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Saturday, February 15, 2025

Basketball - Adding Value

Basketball is open source. What hard-won lessons can add value for some coaches? 

1) Everyone benefits from coaching. Atul Gawande, an experienced, highly-trained surgeon shares how hiring a senior surgeon to oversee his surgery improved his skills. 

The AI take from Claude.ai, "The piece challenges the notion that medical professionals should be completely autonomous once they complete their training. Instead, it suggests that ongoing coaching could lead to better patient outcomes and continued professional growth."

Nobody is too good to learn. 

2) Reach out and get help. John Donne wrote, "no man is an island," and Coach John Calipari has an advisory group his "Personal Board of Directors" with whom he meets periodically for perspective and input.

This also includes networking in order to help players succeed after they leave our program. 

Find ways to help players achieve life dreams.

3) Be your own 'guy' because you can't be anyone else. Pete Newell said of coaches who install their coach's systems that it often results "in a poor copy of the original." Mr. Rogers shared, "look for the helpers." 

4) "Every day is player development day." - Coach Dave Smart  Player development impacts players powerfully and directly. Invest time in learning the wide variety of player improvement avenues - skill, strategy (including video study), physical training, and psychology/resilience.

Player development also means encouraging, monitoring, and enhancing academic performance. 

5) "Give and get feedback." Feedback-rich coaching gives us a chance at sustainable competitive advantage. Without feedback, we cannot be our best and cannot know whether players are on the same page. With hard conversations, always have another adult present. 

6) Learn every day. "Be a learn-it-all not a know-it-all" says Kevin Eastman. Keep a journal or a 'commonplace book' to help with our personal growth and our players'. 

7) "Read. Read. Read. Read. Read." Read widely. The differences between the person we are now and whom we become in five years are the people we meet and the books we read. 

It doesn't cost a fortune to read. Local and area public libraries often have "free" online books available to borrow. I use BPL.com (Boston Public Library) and area apps "Libby" and "Hoopla." 

I'm reading 23 1/2 Lies by James Patterson and Same as Ever by Morgan Housel both via online library loans.  

8) Seek balance. Coaching is a demanding and sometimes obsessive profession. Care of our family and self-care can both suffer under coaching demands. 

Ask "how can I help?"

9) Improve our teaching. Multiple free or low cost resources are out there. I took the free Coursera course, "Learning How to Learn." Doug Lemov's book, "Teach Like a Champion," is great. Dr. Fergus Connolly's "Game Changer" is another wonderful resource. 

Find what works for you.

10) Adopt a 'growth mindset'. Our personal mindset overflows into how we model excellence for players. There's no secret sauce. Explore different techniques, ask a lot of questions, and track our progress by soliciting feedback. People can embrace our approach, adopt a bit, or ignore it because they have something that works better for them. "Are we building a program or a statue?" 

Lagniappe. Harden teaches his reads. 

Lagniappe 2. Consistency wins. 

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Lagniappe 3. Hubie. 
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