The "To Don't" List, "Be Like Mike," How Less Is More Plus Shooting Tips and Drill

(Tom Peters explains.) 

Sport is a microcosm of life. Go beyond the Pareto Principle (80/20) where we get eighty percent of production from twenty percent of the work. Adopt the TO DON'T list, shed the non-productive dreck in our lives. 

Each of us knows the time-wasting, brain-draining schmutz we can do without - Online Scrabble, Candy Crush, or whatever... 

Replace it with family time, 'thinking time', reading, or anything valuable. Maybe we know it by other names:

• Buffett's "25-5 Rule" (Focus on five most important things not twenty-five).
• Dan Pink's "Do Five More" (five more calls, five more sprints, five more pages)
• "Do well what you do a lot." 
• Choose two things at which our team will excel. (?shot selection, turnovers)
• "Think shot first." (Don Kelbick)
• Marie Kondo philosophy "Tidy Up"
• Hollywood, "Kill your darlings."

The logical reply, "what did you do after writing this?" I removed fifteen apps from my phone, including one completely nonproductive game. I kept Scrabble. That's a first pass, a good start on low-hanging fruit. 

What are the basketball equivalents - drills, plays, strategies to consider? 

I digress but Mike Allen had a great comment about the proliferation of bad basketball in youth and high school, pandemic-related or otherwise:

If a farmer has depleted soil, replacing shovels with tractors won't fix the soil. Then there's the old joke about the farmer losing $50 a hog but "making it up on volume." The "TO DON'T" list trades tactics for technique, skill development.

Brian McCormick has his "Fake Fundamentals" series of books suggesting we revise practice to eliminate "three man weave" and other historic drills and reduce block practice for random practice. I find conventional layup lines in that same vein. 

UCONN layup drills (run by alternating to either side)

Random practice includes dribble tag, capture the flag, and small-sided games. 

Skilled coaches who strongly believe in systems, "read and react", "dribble drive motion," "Princeton" and so forth, may overwhelm players who lack the skill to execute ANY offense. Many young players lack skill and judgment. "We can't run what we can't run." 

But you argue (correctly)that situations arise requiring tactics. Last night, tie score, SLOB just over halfcourt, 2.2 seconds left coming out of a timeout. Time for a catch and shoot. What might I have chosen? 

It's low probability because of the time, space, and demand for a long, accurate pass and a tough shot. 

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. But skill development is the precursor to all execution.

Summary: 

• Make a TO DON'T list
• The list applies to life, business, and basketball
• Check the follow-through on your list 
• Simplify
• "Tidy up"
• Reduce tactics in favor of techniques
• Skill is the precursor to all execution
• Tactical advantage will still matter

Lagniappe (something extra). 

A mark of an open mind is being more committed to your curiosity than to your convictions.

The goal of learning is not to shield old views against new facts. It's to revise old views to incorporate new facts.

Ideas are possibilities to explore, not certainties to defend.

— Adam Grant (@AdamMGrant) January 22, 2022

Lagniappe 2. Take tips from shooting professionals. 

Watch film or cellphone video of your shot. 

Cecilia is a promising 6'1" sophomore with extended range (brief clip)

The "37 Point Thriller" is a drill Cecilia used. Track your best. As I recall, the first time she did this drill, she scored 19, great for a 13 year-old. 

Lagniappe 3. The ZEN of Compensation. Dan Pink discusses compensation in his work "Drive." Critical factors include:

• Internal and External Fairness (What Going On and The Grass is Greener)
• Pay More Than Average

What's that got to do with basketball? Compensation in youth and high school ball are MINUTES, ROLES, and RECOGNITION. We can only play five; we pay Pietra less (time, shots, media) to pay Paola more. I've coached girls and there's always some drama, whether we know it or not. And know that either the players or the families are tracking it. 

Address the elephant in the room.

• "This is how to earn more playing time." 
• Geno Auriemma asks the team, "in crunch time, who do you want to take the shot that decides the game? Then who? And next? Eventually he gets to a player and says, "I would let YOU take it, but your teammates DON'T want you to." 
• When meeting the media, give credit to reserves, not just players filling up the boxscore. That's paying more than average (credit). 

Lagniappe 4. Jokic before Jokic (Sabonis)