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Friday, October 17, 2025

Notes from Auriemma and Knight

Study greatness. We abuse the term great. Great arrives infrequently. Sports differ but many coaching principles cross sport domains. These coaching notes from Bob Knight and Geno Auriemma illustrate.

Find some core concepts to adopt. 

Excerpts:

1) Playing defense has to be taught (well)

2) Many coaches make the mistake of trying to coach something that someone else does well (coach what we do well)

3) What you can TEACH depends on the type of players you have

4) How will the other team beat us?

5) Nature won't help you, you have to make change happen

6) IMPORTANT: know strengths and limitations

  • Tell a kid what they CAN'T do (yet)
  • Tell a kid what they CAN do
7) Find a way to simplify the game for the kids

8) What little things are going to make the team better?

9) 

10) You can't make kids into something they are not.

11) Have drills to create intensity and attitude from the beginning of practice

12) Drills are run at the pace you want to play at

13) Practice culture:
14) "Thinking makes good players out of average players."

15) Maximize practice time; maximize teaching. 

16) Do things that suit you as a coach and your players

17) Make practice hard:

My thoughts: 
***Beating quality means scoring points. You cannot win 0-0. Execute. Execute. Execute.
***Show players and teams specifically what we want done.
**  Use video as illustration. This is how we will do it. 
*    Regularly reassess whether change/improvement happened

Lagniappe. It's more than what we do. It's doing it well. 
Lagniappe 2. Be good at what matters every possession. 
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