Muditā (Pāli and Sanskrit: मुदिता) is a dharmic concept of joy, particularly an especially sympathetic or vicarious joy—the pleasure that comes from delighting in other people's well-being.
It's an important concept; I didn't know there was a word for it. Your classmate gets accepted to their school choice or a neighbor gets a big promotion. "Fantastic. Way to go, Jimmy!"
It's the antonym of the German word schadenfreude, to delight in another person's misery. "Well, the Yankees didn't make the playoffs, either."
There's another expression about envy, "drinking poison and expecting another person to die."
When can we find mudita in basketball?
A colleague or teammate has unexpected success
A team overachieves
A hard-working player gets a chance and succeeds
An outside authority bestows an honor or award to someone we know
An underdog triumphs
Feeling happiness for others' happiness is a skill.
Lagniappe (something extra). A lot of solid books on this list (I've read seven of them).
1: WOODEN: A Lifetime of Observations On and Off the Court
By John Wooden
If you buy ANY book, get this one.
This is my 2nd Bible!
I buy it for my senior players each year at graduation.
The new coach gives you two minutes to share five points to help the team to more success this season. Think about the proverbial Warren Buffett top 25 possibilities and choose your top five.
5. Outwork the other team. Teams succeed when they have ability and the will to play "harder for longer." Hard work is a skill.
4. Win this possession. Games are the sum of winning individual offensive and defensive possessions. Focus. Play present.
3. No easy shots. "Hard 2s." That means denying dribble and pass penetration. Contest shots without fouling. Free throws 1.4 points/possession, layups on average 1.2 ppp, threes about 1.05 (presume 35% conversion).
2. Take care of the basketball. A turnover is a zero percentage shot. What's worse is that live ball turnovers are converted to high points per possession chances by opponents. Good teams don't give games away or the ball away.
1. Take quality shots. Better shots are the quickest pathway to improvement. Quality shots often comes off assists, off unselfish play.
Of course, most of the time, the new coach isn't asking for recommendations.
Lagniappe. Want separation? Change direction and change pace, especially stopping.
Lagniappe 2. Combat tight/overplay defense with back cuts and screens.
This is the one where the coach of the defense immediately turns to the bench and complains how they went over "that EXACT play" in the walkthrough 🤷🏻♂️ pic.twitter.com/0QHPMoTUnk
Imagine the power. Crowdsource our best ideas. Great coaches like Don Meyer never feared sharing. Sharing was their brand.
What if every coach (or player) reading this committed to sharing - sharing with teammates, sharing with colleagues, sharing with strangers?
Part of the equation is openness to receive ideas. I knew a doctor who when confronted with a particularly challenging patient said, "I'd like to believe that I am smarter than ALL the many doctors and specialists that have evaluated you. But that's unlikely. There is something about you or your condition that makes it especially difficult to diagnose and treat."
Here are a few ideas, shared or stolen, that might improve our coaching.
1. The Success Equation ACHIEVEMENT = PERFORMANCE x TIME
One great performance matters. Carlos Santana didn't make his bones solely through his Woodstock performance. The "Body of Work" matters. We're obsessed with the next new thing. Some have extolled Victor Wembanyama over LeBron James. PERFORMANCE over TIME. Maybe Wemby will be the greatest player in history. The Success Equation still applies.
2. "Every day is player development day." Dave Smart said it; I keep stealing it.
What are we doing to improve daily?
What's our self-improvement plan?
Do we have a mentor?
3. Adopt Dr. Fergus Connolly's framework of performance improvement - Technique, tactics, physicality, psychology.
Become more skilled. What is your overarching skill?
Learn sport-specific strategy. That includes studying including video.
Develop athletic explosion. Get "bigger, faster, stronger."
COVID disrupted our ability to share ideas and conversations. Some of that was 'biological' and some was sociological. We went in different directions.
Having a "Jeffersonian Dinner" is designed to improve our discussions. There are a myriad of possibilities:
Improving shooting
Half-court offense
Creating a winning basketball program "what you do"
Young players often struggle with establishing and maintaining space. Let's discuss. Sometimes we don't prioritize it enough.
"Spacing is offense and offense is spacing." - Chuck Daly
Spacing creates headaches for defenses. It makes help and double teams harder and opens driving and passing lanes.
Great defense contains dribble penetration. Loading to the ball compromises offensive spacing, "shrinks space."
One analogy is magnets. Same polarity repels teammates with offensive spacing. On defense, the ball attracts defenders. On the right, note the "Helpside I" such that ballside offense is playing three against five.
Use the 'spacing line', also known as the three-point line. Part of that is "range building" on shooting and part is teaching players to finish with a maximum of two dribbles from the line.
Great players win in space. They also "draw 2" or more and have the ability to pass to open teammates. This is a classic example that didn't work out for LeBron James and Danny Green.
Teach players "do not cut to an occupied post."
Other important spacing concepts include "opening gaps" and "clearing a side." For example, using 'horns' sets and clearing a corner through opens the side.
Keeping the middle open is another spacing concept. How many times have you told defenders to 'see both'. The Celtics make the Knicks pay.
Spacing also happens by staying outside the spacing line.
The coach described his team's success using an analogy, 'smoke and mirrors'. He meant that the record was an illusion as they had not played either quality ball or quality teams.
When are we not 'smoke and mirrors'?
Play "harder for longer." Excellent teams find ways to wear opponents out. In a postseason game in 1973 against a team that had won 18 straight, we made twenty-two passes to open the game...and then made an open shot. We won 57-37 shooting 23-42 from the field.
Out-tough opponents. That doesn't mean fake toughness standing over guys or 'throat slashes'. Make tough plays - get on the floor, take charges, set and fight through hard screens.
Be more resilient. Maintain composure. Respond to adversity.
Win against quality teams on the road.
Compete relentlessly.
Make good decisions, especially shot selection, consistently.
Be professional in all areas - preparation, practice, self-care.
Lagniappe. "Too many guys are looking inward."
This is an incredibly special coaching point here by Brad Stevens
“If something isn’t going well for you right now, make it go well for someone else.”
There is high value in your approach, even when you aren’t playing well
It's always worthwhile to think better. Cognitive biases hold us back. It's self-deception. I found this "cheat sheet."
Think about the 'sunk cost' fallacy. The high draft choice, bonus baby, scholarship athlete gets extra opportunities even when they've proven they can't play.
Coaching youth basketball (sixth to eighth grade girls), we added value from player and team growth on and off the court.
Seeing players succeed in life reinforces that people built on lessons. Some opportunities included:
1. Forge lifelong relationships. Be available. Be an anteambulo. Write letters of recommendations. Network.
2. Help build skills that get and keep you on the court. "What is your varsity skill?"
3. Emphasis. Focusing your light on making others better, reflects more light upon you. Top players make everyone better.
4. Impact winning. Top players went to or won state championships.
5. Become a student of the game. The players who excelled the most maintained their notebooks and studied video. Integrating skill, athleticism, tactics, and psychology gave them a great chance to succeed.
7. Develop "possession enders," guys who gets scores and stops.
8. Craft leaders.
Model excellence.
Share great info like Wooden's "Pyramid of Success" (laminated)
Share 'the right way', Jay Bilas's "Toughness" qualities (laminated)
Teach leadership stories about men and women who changed the world.
9. Be positive. "A positive life seldom arises from a negative attitude."
10.Create opportunities. Players had offseason sessions available (90 minutes, twice weekly) allowing them to practice key skills, especially scoring at multiple levels.
Set the bar high. Players got the same opportunity. A few seized it.
Lagniappe.
What do Winning Programs do Differently?
A lot.
Here are 5 Things Found in Winning Programs.
1: High-Level Commitment You cannot have a consistently high-performing program without a relentless consistency of commitment. Committed players WIN. Committed teams WIN. Each season,…
"There is something about humor that is soothing to the human spirit..." Doris Kearns Goodwin in MasterClass
Use humor to lighten the moment. For a thoughtful, comprehensive piece, check out this Stanford Business School piece.
Sarcasm is not humor. With younger players, sarcasm usually registers as offensive or doesn't register at all. Telling twelve year-olds that if you are in front of a firing squad you want them shooting gets a lot of blank stares. As does asking, "do you get paid by the dribble?"
Let humor happen naturally. We were scrimmaging and one girl (reserve player) was making everything. Finally, she gets a wide open look and misses. She yells "$hit" and each of the thirteen-fourteen year old teammates burst out laughing...and the coaches.
Some coaches are naturally funny, famously Abe Lemons and to a degree Geno Auriemma.
Yes, sometimes it's sarcasm for college athletes. "Let's change our defense. Let's go from not guarding them to guarding them."
And then there's Gregg Popovich.
And 'less' Popovich.
There's no easy answer, but consider your audience.
Lagniappe.
•Be FAITHFUL when you feel fearful. •Be POSITIVE when you want to be negative. •Be THANKFUL when you feel entitled. •Be LOVING when you want to fight. •Be GENEROUS when you want to be selfish. •Be MINDFUL when you want to hurry.
Incorporate ball handling and footwork into your finishing segments!
Here we are working on a “foot switch” in an effort to get back to our “Drop/Split Stance”. Out of this stance we can drive, change direction or shoot.
(BOSTON) The long-time basketball coach was found incoherent and howling at the moon. Police arrived and took him to the local hospital where he kept mumbling, "It's okay, I know, I know." The responding officer, also a nurse who had played for the coach said, "he just broke after seeing and hearing so much baloney for decades."
What drives coaches mad?
"It's okay." A player travels or throws the ball away. Her teammates soothe her saying, "It's okay. Don't worry about it." It's not okay. Turnovers kill dreams. "The ball is gold." It's NOT okay.
"I know, I know." A player throws the ball to the other team and then looks over to the coach. "I know, I know." If you know, then stop doing it. Just stop. Coach Wooden said, "Don't whine, don't complain, don't make excuses." And don't tell the coach, "I know."
Poor transition defense. Bad transition defense is a recipe for defeat via allowing easy baskets. Effort doesn't require supreme skill or apocalyptic athleticism. It demands concentration, anticipation, reaction, and execution - C.A.R.E.
Silence. Silence is the anathema of success. Talk energizes. Talk heightens awareness. Talk intimidates. ELO. Early. Loud. Often.
Lackadaisical cutting. "Basketball is a game of separation." Separation mandates urgent cutting. Urgency is a catalyst for positive action.
The deadly S's. Softness. Selfishness. Sloth (laziness). "The game honors toughness." Being called soft is an indictment of the worst sort about a player. Tough players get on the floor, set solid screens, set up cuts, and 'play so hard your coach has to take you out' as Jay Bilas wrote in Toughness.
Casual approach. "Turn ordinary moments into extraordinary results." - Shane Parrish If it's not important to you, you can't produce a great result. Sara Blakely says, "Obsess the product."
Lack of attention to detail. The book title says, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff. The author clearly wasn't a basketball coach. Sweat the small stuff. No detail is unimportant.
Lack of punctuality. Being late disrespects your teammates, your coaches, your program. Exceptional circumstances arise but every day cannot be an exceptional excuse. Take pride in doing everything right. Use "Dean Smith Time" and be ten minutes early.
Not doing your best. "Always do your best," is the final agreement in The Four Agreements. Your best means commitment to a lifestyle consistent with doing your best. Our best includes nutrition, rest, exercise, preparation, effort.
Summary (How to Drive a Coach Insane):
"It's okay."
"I know, I know."
Poor transition defense.
Lackadaisical cutting.
Silence.
Poor attention to detail.
The Deadly S's - softness, selfishness, sloth.
Indifference.
Lateness.
Not doing your best.
David Axelrod said, "All we can do is everything we can do."
Lagniappe. More turnovers
Create More Turnovers
Coaches know that the best teams won't turn the ball over against presses often.
So how can we create more turnovers without having to press our opponents?
Mentor CAPT Dr. Bill Baker explained there were two ways to go wrong in medicine:
1) Tell the patient who is sick that nothing is wrong.
2) Tell the patient who is well that something is wrong.
You don't show up one day and become a physician, surgeon, or basketball coach. Whether Malcolm Gladwell's "10,000 hours" applies is conjecture. Overnight experience is oxymoron.
We learn through:
Experience
Mentors ("you're following a lit fuse" - CAPT Tom Walsh)
Trial and error (that procedure needed more local anesthetic)
Independent study (reading, clinics, video)
Analogy. Bees pollinate flowers. Who pollinates our coaching?
Our teams present with symptoms - lack of confidence, indecision, silence, low basketball IQ. And they manifest signs - selfishness, poor spacing, turnovers, poor shot quality, lack of urgency in cutting and transition.
Your 'physical examination' might start with video with audio. What shows up at a glance across sports?
Energy and communication "hey, batter, batter."
Spacing on offense
Ball pressure with "color on color" on defense
Ball movement. "The ball has energy."
Where do points arise?
What is the offensive intent - transition, sets, freelance?
What is the overarching defensive philosophy?
Who delivers the "scoring moment" (possession enders)?
A great diagnostician may not find a cure. But nobody finds cures without working the process of history, examination, and understanding "differential diagnosis." You are doctors of basketball.
Lagniappe. Create.
Manu Ginobili was disgusting
Young people have no idea what he was doing out there
Happy Thursday afternoon coaches! As we inch closer to the start of practices, here’s a great BLOB to run of a boa. Along with that, we have our usual random thoughts. Get better today coaches!! pic.twitter.com/ur7QuBnD6y
Sport is not war and war is anything but sport. Studying military leaders provides a chance to become better coaches and better leaders. War is about preserving nations and societies.
I didn't teach basketball to young women to glorify war. Ten years in the military expunged those thoughts.
Here are old and newer concepts that cross domains.
"We are here to fight, not to count." This was Suvorov's version of "control what you can control."
"Train hard, fight easy." The modern basketball version is, "make practice hard so games are easier."
"If a peasant doesn't know how to plough, he cannot grow bread." If you don't know your job, you cannot perform it.
"All the secret of maneuvers lies in the legs." Condition players.
"Formation and tactics always depended on the nature of the terrain and the anticipated enemy." Know your opponent.
Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War. Far more lessons reside within.
"All warfare is based on deception." Having superior talent matters. In the documentary, "Against the Tide," producers showed how superior USC footballers overwhelmed Alabama. In the rematch the next season, Alabama held closed practices, deployed the wishbone and won in Los Angeles.
Bait bad passes by appearing passive but springing into passing lanes.
Show a zone formation and shift to man. LSU's Dale Brown used "The Freak" where initial defenses morphed into others.
“To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.” Practice the defenses that you will encounter.
"He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces." You won't automatically win with more talent or lose with less. Competing as an underdog requires different approaches.
The Millenium Challenge '02 pitted US forces, the Blue Team, with futuristic technology against retired General Paul Van Riper's "Red Team," the opposing forces of OPFOR. The Pentagon crafted the simulation with a predetermined outcome that OPFOR had no chance against a superior force with Spaced Aged weaponry. Van Riper had other ideas.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof warned that it “should teach us one clear lesson relating to Iraq: Hubris kills.” Overconfidence and a crafty enemy can cause defeat.
"Retired Marine Corps three-star Paul Van Riper was praised for having “created the conditions for successful spontaneity” with a decision-making style that “enables rapid cognition.”" Superior leadership, imagination, and execution can produce surprising results.
“MC ’02 is the key to military transformation.” Innovation, while welcomed and valuable, doesn't always prevail.
"Van Riper decided that as soon as a U.S. Navy carrier battle group steamed into the Gulf, he would “preempt the preemptors” and strike first." As a heavy underdog, the unexpected may have strategic, unexpected advantage.
"Van Riper’s forces unleashed a barrage of missiles from ground-based launchers, commercial ships, and planes flying low and without radio communications to reduce their radar signature." Maybe this was analogous to UMBC's three-point barrage that took down Virginia in a 1-16 mismatch.
"Van Riper believed that MC ’02 was both scripted and carried out in a way that did not realistically reflect likely future U.S. military capabilities or the threats posed by a thinking, motivated adversary." As coaches, use our imagination in training, preparation, and execution. Think out of the box.
What's the point? Conventional wisdom gets conventional results. Overwhelming force will usually prevail. But what's the cost of using our imagination?
Lagniappe. The guy being defended for entry into the back court gets lost.
With the game on the line, few coaches in the country I would rather have than Andy Toole
1. Use analytics. If we have the capability, assess an opponent for weakness...transition defense, three-point shooting, free throw shooting (e.g. Hack-a-Shaq).
2. Attack mismatches. A mismatch might occur in size, speed, or skill. Coach Knight opined that even against zone defense, you have choice of where and whom to attack.
3. Create mismatches. Many teams regularly or situationally switch.
4. Study video looking for advantage. Is there a vulnerability to pressure or a weak ballhandler?
Lagniappe. Screening the top of the zone...
We've seen this before....screen the middle of the top zone defenders to open a gap to drive off the top but I like the overload spacing and reaction to create a 2-on-1 advantage. pic.twitter.com/LtqfgblaYN
High efficiency and fewer mistakes drive success. Here are five simple ideas that help teams win.
1. Develop solid inbounding. Why?
Break the press. Good teams defeat pressure.
Get the ball in safely close and late.
Exert advantage in your special situations, e.g. BOBs, SLOBs, and ATOs. Passes must be on time and on target. Patience is needed to allow plays to develop. Have them on your game play sheet.
2. "Foul for profit" is Kevin Sivils' term. Excessive fouling puts opponents on the line for high 'points per possession' chances. Even if they were only hitting 65 percent, that's still 1.3 points/possession. "Show your hands," "don't reach in," and "don't swat down to block shots." If it looks like a foul, it will get called.
3. Don't give games away. What are three common ways teams shoot themselves in the foot?
Poor shot selection. Have your sound byte like "ROB - range, open, balanced."
Take care of the basketball. "Turnovers kill dreams."
Be competent at the line. Bill Bradley recommended better targeting in John McPhee's "A Sense of Where You Are." Add pressure during practice. We allowed partners to say anything to the shooter in practice.
4. Win special situations. We finished each practice with 'specials' - three possession games starting with BOBs, SLOBs, ATOs, or free throws.
5. Practice 'close and late' situations. Be solid at offensive and defensive delay games. Thinking players will magically execute without practice is folly.
Vary time remaining and score.
Include offensive and defensive delays situations (e.g up/down by 6 with three minutes left).
Adjust team fouls.
Practice leading by 3 with 10 seconds left w/o the ball. To foul or not?
Practice trailing by 2 or 3, with one free throw and five seconds left.
Practice trailing by 2, five seconds left SLOB at midcourt.
Aspire to see the game through 'coaches' eyes'. Brook Kohlheim shares a 2002 Buster Olney article about Marshall Faulk's game understanding. Many lessons apply across sports.
Superior vision, decisions, and execution define excellence. For example, a spread offense presents many challenges, beginning with great spacing. With younger teams, defending the give and go and backdoor cuts are the 'starting point'.
Like chess grandmasters, excellent players learn to 'chunk' positions on the 'board' and see numerous possibilities.
Examine quotes from the article:
"...what may distinguish Faulk is his comprehension of what is occurring around him on the field, and his ability to apply his skills." Restate this as superior vision leading to better decisions and execution.
"...the thing that's so impressive about him -- and you'd hope other players would be like this, too -- is he's a great problem solver.'' What separates extraordinary from ordinary is real-time solutions.
"He cannot remember a time in his life when he did not ask questions -- one in particular: Why?" Ask better questions. Remember to ask secondary questions like "what if?"
''He wants to know what's going to happen..." Anticipation leads to quicker reaction and execution.
The two best players I've ever coached (earning D1 scholarships) had a critical commonality after size and skill...both were students of the game.
Samantha Dewey (Illinois) was constantly in her notebook, even when injured. This reminds me of Steve Kerr, who was building his future coaching system while broadcasting.
Cecilia Kay (American commit) became a student of video as a middle schooler. She regularly reviewed game footage taken by her parents. This reminds me of Erik Spoelstra whose early days in Miami occupied the video room.
In most professions, the ability to process information quickly, leading to exceptional execution defines success.
Lagniappe. What are our players willing to sacrifice?
If you want your players to buy into what you are saying about sacrificing for the team then you must celebrate their successes big or small. Make a point to praise players when they do the little things. Give them a reason to sacrifice for the team. -- Jamy Bechler pic.twitter.com/Uf9hjNNT51
You can't exercise strategy without skill. "We can't run what we can't run."
Skill links to mental approach. "Champions do extra."
Athleticism - "explosiveness leverages skill."
Skill relies on decision-making. Bad decisions (e.g. fouling) neutralize skill and hustle.
Strategy
Multiple paths lead to victory. Even more lead to defeat. "'Cause every hand's a winner and every hand's a loser."
Listen to your current coach. His or her word is the one that matters. When you gain your coach's confidence, ask privately about other ways to perform a skill or strategy such as defending the pick-and-roll.
Keep learning from every source you can find - mentors, coaches, video, clinics, blogs. Learn how to learn.
If there were one best way to do everything, everyone would do that.
Athleticism
Find a workout partner. Drag a teammate into the top 10% with you.
Playing off of 2 feet doesn’t always mean playing out of a jump stop. Landing with your outside foot first helps you keep your balance rather than landing simultaneously. 🔋 #BeTheCatalystpic.twitter.com/XKfEDbx5pT
