Saturday, October 19, 2024

Basketball: Moving the Goal Posts

Society wrestles with moving the goal posts. Tired of crime? Three felonies got the analogy of a baseball strikeout. "Three strikes and you're out." All felonies are unalike. Do we want to jail and support a three-time car thief for life? 

Basketball can be similar. Some truths are immutable.

Positivity. "You can't have a positive life with a negative attitude." 

Work ethic. Hard work outperforms. One of the most common reasons offense fails is the lack of 'urgent cutting'. 

Study. Nobody translates theory into practice without study. Watch video, including cellphone video of yourself. Focus, don't just look. 

Be a tracker. Measure your progress... speed, strength, efficiency at shooting, passing, rebounding, defending. 

Minutes. As a player, you have to give coaches a reason to put and keep you on the floor. Everyone can get a trophy, but there are only so many minutes to go around. 

Fundamentals. Don't return to fundamentals. Never leave. Examine what actions drive improvement. Brian McCormick's "Fake Fundamentals" series asks hard questions. Dr. Fergus Connolly, performance specialist, says that everything should impact winning. 

Self-analysis. Some people are their harshest critics. Coach reminded us, "I'm pleased but I'm not satisfied." Others award themselves an "A" for B or C work. "Dog looks in the mirror and sees god." 

Excellence. Coaches have a lot of tough tasks. Develop talent. Put players in the best position to succeed. Get the most out of available resources. It's not like poker, where a player chooses which hands to play and how much to bet. You have to play every hand (game) and manage risk as best you can. 

Coaches that we should admire are driven to understand people and their sport, what impacts success and failure. Top coaches don't find excuses, they find solutions. 

Lagniappe. Learn from mistakes. 

Lagniappe 2. Chinese quote. Assess. Revise. Be better. 


Lagniappe 3. Just because something didn't work doesn't mean it won't work. 

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