters. How?
1. Promote a culture of lifelong learning. Teach players to be curious about their world. Learn healthier choices - nutrition, sleep, and relationships. Learn how to learn (metacognition), learn leadership, and learn to tell memorable stories. Build a library of stories.
Action: Carve out protected time for daily study of basketball and general knowledge.
2. Model excellence. Show players "atomic" habits, clarity, and simplicity. "How does it feel to be coached by me?"
Action: Achievers are readers. Find out what players are reading.
3. Have a process worth trusting. Don't reinvent the wheel.
- Share Coach Wooden's "Pyramid of Success."
- Distribute Jay Bilas' "Toughness" list. "The game honors toughness."
- Distill lists into more palatable chunks. For example, Wooden's Pyramid has Enthusiasm and Industriousness as the cornerstones. Ask players what that means.
Action: Be a BLOCKhead. Study the Pyramid. Bottom right corner of the Pyramid. "Nothing great is ever accomplished without enthusiasm."
4. "Water the flowers." Help committed players develop at the intersection of athleticism, skill, game understanding, and mental strength. Players have no obligation to work hard, but "the magic is in the work."
Action: No gym, no problem...body weight exercises.
5. Collect small-sided games (SSGs). SSGs simulate game actions, benefiting players with more touches, and develop 1 v 1, 2 v 2, and 3 v 3 actions.
Action: review small-sided games.
6. Expose the players to analytics. How much is a shot worth? A player turned down an open three point shot and the parent yelled to shoot. The player was shooting 1 for 19 on the season from three.
7. Improve focus and study.
- One team didn't know the set plays. The coach informed them he would issue a test and only players who passed would be eligible to start. They learned.
- Mindfulness improves brain density (by MRI) in learning and memory centers. That also translated to improved focus measured in elementary schoolers.
- Coach Knight took "timeouts" in practice to diagram and then test players on their knowledge of the play.
Action: Practice a short mindfulness exercise, "lion mind."
8. Be positive and praise the praiseworthy.
Showing up on time isn't praiseworthy. Excellence demands UNREQUIRED WORK. Set high expectations.
Action: Dream big. Visualize your goal and work for it. What's your TODAY PLAN?
Action: "Basketball is sharing." Steal ideas every day. "Good artists borrow; great artists steal." - Picasso
10.Coaches need Mira Nair's "soul of a poet and skin of an element." There will always be critics.
Consider the story of Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton in John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage.
Action: Develop a thicker skin using the lessons of history.
