John Wooden's TED Talk

John Wooden TED talk...on the difference between winning and succeeding...

• "We had a number of years at UCLA where we didn't lose a game...but didn't win each individual game by the margin that some of our alumni had predicted..."
• "Success is peace of mind attained through self-satisfaction in knowing that you did the best that you were capable."
• "Control what you could control."
• "Reputation is what you are perceived to be and character is what you really are."
• "...nor all the books on all the shelves, it's what the teachers are themselves."
• "Never be late. Be neat and clean. (Not one word of profanity.) Never criticize a teammate."
• "There is no progress without change, but not all change is progress."
• "It's bearing down that wins the cup..." (a reference to grit)
• "Don't whine, don't complain, don't make excuses."
• "You can lose when you outscore somebody in a game and you can win when you are outscored."
• Discusses results as less important than process.
• Cervantes, "The journey is better than the end." (Practices are the journey.)
• "Make the perfect player...get an education, good student, can play, know defense usually wins, play offense, be unselfish and pass, could pass and would pass, shoot outside but be good inside, rebound at both ends..."
• Discussed overachieving players, who made the most of their ability, quality shots although not great talents, good positional rebounders, had good balance

Cuts - Old and Newer Ways to Separate

BBallBreakDown with common and important cuts.



Individual cuts (v-cut, front cut, back cuts, circle cuts, and others) are important but combination cuts (those involving multiple players) are vital to create separation and quality shots against stronger defenses.

Coach Nick reviews:

• UCLA cuts (and critical setup of the cut) 
• Shuffle cut (run by Bruce Drake and Dean Smith at Air Force back in the day)
• Flex cut (set one, get one)
• Zipper cut (often into screen-and-roll)

We use many of these during both practice and games, although players don't always 'get' the names yet. Our players are going to hear a lot more about these cuts. 

The Voice

Fifty years ago, Frank Herbert began the Dune series with the eponymous first novel.


In the novel, the Reverend Mothers are the elite of the Bene Gesserit, a sisterhood with a profound influence over the Dune universe. They have special training in using the Voice to control others.

Why is this important?

The coach's VOICE is our greatest asset. Content and tone matter. We can destroy a player, lose the team, or change a player forever by what we say. At the extreme, Del Harris says one form of communication is "Go nuts," in the rare circumstances that extreme measures are called for.

I've mentioned the Wooden "Sandwich technique," sandwiching specific criticism in between praise. I believe that the most powerful four words in English, not just coaching, are I BELIEVE IN YOU. Confidence is self-trust and promoting self-trust is a vital element of coaching. Kevin Eastman says you can't fool kids, dogs, and basketball players. We can't hand out consistent unearned praise and remain credible.

Silence can make a point, but hearing Coach John Killilea at camp forty plus years ago would wake the dead. If you did it wrong, you knew it.

Everyone wants to feel appreciated. Coach Dean Smith made it a point to praise contributors who weren't recognized for "box score" contributions. He believed in recognizing the important roles of everyone on his teams. That Voice earned both trust and loyalty.

One coach says that every player should hear her name in the first ten minutes of practice. Nothing is closer to us than our name, and players need to know we see them and care.

Some players are sensitive about being criticized. My coach used to say, "if I'm not yelling at you, then I've given up on you (because you can't play)." That clarity meant correction equalled caring.

What we say matters. How we say it matters. But how the players hear it may matter most.

Coach Starkey on Half Court Offense and Generic Thoughts

This article speaks for itself. When we read an article, we should have some 'takeaways'.

Here are some generic thoughts I have on offense.

• Transition is great, but good teams limit transition and you face only good teams in the post-season. 
• Core concepts include spacing, screening, cutting, and passing. 
• If you want to become a scorer, you need FOUR WAYS to SCORE. 
• Movement kills defense. 
• You have to match your offensive philosophy to the players you have. Think "infantry, cavalry, and artillery." Infantry pounds the ball inside, cavalry is speed based, and artillery is perimeter scoring. 
• Offense is not a democracy. The best scorers should get the most shots. 
• Possession and possessions. "More and better quality shots than the opposition."
• The quickest route to better offense is better shot quality. 
• If you aren't a good shooting team, then you better be an excellent passing team to get better shots.
• Players need to "see the game." Coaches' primary job is teaching that vision. 
• The game evolves with the rules. Don't live in the past. 
• Eighty percent of practice should be on the twenty percent that you consider most important. 
• We all overcoach and under teach at times. 
• Drills have to teach something that translates to game play. 
• Small-sided games in small spaces create realism and more touches. 
• Always get feedback to assess learning. 
• You can't 'make up' repetitions that you don't get. Create combination drills that blend game situations with decision-making and competition. 
• "You are responsible for your paycheck." (Minutes)
• If your first reaction to any situation is putting the ball on the floor, I want you sitting next to me. 

Teaching Aids

We have a lot of ways to communicate with our players at practice, but we can work on improving.

Reading:

Practice Perfect, Doug Lemov et al. (Specific tips to improve your teaching)
Study is Hard Work, William Armstrong (develop reading, vocabulary, study, and outlining skills)

Internet Resources:

Youtube and other videos (best displayed on Chromecast or similar technology). Coaches can share these via email, team resources (e.g. Google Drive), or team websites/blogs. I will publish some of my favorite websites in another post soon.

Google Drive:

Team specific resources (e.g. philosophy, schedules, policies, playbook)...this can be restricted or public domain at your discretion

Player Notebooks:

Don Meyer used to keep three notebooks, one for basketball, one for general knowledge, and one for appreciation toward his wife (that he would give her annually).

I have distributed notebooks to my teams with the suggestion that each player add three things they learned or did well and one thing they need improvement with and how specifically they will work on that.

PowerPoint Sites:

Sites like www.Slideshare.net contain a wealth of PowerPoint type presentations on sports, psychology, and leadership

Laminated Sheets:

I distribute laminated information periodically. "If it's laminated, it's important." I have distributed Coach Wooden's "Pyramid of Success," Jay Bilas' "Toughness" values, and Offensive and Defensive philosophies.

Build Listening Skills:

Use Internet resources like this.

DVD Coaching Information:

Miscellaneous coaching information from CoachingULive.com and other proprietary sources

Regardless of what we're teaching, we need to get feedback from players to show they are learning the material. "What is not learned is not taught."

Monday Morning Leadership

David Cottrell wrote a terrific little book called "Monday Morning Leadership." The book made many excellent points but a few stood out.

Each of us wants to be part of a quality organization. Part of an outstanding organization (company, school, community) is:

"Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing." In some organizations, neither management nor rank-and-file know the main thing. The coach needs to provide the philosophy, the blueprints, the process, the guidance, the emphasis, and the feedback necessary for success.

"People don't quit jobs, they quit people." When communication fails, when there is no clarity, when goals and desires go unaligned, people don't walk away they run.

Our primary task is to be ON TASK and to lead with PERFORMANCE-FOCUSED, FEEDBACK-RICH leadership...every day. We should write things down, because "when you write things down, you commit to doing them."

We need to build trust so as to cultivate loyalty.

The three main concepts in business are:

• Equip employees with the tools to be successful.
• Provide outstanding service to customers. 
• Make a profit.

The basketball analogs are: 

• Add value to your players. 
• Play quality basketball. 
• Reap the success of your process. 

Attacking 2-3 Zones: Theory and Practice

Most teams we face play zone. Younger players usually have very limited range, and zones limit pick-and-roll action and can neutralize "star" players. But zones have limitations, too. Offenses can choose where to attack and zone defenses have no assigned rebounding and can be vulnerable on the boards.



Coach Nick gives some basic concepts worth reviewing. Here are a few more.

• The more aggressive the zone, the more passing is key. 
• If zones are passive, dribbling into gaps has a bigger role. 
• Passing distorts zones east and west; shot fakes move zones north and south. 
• Distorting and attacking zones are key. 
• DR. FLAPS is an acronym worth remembering. D(ribble penetration), R(eversal), FLash cut to open spots, P(ost up), and S(creen). 

Watch the video and look at the diagrams. 

Entry passes to short corner/slot (left) or post (right) followed by a cutter from the wing create an instant overload 3 on 2. This puts a lot of pressure on the center defender (left) or low defender (right). 

Developing Mental Toughness

Becoming a player involves multiple tempering steps - learning the game, developing your athleticism, refining technical skills from stance, ballhandling, and shooting, and improving your emotional and psychological response to stress and adversity. 

In this article, Eric Barker provides detailed, stepwise instructions on approaches to improving your mental toughness. 

Summary:

• Positive self-talk
• Goal setting (I'd call this progress management)
• Visualization ("Neurolinguistic programming" in medical terms)
• Simulations (Advanced preparation)

An excerpt:

The SEAL experience, this constant learning, constantly not being satisfied. That’s one of the interesting things about the community: you never feel like you’ve got it all figured out. If you do feel like you figured it out, you probably aren’t doing it right. If you’re not willing to learn from other people then frankly you’re not doing all you need to do to be the best operator you can possibly be. It’s a culture of constant self-improvement and constant measurement of how you’re doing.

My example: 

As a young player, I struggled with shooting...I had a slow release, got shots blocked, and lacked confidence (self-trust) offensively. Back in the early seventies, there were far fewer resources for personal development. I developed three approaches to improve these flaws. 

• To improve quickness of release, in the lane facing the basket, I would toss the ball over my head, catch it on the bounce, pivot and shoot as quickly as possible. Initially, I concerned myself with proper form and quickness more than accuracy. I'd work on this in sets of fifty shots. 
• To reduce the blocked shots, I attached a tennis racket to a step ladder and force myself to shoot over that 'defender' who always challenged the shot. 
• To improve accuracy, I played 'around the world' using ten spots 'out' and 'in', with the goal of going 'around the world' in the minimum (twenty) shots and completing the course (out and in) as quickly as possible. 

I'd be kidding you if I reported that I was a great high school player. But a consistent process provided me with deliberate practice and enough confidence to have some success, shooting over fifty percent from the field as a senior and helping our team get to the Division 1 state semifinals. 

Dreaming big is helpful, but deliberate practice is critical to develop both your basketball 'hardware' and 'software'. Today, my goal is helping young players achieve their potential, to develop their craft and learn the game that has given so much to so many. 

Checklists

Atul Gawande is a Boston surgeon and prolific writer, authoring The Checklist Manifesto, Better, and Being Mortal among other works. His books highlight the pursuit of excellence, which mimics what the luminaries and lesser lights in the basketball community strive for.

In Checklist Manifesto, he describes the use of checklists in aviation, construction, cooking, finance, and medicine. Why can't checklists help us?

First, we should recognize the symmetry of basketball - what we want to do offensively is what we want to prevent defensively. We want our best scorers to take the lions' share of the shots and defensively we want to take away our opponent's strength.

I've emphasized three areas offensively and defensively for my teams to improve:

Ball pressure - handle it with cutting and passing, apply it with assiduous defense.

Possession - take care of the basketball (reduce turnovers) leading to a quality shot and deny easy shots each possession (forced turnovers, deflections, charges taken all appear here). A game is nothing more than the sum of the individual possessions.

Rebounding - use position and toughness to get more than 75 percent of defensive rebounds. Use quickness and anticipation to get as many offensive rebounds as possible.

Has this had any results? With our last group, we improved our shooting percentage about twenty percent and decreased our turnover percentage by about thirty percent. When we measure (not as good as film-based statistics) important parameters, players become more accountable to those issues. We don't report player statistics individually but sometimes review them for the group.

Ideally, monitoring turnovers also defines how the ball was turned over - traveling, bad pass, bad receipt (e.g. not going to the ball), or as Doc Rivers reports "shot turnovers," horribly inefficient shots.

Emphasizing the quantitative (measured) impact of decisions and execution can help alter behavior, which is what education does at its core.

Key Concept: Off Ball Movement Separates Excellent from Good Players

Richard Hamilton was one of the top NBA players at moving without the ball. Ultimately, unless you're the point guard or LeBron James, 90 percent of your game (100% defense, 80% offense) is played without the ball. So, you need to develop those portions.




Key points:

• Conditioning
• Change of speed 
• Change of direction 
• Become hard to guard
• Study players that you find hard to guard 

Consider how professional basketball utilizes spacing and off ball movement to separate: 

Coach Nick discusses three key NBA concepts:

• Pinch post
• Horns
• Spread (high) pick-and-roll

Almost any 'set' can be adapted to run high ball screens...

On the left, a 'box' formation morphs into high pick-and-roll. On the right, a 1-3-1 set turns into spread pick-and-roll and weak side off ball screen. 

Players need to start visualizing offensive combinations into opportunities and learn how to finish. 

Meyer, Football, and Commander's Intent

Brooklyn Kohlheim shared this article about Urban Meyer and the OSU Football program. I'm not one hundred percent bought in on Meyer's rhetoric, remembering he sponsored Florida's program with everything from Tim Tebow (authentic) to Aaron Hernandez (possible serial killer). 

Meyer said, "You got these elite soldiers, elite warriors, elite football players and they're de-motivators because you're not clear. So I challenge you as a leader, if you're the head coach or if you're a position coach, are you very clear within your unit?"

I agree that communication without clarity being just words. But how do we relentlessly give and get feedback from young people with short attention spans?

Gary Klein, author of Sources of Power, discusses a military concept, "Commander's Intent." The doctrine reads:

The commander's intent describes the desired end state. It is a concise expression of the purpose of the operation and must be understood two echelons below the issuing commander. . . It is the single unifying focus for all subordinate elements. It is not a summary of the concept of the operation. Its purpose is to focus subordinates on the desired end state. Its utility is to focus subordinates on what has to be accomplished in order to achieve success, even when the plan and concept of operations no longer apply, and to discipline their efforts toward that end.

Within an operation (basketball game), changing situations arise (pace, foul trouble, injury, officiating style, score), but players still need to represent the commander's (coach's) intent. So often I see players 'freelance,' making idiosyncratic decisions regarding shot selection, timing, fouling/hand discipline, and so on, that I wonder for the coach's sanity. Yet ultimately, when you see and tolerate bad decision-making, it's the coach's choice. 

Players need clarity, but also need to know the consequences of their choices. Playing time and roles must change when the team buckles under adversity. And if the team struggles repeatedly, the commander often has failed the troops and the mission. 

Favorite Drills in the Half Court

During the 'Rebuild' of the basketball educational blog, I'll be posting material on every aspect of basketball I know, soup to nuts, alpha to omega. Some obvious early topics will include:

• Reading list
• Web sites
• Video sites
• Coaching notes
• Favorite drills
• Fresh material (email compendia)
• What I'm Reading

Here are just a few drills/concepts that I believe belong in every practice:

Shivek drill.

Everyone passes, cuts, and shoots in the Arik Shivek drill.

Rollouts.

Players work aggressively in 'small sided play.'

Continuous Dribble Handoff.

Spread formation with wing dribble handoff "on a platter" with downhill drive turning the corner and then pass opposite for same action. Coach can call for player to score. Add defense with options for back cut/screen slipping. Add post player (opposite block) when players efficient. Can run as a stand alone offense.

Stanford.

I firmly believe players need to learn to play in the half court. Good teams limit transition, pressure the ball, and make you score in ways that you don't want to play. Excellent teams learn to see the game and play in confined spaces yet still create separation and quality shots. 

Safety

As a coach (and prior basketball parent), I'm concerned about safety. Many elements contribute to the training/game play environment.

External:

• Environmental conditions - heat/humidity, rain, lightning 
• Facility specific - lighting, floor condition (can relate to environmental issues), safety/padding under the basket, proximity of hazards (scorer's table, stands) to playing surface, leaks, ventilation 

Player Related:

• Rest and conditioning 
• Hydration status (relates to environmental conditions)
• Injury prevention*
• Players creating spills (common!)
• Players should not stretch (sweat) on the floor 
• Mouth guards (impacts concussion risk and dental injury) 
• Bench maintenance (I keep a towel in the ball bag now) 
• Ankle braces may reduce basketball-related ankle injuries. 

I may consider rotating players to lead dynamic stretching along these lines.

Being safety conscious shows players and families another part of your total commitment to player development and well-being.

New Rules

We all know the "usual" basketball rules. But as far as practice goes, the coaches establish the rules, scoring, and participation.

For example, a minority of time play begins from "static" situations - inbounds plays, jump balls, after time outs. Play often begins after missed shots (rebounds), steals, other turnovers. Coaches can design situations (e.g. intentional blocked shots, dribble penetration advantage, 'change' - O to D on the whistle) and put in additional rules:

• Maximum number of dribbles (including zero)
• Require ball advancement (by rule)
• Failure to cut after passing is a turnover
• Failure to space properly is a turnover
• Advantage-disadvantage 3-on-4, 4-on-3, or other 
• Defined number of possession without stoppage of play (e.g. 3-5)
• No ball pressure, substitute out on the fly 

Changing the rules can make play look "awkward." But leaving your comfort zone is a recurrent theme. 

If we really want our players to play 'differently', then we need to change the rules and the consequences. That establishes offensive and defensive aggressiveness as the norm, an 'attack mode' style, with cutting, passing, and spacing rule-based. 

If we're happy with our ability to play with pace and space, then we don't need to change anything. 

Pyramid of Success

My high school coach, Sonny Lane, introduced us to John Wooden's "Pyramid of Success" during the 1970-1971 season. We had a framed copy in the basketball "team room," one of the most spartan, malodorous, inglorious rooms in the history of sports. And that is being kind.

Wooden developed the Pyramid with painstaking thought, everything from the cornerstones (Industriousness and Enthusiasm), the core (Condition, Skill, Team, Spirit), to the flanking values Faith and Patience near the summit.

Coach Wooden believed that these values translated well into life success.

I have distributed laminated copies of Wooden's Pyramid to my players through the years. "If it's laminated, then it's important."

Over the long pull, players who invest themselves in embracing the values of the Pyramid of Success have a daily head start over their competition.