Remember. Better practice helps information retrieval. Turn theory into practice. That's part of the message from Doug Lemov's The Coach's Guide to Teaching.
1. 'Working memory' has limited capacity.
2. Overload degrades performance.
3. Aim for simplicity and clarity to achieve learning not memorization.
"Every student is important."
Lemov says, "You have to prove that you can make them better and that you're vested in making them better."
Believing that problem solving is generally applicable is a canard. Solving a basketball problem won't teach us to fix cars because most problem solving is domain specific.
"You can't make the right decision unless you're looking at the right things (perception)." For example, great hitters are reading arm angle and hip motion of the pitcher. They have 0.4 seconds for the pitch to arrive and it requires 0.6 seconds to generate a conscious thought. Unconscious information impacts perception.
"Expertise is finding the signal amidst the noise."
Experienced players know to attack the front hand/front foot. Nobody taught us that fifty years ago but middle schoolers get that teaching today.
For example, at the front of the 2-2-1 trap, our job was to deny the middle, forcing to the side to set up a trap. When the trap goes to the other side, deny the middle.
- Multiple exposures. Tell them; tell them again; tell them you told them.
- Spaced repetition. We learn material better over time versus "cramming" for a test.
- Self-testing. Ask yourself, "what's the enduring lesson?"
- Writing it down manually helps.
- Testing.
Coach Knight allegedly took a 'timeout' at practice and diagrammed a play. He then handed out paper and pencil and told players to diagram it. How would our players do? Disappointing.
Imagine we teach 'defending' a backscreen.
Regardless of our methods, some elements are common:
- Communication (Early, loud, often)
- CARE (concentration, anticipation, reaction, execution)
- Awareness
- Practice of specific technique ("this is how we do it.")
Coaches are passionate about domain-specific knowledge. If we teach something 'controversial' many coaches will turn us off.
Lagniappe. Video for trapping ball screens. Get everyone on the same page about when and how.
