Do we practice what we preach? Soft skills matter.
Dad used to say, "you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar." Praise the praiseworthy. When execution suffers despite high effort, then praise effort while working on execution.
In The Legacy Builder, Rod Olson calls it Speaking Greatness. Coach John Wooden used the "sandwich technique" by inserting correction in between praise. In Up The Organization, Robert Townsend reminds executives, "Thanks is the cheapest form of compensation."
Successful relationships require a high positive to negative ratio. There is a magic ratio.
"Successful intimate relationships have a balance between positive and negative feelings and actions between partners. According to relationship researcher John Gottman, the magic ratio is 5 to 1. What does this mean? This means that for every one negative feeling or interaction between partners, there must be five positive feelings or interactions. Stable and happy couples share more positive feelings and actions than negative ones."
I call it "watering the flowers." The inverse means that failing to water them causes them to wither and die.
Communication happens in subtle ways on the court. The player rolling her eyes at the official or throwing her hands up after a call or non-call isn't doing herself or her team any favors. When you ignore an open teammate, fail to call out screens, or don't rotate to stop penetration when ball containment is lost, you say the game is AAU (all about you)."
Bigs stop running when they sprint down court and don't get fed.
Point to your teammate when they make a great play. Thank the passer for the assist. Be the first to get to your teammate when they take a charge or get knocked down.
Water the flowers.
Lagniappe (something extra). "Box Top Fake" extracted from SLOBs that Work from Basketball Immersion
Who were they learning from?
— Ball Don't Stop (@balldontstop) October 18, 2021
The true master of this thing. The one who perfected every spot on the floor through reps. The details and angles. Every hooper was locked in when Kobe was teaching em, because they saw basketball perfection in him.
🎥 @alexbazzell, thebookofkobe pic.twitter.com/PYgH6a5OGc