Downstream "outcomes" are only as good as the design. Recently, I shared the recipe (design) from Joanne Chang's legendary chocolate chip cookies. Great design with multiple types of sugar (brown/granulated), flour (all-purpose/bread), and chocolate (semi-sweet/milk) leads to great taste.
Bill Nye explains that design leads to procurement and fabrication (assembly and cooking). The marketing ("someday these cookies will be famous") turned out to be truth.
What about basketball? What builds our pyramid?
Design. Do we play a certain style and fit the players to it? Or do we adjust our philosophy based on personnel? What are our core beliefs?
- Basketball is a game of passing and cutting.
- "Every day is player development day."
- Find your way to wear down opponents.
- Attention to detail separates winners from lessons in close games.
- Excel at special situations (BOBs, SLOBs, ATOs).
- Defense dies without ball containment.
- Turnovers kill dreams.
- Athletic explosion separates winners from wannabes.
Procurement. If we can't recruit, we still impact our future.
- Offseason training impacts the athleticism, skill, and cohesiveness of our players.
- Strong programs often have vertical integration between youth programs and high school.
- If we're slow to "recruit" in our city, opportunists will grab our best players.
Fabrication. "Practice. You're talking about practice."
- Does a drill translate directly to game success? (e.g. shell drill)
- Condition within drills.
- Use constraints to mimic game situations.
- Solid teams apply and defeat pressure.
- Prepare for close and late situations every day.
- Winners have winning (atomic) habits.
What about the results?
In medical studies, the 'punch line' is often the Kaplan Meier survival curve. We want to see the that the new 'treatment' group (e.g. Group 1) has better survival, 2) early effect, and 3) durability. The curve 'separation' is impressive but incomplete as it doesn't show cost, side effects, or quality of life.
While "a foolish consistency may be the hobgoblin of little minds," excellent players and teams are consistent in their preparation and results.
Lagniappe.
Enjoy enriching the lives of those around us. Make others better.
Lagniappe 2. In middle school, we can't make the initial pass (or many threes) but it's still good design.