Key question: "who are the people we are spending the most time with? They play a part in
how we think, work, how we motivate ourselves and what kind of attitude we bring
everyday.
- Choose people who tell you the truth.
- Choose a circle that is small and tight knit: be careful who you let in.
- Choose people who are wise.
- Choose people who will look at for your future, not just their future.
- Choose people who know what objectives you wish to reach how to best reach them.
- Choose people who will help you, not just take from you.
- Choose people who can inspire and impact your life, not just influence your life.
- Choose people “who know the no’s” of success (no entitlement, no selfishness, no
character mistakes).
Circles should not be based on friendship alone, but also on respect and trust."
Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett emphasize expertise, broad knowledge, the "Circle of competence." Function within your circle while building it through reading and study.
Have an "inner circle" of trusted advisers, e.g. the John Calipari Personal Board of directors. Surround ourselves with great people, not those who will make us look good by comparison.
Avoid the vicious circle of making mistakes and compounding them. Remember the priority when in a hole, stop digging.
Unsuccessful people struggle, "running around in circles."
When we're losing we "circle the drain." Hope is not a plan.
Success means project completion. Dot the i's and cross the t's. "Close the circle."
Life often has a pendulum between extremes, an oscillation among possibilities and politics. Successful programs decline and new blood may resuscitate them to "come full circle."
Reevaluate. Is our product or service good enough? "Circle around" means doing the hard work, the challenge of self-assessment. Is our skill, strategy, physicality, psychology going to make us contenders or pretenders?
Lagniappe. How do you handle pressure? As a team, pressure invites back cuts and screens. But Coach Tony shares tips on handling pressure with from triple threat and with the dribble.
Saying something's "really good" means little. Coaches invest a lot of time figuring out how to win a few more games by being better than good.
What separates excellent teams from others? How much is skill? How many are soft skills?
Excellent teams:
Excellent teams compete. They play harder for longer. That doesn't mean running up the score against bad teams.
Excellent teams get and stay on the same page.
Excellent teams show physical and mental toughness. They are "first to the floor" and do the dirty work.
Excellent teams are Churchillian. They fight you end to end, on offense, on defense, and on conversion. They fight with skill and will and do not quit.
Excellent teams do not give games away through lack of focus, lack of effort, or lack of ball security (turnovers). Remember Bob Woodward's Washington Post 'sign' FAA - focus and act aggressively
Excellent teams apply more skill, but know skill alone is not enough.
Excellent teams know and take good shots.
Excellent teams willingly share the ball.
Excellent teams win at home, on the road, and at neutral sites.
Excellent teams sacrifice via shared vision, shared suffering, and shared achievement. They care for and about each other.
Excellent teams are coachable, able to transform "Commander's Intent" into stepwise progress into a winning "end state."
Excellent teams can beat other excellent teams. They don't buy 'hype'.
Excellent teams use tempo, time and situation to their advantage.
Excellent teams are resilient, capable of overcoming adversity.
Excellence is hard. And it takes way more than words.
"Dorrance’s vision challenges us to recalibrate the reality of what really makes a champion a champion. It validates that champions aren’t who they are because they win. That actually, in fact, just the opposite is true. Champions win because of who they are. Champions are committed. They are driven and self-disciplined and willing to push themselves to the point of exhaustion, even when no one is watching and long before they ever set foot on a podium, hoist a trophy, or cut down a net."
These points that stood out to me:
- seek "continual ascension"
- find players who are warriors
- the "competitive cauldron" reveals the best player
- Dorrance prefers to show women only "positive video"
- Some girls/women avoid leadership to avoid "being seen as a bitch"... embrace leadership don't run from it
Coaches cannot read minds. Speak up. Don't let others dictate our belief, work ethic, and self-worth.
Know what you want and go for it. Be 'professional' and seek specifics. Ask for help. You'll get advice but not hand holding.
from The Four Agreements
What do I need to improve?
What specific drills or activities should I work on?
How can I help the team?
What can I do to impact winning?
What can I do to earn more minutes?
Seek recommendations in the context of SSPP (skill, strategy, physicality, psychology). Be ready for hard questions and have answers. Don't try to learn everything, but continually ascend.
Shooting off the catch, off the dribble, off the side dribble, off fakes.
Attacking off the jab, off reverse pivots, from the wing, in the post (if applicable).
Attack off the dribble - hesi, negative step, float dribble, hard cross.
Developing athletic explosion to attack and to contain the ball
Developing pick-and-roll offense and defense (play 2-on-2)
As coaches, avoid sarcasm, negativity, and teaching learned helplessness. Coaches who bury players on the bench and abuse them psychologically say nothing about the player and everything about themselves. The hardworking player may not earn playing time but deserves dignity and respect.
Boost positive possession-enders (rebounds, scores, steals, and stops) and lessen negatives (bad shots, bad decisions, turnovers).
Activities.
Play 1-on-1 to develop separate and finish moves (see Kobe video).
Play good competition and small-sided games (2-on-2, 3-on-3) to build skill with more touches than 5-on-5.
Working out with a teammate or friend builds confidence and camaraderie.
Find a mentor. Oscar Wilde had a wonderful quote, "friends stab you in the front." Embrace their honest criticism.
Find a role. As a young player, I listened when coaches told me defense would get me on the floor and better offensive skills would keep me there.
Help the team.
"Everyone can't be a great player; everyone can be a great teammate."
Be a star in your role.
Be the best practice player you can be.
Encourage your team.
"Sweep the sheds..." leave the gym better than you found it.
Small-sided games get players more touches and shots.
Sometimes more minutes and bigger role won't happen. It's not always in your control. Positivity, energy, commitment, hard work and maturity in the face of adversity earns the respect of teammates.
Key points:
Coaches can't read minds.
Ask for help.
Ask how to help the team.
Anticipate questions players will ask.
Emphasize "possession enders."
Star in your role.
Lagniappe. Players, study the variety of attacks that Kobe has off the jab against elite athletes with size.
Lagniappe 2. Imagine the possibilities. Nobody has the full 'bag', the dizzying array of separating and finishing moves. Find a handful of tools for your toolbox.
"Leaders make leaders." How? Model what leaders do and share leadership lessons with players.
1. Listen. Nelson Mandela learned from his father, who heard others speak first so he could give a more nuanced, thoughtful response.
2. Make the hard choices. Abraham Lincoln knew that a nation divided could not stand. He chose to issue the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, although the Civil War had begun in April 1861 with the attack on Fort Sumter. Hard choices for coaches usually resolve personnel and behavior issues more than ideology.
3. Put people ahead of money. Merck CEO Roy Vagelos released millions of doses of ivermectin to treat onchocerciasis, a parasitic illness causing blindness in millions of Africans. Vagelos withstood pressure from shareholders, many who opposed a "giveaway." Years later, Japan rewarded Merck by opening their pharmaceutical markets. Let's face it, at higher levels of basketball, it's about the Benjamins.
4. Do the work. Players know competence, communication, and capacity to add value. Productive practice schedules and drills, and clear offensive and defensive plans model a success framework. As illustrated in books like Extreme Leadership, clear "Commander's Intent" gives players a plan for intermediate steps and desired end state.
5. Own your vision. The Miami Heat have a clear culture of excellence, "Be the toughest, nastiest, best-conditioned, most professional, least-liked team." Have a clear philosophy and blueprint for teaching it.
6. Be inclusive. Treat everyone fairly, which doesn't mean treating everyone identically. Reserve players deserve respect, communication, encouragement, and chances to improve.
7. Craft leadership opportunities. You don't have to be an upperclassman, a captain, or star player to lead. Jack Clark says, "We say that the definition of leadership is the ability to make those around you better and more productive. It’s a skill to us...On this team, the leadership model is open to everybody. For instance, even if you’re a freshman, you have the ability to make those around you better and more productive: Don’t be a distraction, be on time, know your stuff, play hard and well when you’re called on."
Vary players leading drills and consider having them give brief discussions (e.g. 2 minutes) on a topic, e.g. pick-and-roll defense. Help them through it.
8. Be solution focused. Finding problems isn't our goal. Find solutions that translate into game results - skill, strategy, athleticism, and the 'head game'.
9. Stay positive. "Negative attitudes never lead to positive lives." Attitude is contagious.
10."Invert, always invert." Ask players for opposites of leadership.
Selfishness. Putting self before team with low effort, failure to pass, poor shot selection.
Lack of toughness. Failure to go to the floor, fight through screens, block out, take charges.
Being a bad teammate. Whining, sulking, not supporting others, and bigfooting younger players all lack leadership.
Making excuses. Hold ourselves and players to high standards.
Bonus. Team reading. Share excellent books as team reading. Explore lessons chapter by chapter.
"Legacy" by James Kerr
"Toughness" by Jay Bilas
"The Art of War" by Sun Tzu
"Leadership in Turbulent Times" (advanced) by Doris Kearns Goodwin
"The Leadership Moment" (advanced) by Michael Useem
"Extreme Ownership" (advanced) by Jocko Willink
Leadership lessons shared with proteges keep us alive forever.
Lagniappe. "Every day is player development day."
Coach Hanlen breaks the John Wall Scissor Step move for lethal separation.
Lagniappe 2. Take it "bird by bird." “Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he'd had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”
"Saying the right thing" doesn't just mean political correctness. Let's examine words and tone.
Managing expectations. In 1967, new Red Sox manager Dick Williams said, "we'll win more than we lose." He managed the team not expectations. The perennial bottom feeders made it to game seven of the World Series. Don't preach to the church of "Our Lady of Perpetual Rebuilding." Overdeliver without underpromising.
Truth. Be media friendly without prostrating ourselves. Former NBA coach Kevin Eastman says, "‘The truth needs three things: number one, you got to live it. Number two, you got to be able to tell it. And number three, you got to be able to take it.'" Players have a BS detector.
Chain of command. We can express similar messages in different ways. Do we choose deference, "I have full confidence in the front office" or dismissiveness, "that's way above my pay grade?" Tone can determine our future.
"Always do your best." One of The Four Agreements, "Always do your best" includes not figuratively throwing a player under the bus. That goes extra for young players with fragile egos.
Oscar Wilde Things. "Friends stab you in the front." No one knows what goes on behind close doors. Publicly, a player may front, "We have a great team" versus privately going up the back stairs to the front office looking to influence the roster.
Leave it on the field. Some players do everything and anything to get on the field. Ronnie Lott had a finger amputated to play in an NFC Championship. Later he said, "We are losing the compassionate side of sports. We're becoming gladiators. If I ever become a coach, I hope I never lose sight of the fact that players are people." Others experience the "Randy Johnson" effect, begging out with a sore ankle against a Hall of Fame southpaw.
"We're playing really well." Good teams take care of the basketball. Good teams contain the ball. Good teams allow few easy baskets. Good teams communicate. Good teams learn to win on the road and beat other good teams.
Perfectly wrong. When leaders err, take ownership. Claiming infallibility in the face of imperfection loses credibility. We make flawed decisions on personnel, strategy, and development.
Walk the walk. Talking about being a good teammate differs from being a good teammate. Good teammates bring energy, positivity, and elevation to teammates. In Teammates Matter, Alan Williams shares how his Wake Forest teammates came to watch him tryout to reclaim his 'walk-on' position.
Lagniappe. You may have heard the expression, "Don't HAVE TO, GET TO."
I ran into a player the other day and gave her a dog-eared copy of Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, to help her write better.
Our job is helping people become their best version. Here's an excerpt from Bird by Bird:
“For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.”
Playing uphill? When you must have a basket, have some go to stuff for man, zone, BOB, SLOB, and ATO. Rely on concepts not absolutes.
Sure, consider who gets the shot, when, and where. And have the 'guy' to get the ball inbounds, safely, balancing timeliness and patience.
Man. Simple is powerful. Do we want spread, horns, another set? Show something we've shown during the game or unleash the Kraken?
Spread PnR with a slip is powerful.
Zone. The most common zone is 2-3. If the action is good enough for Jim Boeheim, it's good.
Ball and player movement kill defense, distort zones. Create mismatches and/or area overloads and rely on synergy between the high and low guys.
BOB. You probably have several choices with different actions from the same formation or the same action from different ones. A lot of stuff works against man.
Make the defense choose and take the best option left. Regardless of the play, it's about execution in the end. Skill.
SLOB. Don't ask the inbounder to make an unlikely pass. Middle school children seldom complete NBA passes. Simple, timely passes can get a great look and/or foul.
"Zipper action" initiates many of our sideline out-of-bounds plays.
ATO. Horns backscreen "Nurse" with options
Multiple options depending on defense and personnel.
Lagniappe. Shooting practice variability is the point. Not to be overly critical but some of the self-tosses didn't help variability.
Lagniappe 2. Sherlock Holmes masters study of the obvious. Small clues bring great conclusions. Conan Doyle's writing inspires.
Lagniappe 3. From a summary of Simon Sinek's Start with Why. I'm here to share, which demands I read, study, and learn. Nobody bests Father Time which explains my shift to the keyboard from the court.
"Why: Veryfew people or companies can clearly articulate why they do what they do. This isn’t about running a profitable company—that’s a result. Why is all about your purpose. Why does your company exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care?"
Cling to your job like the Lone Ranger holds onto a runaway train. How can I save myself? "Good judgment comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgment." Study decisions.
What works? Ask why. What isn't working? Ask why.
Failure strikes at any point from start to finish. I wanted to introduce run and jump as an extended defense. Introduction came with breakdown actions. We didn't get it, part of our "ball containment" problem. Abandoned.
When transition defense fails, why?
Lack of clarity about floor balance
Lack of numbers back (3 or 2 to the glass?)
Ball not stopped/slowed
Buddy running...offense not beaten to half court
Not fully engaged...get back with alertness
Pick-and-roll defense failure
Is everyone on the same page?
Is the communication ELO - early, loud, often?
Is there pressure on the ball?
Is the coverage working (e.g. show, switch)?
Is the protection trusted?
Half-court offense failure
Poor initial spacing
Lack of urgent cutting
Lack of unselfish, timely, and accurate passing
Poor shot selection
Low skill shooters
Actions must serve results. Track your results. How did we do with spread, horns, sets? Did zone or man defense work better? Did extended defenses help us or our opponents? If we can't defend the ball and space, then extending the defense probably won't work. If we have exceptional athletes who hound the ball and react on the pass, a lot of defenses will work.
Kevin Eastman advises:
Do it harder.
Do it better.
Change personnel.
"#$%&, it ain't working." Change things up.
Additional considerations:
Don't ignore in-season development
In-game adjustments can save games, switching defensive assignments, changing from base defense
Out of the box thinking...nothing says the 2 can't guard the opponent's 1 and so forth ("a game of matchups")
When controlling the game, will changing tempo or strategy confuse opponents or us?
Lagniappe. I mentally misrepresent Spain PnR as primary design to free the roller via 'screen-the-roller'. Multiple options emerge including the ballhandler, the roller, and shooters whose defender helps.
Revise our playbooks based on what actually worked.
Hollywood style, "kill your darlings" (outdated beliefs, lessons)
2. Start with the end in mind. What processes realize our vision? That includes everything from recruiting or tryouts, skill development, strategy, strength and conditioning, the works.
3. Make it emotional. Emotional connections imprint stories. "Liking" is also a factor in influence and branding. Emotion resonates, as in the "Jimmy V" story, "Brian's Song," and "Miracle." Our best victories and worst losses burn into our consciousness.
4. Raise the stakes.
Lifestyle choices become urgent in the face of illness (e.g. obesity and diabetes).
Chemical health policies force athletes to choose sport or substances.
Failure to be vaccinated keeps pro athletes from playing games in Canada.
Performance determines minutes, roles, and recognition.
Inadequate effort or defense earns pine time.
5. Use data intentionally. The parent muttered, "shoot the ball." I explained that the player made the right play (passed). "She's 1 for 19 on the season from three; she turned down a low percentage shot." Use data to support our thesis.
6. Keep a story log. Some are natural storytellers; others benefit from a database. Need to overcome hardships? Consider the Kyle Maynard story.
7. Structure your story. Many stories (or jokes) have three parts.
a) What was the last thing Washington told his men before crossing the Delaware? b) Pause..... c) Get in the boat.
Classics. "Cinderella Story" (e.g. Pygmalion) or "Aesop's Fables" (The Hare and the Tortoise, The Fox and the Grapes, The Eagle and the Beetle) Nobody is immune from retribution. Thus the proverb, "when seeking revenge, first dig two graves."
Outline. Outline. Outline. The Duffer Brothers (Stranger Things) write a one and a half-page outline for a pilot. They expand it to 10-15 pages before writing a detailed sixty page script.
Have a drill book, play book, analogy log, and video teaching catalog.
8. Talk to a niche. Tailor our narrative to a specific audience. Some coaches bring in personalities to speak. Bill Belichick took the Patriots to a documentary film about Bill Russell and then Russell spoke to the team about winning.
9. Nail the hook. Finish strong. Deliver the goods. Need David and Goliath?
10.Sell the transformation. Stories follow arcs, usually not of continual ascent. Plateaus and setbacks happen. Along the way in "The Hero's Journey" obstacles inevitably appear whether in mythology (e.g. The Odyssey), film (Star Wars), and docudrama (Hoosiers).
Key takeaways for storytellers:
"Plan your craft; craft your plan."
Capture the imagination.
Advance the story.
Use emotion.
Collect a portfolio of stories.
Inform the arc of the narrative.
"Kill your darlings."
Finish strong.
Lagniappe. Coach Tony shares some ideas to increase explosiveness. I couldn't do these outside of weightlessness (space). Maybe some of you and your players can.
Make our message resonate with clarity, simplicity, and feedback.
Athletes perform, similar to musicians, actors, and comedians. Cellist YoYo Ma presents a MasterClass and includes a lesson applicable to basketball about CCR - content, communication, and reception.
Ma points out that in the concert hall, the most important people are the audience. He can't allow himself to be bored or disinterested because that is unfair to the people who matter.
Content. Here's a dodecahedron, a 12-sided figure. That could be a multifaceted representation of basketball. Does that help or hinder the young player's understanding? 'Smooth' and convert to a sphere, entitled "more and better shots" than our opponent.
Simplify the fine detail of the dodecahedron and the clarity of the sphere.
Communication. Communicate better by clarity and simplicity. Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski called the pick-and-roll defensive hedge, "fake trap." There are other simple ways to get points across:
Trap the ball. "Put them in a glass box."
Pressure the ball. "Crawl up into them."
Teamwork. "The help can never get beaten."
Quality shots (Bilas), "It's not your shot; it's our shot."
Reception. Did the team understand, learn, and embrace the message? If we say we're going to use "lock and trail, drop, and ice coverage" we might as well say it in Urdu because it's neither descriptive or simple. "What is not learned has not been taught" to borrow the phrase. Be "performance-focused and feedback rich." Give and get feedback.
To add value and get buy-in, use Don Meyer's mature simplicity.
Summary:
Be aware of content, communication, and reception.
Stay fully engaged.
"What has not been learned has not been taught."
Stay "performance-focused, feedback rich."
Deliver mature simplicity.
Lagniappe.
Another Boston sportswriter commented that UCONN's women streak of over a hundred games didn't matter because they were playing women. I won't mention his name because he doesn't deserve the publicity. Everyone believes they're the smartest guy in the room.
What is the 'right' amount of scrimmaging? For younger players with low skill levels, scrimmaging with limited practice time competes with skill building. Remember the discussion in The Talent Codeabout Spartak Tennis. Spartak was the most successful tennis 'factory' in the world and players worked on fundamentals for years before playing.
First, I digress. Where does scrimmaging impact results?
Economics - allocation of scarce resources (e.g. practice time, subsections of practice, number of hoops)
Accountability - holding ourselves to a high standard (limit turnovers and poor shot selection)
Organization of play - initial setup, player and ball movement, 'scoring moment'
Individual development - skill, strategy, physicality, psychology
At high school and beyond, make our process impact results (improvement or winning)
How much should we scrimmage during practice? "It depends."
What counts as scrimmaging?
How much should we 'control' it with teaching stoppages?
How can we utilize it best, e.g. with situational play (tie score, ten seconds left) and "specials" (ATO, BOB, SLOB, etc.)?
How can we add constraints (time and score, team and individual fouls)
Allocate one timeout for each side.
Scrimmage options (examples)
Classic five on five full court
Five versus seven no dribbling (advantage-disadvantage)
Half court (e.g. versus specialty defense - zone, box-and-1)
Small-sided games (e.g. 3-on-3, with or without constraints)
Vary the competition, better opponents (e.g. higher level team, girls vs boys), intrasquad versus interscholastic
Three-possession games (O-D-O is offense, defense, offense starting with either SLOB or BOB)
Continuous 4 vs 4 vs 4 (offense out, defense to offense, third group to defensive coverage and protection each possession)
Add options:
Rewards for winning
"Foul out" best player
"Unfair officiating" - coach players to play through adversity
Confirm victory with a made free throw.
We had three hours of practice weekly in middle school. Scrimmage-type activities (per practice) included three-on-three (with constraints) at each end with a coach (10 minutes). We worked on full court press breaking 5 vs 7 (7-8 minutes), and three possession games (O-D-O) starting as a BOB, SLOB, or ATO (15 minutes). About 32 minutes of 90 included simulated game activity. Sometimes we'd play 4 x 4 x 4. Almost half of practice was devoted to skill building with shooting the biggest share. We conditioned within drills.
"On the run" shooting, 3 x 3 x 3...usually ran this for 6 minutes.
What do you think? More scrimmaging, less, or the same?
“You have to learn to quit being right all the time, and quit being smart all the time, and quit thinking this is a contest about how smart you are and how right you are, and realize that you are here to make a positive difference in the world. And being smart and being right is probably no longer the way to do that.”- Marshall Goldsmith
Realign expectations. The conversation stuck.
Head Coach: "I can't believe how bad we were, like we never practiced. The turnovers, the bad decisions."
Assistant: "Expecting consistency from twelve year-olds is unrealistic. They'll be better."
Young players surprise us in both directions. Stay grounded to our process. Avoid euphoria or depression and don't give young kids a beatdown.
Take the temperature. "What does the team need now?" Do they need conditioning, a light day, a day off, a pep talk? We have no thermometer. With young players, there is no captain or established team leader. The head coach and assistants need to have the conversation to find out if there are issues like cliques and bullying.
Don't go back to basics. Never leave. In film, it's STORY. In football, it's BLOCKING AND TACKLING. In basketball, it's "get more and better shots than opponents." Whether we're playing well or poorly, focus on improving fundamental individual and team skills.
Don't go negative. Players can learn helplessness. You've read stories of coaches describing players as "worthless" or "losers." Young players lack the experience and ego strength to stay engaged and confident. Some coaches project our inadequacies onto others.
Have hard conversations with two adults present. When serious issues arise, usually behavioral, always address the problem with multiple adults in the room. Never allow it to become, "but he said..."
"Heads I win, tails you lose." Some coaches have the reputation for owning wins and assigning blame for losses. It's not the reputation to acquire.
"Have an identity." Without identity teams founder. "This is who we are and that is who we are not." Business struggle amidst lack of leadership, crushing debt, and migratory product and service mix. Lead, lighten others' load, and stay consistent.
"Row in the same direction." Coaches own getting everyone on the same page in philosophy, education and training, strategy ("this is how we defend the pick-and-roll"), and goals. A single breakdown at any point in a game can define the outcome. Having five ways to defend the pick-and-roll will confuse our team more than it does our opponent. Yes, we know about hedging, switching, trapping, drop and ice, and more. But THEY won't master any.
"Role confusion." "Do your job" demands that players know it. Define roles while working to expand them.
Unfairness. "My dog's better than your dog." Parent coaches have natural enemies. It's easy to give our kids bigger roles, minutes, and recognition. Coaches go the other way, too, being harder on their children. Favor or disfavor our children and either other families or ours will beef.
Don't be a bully. Stay calm. After a bad loss, a rout, the head coach was exasperated by our team quitting. He asked me to say something, "how you play reflects how you live. If you let other people push you around, you go through life being pushed around." Six months later a player told me, "that how you live your life stuff really got to me." She's at an elite college now, not a basketball player...a life player.
Losing perspective. We're coaching kids. "Never be a child's last coach." Coaches help young people make memories. Work to make them good ones.
"Be the adult in the room." Figure it out. In The Undoing Project, Michael Lewis describes a conversation between the brilliant Amos Tversky and Nobel Laureate Murray Gell-Mann, who is pontificating about everything. Tversky tells him, "Murray, there is nobody in the world as smart as you think you are." Everyone has knowledge gaps.
"Don't quit." No coaches want their teams to quit. But coaches can become disaffected or disengaged, too. If we want players to approach the game responsibly, then model excellence.
"Comparison is the thief of joy." - Teddy Roosevelt Decades ago my son played youth baseball with a nine year-old shortstop named Kenny. Kenny was the Barry Larkin of kid shortstops, great fielder and homers every game. I hope my son remembers the experience for the fun, not for being in Kenny's shadow.
What's a coach to do?
Be positive.
Make it fun.
Teach.
Keep it clear. Simplify.
Don't make it all about winning. It's not life or death. Don't sacrifice a kid on the altar of victory.
Lagniappe. "Titanic"... a matter of life and death.
"Every part of a campaign has to serve the main message." - David Axelrod
Stay on message. "Teamwork, improvement, accountability." "Play hard, play smart, play together." Own your message.
It won't be easy because sport breeds agendas. Someone tells a player, "you have to get yours." It doesn't matter if it's a friend, a parent, a club coach. Their message becomes, "I have to get mine."
You say, "it's an urban legend." It's not. I've overheard the message to put the player interests ahead of the team. Because nobody says it aloud. It's real, ugly, and not the nearly extinct ivory-billed woodpecker (above).
1. TEAM. "It's about the team." The 2008 Celtics used Ubuntu.
Do not abandon a worthy message because of a setback or a losing streak. Culture is fragile. Culture doesn't take days off.
2. TEAMMATES. "Don't play for me, the school, or the community. Play for the girl next to you." Be there for her. Make trust and loyalty to your teammates the priority. Our attitude, behaviors, and effort reflect upon us and our families.
3. POSSESSION and POSSESSIONS. Play possession by possession. This narrative takes other names, "be here now, next play, or play present." Get more quality possessions through avoiding turnovers, by rebounding, steals, and forced turnovers.
4. ONE BAD SHOT. Work to allow opponents at the maximum, one bad shot, preferably a 'hard 2'...contested without fouling.
5. QUALITY OFFENSE IS NO ACCIDENT. High octane offense includes design, skill development, valuing the ball, and attention to detail. That includes 'hard-to-defend' actions:
Drive and drive-and-kick (see Lagniappe)
Ball screens from differing locations
Cut and pass (give-and-go, backdoor cuts)
Complex screens (screen-the-screener, Spain PnR)
Transition
Lagniappe. Relocation, relocation, relocation. Drive and kick offense includes perimeter shooters relocation to fill shooting spots.
