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Friday, March 10, 2023

Basketball Post 3400: Coaching Obligations

"Leaders make leaders." How? 

Use the Warren Buffett idea of generating a big list, then hone in on your top priorities. Other ideas aren't neglected but prioritized. Here's a starting point. 

1. Model excellence. 

"Your actions speak so loudly I cannot hear a word you say." Kevin Eastman says that "you can't fool dogs, children, and basketball players." Excellence shows itself in preparation, teaching, and communication. Rod Olson encourages us to "speak greatness." Set the bar high. Some coaches constantly seek to manage expectations.  

2. "Always do your best." - Ruiz, "The Four Agreements"  

Our best may not be the best and it's a moving target. Tennyson wrote, "that which we are, we are, and if we are to be any better now is the time to begin." Bringing our best dismisses the need for regret. 

3. Help players "see the game." - Pete Newell   

Coaches provide a scaffolding of understanding to build upon. Especially with young players, the ball has magnetism, corrupting spacing. Combine spacing, player and ball movement, to create high quality scoring chances. Teach the symmetry of basketball, with great defenses looking to shrink space, deny player and ball movement, and limit quality chances to "one bad shot." 

4. Share. "Basketball is sharing. - Phil Jackson  

Excellence follows shared vision, shared sacrifice, and shared results. Give and get feedback. Share and distribute credit. Star players get plenty of credit, so spread it around to be inclusive. 

5. Add value.

Everything at practice should impact winning. Adding constraints of space and time increase performance. Track results to foster a culture of achievement and 'personal bests'. "Every day is player development day." 

6. Earn "buy-in" from players. 

Always make it about the players. Loyalty lasts. I spoke with my high school coach Sonny Lane on the fiftieth anniversary of winning the Massachusetts top division sectional title. The New England Basketball Hall of Famer always points out that 'the players win the games'. 

7. Improve our teaching.

Education changes behaviors. "What is not learned has not been taught." Study authors like Doug Lemov and Teach Like a Champion. 

Great teachers: 

a) Progress from unit planning to lesson planning. b) Refine and perfect the lesson objective based on the degree of mastery from the day before. c) Plan a short daily assessment to determine whether the objective was mastered.

Imagine we want to reduce turnovers. Where do most of our turnovers arise, decision-making or execution? If it's execution, is it mostly footwork -related, such as traveling or mostly passing? If it's passing, show video of the problem - throwing through hands or into traffic or errant passes. too high, too low, too wide? Or receivers not coming to the ball (shortening the pass) or have the dropsies. 

Play "ten passes" or "twenty passes" half court action where scoring can't happen before a minimum amount of passes. 

8. Be fully engaged, fully present.

Coach K reminded players, "Next play" to encourage full focus on now. 

9. Work on communication skills.

Verbal and nonverbal communication matters. "That was good BUT" and "That was good AND" carry different connotations. Great communicators have a high ratio of positive to negative interactions.  

10."Keep the main thing the main thing." - David Cottrell

Don't let distractions defeat us. Stay focused on process, player development, and strategy to execute. 

11.Radiate energy. 

Be an energy giver not an energy vampire. The coach and the point guard cannot have bad energy days. 

12.Be prepared. 

Preparation is a choice. "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail." - Wooden

13.Dot B. "Stop and take a breath." 

Think before responding. Remember Abraham Lincoln's "Hot letters" that allowed him to vent but the letters were "never signed, never sent." Widen the space between receiving and sending messages. 

14.Be humble in victory and gracious in defeat. 

"Thinking less about oneself doesn't mean thinking less of oneself." 

15.Be positive. 

"Catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." Relationships go better with at least a 3:1 positive to negative ratio. For marriage, it's 5:1. "Do I look heavy in this outfit?" "I like the blue one better." 

16."Look for the helpers." - Mr. Rogers

Most coaches are more than willing to help enthusiastic and committed players who want help. "Mentoring is the only shortcut to excellence." Find a mentor and be one. 

17.Do the right thing.

Excellent players in sport and life "do the right thing at the right time."  

18.Look for the "enduring lessons" from victory and defeat. These are questions from Michael Useem in The Leadership Moment. 

  • What went well?
  • What went poorly?
  • What can we do better next time? 
  • What are the enduring lessons this game taught? 

19.Put the program first. 

"Are we building a program or a statue?"

20.Ask better questions. 

"What does our team need today?"

21.Respect. 

Respect the game, players, assistants, opponents, officials.

22.Keep sportsmanship a priority. 

Sportsmanship costs us nothing. People remember extremes of sportsmanship. 

23.Treat everyone fairly, not equally.

"How does it feel to be coached by me?" And "never be a child's last coach." If the star players love us and the bottom of the roster hates us, then is it us or them? 

24.Show empathy. 

Put ourselves in the other person's position. 

25.Say "thank you."

"Thanks is the cheapest form of compensation." - Robert Townsend, Up the Organization

26. "Have the soul of a poet and the hide of an elephant." -Mira Nair

Coaching exposes our ideas and choices to criticism. Critics will fault our philosophy, practices, and decisions. Sometimes they will be right because nobody is right all of the time. Astronaut Chris Hadfield says, "competence is the antidote to fear." 

27."The director is the keeper of the story." - Ron Howard   It's our job to keep the organization moving forward, to edit our what isn't working and make sure the great scenes make the picture. 

I'm sure there's a better list, a more comprehensive list. Be on the lookout for ideas to steal and areas to improve.  

Lagniappe. Simple action to free a shooter.

Lagniappe 2. Four low BOBs. The devil made me do it. 

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