Instill the Love of Learning, Plus a Drill, Set Play, and Video

Change lives. Making players better isn't enough. Inspire, teach, network, solve problems. Coaches indifferent to learning neither excel nor endure. 

Take players where they can't go alone, ensuring player academic accountability. If you're smart enough to learn basketball, you're smart enough to learn history or science.

Pete Carril wrote, "the smart take from the strong." Brad Stevens noted that he never had a great defensive player without academic excellence. Bob Knight said the mental aspect was eighty percent of the game. 

Model excellence. 

Read. I'm reading "Noise" by Danny Kahneman and others, "59 Lessons" from Dr. Fergus Connolly, and "100 Ways to Improve Your Writing" by Gary Provost. Kevin Eastman reads two hours a day and Director Werner Herzog's students read "The Peregrine" by J. Baker. An excerpt:

“Approach him across open ground with a steady unfaltering movement. Let your shape grow in size but do not alter its outline. Never hide yourself unless concealment is complete. Be alone. Shun the furtive oddity of man, cringe from the hostile eyes of farms. Learn to fear. To share fear is the greatest bond of all. The hunter must become the thing he hunts.”

Study better. Teach players to study well with advice from Coursera's "Learn How to Learn." 

• Share the Pomodoro Technique, 25 minutes on, 5 minutes off.
• Space repetition...cramming doesn't lead to retention. Divide study among multiple sessions.
• Self-test. After reading or study, ask "what were the key ideas and supporting information?" 

Write better. Hemingway said, "Writing is easy. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."

Think and communicate more clearly. Here are a few keys from Samuel Thomas Davies, who cites 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing. 

1. "Take a Class." Study every day. I watch and listen to MasterClass daily. Experts share their process and insight. Immerse ourselves in a firehose of ideas and soak in the best. 

2. "Keep a journal." Whether you keep a "peripheral brain," a small notebook to store ideas or questions, a "commonplace book" (remember Don Meyer's notebooks), or write a blog (my preference), write ideas down. "Blogger" allows me to store and search ideas. 

3. "Steal." Picasso said, "good artists borrow; great artists steal." Don't plagiarize but take concepts and make them yours. Don't take credit for others' work, but unearth great ideas from everyone we meet. 

4. "Use strong verbs." As children, we read, "see Spot run." We didn't read, "see Spot walk quickly." Empower our prose. Take Stephen King's advice to avoid adverbs. I avoid very, really, truly. Forget, "she's really good." She leads. She stars. She overwhelms. 

5. "Cut unnecessary words." In Hollywood, they say, "kill your darlings." Comedians thrive by "shaving syllables." "We went to the store" becomes "we shopped." "Attack the basket" or "get quality shots." Pass the ball and  score the ball become pass and score. 

Lessons translate. Brian McCormick preaches efficiency, "no lines, no laps, no lectures..." using parallel construction.  

Nothing great arises without enthusiasm. Love learning and inform energy, unselfishness, and time. Phil Jackson said it best, "basketball is sharing." 

Lagniappe (something extra). 

Drill. 

Set play. Zipper Swing and Seal

Video. Repeating an older one...because I like it.