Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Basketball: Compression Lifts Us

Compression liberates us. It ranks among the most powerful analogies. Compression makes better players, better coaches.

Velocity equals distance/time. Compression reduces time. Compression heals, cooks, informs, speeds, teaches.

Compression cooks as in pressure cooking. Steam "produced from the boiling liquid, raises the internal pressure above ambient. This higher pressure limits boiling and creates higher cooking temperatures, allowing food to cook far more quickly than at normal pressure." (Duck assist)
Compression 'edits' ideas and stories. Comedy writers have careers 'shaving syllables'. "What were the last words Washington spoke to his troops before crossing the Delaware?" ....... "Get in the boat." 
Superinvestor Warren Buffett advises people to list ideas and pare to the best ones. His '25-5 rule' follows that approach. 
In On Writing, Stephen King shares his distaste for adverbs. She 'ran quickly' becomes she sped, raced, or hastened. Michael Lewis says, "make a thirty word sentence fifteen." 
Soft tissue injuries include compression in the RICE acronym - rest/ice/compression/elevation. 

Simplify the playbook. Bill Belichick recognized the expansive Joe Gibbs Redskins playbook distilled to ten passes and three runs, the variety created by formation and motions.

In our basketball playbooks, limit the numbers of actions but disguise them with different formations. Or use a few predominant formations (e.g. spread, horns) and run core actions from those. 

McCormick's no "laps, lines, or lectures" preaches compression. Timing competitive drills compresses them. 


UCONN's "4 minute shooting" yielded 150 makes with a group that included future National Champions including Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson, and Morgan Tuck. 

Time compression challenges players or groups to set their "personal best" for makes in a given time. 

You know the expression, "good players need two dribbles, excellent players one, and exceptional players none." Footwork, cutting, and efficiency eliminate too many dribbles. Nobody pays by the dribble. 

Mentoring accelerates basketball learning. Mentoring can include on court instruction, video, books, and classroom teaching. 

"The exceptions make the rule." Demand spacing on offense but compression (shrink the court) on defense. Develop 'systems of help' with loading to the ball. 

Another exception is doing the work, Dan Pink's "do five more" or James Kerr's Legacy advice, "Champions do extra."   

Applying compression adds value in basketball and life. 

Lagniappe. Are we 'responsive' or 'reactive'? 

Lagniappe 2. Stay connected enough to coach anyone and be humble enough to learn from anyone.  

Lagniappe 3. Become a player with solutions not complaints.  

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