1. "Simplify and clarify."
- Get everyone on the same page. Share common language. For example, do you call your primary pick-and-roll defense HEDGE, SHOW, or FAKE TRAP? What kind of idiot calls it FAKE TRAP (Coach K)?
- We called a 2-1-2 zone "FIVE" because it looks like a die.
- Be "performance-focused, feedback-rich." Ask players to explain the what and why.
- Kevin Eastman counsels, "Know your NOs." (E.g. no middle, no dribble penetration, no uncontested shots)
2. "Fight for your culture every day." - Doc Rivers
- What's important to your culture? Specify. Collaborate, appreciate teammates. Don't ASSUME. Praise desired behaviors.
- TIA. Teamwork, improvement, accountability.
- "It's the scoreboard not the scorebook." Don't be a STAT HUN.
- This is who we are; that is not who we are. "Humble in victory, gracious in defeat."
- Help kids make memories.
- "We make our habits and our habits make us."
- Study the formation and maintenance of habits. "Atomic Habits" by James Clear.
- Consciously build your day.
- Commit to learning, reading, film study every day.
- Track your habits. "Winners are trackers." ("The Compound Effect")
- Ask players what book they are reading.
- Be opportunistic.
- Win this possession.
- A game is the sum of individual possessions.
- Use actions that are hard to defend...pick-and-roll, ball reversal, hard cutting.
- Can you play harder for longer than your opponent?
- Define as a team what we're going to excel at.
- Offensively, limit turnovers ("the ball is gold") and take good shots.
- Quality teams get more assists. "The quality of the pass relates to the quality of the shot."
- No easy baskets - define transition D responsibilities and clear PnR defensive technique. Better to have two good techniques than six bad ones.
- Teamwork (communication, ball, and player movement).
- The best players make everyone around them better.
- ROB shots - Range, Open, Balance. Nobody's good enough to overcome poor shot selection. Shot selection is the quickest path to immediate improvement. "Get 7s."
- I see summer video with players concerned mostly about their scoring not the team.
- "Don't play in the traffic."
- Break pressure with the goal of scoring off advantage.
- Make practice hard so games are easy.
- Practice advantage-disadvantage.
- Affords scrimmage opportunity and conditioning.
- Study great players. Mason Waters has great player breakdowns on YouTube
- Study great coaches. Billy Donovan's "95" - what are you doing the 95% of the time you don't have the ball?
- Devote part of every day to studying video (Watching is not study. Consider building each day's study around a theme.).
- Build a video clip library (e.g. with a spreadsheet on Google Drive). Share clips with players.
- "What does it feel like to play for me?"
- Relationships are always a priority.
- Everyone can choose to be a great teammate. Examples from Teammates Matter
- "Speaking Greatness" (Rod Olson). What we say and how we say it. "That's good but" is different than "That's good AND..."
- "Never be a child's last coach."
- Embrace your role because you can excel in your role and vice versa.
- Most players are complementary players in every league.
- "There is always a pecking order." - Eric Spoelstra
- Develop players for roles (they can expand their role from stopper, rebounder) during their development. A limited player may carve out minutes by excelling in that role (e.g. stopper).
Lagniappe: Via Radius Athletics (Rip Screen) via Leicester HS
Lagniappe 2: Celtics Ball Movement
What has Brown done for you lately?
What has Brown done for you lately?
Assists make everyone happy.
Lagniappe 3: Find the leader. Last summer we were playing a game and a group of boys was waiting to come on the court. They encroached onto the court and were dribbling basketballs during the game. I went over to one who "looked" like a leader. I asked him as LEADER OF HIS TEAM (politely) to get his teammates to respect the game and the girls. It worked that time.