"Sometimes you can't see what's staring you in the face." - Endeavour Morse, Endeavour, Season 7, Episode 1.
Smithsonianmag.com
In The Power of Moments, by Chip and Dan Heath, the authors encourage us to make EPIC memories and moments:
- Elevation
- Pride
- Insight
- Connection
Chapter five is called "Trip Over the Truth." It's about seeing the obvious. They start by explaining CLTS (community led total sanitation), stopping open defecation in the developing world. A facilitator asks a series of questions, revealing the community practice of open defecation. In each culture, the facilitator doesn't use euphemisms, but the local word for "shit." They ask do you see flies on "shit" and do you see flies on your food? The locals quickly grasp that they are eating each other's shit.
In Bangladesh, they reduced open defecation from 34 percent to 1 percent. And that decreases diseases transmitted by the "fecal-oral" route, like cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, and diarrheal illnesses.
What does that have to do with basketball? Simply, we lose games, we give away games, failing to correct the obvious truth. Coaches are "keepers of the truth." We are the canaries in the mine.
Help players get a "keen sense of the obvious" embracing Charlie Munger's wisdom. "Avoiding stupidity is far easier than achieving brilliance."
TWO POSSESSIONS decide about a third of our games. This corresponds to Brad Stevens saying that a few possessions separate good from bad defense.
The Heaths ask how much of your current syllabus will advance your students toward the dreams you have for them? What belongs, what must we add and what should we delete? Say it, repeat it, and say it again.
1. Shot selection. A high school parent told me of a game this season where he counted fifty percent of the shots did not even hit the rim. Not swishes. Airballs. Yes, skill was a factor and sometimes the shot clock, but many players don't see that they can't shoot. Opponents do. Pete Carril famously said, "non-shooters are always open."
Dean Smith sometimes held practices where scoring was by quality of shot, e.g. from 2 for a layup, 0 for a contested outside shot, and minus points for a turnover.
Every player should know what a good shot is for her teammates and herself. If you're making twenty percent of threes in practice, do you think you'll make thirty percent in games? I won't show a team a video of nothing but airballs, but I'll give them the stats. I saw an opposing player go 0 for 8 on threes with four airballs in a half. Bad day or bad shooter?
My high school coach pulled no punches, calling them "shit shots." Shot charts don't lie. Video is the truth machine.
2. Turnovers. "If charity means giving, I give it to you" according to Roddy McDowall in Camelot. Stop giving the ball away. Over and over, we heard, "The ball is gold." Track the turnovers attributable to technique and decisions and reduce them. Turnovers are one of Dean Oliver's "The Four Factors" that separate victory from defeat. All coaches know that. Many players do not. How many times can I watch NBA players catch the ball out of bounds? How many illegal screens where a player sticks his butt out to screen?
3. Free throws. I saw a high school game lost by a single point, hardly unusual. But the losers shot 20 for 45 from the stripe. Local basketball guru Tom Hellen said, "teams that can't shoot free throws last as long in the playoffs as dogs that chase cars." Practice competitive free throw shooting daily.
4. Fouling. Outstanding coach "Kevin Sivils" says, "foul for profit." Never foul a jump shot. Never, ever foul a three-point shot. Don't foul our opponent's bad shots, like running hooks against the grain. "She couldn't make that in a month of Sundays" but you'll give her free throws? As a parent, what's worse than seeing your child get two fouls in two minutes and sit for the half?
5. Fifty-fifty balls. There's no such thing. It's our ball. Block out or "hit and get" the rebound. "Get on the floor." I will never ask a player to do anything that I didn't do as a player. We coach skill; you own effort. Your mindset becomes it's our ball.
"The game is about possessions (having the ball) and possession (what you do with it."
Trip over the truth.
Lagniappe. Gibson Pyper shares his 5-out motion concepts.
Lagniappe 2. But always remember, "technique beats tactics." Constantly refine technique. Basketball is a game of SEPARATION.