Tough losses leave indelible lessons. What imprints memories? Emotion. Love our losses; they stick with us.
Decisions Determine Destiny
- About a third of NBA games are decided by six or fewer points.
- In our youth games, about half were.
- A two possession swing often defines victories and defeat.
- Games are won and lost in the first minute and the last.
- Each end-of-quarter is an opportunity for a six point swing.
Excerpt from Reddit on NBA margin-of-victory from four years ago. Those brief notes didn't feel "made to stick."
In March 2010, Melrose looked to avenge an EMASS final 2006 defeat to Oliver Ames in the Boston Garden. Melrose held an eight point lead, 15-7 with the ball and twenty-five seconds left in the first frame. They took an early shot with about ten seconds left and the Lady Tigers responded with a three-pointer at the buzzer and a hoop to open the second quarter. A possible double digit lead evaporated to three in thirty seconds. Oliver Ames ultimately claimed victory.
The Lexington girls hadn't beaten Melrose in...forever. On the opening two possessions, Melrose didn't block out and Lexington scored a pair of put backs to lead 4-0. Melrose didn't score on the final possession of the contest and Lexington escaped with a single-point victory.
"Possession and possessions" decide basketball games. Get the ball and do something good with it. Paraphrasing Pete Newell, "more and better possessions." The pair of learning stories share indelible memories of execution gone wrong. Learn to play longer and harder than our opponent to earn the right to win. Possession by possession.
Which brings us back to "learning notes" or "learning stories." The New Zealand Education Hub informs the merits of learning notes:
Strengths of learning notes
• Ease of use The thinking behind learning notes is one that teachers naturally follow when working with and observing children, often in an informal way.
• Speed Learning notes provide a more immediate form of assessment, as the note form makes them relatively quick to produce. This means that the assessment is recorded relatively soon after the event, making a delay between writing up and analyzing the event less likely, and so plans for following up the learning event can be quickly implemented. Teachers may be able to complete several learning notes for each child per week.
• Enabling additional interpretations Because initial observations are (ideally) written without interpretation, they can be shared with families and colleagues to gain further interpretations. It can be harder to facilitate this when the teacher’s interpretation is interwoven into the account of an event, as with a narrative form of assessment. However, more detail in the ‘describe’ section will be required to gain rich and varied interpretations from non-observers.
Homer Simpson says informs his choice:
Lagniappe: Watch film every day and take away positives. Davidson offense
Coach Pyper links to his Coach's Breakdown within and explains the core actions
- Spacing with rim running and filled corners
- Early trailer options
- Off-ball screening leading to a lot of three-point shots. Some are "flexish."
- Sharpshooting is a priority in their system.
Even though we don't have the talent, we can learn from the concepts.
Lagniappe 2: Excerpt from Seth Godin
If Harper Lee had written To Kill a Mockingbird today, there’s no doubt that the salesforce and the marketers would have pushed for a catchier title, probably with better SEO (search engine optimization).
What would happen if instead of taking elements out of our work in order to make the product cheaper, we put things in instead? What if we made it better?
It’s tempting to race to the bottom. The problem is that you might win, and then you’ll have to stay there.
Linkbait is a trap, because it brings you attention you actually don’t want.
What would happen if you made something important, breathtaking or wonderful? The race to the top is not only more satisfying, it’s also more likely to work, (with) work you’re proud of, without excuses.