Saturday, April 9, 2022

"Dropping Our Tools" - History, the Kitchen, and Basketball - Invaluable Lessons

History is our teacher. Thinking out of the box wins. Amidst tragedy, heroes arise. Unconventional action and dropping tools saved Wagner Dodge.


In cooking and in basketball, we collect 'tools' to refine or to execute skills. Two of my favorite kitchen tools are the ricer and the offset spatula. 

The ricer refines boiled potatoes into fine strands which are easily mashed with butter and milk or cream into potato puree, more delectable than mashed potatoes. 

The offset spatula has a myriad of uses ranging from turning meats or fish, to icing cakes, and serving dessert. 

Neither are necessary to find your way around the kitchen, but both help our execution.

In basketball, we have a myriad of tools (e.g. drills) that we justify because we grew up with them or because 'other guys' do them. I won't go all Brian McCormick on anybody, but we know Coach McCormick well for his 'Fake Fundamentals' series. This review makes salient points. 

Here's the Table of Contents from "Fake Fundamentals"

We can drop any number of 'traditional actions' from our practices and still produce excellent basketball players. 

When designing individual or team practice, assess the direct impact on winning. 

  • Does the action condition the player(s)? 
  • Does it foster competition? 
  • Does it help player vision and decision-making?
  • Does it build skill? 
  • Does it help players understand spacing and defending space? 
  • Does it help with player or ball movement to create separation? 
  • Does it improve finishing under pressure or contestedness?
  • Does it make practice harder to make games easier? 

For example, a shooting drill like "Beat the Pro" ("Bill Bradley") creates internal competition because you have to make 11 shots before missing 4. In the 'easy' format, to "win" you have to shoot 11/14 (78.5%). The hard way demands making 15 before missing twice. Accept that in games with defense, fatigue, and pressure, results will decline. 

"Spurs shooting" is another drill we used (4 baskets, 4 groups). 


Everyone has favorite words, phrases, famous quotations, drills, likes, and dislikes. Ask whether the commonplace actions that we use to teach and train players impact winning. If they don't, stop sacrificing efficiency and precious gym and practice time. "Kill your darlings."

Lagniappe. Steph Curry spends a lot of time on pickups off dribbles - either hand and from different dribbles, between the legs, behind the back, etc. Coach Hanlen shares his ideas.

 

Lagniappe 2. Xs and Os. 35 FIST, Elbow Get action. 


Lagniappe 3. The "meat" of this action is the off-ball pindown and not so great defense. 














 

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