Hard Coaching

What is "hard coaching?"

After a bad (JV) loss in 1971, Coach had us run for two hours. Didn't touch a ball, didn't play basketball. That wasn't hard coaching. It was dumb coaching. We lost because our opponents were better and we couldn't break their press. Punishing players for lack of skill or team coordination reflects primarily on the coach. 

After a UCONN practice, Geno Auriemma took questions. One was, "Were you nice to the 'girls' (including Breanna Stewart) because there were fans here?" He said, "I'm nice because they are babies. If I yell at them, they'll say, "Coach hates me.""

Everyone has their own definition of hard coaching. 

• Yelling. 
• More conditioning.
• Physicality during practice. 
• Task-oriented versus relationship-oriented coaching. 
• Truth telling 

Coaching well means effective problem solving. Coaching well impacts behavior, "compete level" and putting teams in the best position to win.

The psychological term is "deliberate practice." Here's an AI Assist:

“Deliberate practice” comes from the work of psychologist K. Anders Ericsson and colleagues, especially their 1993 paper on expert performance.

Ericsson used the term much more narrowly than it is commonly used today. It did not simply mean practicing hard, practicing often, or repeating a skill.

A good original-definition version is:

Deliberate practice is highly structured training specifically designed to improve performance by working on weaknesses just beyond one’s current ability, with immediate feedback, correction, and repeated refinement.

Its defining elements are:

• A specific improvement target. Not “work on shooting,” but perhaps “improve left-hand finishes against contact.”
• Tasks deliberately chosen to stretch present ability.
• Full attention and effort. Ericsson emphasized that this kind of practice is mentally demanding and cannot be sustained indefinitely.
• Immediate or rapid feedback.
• Correction and repetition. The performer modifies the action based on the feedback.
• Often a teacher or coach designs the work. This was important in Ericsson’s original conception because novices often cannot accurately identify their own deficiencies.
• Practice is primarily for improvement, not enjoyment or competition. Ericsson explicitly distinguished deliberate practice from play and from simply performing the activity.

That last distinction is useful in basketball. Playing five-on-five for two hours isn't necessarily deliberate practice. Nor is taking 500 comfortable shots from familiar spots.

A player who struggles to finish left-handed might instead spend a concentrated block attacking from one specific angle, receiving immediate feedback about footwork and release, progressively increasing defensive pressure, and repeatedly correcting errors. That is much closer to Ericsson's deliberate practice. 

One Sunday night, I showed Cecilia Kay (a rising eighth grader, the only player who showed up for extra training), reverse layups. She struggled with the footwork and didn't make many. 

The following Sunday, she made most of them on corner drives, from either side of the hoop. 

In the state championship against a team that dominated her team twice, she made two reverse layups, and her team lost by four, within two points in the final minute. 

Hard coaching impacts player development, preparation, and winning. Hard coaching isn't about "ego repair" because the coach's feelings were hurt or because she didn't have the team ready to play. 

Solve problems. Do your job. 

Lagniappe. "I'm here for all the smoke." 

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