Self-awareness centers Bill George’s “True North” compass.
He reminds us of the Greek wisdom, “know thyself.” Strengths, weaknesses, bias, blindspots, and other characteristics belong to each of us.
The first time I saw a patient taking a certain medicine, they were having a severe allergic reaction. I never prescribe it, although the reaction was rare. Same principle? Our high school team lost a sectional championship by doubling the post and not rotating.
Conversely during tryouts of young players, I’ll give the exceptional athlete a longer look, even when they lack skills. Most of us believe we can develop skills where marked athleticism is God given.
Feedback helps us become more self-aware. George explains how some leaders changed after being told coworkers didn’t trust them. Some never change and wonder why they’re out.
In Cleveland, Bill Belichick was viewed as an autocrat lacking emotional intelligence. As he begins his 47th season of NFL coaching, that view has softened.
George also explains that extreme (top 1%) intelligence can be an impediment to decision-making because geniuses think they can’t be wrong.
I don’t think I’m good at teaching rebounding but have enjoyed good rebounding teams. How? I’m good at selecting rebounders.
Therapist Nick Wignall shared ideas to improve self-awareness. Three concepts I believe in are mindfulness, feedback from trusted colleagues, and avoiding taking things personally (a soft skill to grow).
Ask ourselves how our behavior, words, or decisions make others feel. Put ourselves in their shoes and it helps us understand their feelings.
Our self-awareness impacts others every day and merits investment to improve.
Lagniappe (something extra). A TED Talk about motivated reasoning. Do we want our position to be adopted or to be truthful after careful study? Curiosity and openness help the latter.
This is relevant for our choice of players, techniques, and tactics (e.g. zone defense).
Out of struggle, often strength is born. From the crucible, many great leaders and players emerge. The crucible can appear as poverty, illness, death, divorce, prejudice, and more.
In “Leadership in Turbulent Times,” Doris Kearns Goodwin shares the struggles and triumphs of Lincoln, the Roosevelts, and Lyndon Johnson. Lincoln suffered family deaths and a lifetime of melancholy. Teddy Roosevelt’s wife and mother died almost simultaneously. FDR was paralyzed by polio or a polio-like illness. Johnson’s greatest legislative triumphs followed a massive heart attack.
Nelson Mandela overcame decades of South African imprisonment to lead his nation. Oprah Winfrey experienced childhood poverty and molestation and built a media empire from which she funded tens of millions of dollars of women’s empowerment.
The crucible emerges anywhere. UNC Women’s Soccer coach Anson Dorrance preaches the competitive cauldron in practice as the title-forming crucible.
The Bird-Thomas feud grew not from racism but a lack of appreciation that both overcame difficult circumstances and triumphed through hard work and perseverance. Hardscrabble upbringings are the backstory of many NBA stars.
In Netflix’s “The Playbook” Doc Rivers shared that going through the Donald Sterling debacle, he remembered his parents’ teaching, “Never allow yourself to be a victim.”
We may not get the support, resources, and position that we want. But we choose how to use what we have. Stacked newspapers with duct tape are makeshift jump boxes. Empty plastic milk containers filled with water substitute for cones. Body weight exercises replace exercise equipment.
Drills. Curry Dribbling Workout from Coach Castellaw…generally, I think many players dribble too much. Attack the basket, improve passing angles, get out of trouble, advance the ball, but don’t dribble the air out of the ball.
Set Play. From Chris Oliver… I call this ORBIT with curl action out of the Box set.
Lagniappe.
“Don’t whine. Don’t complain. Don’t make excuses.” - John Wooden
He added that things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out. Focus, energy, mental and physical preparation don’t guarantee success. But they free us from regret.
Walk into a gym on game day and soak up the ambience. Hear the pep band, the players sharing concerns, bouncing balls, and sometimes...nothing.
At practice expect to be greeted by upbeat talk, squeaking sneakers, and occasional whistles. Silence means problems.
Sound moves us. Chef Thomas Keller explains that the sizzle of pan-seared meat feeds back temperature and moisture. Sam Jackson shares that sound guys or lighting crew make or break your performance. Don't live on the wrong side of sound.
Tone matters. We exhort or throw shade at teams with "let's go" depending on the tone.
A visiting coach knows his team faces a challenge hearing defensive talk. Talk intimidates. Talk energizes. Talk alerts teams. "Silent teams lose."
The parents yelling "shoot" or "don't reach" aren't making their child better. A potentially severe injury brings sudden silence. At a local high school game not long ago, silence erupted as a first row fan had a cardiac arrest.
Coaches use crowd noise at practice to accustom teams to load arenas. Or music to energize the players.
The opposing coach starts abusing the referee in the opening moments. "Get in the game" or "how can you call that?" back to back in the first minute earned a "T." You don't have to use the mother of all cusswords to get tossed for an expletive reply.
Lagniappe. "Movement kills defenses."
Set up your cut. Cut urgently. Finish your cuts. The screener is the second cutter.
Jocko Willink's Extreme Ownershippresents timeless leadership lessons. Let's steal from them and apply to our basketball programs.
StoryShot #1: Leaders Have the Greatest Impact on a Team’s Performance
A team without a leader is not a team. Recall the old saying, "an army of asses led by a lion can defeat an army of lions led by an ass." Bill Belichick says, "no team can overcome bad coaching."
StoryShot #2: Actions Must Be Underpinned By Beliefs
What's our Why? We need motivation with reasons to compete and to execute. Teams need collective and collaborative beliefs. Erik Spoelstra's message to the Heat, "Be the toughest, nastiest, best-conditioned, most professional, least-liked team". I've told the girls many times, "Don't play for me. Play for the girls next to you."
StoryShot #3: Take Ownership of Your Team’s Mistakes
Be accountable. When people insist they are infallible their followers cannot trust them. Outcomes depend on both skill and luck; luck is a cruel mistress. Do not traffic in excuses.
StoryShot #4: Don’t Let Your Ego Influence You
"Ego is the enemy." Ego leads us to overestimate our capability and make less informed judgments. Overconfidence led General George Custer into a slaughter at Little Big Horn. A controlled ego helped General William Tecumseh Sherman march to the sea.
StoryShot #5: Identify Your High Priority Tasks
Be good at what we do a lot. No easy hoops - stop transition, compete in the half court defense (contain the ball, no middle), and excel at pick-and-roll defense. Get and keep everyone on the same page.
StoryShot #6: Support Every Team Member
Value everyone on the team and be a good teammate. We never know when a fully engaged teammate who works hard at practice will step up in the moment.
StoryShot #7: Simplify Concepts to Avoid Mistakes
Strive for simplicity and clarity. Offensively, our tenets follow from spacing, cutting, screening and passing. Defensively, everyone's goal is no easy baskets with at most one bad shot.
StoryShot #8: Provide Orders That Even Your Weakest Member Can Follow
The only 'bad' question is the one not asked. Give players safe spaces in a supportive culture.
StoryShot #9: Be Clear and Delegate
Provide an end state (vision) that team members understand and present "intermediate stages" that everyone can work toward. My coach preached "win this quarter" and I believe in "win this possession." What is our plan to wear down our opponent and to play longer and harder than they do?
StoryShot #10: Debrief After Every Plan
Our "After Action Review" examines successes, failures, and how we can improve going forward. We can make corrections using the "sandwich technique" of stating the correction between statements of praise and support.
StoryShot #11: The Essential Features of an Effective Plan
What's our process? Every action during every practice should advance the team narrative. Writers use the phrase, "Kill your darlings" about eliminating the fluff.
StoryShot #12: Leading Up
Erik Spoelstra says, "every team has a pecking order." The "chain of command" needs respect and trust. When factions and agendas exist, teams fall apart.
StoryShot #13: Leading Down
When times are tough, the team leader has to look in the mirror first. What more can I do? Communicate positively, clearly, and energetically.
StoryShot #14: Break Teams Down Into Smaller Teams
Most coaches work with position groups. That includes traditional grouping like guards and forwards, but situational groupings like pressure groups, comeback teams, and sometimes delay groups.
StoryShot #15: Do Not Let Fear Influence Your Decision-Making
In Frank Herbert's Dune, Paul Muad'dib steadies himself saying, "Fear is the mind-killer."
Learn to play to win; avoid playing not to lose.
Think back to excellent coaches from our past. What made them special? Were they more knowledgeable and task-oriented or was it their energy, communication, positivity, and trust on top of technical competence?
Lagniappe. All closeouts are not created equal.
Lagniappe 2. France SLOB via FastModel... zipper, reverse, sandwich screen
"Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers." - Harry Truman
Truman used the rhetorical technique of chiasmus to get his point across (A - B, B - A) which we'd learn in Mark Forsyth's The Elements of Eloquence. We remember JFK's inaugural address including, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
Rereading great books outweighs reading a dozen mediocre ones. Basketball leaders are readers - George Raveling, Gregg Popovich, Mike Neighbors, and Steve Kerr to name a few.
Lasting ideas, concepts, and quotes can arise anywhere. Some are dos, others don'ts. A book might share a couple of extraordinary ideas, like these from David Cottrell's Monday Morning Leadership.
"The main thing is the main thing."
"People don't quit jobs, they quit people."
Summer flies by but here are a few books that share a wealth of ideas.
Legacy. James Kerr's masterpiece analyzes the power behind the New Zealand All Blacks rugby dynasty. I've read it three times.
The Score Takes Care of Itself. Bill Walsh left behind more than a football legacy for the 49ers. The 49er Standard of Performance applied equally for players, coaches, the guys who striped the field or staff answering the phone. "How we do anything reflects how we do everything."
The Leadership Moment. Michael Useem teaches lessons starting in the introduction, asking four questions, "what went well, what went poorly, how can we do better next time, and what are the enduring lessons?" He profiles leaders who may not be well known but whose decisions changed lives.
Leadership in Turbulent Times. Doris Kearns Goodwin is one of America's greatest historians. She profiles the Roosevelts, Teddy and FDR, Abraham Lincoln, and Lyndon Johnson and how their personal struggles affected their leadership and our nation forever.
Benjamin Franklin. Walter Isaacson examines the life and times of Benjamin Franklin, scholar, author, founder, patriot, military leader, scientist. From the University of Pennsylvania to fire departments, Franklin was "The Man."
Vision of a Champion. Anson Dorrance's UNC soccer women have won over twenty NCAA titles. He shares his ideas about excellence, about the daily grind of the competitive cauldron and much more.
The Captain Class. Sam Walker looks at over a dozen athletes who changed teams forever. The ascent and decline of the team corresponded to the arrival and special influence of their leader. Many are not household names. Walker shares, "But what I discovered was that the great captains of these teams were not obvious people. They were rarely stars. They did the grunt work. They also had other surprising characteristics, like they embraced dissent and conflict inside their teams."
Extreme Ownership. Jocko Willink lead a Navy SEAL unit. He doesn't portray what his team did as just winning, but a hard slog to accountability with wins and tragic losses along the way.
Sapiens. Yuval Harari explores humankind from 70,000 B.C. to the present. How do civilizations rise and fall? Why have men dominated across societies? What defines empires and how many have coalesced to a few. Leaders require followers and the capacity to understand and connect with people is the story of humanity.
I anticipate the arrival of Bill George's True North today, which shares interviews with 125 leaders.
About a quarter of Americans never read a book. In the video at the top, Coach George Raveling shares that slave masters often hid money in books, because slaves were forbidden from learning to read. They had no reason to take books off the shelves. What's our excuse?
"Every day is player development day." Every coach wants better players. Help make them.
Here are "second chance points," player development video from recent posts. Develop repeatable actions that work for you. They are your edges. Think about these from billionaire investor Warren Buffett:
Rule 1. "Don't lose money."
Rule 2. "Never forget Rule 1."
And his partner Charlie Munger counsels, "It's easier to avoid stupidity than to be brilliant."
Write them down. Practice your portfolio of GO TO and COUNTER actions. Examples:
Shots off the catch from three levels. (Reminder, Don Kelbick's "Think shot first.")
Drive off the catch.
Actions off the dribble...
Shot fake and read...into shot, drive dominant or non-dominant direction.
Another benefit of developing your portfolio (against defense) follows, you gain defensive experience.
When your coach asks herself, "how has ___________ earned a spot on the team?" show obvious answers.
"I make everyone around me better."
"I've improved my athleticism."
"I'm a more explosive player."
"I SEE THE GAME better."
"I have multiple ways to score and produce better possessions."
"Nobody outworks me."
1. Hesitation dribble drill between the slots.
2. Separation moves off the dribble.
3. Villanova guards work on finishing, especially off two feet.
4. Reproducible shot pockets and pickups help accuracy. Work on pickups from a variety of moves. (Steph Curry emphasizes this in his MasterClass, too.)
5. Separation follows change of direction (even backwards) and change of pace.
6. Defensive excellence has multiple components including technique and effort.
7. Catching without a pivot foot can accelerate basket attack.
8. More on pickups and the value of versatility.
9. Advanced decision making. Deciding when to drive depends on skills, space, and reading what the help is doing.
“The first
stage of learning is silence, the second stage is listening.” - Legacy, James Kerr
Align habits and behaviors with our vision. If we see ourselves as lifestyle champions, how does that impact our exercise, diet, and sleep? Would a healthy person eat a poor diet and burn the midnight oil?
How do you see yourself as a player? What matters to YOU? And does that harmonize with what your coach seeks?
You see yourself as a point guard. What does that mean to you? I heard of a D1 guard who told his friends before the season, "It's about me getting to The League not about the team." I doubt he told his coach that.
As coaches, have hard conversations about expectations and roles.
Are you the floor leader, the link on both ends between the coach and the team?
Do you intend to involve everyone offensively or are you a score first player?
Are you committed to ball containment with on-ball pressure or save energy for offense?
Are you about winning or putting up numbers? (Scoreboard or scorebook?)
Are you a great teammate or the aloof wannabe star (Jamie Tartt)?
Are you economical with the dribble or do you get paid by the bounce?
Are you a student of the game or believer in OJT (on-the-job training)?
You explain that you're committed to lead, distribute, defend, and study the game...music to our ears. What habits facilitate those goals?
Leadership. Study leaders in sports and elsewhere. It's work. Leaders communicate, share, and serve (servant leadership). Write habits that leaders show. Think about reading great books about leadership like Legacy, The Score Takes Care of Itself, or Extreme Ownership. Do you have favorite positive or negative leadership stories? Simon Sinek explained that Nelson Mandela watched his father listen and wait until others had spoken first before sharing his opinions. In Extreme Ownership, Jocko Willink was accountable for an evolution that went south with allied deaths.
Passing. How will you improve your passing? Do you mean passing in transition, in pick-and-roll, feeding the post, drawing 2 and passing, reversing the ball? Develop the strength to zip your passes. Take care of the ball.
On ball defense. Are you quick enough to contain the ball? How is your conditioning? Do you play a lot of one-on-one? Are you taking intelligent risk looking for steals or getting out of position?
Studying the game. Whom and what do you study? Learn to watch film, look at how players and teams create or prevent separation. Do you see teams "shrink the court" by loading to the ball and dropping to the level of the ball? As you watch more, anticipate player movement and reaction. What would you do in that situation?
Bridge the gap between player and coach expectations. Find common ground and facilitate growth.
Lagniappe. In Made to Stick, the Heath Brothers profiled Floyd Lee, who managed the Pegasus Chow Hall in Iraq. Soldiers risked their lives to eat the superior quality food at his facility. He said, "I'm in charge of morale." His leadership speaks volumes.
Lagniappe 2. "Gets" with Chris Oliver and Alex Sarama...finding advantage.
Learn across disciplines. Survival trainer Jessie Krebs teaches the latest MasterClass. Survival tips transfer to basketball coaching. Guaranteed.
She describes "hard skills" (like signaling) and soft skills (mental toughness).
FIVE KEY SURVIVAL SKILLS
Signaling
Personal Protection
Sustenance (Water/Food)
Explore
Staying Alive
Signaling. Teaching teenagers to talk on the court should be a no-brainer. But it's one of the hardest parts of coaching. Shibboleths like "silent teams lose" or communicate "early, loud, and often" don't guarantee players talk. Get them in the habit during drills by calling out the help, screens, cutters, and so forth. Building habits is building teams.
Personal protection. In the wild, it includes proper clothing, foul weather gear, and shelters. For the individual, managing injury risk includes proper warmups (e.g. dynamic stretching), ankle maintenance (braces are better than tape), and heat awareness matter. I've written before, "There's a suggestion that mouthguards may prevent or reduce the severity of concussions. On balance, I think they make sense, even if the benefit is small."
Sustenance. Some of us grew up in the era of salt tablets and water deprivation. I don't blame the coaches then for the "water makes you weak" mentality. If you're doing it now, you're a troglodyte, a knuckle-dragger exposing players and yourself to risk. Cold water drinkers are able to exercise longer without as much rise in body temperature.
Sports nutritionist Brooke Schantz says, "Staying hydrated means you’ll have a lower heart rate and a lower body temperature. You won’t feel as tired and you’ll have better performance," says Schantz. To make sure you drink enough water, she suggests drinking a large glass (16 ounces) a couple of hours before you exercise, then a cup (8 ounces) about 10 or 20 minutes beforehand. While exercising, especially in the heat, stop for a sip at least every 15 or 20 minutes." Sweat more, drink more.
Exploration/navigation. Every court is different. What's the terrain? Are there asymmetrical boundaries (I've seen many players catch the ball out of bounds on unfamiliar courts), floor dead spots, and blind spots from lighting. I saw one opponent catch the ball out of bounds FIVE times on a neutral court. Know where the shot and game clock are. Situational awareness matters. A few possessions decide many games. Don't give them away.
Staying alive. Take care of our emotional and physical needs. We don't always know what's going on "behind the scenes." Coaches need to "manage the room" where invisible conflict destroys teams. How well do we oversee nutrition and rest, and know about minor illnesses and injuries? Teens should get eight hours of sleep nightly. It's no accident that Coach Wooden started seasons by reviewing how to put on socks. Nobody plays their best with blisters.
Paying attention to detail always counts.
Summary:
Teaching talk starts in practice.
Be aware of personal protection from stretching to ankles and mouth guards.
Hydrate with cold water.
Navigate. Courts are different. Be aware of conditions and boundaries.
"Athletic hygiene" includes adequate nutrition and sleep.
Lagniappe 2. Get the facts on COVID-19 in children. Children can and do get infected and spread the illness to others. On our high school team last year, four of twelve girls contracted COVID-19 and one was hospitalized. Here's CDC guidance on protection for yourself and others.
In our medical practice, we've had over 140 patients diagnosed with COVID-19, half a dozen deaths and numerous patients with long-haul symptoms (fatigue, cough or shortness of breath, poor concentration/brain fog).
The facts are that cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are rising again in the United States and worldwide. Data from New York Times today.
"Little things make big things happen." - John Wooden
"Do five more." Find five positive behaviors to insert into our day. Yours won't be the same as mine. A few come straight from the video.
1. Invest one minute on exercise when we wake up. It's only a minute but extend it.
2. Write down three gratitude items. Attitude is a choice; so is gratitude. It's also part of the PUSH-T mantra - purpose, unity, servant leadership, humility, and thankfulness. Building character is part of our mission.
3. Watch five minutes of basketball video. Player development tips transfer to our coaching, our players, and our bottom line (results). Pro Tip - most days you get a few minutes from this site.
4. Each day, ask "what does our team need now?" Follow with "how am I addressing that need?"
5. Find and deliver inspiration - a quote, a video, a personal message. Share a poem or a recipe. Sportscaster Robin Roberts says, "Change the way we think to change the way we feel."
Drill. Alabama finish, flip, fire. Excellent drills share offense, defense, decision-making, and often competition.
The corner driver can finish, flip to the 5, or fire to the corner 3.
Set play. Early offense starts in multiple ways - spread, pistol action, and others like Zeljko Obradovic's.
Obradovic's action sets up a wing isolation, weakside cutter, high ball screen, and a possible pair of corner 3s. Note the great spacing and importance of decision-making.
Charles Barkley asked on TNT, "what is your NBA skill?" Ask "what is our superpower," ability that gives us an edge.
We aren't stronger than a locomotive, as fast as the wind, or able to leap tall buildings. You can't slip my Medicare Card under my feet when I jump. But we have skills.
Linda Rottenberg, founder of Endeavor Global, said that it's less important to be Superhuman than it is to be human. She is one of many leaders profiled in Tribe of Mentors.
Learning is a superpower. Bowdoin Professor Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain helped spearhead victory at Gettysburg with the Battle of Little Round Top. Asked how he did it, he answered, "I know how to learn." Need suggestions for summer reading?
Our superpower isn't one quality but the sum.
SUPERPOWERS
Punctuality. "Gandhi was the most punctual man in India."
Kindness. Part of T-H-I-N-K - true, helpful, inspiring, necessary, kind.
Focus. Train our attention to see, hear, and learn. Mindfulness helps focus.
Curiosity. "Read. Read. Read. Read. Read." - Werner Herzog Walt Whitman reminds us, "Be curious not judgmental."
Imagination. "Imagination leads to innovation that leads to differentiation." - Bill Russell
Commitment. "Belichick's car was always the last to leave the parking lot."
Effort. In his MasterClass, LaVar Burton described the immutable law of the universe, "You gotta bring ass to whoop ass." Show up.
Preparation as process. "What are we doing today to advance our dreams?"
Choosing well. “Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.” - Jerzy Gregorek. Annie Duke adds, “Every decision failure is an opportunity to learn and adjust my strategy going forward.”
Winning habits. "We make our habits and our habits make us."
Connection. People remember how we make them feel.
Teamwork. Being a great teammate is a choice.
Always doing our best. Our best isn't the same every day. Sometimes it requires us to widen the distance between reaction and thoughtful response.
Summary:
Commit to becoming our better version.
Be positive.
Train our attention.
Read more.
Build better habits to make better choices.
People remember how we make them feel.
Always give our best.
Lagniappe. How do you decide when to drive? Where's the space and the help?
The research results revealed that applying an ice pack to a severe muscle injury resulting from eccentric contraction may prolong the time it takes to heal.
The cause of this phenomenon is that icing delays the arrival of pro-inflammatory macrophages, which are responsible for the phagocytosis (*5), or removal, of damaged tissue. Furthermore, this makes difficult for the macrophages to sufficiently infiltrate the damaged muscle cells.
These observations need confirmation in humans but may revolutionize the approach to treating acute muscle injury.
Lagniappe 3. Weird and maybe wonderful? "Greg Norman brushes his teeth standing on one leg, alternating each time. “It is great for your legs, core, and stabilization!”
"What idiot directed that scene?" - Ron Howard on self-assessment
Coaches seek challenges. Sometimes we get the bear and sometimes the bear gets us. Here are a few painful lessons where the tuition got paid in full. Bill Belichick says, "No team can overcome bad coaching."
1. "We're not ready." We had a new team (sixth graders), a couple of practices and got invited to play a more experienced team. Our girls had not played travel basketball. Our opponents came out in a spread (5 out option) and abused us with give-and-go and backdoor cuts. It was like high schoolers playing middle schoolers. We lost by at least 35 points.
We beat them the next season.
2. "The game honors toughness." We played a small and uber-aggressive team. Their constant in your face play and double teams flustered the girls, despite our superior size. You react or you respond. We didn't respond and lost by a point.
We played them a second time at home, working on ball movement and playing strong with the ball. We led 20-2 at the half. According to my wife, the opposing parents complained that we had new players.
3. "Take your lumps." We had won the "B" league the previous season (going 24-3) and moved up to the "A" division. A week before the season, we lost our big girl to a season-ending knee injury (the girl with double digit D1 offers). We went into the tank and won 3 games. The kids played hard but were out of our league.
4. "I'd do anything...but I won't do that." When I was assistant, we were losing by 17 at the half and the head coach asked me to take over. I changed the rotation, the tempo, and even went "offense defense subs" down the stretch, tying the game in the last minute. But the playing time was manifestly unfair. I put the girls who had played less in during overtime and we lost by two. I told them that we proved our point and that I wanted to be fair as much as I wanted to win.
5. "Never underestimate your opponent." We came out pressing and the extended defense was obviously a mistake, leading to a timeout down 6-0. We took off the press. Our opponents clearly had four of the top five players in the game. We got down by fifteen in the half. Although we battled back to within six in the second half, we couldn't overcome a bad start. I told the girls that my poor coaching put them into a deep hole.
6. "See things as they are." We struggled to contain the ball and I stubbornly persisted in playing 'man' defense. We lost a number of close games as on-ball defenders got beat, the help rotated, and middle school help the helper usually isn't great.
I still believe that individual assignment defense is the way to teach. Finally, late in the season we switched to a hybrid defense to compensate. Guards were to stop the three-point shot and interior defenders take away the basket.
As Kevin Eastman says, "Do it harder. Do it better. Change personnel. #$&%, it ain't working." We beat our arch-rival for the first time in the playoffs.
7. Basketball is not everything. One season, three-quarters through the season, we had a tragic illness in the basketball family. The girls focused on supporting each other off the court and fell apart on the court. I couldn't reach them. The whole experience was deflating but I appreciate how the girls took care of business off the court.
Lagniappe. "Repetitions make reputations." Make it simpler. Bring it closer and advance as you improve. "Every day is player development day."
Lagniappe 2. Everybody runs some screen-the-screener actions. I like to include at least one for teaching purposes.
Killer screen-the-screener BOB. Better if it's previously setup with simple backscreens.
3. Create advantage. We find edges with athleticism, conditioning, focus, skill, knowledge, toughness, teamwork.
Athleticism - individuals own strength and conditioning...own the jumprope
Conditioning - condition within drills, practice with high tempo
Focus - up our focus game with mindfulness; train ourselves to be here now
Skill - "every day is player development day" use competitive individual and small-group drills and track your personal best
Knowledge - read and watch video every day...be specific...ask "what am I doing today to improve?"
Toughness - "Do five more" five more reps, five more sprints, five more pages of reading, five more minutes of study
Teamwork is the "Third Wave" of growth after commitment and individual development
What's your story? What makes you different? Why should the audience care?
West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin explains that stories need intention and obstacle. You plan to lead a team from obscurity to a championship.
Consider Madeleine Blais, In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle. The Amherst Hurricanes have championship aspirations, but their star players couldn't coexist.
Take over a basketball program in a hockey town. You have no winning tradition, no feeder program, no allies. Or you're in 1950s Milan, Indiana (Hoosiers) and pilot a program among the smallest enrollments in the state. Live intention and obstacle.
Successful coaches craft style and substance to overcome obstacles.
Identify the obstacles. Recently I shared Sara Blakely's mantra of "Make it. Sell it. Build awareness." Some say, "everyone loves a winner" but at the outset, that's not you.
PROGRAM BUILDING OBSTACLES
Peers (Competing for resources, status)
Parents ("The Prime Directive" is My Child Comes First)
Programs (Competing for athletes)
Preps (Poachers)
Carl Pierson's book, The Politics of Coaching, covers barriers from peers (coaches conspiring against your program), to parents (protecting their child's interests), and programs (basketball competes against other sports and is losing to soccer, volleyball, and lacrosse). Preps and privates seek to poach your top players.
Shakespeare reminds coaches, "first above all, to thine own self be true."
Coaches should cultivate allies and beware "enemies." Decades ago in my hometown, a disgruntled parent whose child was cut went to great lengths seeking to fire the coach. His final argument to the community was that sports wasn't all about winning. The same community celebrated a State Championship football team just three years earlier, sending them to Bermuda. The coach became a New England Basketball Hall of Famer. I know of a story in Texas where a parent contributed $25,000 to a private school to dump the coach.
Sometimes it gets darker. "It only happens in soap operas."
Develop durable strategies to defeat barriers, to build relationships with influencers - program leadership, parents, the booster club, and local media. Reach out, listen, and be humble while selling your plan. Acknowledge that we will make mistakes, but do so while doing what we feel is best for the team.
Establish 'ground rules' for dialogue. Another excerpt from Carl Pierson:
No panaceas exist. Expecting rules to solve problems that exist because of limited minutes and parents' limitless love for their children is unrealistic. When we're fortunate, we get traction from our work and build the community's confidence over time. Faith and patience flank Coach Wooden's apex of the Pyramid of Success.
Summary:
Great stories share intention and obstacles.
Craft style and substance.
Identify the obstacles.
Cultivate allies and beware "enemies."
Build relationships with influencers.
No panaceas exist but have faith and patience.
Lagniappe. "Every day is player development day." Accelerate out of the catch.
Lagniappe 2. PAC Men. Great basketball minds (not me!) advocate for paint touches and ball reversal. This includes Canadian Kirby Schepp and Belgian Pascal Meurs who argues the Suns can turn it around with the Paint-Assisted Corner 3. It's worth a two minute read. An excerpt:"The Phoenix Suns ranked #4 in the NBA for attempts from the corner during the regular season. Furthermore, they averaged 9.2 corner attempts in the series against the Lakers, 10.3 versus the Nuggets and 8.7 vs the Clippers.
Over the two home wins in the Finals, they shot 12/21 from the corner.
But in the last three losses they combined for … 3/12. Four corner ball attempts a game is less than half of their average of the season (!!!)."
Michael Lombardi's Gridiron Genius reveals how masters see the game differently. Let's focus on one of Lombardi's masters, Bill Belichick.
Life has contradictions. Many want to be the best but few will sacrifice to get there. got him there and how can we emulate his best qualities?
I'll use quotes to illustrate the points.
1. Outwork the competition. "Belichick's car is always the last to leave the team parking lot."
2. Adopt great ideas. "He is not worried about where an idea comes from; he cares only about whether it makes the team better."
3. Be performance focused. "The best teams force players to prove their value. They don't give or save jobs on the basis of draft status."
4. Get your kind of guy. "In New England, Moss was a "program guy": someone who works hard, is a supportive teammate, and who cares deeply about winning." Lombardi called this football character.
5. Excel as a teacher. "Belichick is a teacher and believes strongly in the idea of "taking the lessons from the meeting room to the classroom to the field."
6. Be prepared to move on from players. "Belichick's open and transparent process at the beginning of each off-season helps remove personal biases so that the room can reach clean conclusions."
7. Learn how players think. "Off season review included detailed discussions about how to work with millennials: how to reach them and how to motivate them."
8. Grind the process of team building. "Needs change as injuries arise and skill levels evolve."
9. Maximize the sum of the parts. Belichick says, "It's not the strength of the individual players; it's the strength of how they function together."
10. Innovate from simplicity. "Belichick...declared that we would adopt the Skins model: core plays disguised with various looks and personnel groups to create confusion."
11. Be consistent on defense. "Take away what specific (opposing) players do best."
12. Automate. "He wants them doing, not wondering what to do. He wants them reacting not thinking." (Think about Malcolm Butler's interception against a play which they anticipated during Super Bowl practices.)
13. Get possession. "The best plan on defense is to keep the offense on the bench."
14. Communicate on defense. "Belichick always said that if you want to know how well a defense is working, just listen."
15. Prepare. "Belichick will be the first to tell you that experience is not preparation."
16. Every play matters. "Belichick's theme all week was that at this time of year an entire season can be lost on one play, and so players have to be prepared at every moment for every possibility."
17. Force the tempo. "Belichick reminds the coaches that ball security and third downs are critical and urges them to keep the tempo high in practice."
18. Win the situation. "That means red zone work, third-down situations, and Belichick's all-important "gotta have it" plays.
19. Translate preparation into play. "Practice execution becomes game reality."
20. Take care of the ball. "Teams that win the turnover battle win the game nearly 80 percent of the time.
Summary:
Outwork the competition
Be performance focused
Excel as a teacher
Learn how players think
Innovate from simplicity
Take away what the opponent wants to do most
Communicate on defense
Take care of the ball
Lagniappe. Defensive breakdown of Jrue Holiday. Anticipation, recovery, relentlessness, active hands.
Lagniappe 2. Introduction to game theory. How to be smart and how to be fair. Learn something new today.
Lagniappe 3. Inversion. Think about what you want to avoid.
"How would I ruin a team?"
Lack of talent (make selection political)
Lack of skill (ignore player development)
Lack of preparation (poor practice habits)
Lack of effort (either coaching or playing)
Lack of focus (not good at what we do a lot)
Lack of commitment (no passion for the game)
Lack of knowledge
Lack of teaching ability
Lack of judgment (doing the wrong things at the wrong time)
Lack of communication (no clarity on roles and responsibilities)
