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Thursday, September 1, 2022

Translation Nation: Language Teaching Analogy

"Ecoutez et repetez." We heard that hundreds of times from Monsieur Benoit, "listen and repeat." 

Players have no basketball birthright, no court citizenship. They arrive naive to positions and locations, footwork and foot fire.

Coaches translate. Did your language teacher yell at you for not knowing how to conjugate verbs or incorrect use of the masculine pronoun?

Every player doesn't come willingly. A parent or other relative who knew parts of the language drag them along. Their kin can be our closest ally or emerging enemy as they feel our care for their DNA. 

The class is the show that never ends for the willing, cutting the gap between mental and physical skill. 

Provide 'shortcuts' to learning the language.

1. Mentor. Be there to find the canvas for the young artist. That means teaching, tips, correction, and rebounding the misses. It means letters of recommendation, emails to coaches, capturing video clips, providing praise and constructive criticism. 

2. Never leave the basics. Excellence begins before the warmup routine, how you care for your gear and yourself. "Stretching" is a metaphor  - stretching muscles, stretching skill, stretching knowledge. 

3. Build skill. Define GO TO and COUNTER moves appropriate to your position. Don't tire of the mundane, the front and reverse pivots, the jabs, deep and negative step. Separation with change of direction and change of pace take years to master. Engage simple vocabulary before adding "savoir faire." You learn Ice, Blitz, Get, Veer, Flare, and more soon enough.

4. Study video. Watch elite players and teams and their separation and finishing, how they play with the ball and the '95', their play without it. Use cellphone video to edit your game. 

5. Become your own coach. Look for strengths and needs. Know your dos and know your NOs. Find out what drives your coach batty.

  • Value the ball. "The ball is gold." 
  • Make others better. Cut hard, screen, pass, block out, be first to the floor.
  • Turn the clock in your head off. There is no "my turn." 
  • Don't habitually catch and put the ball on the deck. 
  • Take better shots. Forget those runners, tweeners, nondominant hook shots. 
Embrace repetition. As Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote, “I wished I had known more, and I wished I had known it sooner.”

6. Improve your dialogue with teammates. Communication is among the hardest skills to teach young players. 

Ecoutez et repetez.

Lagniappe. 

Lagniappe 2. Fake backscreen with a slip. 


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