Helps players establish important from unimportant. Important impacts winning. Successful coaches add value teaching players to SEE THE GAME and EXECUTE. Bill Belichick is famous for teaching professionals that everything is important.
Performance depends on skill, health and rest, and emotional state.. They sum to execution as operations (strategy and tactics). Other intangibles like teamwork, communication, effort, and luck factor in.
Some say that boys have to play well to feel good about themselves and girls have to feel good about themselves to play well. How do we measure that?
How would we rank important?
Big Picture Important Factors
- Players/Skill - the Porsche theme - "there is no substitute." That includes depth. Answer: devote more time to skill development.
- Effort - high motor teams can defeat 'better' teams less committed Answer: reward effort to encourage effort
- Coaching - coaching encompasses many areas - detail, development, leadership, motivation, organization, preparation, psychology, and strategy. Answer: constantly refine our coaching "kill your darlings"
- Collaboration - the sum of having everyone on the same page, teamwork, and communication. Answer: Player-driven leadership is a plus.
- Culture is the team environment. We hear the saying, "culture eats strategy for breakfast." Great culture is hard to find in isolation. The Eloi had great culture but the Morlocks were the winners in The Time Machine. Answer: Prioritize the Basketball Experience
- Community support helps. "Victory has a thousand fathers but defeat is an orphan." Answer: "If you build it they will come." Winning beats gimmicks.
Important Details
- With less experienced players, shrink the amount of "important" to unburden them.
- Contain the ball. Never leave the basics (see the Villanova videos below). When guys can't pressure and stay in front of the ball, it forces help and recovery and often creates layups, kick out threes, and fouls. The first things players learn defensively are stance and positioning, ball-you-basket and ball-you-man.
- Space. Ironically, the rise of the three has encouraged spacing. We call the three-point line the spacing line.
- Value the ball. Turnovers are 0% shots and "mistakes bleed into defense" allowing higher points per possession.
- Shot quality is the quickest path to improvement. My coach deplored '$hit shots'; there's never been a better term. It got our attention, Old School or not. The term wasn't profane; the shots were.
- Foul discipline. Don't foul jump shots. Don't put opponents at the line early. BUT sometimes you need fouls as part of clock management, so there's a balance. "Show your hands" lets officials know that we're focused on discipline. Kevin Sivils' term, "Foul for profit" is timeless.
Lagniappe. A little confusing with the D-Man mannequin but the points matter.
Lagniappe 2. ATO, Carolina Slip
Lagniappe 3. Video study, Villanova - Houston.
Vintage Villanova with penetration, jumpstop and pivot into a lay-in.
Whiteboard time. Write: "I will not lose ball containment because bad things happen."
"See both." Villanova gets caught 'ball watching' and the penalty is two for Houston.
"Basketball is a game of separation...and deception." Dribble separation with a great crossover. "Technique beats tactics."