Saturday, September 17, 2022

What Am I Wrong About?

The philosopher Epictetus said of a friend's criticism, "If that person really knew me and my flaws they’d have said something much, much worse.”

Writing a daily column is challenging because it exposes noise, ignorance, and flawed thinking. Here are just a sampling. 

Head snap. When defending the back cut, players have the options of the "head snap" or "opening up" to the ball. I taught the latter because I learned the latter. Mea culpa. 

Rebounders are born not made. I've coached some great rebounders, players who averaged double figure rebounds, Samantha Dewey, Cecilia Kay, and my twins Karen and Paula. Find players with a nose for the ball. 

Zone defense in youth basketball. We never played any until the latter stages of my last season coaching, when we played a hybrid defense because we couldn't contain the ball. The triangle and two gave us strength inside and allowed pressure on shooters. 

Princeton offense hard sell. It feels as though almost daily there are promotions to buy this or that rendition of the Princeton offense. "The offense is designed for a unit of five players who can each pass, shoot, and dribble at an above-average level." I never had anything approaching that. 

I get it. It teaches a lot of offensive basics and generates layups and three point shots. But how much time does it take to install and is that time in development robbing players of fundamental instruction? 

Overemphasis on advantage disadvantage. Each practice, we ran a segment of 5 versus 7 full court, no dribbling. When you defeat disadvantage with constraints, you will handle five-on-five because you learned to cut and pass.  

Soft skills are hard to learn. Some will tune out "soft skills," skill that separate champions. Those include leadership, toughness, professionalism, resilience, and effort - the will to play harder for longer than opponents. Ignore them at our peril. 

Strength and conditioning. As a Pulmonary/Critical Care specialist, I trained in exercise physiology and applications in the diagnosis and treatment of exercise limitation. That doesn't make me a strength and conditioning trainer. If players want to be their best, they find trainers that work with them, but the investment costs time and money. 

Give parents the benefit of the doubt. Overall, I had a positive experience but seldom do parents challenge your knowledge or equity (fairness) directly. Remember, Oscar Wilde's quote, "a good friend will always stab you in the front." 

Margin of victory. We never grew up worry about 'margin of victory.' I never followed the Vegas Line on Middle School hoop. But some did, like the guy from ______ who kept his starters in, pressed full court, up fifteen when I subbed in deep reserves with three minutes left. I hope he 'covered'. 

Gorilla basketball. Physical basketball is fine, but leave the brass knuckles at home. I only ask officials to keep the kids safe. Sometimes the best way to respond is overwhelming force. After a high school team had knocked out two our kids including future WNBAer, Sheylani Peddy, the team asked for payback in the return matchup. Melrose led 42-12 after ten minutes before the Melrose coach told the team to back off.

I'm sure I'm wrong about many other issues, but those arose quickly. 

Lagniappe. Great coaches don't do these. 

Lagniappe 2. Modern basketball...that is beauty.

 

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