Monday, July 31, 2023

Basketball: A Coach Walks into a Brothel to Study Risk

"Life is about the management of risk." 


Coaching manages risk, more than we know. Learn more about risk management by studying some concepts from Allison Schrager's new book, An Economist Walks into a Brothel. She literally explains the economics of the flesh trade at the Moonlite BunnyRanch versus the illegal industry. Practitioners trade half their income, plus taxes, for safety. Some made as much as $600,000 annually. 

Risk abounds for basketball coaches. Let us count some ways:
  • Career risk. What will this job do to or for my career?
  • Community risk. Think about Hoosiers. Sleepy, tiny town or rabid rural zip code? 
  • Talent risk. Do you have Jimmy and more or a bunch or Ollies?
  • Depth risk. Injuries or illness lurk around the corner.
  • Poaching risk. "They" are coming for "yours."
  • Character risk. Do you have players at risk for the 'dark side'? 
  • Scheduling risk. More cupcakes or more iron? 
  • Practice risk. How do you allocate fundamentals, offense versus defense, education, and so forth? 
  • In-game management risk? Matchup risk, foul trouble, pace of play risk all come into play. 
  • Decision-risk? Going for a steal versus playing safe, choosing a higher percentage shot versus a three. Block or charge? It depends. 
  • Communication risk? Which parent(s) will literally cut your heart out to be sure that Patty plays?
Career risk gets regularly dampened on Wall Street. When everyone owns "XYZ" then you won't get blamed for owning it when the Street learns the CEO is crooked or the CFO has to retire suddenly to spend more time with her family because of discovered 'accounting irregularities' or delay in reporting earnings. Follow a legend at your school and you assume more career risk. 


You take the 'bad job' knowing that the AD has a reputation, coaches get fired quicker than you can say "Jack Robinson," or the youth program coaches have records, as in they're on probation. But like in A Chorus Line, you're singing, "I Need This Job." 
Talent risk shows up in multiple ways. No talent, no depth, "Rez Ball" as in 'lacking discipline', or a dominant competing sport like championship hockey program draining away the best athletes. 
Knowing the risks like "poaching risk" (players spirited away to the privates), character risk (he's more "Booze" than "Cooz"), or scheduling risk (we're playing THEM?) requires soul-searching before signing on. The best available coach walking into the worst possible situation has his hands full. Think of Sheriff Teasle in Rambo. 



Risk appears at myriad moments. Failure to take a timely timeout changes a win to a loss. Playing too fast or too slow a tempo can shrink a lead or prevent a comeback. Poor clock management at the end of a period can lead to six point swings per period. Leaving a shaky ballhandler in for a few possessions against the press turns into layups. Do you foul up three late without the ball? Academic study says you do. 

The first way to manage risk is to understand it, to work to get it on your side, and to appreciate that skill and luck intersect to produce ranges of outcomes. 

Lagniappe. If you had to bet your life on your community team and their coaching hire, whom do you pick? 

Lagniappe 2. Glue and "belt and suspenders" players reduce risk. 

 

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Sunday, July 30, 2023

Basketball: Coaching Influencers


"You work long hours, but at least the pay is bad." 

Our coaching influences sum lifelong inputs from an array of sources. No 'one size fits all'. A Letterman "Top 10" might work.  

10."Every story is about someone searching for something." - Matt Haig  What do we seek? Coaches want to transform teams into models of excellence. 

9. MasterClass. "Learn every day." Education never stops. Access education from legends in fields across many disciplines, people like Geno Auriemma and Mike Krzyzewski, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bob Woodward, Steve Martin, Gordon Ramsay, Helen Mirren, and many more. Use analogies from other disciplines to apply to coaching. Mirren's two absolutes for success? "Always be on time" and "don't be an a*hole." 

8. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Chamberlain, a Bowdoin rhetoric professor, led Union troops to a pivotal win at Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg. He earned the Congressional Medal of Honor. Asked how a professor became a military strategist, he answered, "I can learn." 

7. Knight moves us. The Power of Negative Thinking informs us that many games are lost not won. Stop giving games away. Work to reduce bad shots, turnovers, and unnecessary fouls. 

6. Dr. Fergus Connolly's Game Changer organizes sport into predictable structure of skill, strategy, physicality, and psychology. He breaks down possessions by initial position (spacing/formation), player and ball movement, and the scoring moment. Great players dominate by "ending possessions" positively with scores, stops, rebounds, and assists. 

5. Do the math. Dean Oliver’s landmark work Basketball on Paper was the Moneyball of basketball. The Four Factors, SCORE, PROTECT, CRASH, ATTACK inform shooting percentage, turnovers, rebounding, and free throws on our side. 

4. "We stand on the shoulders of giants." Pay homage to those who came before us. Most of us had positive experiences from high school coaches. Adopt and adapt parts to our substance and style. And remember Pete Newell's advice that "most copies are poor reproductions of the original."

3. "Every day is player development day." - Dave Smart  Skill comes first. "We can't run what we can't run." 

2. "Basketball is sharing." - Phil Jackson  Our ability to relate to and communicate with players is the overarching meaning to coaching.

1. Find a mentor. Become a mentor. "Mentoring is the only shortcut to excellence." Sometimes we find mentors, but often they come into our lives when they're needed. My high school coach Sonny Lane instilled a love of the game and two Navy mentors, CAPT Tom Walsh and CAPT Bill Baker were great medical mentors. 

Lagniappe. Zone offense. 

Lagniappe 2. "Basketball is a game of separation." Develop tools to separate without and with the dribble. 


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Basketball: Kissing the Ring

Kiss the metaphorical ring. Kissing the ring opposes speaking truth to power. Prostrate yourself before a self-important figure to gain favor or get what's needed or wanted. Sometimes kissing the ring gets permission. Sometimes forgiveness. 

Have you kissed the ring or decided not to? Years ago when our city had a YMCA and a school-based travel team I called a few parents to pitch the travel program. Was it worth it? "Dunno."

Some varsity coaches consider it beneath them to network with youth programs, to meet the parents, and to sell the program. Every time you lose one impact player, it's "the box." Choose to endure the box, "I must not fear."   

Sometimes you kiss the ring to recruit, to retain, or to retrain players.  Choose 'get to' don't 'have to'.

View kissing the ring another way, respect not deference. Everyone wants respect and appreciation. 

I used to tell a mentor and superior CAPT Tom Walsh, "It's good to be king." As I was leaving the Navy, he told me, "It's better to be prince." 

Lagniappe. Lessons for excellence and humility.  


Lagniappe 2. Lead. 



 

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Saturday, July 29, 2023

Basketball: Doing Better at Doing Better

Success follows better decisions and execution and fewer mistakes. Examine your teams and be specific. Share the format with players and asked them to think about how it applies to the team and to them individually. 

1.Decision-making:

  • a. Shot selection
  • b. Better passes (turnover avoidance)
  • c. Fouling (e.g. jumpshots and threes)

2. Execution: (no easy baskets)

  • a. Communication
  • b. Ball containment
  • c. Defensive transition

3. Reduced mistakes: (don't give games away)

  • a. Fewer fouls (bad technique)
  • b. Missed block outs
  • c. Missed assignments 

Look under the hood and you'll see links back to the Four Factors - net effective field goal percentage, rebounding, turnovers, and free throws. 

Suggestions for improvement:

1a. Review shot charts with individual players. Assess shot quality re: ROB - range, openness, balance

1b. Examine turnovers by decision/execution. 

1c. Enforce a standard of not fouling perimeter shots. 

2a. Are we communicating? Communication starts in practice. 

2b. Drill ball containment with drills such as 'dog drill' 

2c. Defensive transition. Have we assigned two or three players to get back? Do we scramble, protect the hoop, stop the ball? 


3a. Emphasize better technique. "Move your feet, show your hands, don't swipe down (on blocks)"

3b. Not easy, especially for zone teams. Track defensive rebound percentage.

3c. Missed assignments can't happen. "Not my guy," doesn't fly. Defense is always a team responsibility. 

Your team's issues might be different - spacing, lack of urgent cutting, low skill. But with a third of games decided by two possessions or fewer, the little things matter. 

Lagniappe. "Every day is player development day." 
Lagniappe 2. And more. 













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Your Philosophy of Leadership Reflects MasterClass Notes

Think about your leadership. What does it mean? What is your leadership substance and style? 

Each of us brings a unique and authentic approach. Perhaps lessons can refine and improve them. 

Here are notes from a MasterClass mini-class on leadership. 


Study leaders. 

Remember, we coach young people. Sometimes they struggle. Geno Auriemma advises, "I understand what you're going through." 

Find examples of special leadership. You may not like or agree with their policies, but learn from their processes. 

1. Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals" explores how President Abraham Lincoln assembled Seward, Stanton, and Bates to supplement his limited experience in prosecuting the Civil War. Lincoln's bold move helped preserve the Union, bolstering not diluting his authority. "What experiences can you bring to the team?"

2. Simon Sinek wrote Leaders Eat Last. Maybe Nelson Mandela's father did him one better. He always spoke last, allowing him to give a more thoughtful and nuanced opinion. Son Nelson recognized "leaders speak last." 

3. Cal Rugby coach Jack Clark believes in 'conditional love'. "Family means unconditional, whereas high-performance teams are highly, highly conditional organizations."

4. Sara Blakely went from a fax machine salesperson to entrepreneur. She developed a product (Spanx) and became a global marketing expert with a five billion dollar company. She lived "aim high" and a philosophy of "make it, sell it, build brand awareness." 

5. Louis Hamilton noticed a "ripple effect" in the garage. "We're all connected, all working towards the same goal...empower everybody to be the best they can be." 

6. Shonda Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy, Bridgerton, Scandal) says, "learn to empower the people under me, valuing the people under me. Make sure you're not working in a hero model...everything should be a team model. Everybody is valuable. 

7. Bill Clinton says, "we know diverse groups make better decisions...there are mountains of research...over time the 99 will do better than the one, even if the one is the smartest...It's a way of inventorying the widest variety of experiences, the widest variety of perceptions, the widest varieties of preferences." "It is critically important to empower people around you to disagree with you."

8. "One of the biggest attributes that resilient leaders have is the ability to listen. Listen more than you talk. The people that I respect the most, they always have time for you." - Geno Auriemma

9. Restauranteur Roy Choi notes, "You hear a wide range of opinions...someone has to make a decision...it's their responsibility to make a decision and to communicate it clearly...how you communicate with your team becomes really important." "Make sure you share credit with your team."

10."You are nothing without a good team around you." - Anna Wintour

11."People who use the "I" word too much put people off." - Richard Branson

12."If something you're working on as a team goes wrong, instead of blaming and gossiping, assume that we're in this together and we're going to figure out how we're going to make it better next time...blaming them will never ever let them learn." - Doris Kearns Goodwin

Lagniappe. Horns misdirection and clear. 

Lagniappe 2. SLOB simple backscreen. 

Lagniappe 3...from "The Daily Coach"

  • "Most people can be so much more than they are. They have the capacity for genius but never realize it."


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Friday, July 28, 2023

Basketball: Advice That Doesn't Grow Old

Age offers the wisdom of experience. "Experience is the best teacher, but sometimes the tuition is high." 

1. Remember your varsity skill. Prioritize the skill that gets and keeps you on the floor. That could be defense, passing, rebounding, or scoring...or multiple skills. The top players have multiple dominant skills. 

2. Love your losses; learn from them. Reduce the mistakes that caused defeat.  

3. "Be a great teammate." Everyone can't be a great player. Everyone can choose to be a great teammate. Support is a skill.

4. "Are you investing your time or spending it?" - Nick Saban  

5. "It takes what it takes." Keep building skill, strategic understanding, physicality, and psychology (resilience). 

6. B+ Be positive. "Nothing great is ever accomplished without enthusiasm." Bring energy and energize teammates. 

7. "Every battle is won before it is fought." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War, fifth century B.C.  Be physically and mentally prepared each time you step on the court. 

8. "Don't cheat the drill." Exceptional players have impeccable work habits. Perfect practice make perfect. 

9. “Arrogance gives confidence … a bad name.” - Mokokoma Mokhonoana  "Nobody likes a smart ass." 

10. "Always do your best." - the Fourth Agreement from The Four Agreements 

Lagniappe. "Don't skip steps." 


Lagniappe 2. "Misdirection." 
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Thursday, July 27, 2023

Basketball: Listen Better - Print and Save Edition


Toughness and effort are skills. Listening is a skill. Failure to listen helped lose a championship game. It happened. Don't suffer regret. 

"Paying attention pays for excellence." Concentration leads to anticipation, reaction, and execution. CARE. 

Listening involves eye contact. Doug Lemov, teacher extraordinaire reminds students, "eyes on me." Even a computer, so-called multitasking, does so only by focusing on each task and by executing faster. 

Bobby Knight called a timeout in practice and diagrammed a play. Then he handed out paper and pencils and asked players to reproduce the play. Pay attention or else. 

Be fully engaged. Talking, we only speak what we know. Listeners process and absorb new information. 

Coach Kiraly shares tips for better listening. 
  • To be a good learner be a good listener. 
  • A good listener makes a better teammate. 
  • Give full attention to the speaker. Turn off distractions. 
  • Ask questions. "Tell me more." 
  • Avoid interruptions.
  • Why is listening important in the team setting?
  • How can you tell when someone isn't listening?
  • Catch yourself not listening.
  • Catch yourself thinking of what you plan to say instead of listening. 
Lagniappe. Challenge players to raise performance. 

Lagniappe 2. Use advantage. 

 

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Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Tricolon and the Magic of Three - History, Rhetoric, and Basketball

The number three conveys magic across domains. Religion has a Holy Trinity. Politics has tripartite government - Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. Armies carry out wars with infantry, cavalry, and artillery. 

Rhetoric uses tricolon...a series of structured words or phrases.


"I came, I saw, I conquered." - Julius Caesar

"Truth, justice, and the American Way." - Superman

"The Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion" - Wizard of Oz

The number three carries significance in basketball, too. A few samples:

  • Offense, defense, conversion.
  • Spacing, creating advantage, prosecuting advantage. 
  • Three point plays (Old School)
  • Three point shot
  • Big Threes: Chamberlain-Baylor-West, Bird-Parish-McHale, Pierce-Garnett-Allen, Lebron-Wade-Bosh, Curry-Thompson-Durant
  • Small-sided games, 3 versus 3 inside the split 
  • The Triangle Offense. 
  • Short roll passing. 
  • Zone offense, "Boeheim vs Boeheim"

  • Baseline out of bounds plays. Duke 'Line' and Duke 'Triangle'

  • Iverson action. 

  • Complex screening like Spain PnR, backscreen the roller 
Bottom line? Leverage the power of three, historically, rhetorically, and functionally. 

Lagniappe. Don't go back to basics. Never leave. Every young player should watch.
 

Lagniappe 2. What Coaching Isn't. Hat tip: Phil Karker






















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Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Become the One Percent of Culture

Knowing the path and walking the path are not the same. Set philosophy, expectations, and process. Fortunate teams have player leadership with the strength and energy to drive the process. 

Great teams make great culture, but great culture alone won't make a great team. Player-driven leadership forges identity (this is who we are) and performance (this is how we play). 

True leaders show the humility to recognize their needs and to ask for help. They know that leadership needs followers and collaboration. 

The military sets high culture standards with varied results. I told incoming freshmen at Annapolis to know 'five answers':

  • "Yes, Sir."
  • "No, Sir."
  • "Aye, aye, Sir."
  • "Right away, Sir." 
  • "I don't know but I'll find out, Sir." 
But high performance in many areas hasn't translated to flexibility or to stopping sexual harassment and assault. That's a stain on military culture. 

What common threads belong to great culture? 
  • Leadership. The Commander is in charge. Leaders find out whether players are team-oriented. 
  • Growth mindset. Teammates see big things ahead. 
  • Communication. Everyone is on the same page. 
  • Ethos. Character is job one. 
  • Trust is high among and between coaches and players. 
  • Respect. Respect each other, the game, officials, and opponents. 
  • Toughness. Teams show physical and mental toughness. 

What destroys team culture? Complacency. Never take culture for granted. 

  • Selfishness. Some players put the scorebook ahead of scoreboard. 
  • Role confusion. Hard to do the job without understanding it. 
  • Too many voices. Players have to hear leadership. 
  • Favoritism. Team members need fairness. 
  • Toxic teammates. Stop bullying, cliques, and drama. 

Few teams with mediocre culture achieve high performance. Fight for your culture every day. 

Culture sample violations:

  • Players take situationally inappropriate shots looking to pad stats. 
  • Player ignores teammate feelings and impact over poor personal choices (e.g. substance abuse, friendships).
  • Players disrespect the game and officials. 

Lagniappe. Focus on your footwork, theory and practice. Remember to keep the ball out of the 'strike zone' where defender hands get strips. 


Players can practice footwork at home, indoors without a ball. 

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Monday, July 24, 2023

The Best Basketball Advice You've Heard - Six Examples*

"There's nothing cheaper than free advice" or "never give advice that you couldn't take." Great advice translates across domains. 

What is the best 'basketball advice' you've heard? I'll suggest a few; I hope that you will share yours.

"Basketball is sharing." - Phil Jackson   It's hard to outdo this one. Shared vision, shared suffering, and shared results increase performance. It's not as comprehensive as Robert Fulghum's Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. But it's a keeper. 

"Think again." - Adam Grant   Ask 'what if' or 'how can we do this better?' I want to follow his advice to keep a 'rethinking scorecard'. Rethinking means being 'more right' if not perfectly so. 

"Always do your best." One of The Four Agreements, I consider it the most powerful. Our best for the day may not be our absolute best or the best compared to others. When done consistently, it raises our personal standard. 

"Speak greatness." - Rod Olson   None of us inspires with sarcasm or demeaning players. Feel the difference between "that was excellent BUT" and "that was excellent AND." 

Consider this series of questions from Michael Useem in The Leadership Moment:

  • What went well?
  • What went poorly?
  • What can we do better next time?
  • What is the enduring lesson? 
Using our 'After Action Review' wisely edits performance. 

"Let it rip." Recent but intense and powerful... 

*Why six? Bob Woodward always provides at least six key points in his investigative journalism articles.

Lagniappe. Separation. 

Lagniappe 2. "Cooks cook to nurture people." - Thomas Keller, Michelin 3-star chef and owner of "The French Laundry." Coach to nurture people. 

 

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Sunday, July 23, 2023

Basketball: The Coach and Media Relations

David Mamet says we cannot award ourselves praise and other external honors. Better to focus on integrity, hard work, and honesty. 

In Making Decisions, Ed Smith shares unconventional wisdom about seeking media gratification. 

"Communication wins" via PR campaigns may yield short-term satisfaction, but most 'behind the scenes' high performance belongs hidden from public view. 

"Inflation reputation" distorts who and what we really are. Smith doesn't mention 'mean reversion' per se, but the perception pendulum swings in both directions. Overestimation of our capabilities is likely temporary. The fall from grace can be hard. 

"Manipulation" carries a negative connotation for good reason. Nobody wants or enjoys manipulation. The public and the media both feel capable of disentangling deflections and the blowback is likely harsh.   

Rephrase as Aristotle. "We are what we repeatedly do. Therefore, excellence then, is not an act, but a habit." What we do reveals who we are. 

Lagniappe. People speak and act to get things from others - money, love, respect, help. That applies to coaching, too. 

Another coaching obligation assures 'adequate' academic achievement from players. Excellence should translate across domains. Many of us want high performance from players across their lives. 

 

Lagniappe 2. Model 'showing up' and giving our best to players. 

Lagniappe 3. Understanding defensive intent helps teach offense.  

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Basketball: Dog Days

Man's best friend spawns a lot of quotes.

"If they don't bite when they're puppies, they won't when they're grown." - Bill Parcells

People talk about "dog whistle" messaging, where only a certain part of the audience hears a negative or biased message. 

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." Toughness is a skill.

"Let sleeping dogs lie." Sometimes it's best not to dredge up old rivalries and old grudges. 

"Teams that can't shoot free throws do as well in the postseason as dogs that chase cars." - Tom Hellen

When we're wrong or misguided, we're "barking up the wrong tree." 

We're headed into the "dog days" of summer, where the heat is up and the dog star (Sirius) rises early.

Be a player or coach who, "has a lot of dawg in him." 

Lagniappe. Remember that most players, parents, and fans don't have "coaches eyes."


Lagniappe 2. Maybe a repost. I can't remember. But it's a link to small-sided games. You don't need a passing machine to benefit. 

 

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Saturday, July 22, 2023

Basketball: Prequels, Learn the Origin Stories

"At West Point, I learned that failure was never a destination." - Coach Mike Krzyzewski, S2 E7, The Bear

Learn the backstory. Excellence does not sprout full-grown like Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus. What makes the Jimmies and Joes tick? 

The Bear informs many lessons about purpose and pursuit of excellence. Some players and coaches never "get it." Why are some people driven and others less so? 

Coach K explains leadership. 

Restauranteur Garrett tells Richie, "I don't think anyone knows your name...I love this so much...do you see their faces when they walk in? Every day here is the freaking Super Bowl...I need you to respect yourself." 

"We're not children. It's okay to make mistakes...we need to own up to them with immediacy, integrity, and honesty."

Nobody is above coaching. Sometimes it will be harsh, maybe too harsh. 

Learn origin stories. You want to understand Star Trek Captain James T. Kirk? 


Want to know Ben Franklin? He rejected learning the family candle-making business for a longer printing apprenticeship to learn the writing trade. For more depth, read his autobiography or Walter Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin. 

Naru burns to become a great warrior. No one supports her dream. No matter. 


Pro stars have origin stories. Spencer Haywood tried out at Detroit. The coach offered him a scholarship if he made 15 consecutive free throws. The rest is history for the Hall of Famer. Bill Bradley, son of a banker, practiced for three hours a day and all day Saturday from age twelve. Isiah Thomas played for hours in sweltering heat at hardscrabble parks to hone his craft. Larry Bird took 500 free throws before school. Steph Curry refined his jump shot thirty minutes before others arrived at AAU showcases. 

Process refines greatness. What price will you pay? 

Lagniappe. Become your own coach.
 
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Friday, July 21, 2023

Basketball: Q & A, What Offense Should I Be Using in Our Developmental Program?

"We can't run what we can't run."

Daily we see youth coaches asking what offense to run. The game is about creating and exploiting edges. "Technique beats tactics." 

The top priority in development is ... development. Invest the lion's share of practice time in skill development and game understanding. Concern over offense choice seems misguided amidst lesser skilled players. 

Offensive skill development (Obsess specifics)

  • Footwork/pivoting (create separation)
  • Cutting (moving without the ball)
  • Dribbling
  • Passing 
  • Shooting/finishing (off the catch then off the dribble, the most important and least well-taught skill)
  • Rebounding 
Create "possession enders," players who can score, rebound, assist, and get stops. Dream Teamer Cecilia Kay was a graduate of our developmental program.

"The 6-foot-2 point forward averaged 22 points, 13 rebounds, and 4.1 blocks per game. During the tournament, Kay averaged 22.6 points, 13.6 rebounds, and 4.0 blocks per game in leading Bishop Fenwick to the Div. 3 state finals. A Catholic Central League All-Star and captain, Kay has amassed 1,286 points through her junior season."

Defensive fundamentals
  • Ball containment
  • Off ball individual defense
  • Post defense
  • Contesting shots and block out
  • PnR defense
  • Team defense
  • Transition
Game understanding
  • Symmetry of actions (creating and preventing advantage)
  • Introduce basketball moves (one-on-one/post ups, attacking closeouts, jab, float, negative step, dribble attack, etc.) and emphasize those appropriate for level. 
  • Two-on-two (e.g. PnR and variations, pass and cut)
  • Small-sided games
  • Simple and complex off ball screening 

What practical advice applies?

1. Invest at least half to two-thirds of practice on skill building. Emphasize possession ending - scoring, assists, rebounds, and stops

2. Regularly examine (freeze play) spacing and urgency of cutting.

3. Divide team offense attack among spacing, advantage creation, and 'advantage execution'. Pass. "The ball has energy." 

4. Better shot selection is the fastest way to score more.  

5. Incorporate defense early as basis in reality.

6. Small-sided games give players more touches and decision-making against defense.

6. Train situations (BOB, SLOB, ATO) as part of scrimmage

7. Encourage players to 'track progress'. 

8. Skills create options and success. It's not spread versus triangle, Passing Game versus Princeton. Spacing, cutting, passing, and screening are the sine qua non for young players to bring to the next level. 

And expect to see more zone defense than you anticipate as many coaches value winning over growth mindset. 

Lagniappe. Present one-on-one attack off the dribble training. 

Lagniappe 2. Skill and decision-making are kings. 

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Thursday, July 20, 2023

Basketball: Navigating Minefields and Another Shooting Routine

Mines are 'low-tech', demoralizing weapons of war. Designed as much to maim as kill, anti-personnel mines are outlawed under the Geneva Convention. They're still being used in regional war today.

Coaches have numerous minefields to navigate. 

  • Attitude 
  • Bias
  • Confidence (including overconfidence)
  • Conflicts
  • Energy
  • Expectations
  • Parents
  • Playing time
  • Politics 
  • Scheduling
Excellent teams usually have collaborative, learning cultures with great teamwork. They don't have the dreaded S's of selfishness, sloth, and softness. "Fight for your culture every day." 

I'm not talking about race or ethnicity bias. We can be biased based toward experience, youth, or balance, or toward size, athleticism, offense, or defense. 

Confidence cuts both ways. Teams underachieve lacking confidence or if overconfident headed into "trap games." If a team doesn't show up physically or mentally, an inferior team can beat them. 

Coaches, point guards, and top players have to bring energy and energize teammates every day. 

Some coaches constantly downplay expectations. The 'perennial loser' Boston Red Sox turned their franchise around in 1967 hiring Dick Williams as manager. Williams said, "we'll win more than we lose," guiding the Red Sox to the World Series where they lost in seven games to the mighty Cardinals. 
 
Parents can present challenges, seeing the coach through the prism of their children's status. Chuck Daly's triad of minutes, role, and recognition (48 minutes, 48 shots, 48 million) applies the same for middle schoolers as for pros. 

Playing time represents a constant issue. There's an old joke about the coach sending out ten players to start, for which the officials assess her a technical foul. She turns to parents saying, "I told you that they can't all start." Coach Sonny Lane emphasized to us, "it's not who starts, it's who finishes."

Every parent should read Carl Pierson's The Politics of Coaching. Players, coaches, administrators, and others may undermine the coach for their own ends. 

Scheduling can work for or against coaches. Schedule some 'cupcakes' to pick up cheap wins? Your team may falter against quality teams or  postseason clubs. In Massachusetts, a power rating formula rewards teams for playing better schedules. 

Nothing could be more inaccurate than "any idiot with a whistle can coach." Negotiating the pitfalls above is a constant. No matter your effort, you will never make everyone happy. 

Lagniappe. Develop a shooting routine that works for you. 


Lagniappe. BOBs that rock! 
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