Basketball: Move the Needle with a More Professional Approach

Professionals find ways to MOVE THE NEEDLE. We can smash the glass and reset the gauge to full, but that doesn't make it so. 

What separates an amateur from a professional approach? Steve Kerr (eight rings) focuses on the trio of mindset, mentors, and culture. Don't sleep on the mental toughness of Kerr, whose father was murdered by terrorists. Kerr worked in broadcasting after his playing career, and developed a dossier of technical and tactical insights that he brought into coaching. 

Consider Kevin Durant, who awakens and asks himself, "how do I get better today?" Professionals seek continuous improvement, a learning mindset. Author Stephen King writes, "amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work."

Professionals relish coaching and recognize that coaching is not criticism. Surgeon and author Atul Gawande hired an experienced surgeon to oversee his surgery and comment on his process. "Surgical mastery is about familiarity and judgment." Basketball mastery is about vision, decision, and execution. Becoming better at anything shared publicly demands growing a thicker skin while transforming coaching into excellence. 

Of violin instructor Dorothy DeLay, Gawande writes, "DeLay also taught them to try new and difficult things, to perform without fear. She expanded their sense of possibility." Professionals seek to extend what's possible. 

In his epic book, On Writing, Stephen King shares that his wife is his best critic. Writing and competition mean overcoming failure. "By the time I was fourteen the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and went on writing." Keep going. 

In Legacy, James Kerr explains the success of the legendary All-Blacks rugby squad. They understand humility. "Sweep the sheds." They appreciate character. "Better people make better All-Blacks." They prepare. "Train to win." They build their legacy. "Plant trees you'll never see." 




During Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine training, we learned the "Bruce Jenner protocol." Jenner was an Olympic gold decathlete. What mattered?" To win gold, you need the right diet, rest, proper training (exercise/practice), supplements (medication), and motivation, an overarching purpose. Professionals do whatever it takes. 

In his MasterClass, writer David Mamet shares that he has a phrase engraved on any new wristwatch, "what hinders you?" What's keeping you from success? 

Farnam Street shares their ideas about professionalism. Key words include commitment, competence, consistency, probabilities, and reality. 

Lagniappe:

From CoachPintar.com a screen the screener play, mini-loop

Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads out there. Being a father takes little talent; becoming a day is a skill. 

Basketball: Materiam Superabat Opus, Doing More with Less

Materiam superabat opus. “The work was better than the material.” Do more with less. 




Even Bear Bryant had setbacks. Alabama struggled in the late sixties after winning national titles in 1961, 1964, and 1965. In 1970, the Crimson Tide hosted USC and got embarrassed 42-21, as the Trojans rolled up 559 yards of offense. African-Americans scored all six USC touchdowns. An Alabama assistant noted that USC could have made the score "whatever they wanted." Some credit that defeat as promoting integration more than any politics. Alabama closed practices before the 1971 rematch in LA and emerged with the Wishbone and a 17-10 upset. 

Ryan Holiday discusses the "canvas strategy" where you make others look good by preparing the way. One of two Leonardo 'signature' paintings, the Mona Lisa, is an oil painting on wood. The finished product is greater than the material.

Master chef Gordon Ramsay became a co-owner of the restaurant, Aubergine, in 1993. As a young chef, Ramsay learned how to cook great food with inexpensive cuts like oxtail and lamb shanks. He says he didn't serve a filet mignon in his restaurant for three years, because he couldn't afford filets. His restaurants have now served over one million beef Wellingtons.

Former Marine LouAnne Johnson (Dangerous Minds) earned a Master's Degree in teaching English. She authored My Posse Don't Do Homework about the struggles and successes teaching underprivileged students in California. The Hollywood adaptation of her story became a blockbuster hit in 1995. 




McFarland, USA tells the story of Coach Jim White and his cross-country program in a poor farming community. Without prior track coaching experience, White earns the trust of local students and families and creates a cross-country dynasty. 

Coaches have the capacity to transform lives. Ideas get traction as action. 

As we learn, we appreciate what is possible. We succeed when our teams grow their game and overcome their limitations. 
Obstacles are unavoidable - segregation for Bryant, relative poverty for Ramsay, Johnson, and White, and lack of formal education for Leonardo. Success rewards us when we beat those barriers.

Lagniappe:

The push-pull penetration reaction concept is demonstrated in this spread ball screen action. The ball screen draws 2 defenders, and pulls the back side 2 offensive players behind for a spacing advantage. pic.twitter.com/hBGdcVFQbZ

— Chris Oliver (@BBallImmersion) June 16, 2018

The ball screener does double duty nailing the defensive rotation. 

Basketball: Cutting Remarks (Cut to Improve Your Options)

Better cutting and passing makes easier shots. Duh. But does the young player understand the delicate dance of cutting and passing? I contend that most young players know far less than we think they do, mostly because there is much learning available. Here's a 'survey' of cutting concepts. We'll always find more. 

Basketball is about helping your teammates. Cutting opens up space and teammates. 

90 percent of the individual game is played without the ball, so players must become effective without the ball. Great players like Klay Thompson economize on the dribble by getting open off cuts. Also higher points per possession belong to scoring off cuts and through scoring on shots off the catch. 

Play purposefully, knowing where not to go also matters. 

One of Jay Bilas' Toughness principles is setting up your cut, but that can also include 'running' into the cut off the pass. Here is the cutting excerpt: 

Set up your cut: The toughest players make hard cuts, and set up their cuts. Basketball is about deception. Take your defender one way, and then plant the foot opposite of the direction you want to go and cut hard. A hard cut may get you a basket, but it may also get a teammate a basket. If you do not make a hard cut, you will not get anyone open. Setting up your cut, making the proper read of the defense, and making a hard cut require alertness, good conditioning and good concentration. Davidson's Stephen Curry is hardly a physical muscle-man, but he is a tough player because he is in constant motion, he changes speeds, he sets up his cuts, and he cuts hard. Curry is hard to guard, and he is a tough player.

Think "change of direction, change of pace." You can do either or both; you can even walk into a cut. 

Read the defenders. They are likely to 'give' you something (see above). Be specific. When overplayed, take the defender higher then go away from the ball (back door, above, left).

Sometimes you go to the defender to get away from the defender (above). 

Use "obstacles" to open your path (teammates, other defenders, officials). 

Is your defender a head turner? When they lose sight of you, make your cut. 

The passer has to see you to complete the action. You can run all over the gym, but you won't get the pass if the ball handler doesn't see you. 

"The ball is a camera." You might be OPEN, but the ball has to find you through the traffic. 

You can "automate" cuts; if the defender moves above the 'spacing line' (above), then you cut back door and the passer should recognize this.

Real estate is about location, cutting about relocation (relocation, relocation, relocation) to get a better option. 

You can cut to score with a basket cut, cut to an open space, or cut and replace yourself or cut to move defenders. Sometimes a cut (above) opens you and moves the defender (above).  

I've noticed more NBA teams adopting this action (above), with a 'handback' after a pass, then cutting off the opposite post. 

Coaching the Bulls, Tom Thibodeau liked this action, high ball screen with the drive pressuring x4 (4 relocates high for the elbow jumper) and x3 (help off the corner 3).

Put defenders to sleep by doing nothing, then cut hard. 

Don't gum up the works. NEVER cut to an occupied post. Do NOT cut and obstruct a driver. Finish your cuts, especially back door. The perfect pass can be a turnover because you deceived the passer. 

Basketball: Daly Wisdom and Double Lagniappe

Chuck Daly: The Prince of Pessimism - style, confidence, humor, toughness, insight, sartorial splendor, AND championships... 

Pat Williams shared Chuck Daly wit and wisdom in Daly Wisdom. Here are a few nuggets: 

#44 Handle it. Like Daly, my mentor in the Navy (Captain Tom Walsh) would simply tell us, to "handle it." Bunch of consults up on the wards of Bethesda Naval Hospital? Handle it. Unstable patient in the ICU? Handle it. Immunocompromised patient needs diagnostic bronchoscopy? Handle it. Leaders find and train subordinates to manage the problems, capably and promptly. Delegate and verify. 

#35 What do you do best? Leaders lead. Without leadership, there is no team. Daly thought key elements included:

- Vision   "Realists know where they're going; visionaries have already been there."
- Communication
- People Skills 
- Character       Our values become our team's values. 
- Competence   Competence inspires competence.
- Boldness
- Serving Heart  We are here to help others.

Lagniappe:

Guards: here’s a simple drill to work on your handles while emphasizing Speed, Power and Accuracy. #ComeGetSome!
p.s. It’s NOT easy... good luck! pic.twitter.com/iYGp7OkYjL

— Pete Strobl (@PeteStrobl) May 25, 2018

It's vital to get a clean transfer off the dribble into a shooting position or a pass. This drill (via Pete Strobl) builds quickness into the transfer...I would modify this to get the ball into the shot pocket after your 'go to' dribble combinations. 

Double lagniappe:

BOB overload versus 2-3 to challenge x3...stay home and open the perimeter or leave and open the post. 

Basketball: "Is That All There Is?" Peggy Lee Basketball

Rip it apart. "Is that all there is?" Examine everything about our team - coaching, personnel, training techniques, practice, education, offense, defense, conversion, special situations, possession (rebounding and turnovers). Mentally rip it apart; then reassemble.

Strengths, weaknesses, and Pareto Principle (80-20 rule, "bang for the buck") all are open season. 

Judd Apatow discusses using notecards to develop a story. They're easy to make, to move around, and allow for story sequencing and editing. Does a scene work? If not, why not? Remember how Ron Howard said that a "movie is made in the editing room." We can edit many parts of practice or games with physical or mental cards. Just as with entertainment or food, we have unique and different palates. 

We all have the same "footage" (defense, transition, motion, set plays, zone offense, delay, special situations) but we design play to suit our style and personnel. We have to be true to ourselves but flexible and realistic when #$%&, it ain't working.

Self-scouting and self-awareness help prevent hubris about our abilities. It's too easy to indulge our egos and believe we're better than we are. When we're driving to the basketball, we need a downhill mentality. Get there. If the initial screen doesn't achieve its end, a rescreen might. When setting a drag screen, should it be directional or flat? 

Ask players to show more toughness and focus as long as we do. Ask them to listen well, study the curriculum, and read consistently to better themselves. 

We don't communicate well. Middle school girls talk...until they get on the court. I need to give and get more feedback on talking...early, loud, often.

Don't change just to change. Change to improve. We can't have Peggy Lee Basketball. Is that all there is? 

Lagniappe: 

From FastModelSports.com GSW stagger with an option 


Double lagniappe: excellent short video from PGC on passing...

Basketball: Don't Sabotage Yourself

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." - Einstein

"It's your craft, stupid." If we want to lift our craft, then we can't go half speed. Raise the bar; raise the tempo. Return to focusing on our craft. 

Don't sabotage yourself. You didn't study for a test or prepare for an interview. You undermined your chances of success. Why? Did you not want to get the good grade? Were you afraid your friends would call you a geek or a nerd? Did you fear the competition or did you believe that you didn't deserve success? 

We form expectations. "I'm not pretty enough, inexperienced, not good enough, unathletic, not that smart." Rewrite your inner voice. "I can do this. I was made to do this. I will." 

We sabotage ourself by wasting time, lack of focus, allowing distractions, procrastinating. Anne Lamott authored the writing text, Bird by Bird. "Lamott's 10-year-old brother was trying to write a report on birds. He'd had three months to write it. It was due the next day. Naturally, her bro was panicking at the family cabin when their father put his arm around him and said, "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird." 

Players sabotage themselves. They dribble too much, catch and immediately dribble, gamble too much, double down on mistakes after a turnover or bad shot, foul needlessly, lose their assignment, don't know the time and score. "Get your head right." 




Are you seizing opportunity or forcing the action? As Jay Bilas says, "it's not your shot, it's our shot." "My turn" shots sabotage your team. There is no MY TURN. "You should be market (team) focused, not self-focused." 

Lagniappe:

In the movie Swordfish, the operative word was misdirection. 

Simple #playsthatwork Golden State Back Screen Play pic.twitter.com/E97ODQMXLL

— Chris Oliver (@BBallImmersion) June 8, 2018

The Warriors do the same thing with distracting weave action disguising the intended backscreen as Curry reverses his basket cut. 

Basketball: Stakes, from Playground to Playoffs

"Pressure is playing a 5 dollar Nassau with 2 dollars in your pocket." - Lee Trevino

What are you playing FOR? The "stakes" vary a lot. The NBA recently completed its championship with the Warriors besting the Cavaliers to win their third title in four years. Players build their reputation, their brand, their earning potential. 

The playground has stakes. "Winners" stay. Winners make school teams. I'll spare you Sean Connery's line about winners from The Rock. In practice, some teams "confirm" scrimmage wins by making a free throw. Stakes relate to running extra sprints. Been there, run that. 

Spencer Haywood faced big stakes trying out at the University of Detroit. Make fifteen consecutive free throws to earn a scholarship. He did; the rest is history. 

In Teammates Matter, Alan Williams discusses having to tryout (after coaching change) after making the team as a walk-on at Wake Forest. The stakes meant remaining part of something bigger than himself, despite having a small 'playing' role. 

A player might be playing for visibility, the chance of earning a scholarship, for numbers (some players fixate on statistics), or even rivalry (versus another teammate or a competitor in their league). Rarely, people play for validation, to show they are 'good enough' to compete. "I'll show them." Legendary All-Blacks captain Richie McCaw played to be the best. As a young child, his uncle made him sign, Richie McCaw, G.A.B. (Great All Black). Of course, professionals play for money, contracts and endorsement spoils. 

Bill Russell played for championships. "My ego depends on the success of my team." 

Sometimes, we hate what we're doing...lack of intensity, lack of energy, lack of conviction, ball movement, whatever. Play has to match the stakes. Judd Apatow shares why scenes may not work in his MasterClass (screenshot above). 

Stakes also define how you play. The "secondary characters" can't get the best shots, the most shots, or have the best plays run for them. Stars own the lead roles. James Patterson would advise that secondary characters don't get the best dialogue. 

March Madness pays out in "units" of $273,000 per unit for six years. The Big Ten and ACC took home the lion's share. Hail to the victors. 




Coaches have stakes, too. "Street cred." We have reputation, respect, renown, and sometimes the next job. In the classic basketball movie, Hoosiers, Gene Hackman as Norman Dale, coaches for redemption. We coach for personal stakes - love of the game, competition, and the joy of working with committed players. 

In an individual game, the stakes include "bragging rights", rivalry, revenge, championships, or sometimes, nothing. 

What are your stakes? 

Lagniappe: via Chris Oliver 

This play couldn't be simpler. Here is a backdoor play off a baseline inbound ball side pop out. The ball is already safely inbound so the action can unfold with the primary look, & secondary actions without the danger of not getting the ball inbound. pic.twitter.com/x6qCP5SsPw

— Chris Oliver (@BBallImmersion) June 10, 2018

Double bonus lagniappe: (make the right read)

The key to any coaching is to make sure what you are teaching is transferring to game performance. All of our BDT drills address the concept of a player learning what to do when they first catch the ball. Does it apply to all levels? Yes, learn more here https://t.co/g1AJDTpSi4 pic.twitter.com/jtP3ylbCoS

— Chris Oliver (@BBallImmersion) June 10, 2018

Summer Basketball Practice: Finishing at the Rim and Other Concerns

Court conditions change summer workouts. Heat stress mandates more breaks and water. Playing on asphalt, I work to limit obvious contact leading to 'road rash'. Any rain and we can't run. Somehow, I've managed to dislocate two fingers coaching. We can still get a lot done. 

Everything we do has to transfer to games...there's no pogo stick drill.  

Layups are still layups, but 'traditional layup lines' begone. 

1. Warmup with 'one more' (Kevin Eastman)

2. Shot fake, pass and cut

After initial pass, wing cuts and gets give-and-go pass from coach

3. "Zone offense" simulator (above)...pass to wing, wing to corner, pass to cutter for layup and post rolls to receive pass for short bank shot. Wing cuts through completely. 

4. UCONN Layups (pick-and-roll)

Alternating sides keeps everyone moving. Use multiple baskets if available. Can have pass to roller or drive by PnR ballhandler. 

5. Reverse pivot, attack (above). "Back pivot, back leads." 

6. Arik Shivek pass-and-cut drill (below)

3 lines everyone shoots. 1 gets a layup, 3 takes a midrange jump shot, 2 attacks the closeout from 1 after the layup. 

7. Tufts reverse layup (another good warmup drill)

We need to improve everything, including practice. 

Basketball: Iverson Series

Use the Iverson cut (staggered screens) and options to challenge defenses. 

Basic Iverson cut into wing isolation and possible direct drive.

Iverson cut with diagonal screen instead of 3 clearing through. 

Some teams will defend by dropping the second defender and sending x2 'through' as x5 drops and calls through. Passing followed by a backscreen for the point guard may get a lob or pass to the 'corner 3' if x3 helps aggressively. 

Nothing matters unless we can capitalize by finishing.

Lagniappe:

A great clip here from @olympiacosbc showing the offensive concept of "Spacing BEFORE advantage". Before you CREATE an advantage on O, make sure you have the space to USE that advantage. The "birds eye" camera angle gives you a great view of OLY spacing the floor @EuroLeague pic.twitter.com/V08fysIn9G

— Coach Liam Flynn (@coachliamflynn) June 7, 2018

Location and relocation. Coach Liam Flynn shares an overhead view of how spacing challenges defense who must cover perimeter shooters, contain the ball, and closeout against drive and kick action. 

Basketball and Coaching: What Keeps You Awake at Night?

The "Porch Guys" (Stoa is Greek for porch) say, "Control what you can control." Even the most devoted Stoic recognizes unforeseen problems arise. Problems cause bad dreams. 

Trouble. Dad had a saying, "never trouble trouble until trouble troubles you." I had a conversation with a local police officer about community policing. How should 'we' manage an athlete caught underage drinking? He said there are some who want a Zero Tolerance, "drop the hammer" policy on everyone and everything. Others prefer (I am one) taking the youngster home, discussing it with the family, and working it "in house." We counsel everyone about alcohol, tobacco, and drugs from a young age. From an official standpoint, one offense means a four game basketball suspension. I've had a player suspended in high school; it's beyond disappointing. 

Injuries and illness. Two seasons ago, I lost my best post player to a knee injury a week before the season started. Boom. She was all-league as a high school freshman this year. It affords opportunities for others, but her injury made me even dumber. 

Academics. Academics assume life priority. "There is no ability without eligibility." We've never lost a youngster to academic failure. When my daughters were seniors, all six made honor roll. But that's exceptional. But academics and academic pressure affect players. 

Stress. Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale shared a story from her team about girls confronting a player, "you're not happy unless you're scoring." The girl broke down and said that her father wouldn't talk to her unless she was playing well, including scoring. Relationships come first. We need to be able to see inside players' lives and that can be impossible.

Relationships. A talent team entered the playoffs as favorites. One girl "hijacked" another's boyfriend on the eve of the tournament. The team fractured and lost. Especially in women's college basketball, an unknown unknown is the dynamic among coaches and players, some of whom are gay. It shouldn't matter, but can affect playing time, opportunity, and outcomes. Really. 

Fairness. There's a saying, "if you want to find out about the coach, ask the twelfth player on the team." Perception is reality. Finding ways to make everyone feel valued changes lives. Are we doing enough to add value and show value? 

Energy. The coach must energize the team daily. We need our exercise, rest, and work-life balance. Teams reflect their coaches. Driving the bus doesn't entitle us to run anybody down. 

Inspiration. "Hang out with people who are better than you." If we want preparation and perspiration, then we share inspiration. I don't want to embarrass him, but a coach kindly shared this with me: 

This resonates so deeply with me after spending an evening with the players from our championship team.  It was great to hear their comments while I still walk the earth.

"I think our legacy as coaches won't be about how many games or championships that we won.  Our legacy as coaches is always going to be measured by how our players talk about us after we're gone".

Parents. You want parents who look out for the interests of their kids. If that makes them "helicopter parents" then so be it. Provide transparency to explain why we do what we do. We're not perfect; players aren't robots without feelings. 

Don't lose sleep over basketball dreams but life aspirations. Don't worry about making a reasonable basketball experience but an inspiring one.

Lagniappe: Hat tip, Radius Athletics (@RadiusAthletics)




Beating the blitz on the high ball screen? 

Brand Safety and Intentionality

Brand safety matters, where it counts...in the wallet. Strong opinions stoke strong reactions, but in the ad world, brand safety talks. 

“We absolutely are seeing dollars move our way for that reason, particularly on YouTube, given we’re the largest brand-safe publisher on most, if not all, the leading platforms,” a BuzzFeed rep said. Advertisers don't want to support adversarial rhetoric. 

Forbes discusses brand awareness. "Start by developing an intentional mindset focused on showcasing what you are really good at, problems that you solve, and recommendations from customers." They add, focus on the most important factor necessary to maintain a healthy business and personal brand: providing a great customer experience."

How does that affect the NBA, NBA players, and college athletics? Are there teams or players who thrive as unsafe brands? 

Donald Sterling illuminated a toxic brand after recordings surfaced with his racist statements, leading to a lifetime ban from the NBA in 2014. The NBA acted swiftly to protect its brand. 

Leagues compare themselves with others. NBA President Adam Silver has staked out a strong position on free speech. "My job becomes is making sure they feel safe, frankly, on speaking out on issues that are important to them...we want them to be multidimensional people." Stern discusses non-discrimination, meritocracy, and respect for the game. "All CEOS...have no choice. It's an expectation...that they're going to take a position...there may be disagreements...here's my thought process." Silver teaches transparency.

Companies pitch their ability to represent and enhance players' brands to society. Athlete Brand Management informs us that "an NBA player can become a shining example of how a professional athlete should appear before the public and media." Schweizer and Dietl share detailed study on brand management and the athlete's branding life cycle. 

From Schweizer and Deitl. This parallels Stan Weinstein's four stages of market cycles. 

NBA players invest in their communities and their brands. LeBron James has committed to spending over 40 million dollars in education benefits to Akron-area students. His LeBron James Family Foundation sponsors many community programs. Kevin Durant has become a big player in Silicon Valley, not just for the Golden State Warriors. 

Stats.com summarizes NCAA brand awareness with its flagship March Madness. "Get it right, and your brand awareness – no matter the target market – increases exponentially through multiple channels." 

Thirsty? Choose wisely. 

With billions at stake and scandal rising, the NCAA set up the Independent Commission on College Basketball. Yahoo documented some of the abuses within the federal investigation. Names of current college and NBA stars litter the report. And the bluest of the blue chip programs, Duke, North Carolina, and Kentucky are not spared. 

Only time will tell where other coaching casualties fall. 

Everyone involved is scrambling to protect their brand. Our brands live within our Stoic purview. Stake a claim on controlling what we can control - honor, honesty, and perseverance. We can't know the long term consequences to players, coaches, and universities crossing ethical lines. But we do know how to measure them; follow the money. 

Lagniappe: 

"Judge the shot, not the shooter." 

Chris Oliver shares shaping the accountability of shot selection.

Basketball and Other Examples of Evidence-Based Coaching

"Tradition." Much of what we do follows tradition. Separating facts and opinion demands data, egoless interpretation, and time to wound all heels. 

Seven words have wrought much chaos and destruction. "This time it's different," and "in my experience." Both reflect cognitive bias; that informs overconfidence or arrogance. We can restrain the voice inside yapping, "I always know best." We all have ego; but is ego our master or do we master our ego? 

Sometimes conventional wisdom bites us in the backside. In 2005, the Federal Reserve Chairman announced, "I guess I don't buy your premise. It's a pretty unlikely possibility. We've never had a decline in house prices on a nationwide basis. So what I think is more likely is that house prices will slow, maybe stabilize: might slow consumption spending a bit. I don't think it's going to drive the economy too far from its full employment path, though." 

Chart from The Economist

That prophecy went horribly wrong, in part triggering the global financial crisis. Easy credit and experts went off the rails. 

Doctors believed that suppressing rhythm disturbance after heart attacks reduced the risk of death. We knew that.

A pair of studies proved those ideas not only wrong, but harmful. The story is not unique. False Hope describes the acceptance of bone marrow transplantation for breast cancer followed by study showing it ineffective. Many of the brightest minds in cancer treatment were undermined by data. We doctors get it wrong, too. 

Brian McCormick has become the strongest voice for changing the way we practice. He is not alone. Our members are represented. 

"Tape your ankles." Sound advice, except it didn't restrain ankle laxity after forty-five minutes.

"See the game." Software developed for the Israeli Air Force helps train hockey and basketball players. The software helped elite athletes improve time and space relationship. Correlation may not prove causation, but "out of 30 National Hockey League draft picks in 2011, 16 had trained with IntelliGym." They now market it to individual subscribers (disclosure: no user experience or financial incentive). Some have likened it to the old 'Asteroids' video game. 

"The fittest survive." UNC Women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance molds elite athletes into national champions using his Competitive Matrix. I think it would be a psychological hammer on younger athletes. I could be wrong. 

"Know thyself." What's the right approach to sport psychology? Professionals like Brett Steenbarger or Jason Selk advocate specific programs for self-training. Harvard researcher Amy Cuddy has shown a link between expansiveness of body position and stress hormone responses (salivary cortisol and testosterone). Dr. Roland Carlstedt challenges this empiric approach and offers his Carlstedt protocol as an alternative. 




Dr. Carlstedt argues that anecdotal (however numerous) claims lack scientific rigor. He argues that "placebo effect" accounts for some of the benefit and is a harsh critic of most sport psychology programs. 

"Measure a thousand times but cut only once." - Turkish Proverb   Kentucky coach John Calipari and his staff monitor effort using heart rate measurement. He states, ... "Because we are able to read their heart rates, now we know who is maxing out in practice and who is hiding, who thinks they're going hard and who isn't, who is able to push themselves through pain, and who has mental toughness to be special." Does a monitor make toughness or do tough players validate monitoring.

"Basketball players are the best conditioned athletes." Brazilian researchers studied small sample sizes of soccer and basketball athletes, examining maximal oxygen uptake (a traditional measure of aerobic fitness) and time to exhaustion. In their sample, the soccer players had higher maximal oxygen uptake but the basketball players longer time to exhaustion. It's a descriptive study that doesn't help us. The Cooper 12-minute run test offers a surrogate for expensive cardiopulmonary exercise testing.  

"Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" "Higher levels of psychological skills have been shown to have a positive correlation with better execution of general motor and cognitive tasks." South African researcher Pieter Kreuger found in ruggers, "The results seemed to support the suggestion made by other researchers that the key difference between a good performance and a poor performance on an elite level in rugby is often the level of psychological skills, rather than just good physical skills." Did good technical skills improve confidence or do they simply parallel each other? 



Tabata Training (at supramaximal maximal oxygen consumption for short intervals) increased maximal oxygen consumption by conventional testing. Professor Tabata developed it for Japanese speed skaters. A lot of training has adopted the Tabata label. They don't exert the same physiologic stress. 

"You make a choice of bringing negative or positive..." - George Karl




The Positive Coaching Alliance doesn't guarantee that it makes the best players. They emphasize that making better people makes people better players. 

What's the point? Do what you think works or you found works. But look for better ways. Listen and receive other viewpoints. Study the origin methods and ask whether they apply to your situation. We find better ways to train within different practice domains. Our biggest constraint can be our own beliefs and time available for research and development.