A rock in the shoe is inevitable, unless you have no shoes. Coaching, teaching, or mentoring expose us to rocks.
CAPT Tom Walsh warned us if we strayed off course, "you're following a lit fuse." Players have endless ways to deposit rocks in our metaphorical shoes. Here are a few.
1. Academic troubles. "There is no ability without eligibility." Do the work. If you're smart enough to learn basketball, you're smart enough to learn geography. Cras is the Latin word for tomorrow. Don't proCRAStinate with your studies.
2. Substance abuse. "There's nothing else to do." Alcohol and drugs torpedo too many lives. Amidst a world of infinite knowledge, you won't convince me that getting high became the best option. They don't call it DOPE for nothing.
3. Deconditioning. Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut train by gorging on hot dogs. Other sports? Not so much. Serious athletes know that body maintenance is a year-round job.
4. Boys and girls. "If the Navy wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued you one." That's high school relationships for coaches. Develop healthy relationships but when you're on the court, be fully engaged with basketball.
5. Party animal instincts. Party animals combine the worst of the above - delay, distraction, sloth, sleeplessness, self-absorption. Thirst for greatness or THE LIFE?
6. Shot selection. I've seen many players who lived "my turn" or "personal shot clock" shots that often ended up as "shot turnovers." If I could write "HATE" on every Saharan grain of sand, it wouldn't be enough. STOP IT. There are no MY TURN shots. Years ago we had a freshman take NINE threes in her first varsity game, making ONE. After the game, the team reeducated her about her role.
7. Paid by the dribble. "Are you getting paid by the dribble?" Reductionist teaching states, "if you can't do it in two dribbles, then you can't do it." You're not James Harden. "Good players need two dribbles, excellent players need one. Elite players don't have to dribble." Dribble with a purpose.
8. Bakers. Turnovers turn coaches prematurely gray. Bad teams give games away with poor decisions and failed execution. The airline industry has a global reporting system to reduce error. NASA oversees the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) that confidentially reports near misses and latent problems. Basketball teams need their own ASRS. I report Marcus Smart's calf injury as early warning for the Celtics' decline. "Other industries who have modeled similar systems on the ASRS include the rail, medical, firefighters, and off-shore petroleum production."
9. Buddy running. Sprint back in transition. "Shape up" until the defense is set. Establish position while alert. See the ball, head on a swivel. The star 'ran' back and the pass whistled past her ear to her assignment who laid it in. An 'easy' steal turned into two for the opponent because our girl couldn't turn her head around.
10. Complacency. Aesop knew complacency. The rabbit sped around the course but got complacent and napped. The tortoise chugged along and won the race. If you're going to keep all your eggs in one basket, watch that basket. Win every possession.
Live a life of achievement not of grievance.
Lagniappe. Muscles are dumb. There is no 'muscle memory' only depositing myelin in the brain to increase the speed and accuracy of nerve transmission.
Nobody gets to the rim one hundred percent of the time.
Lagniappe 2. "Be great in your role."