Friday, October 20, 2023

Basketball: Symptoms, Signs, and Diagnosis

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. 

Lagniappe 2. BOB, a little busy. 

 


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