"Victory has a thousand fathers; defeat is an orphan."
Technical fouls tell stories. Successful coaches put our teams in the best position to win. Some argue technical fouls are strategic tools; others believe them flaws in discipline.
Don't live a life of grievance. In the last fifty games I coached, I doubt that officiating decided any. Referee abuse usually feels like "attribution bias" to me...blaming someone or something for our inefficiency or inability.
Admittedly, coaches sometimes take technical fouls to motivate their team or hoping to influence the subsequent officiating.
First, a few technical foul stories.
Fifty years ago Coach Sonny Lane was in his second season as varsity basketball coach at Wakefield High School. In one game, he got a pair of technicals leading to ejection and punched through an "unbreakable" gym door window with wire within. The following season (21-4, Division I sectional championship), he received an award from officials.
In a travel basketball game, the official warned a coach not to cross a line or he'd get tossed. The coach collected the girls' gym bags and built a wall that he couldn't cross.
Two seasons ago, the opposing coach literally started continuously yelling at officials from the opening tap. At the 45 second mark, an official tossed him. The proverbial quick hook. I think his team played better without him.
Officials famously served on the Youth Basketball Board in a neighboring town. Beating them at home was tough. The first play of the game, their guard went to the floor with the ball (traveling). No call. The next trip, she dribbles using the Heisman stiff arm. No call. "C'mon, Ref." He immediately gives me a warning. "Sit down or you're gone." Every break in the action, the official chatted up the home parents. Officiate or be a clown.
What's the short-term impact of technical fouls? Gomez et al. studied the impact of technical fouls on outcomes of selected Olympic, European, and World Championships. They compared scoring before and after the technical during 1, 3, and 5 possessions. "The data showed that the fouling team’s performance was worse than the opponents in points scored during 1BP, 3BP and 5BP (before and after) for fouls charged to the bench/coach personnel, and in 1BP (before and after) and in 3BP and 5BP before the fouls, for fouls charged to players on court...our data suggest that being overly aggressive generally is disadvantageous for the fouling team from a mid-term performance (5BP) point of view." Moreover, they concluded, "this study suggests that coaches and players have to be prepared to reduce the impact of technical fouls on their immediate performance."
The most memorable technical fouls impact winning. I remember watching a game 51 years ago where a coach got a double technical on a foul near the end of a game that turned into a SIX POINT PLAY and defeat. I know coaches will respond with "the time I turned it around with the technical" but I suspect that's the distinct minority.
Shortcut arrived yesterday from John Pollack. It's the treatise on analogy...linking unrelated items to teach lessons and influence people.
Be alert for analogies. They surround us in metaphor, the news, politics, sports, and advertising.
"It takes a village..." (short for the African proverb, "it takes a village to raise a child.") The height of vanity allows us to proclaim "only I" can coach team or player excellence. Welcome other coaches' input. At best, they teach us new information or perspective. At worst, they show us "what not to do."
"That's Greek to me." Invoking Greeks raises us from confusion to enlightenment. Ask better questions and probe deeper for answers. "The Socratic method is a teaching tactic in which questions are asked continually until either the student gives a wrong answer or reasoning or the teacher is satisfied with the student's responses."
Start with "basketball is a game of separation." Ask Susie to elaborate, "how do you get separation?"
Without the dribble, individually (cutting)
Without the dribble, in combination (simple and complex screening)
With the dribble, individually (change of direction and pace)
With the dribble, with ball screens
"She's a poser." Imposter syndrome is doubting our abilities, sometimes worsened by others telling us we're underqualified by age, gender, race, or ethnicity. The linked HBR article says, 'Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome." Stop telling anyone.
Tulshyan and Burey explain, "Even as we know it today, imposter syndrome puts the blame on individuals, without accounting for the historical and cultural contexts that are foundational to how it manifests in both women of color and white women. Imposter syndrome directs our view toward fixing women at work instead of fixing the places where women work." Growing up in the sixties, we got messages from society about the pecking order in sport and society. Girls sports weren't treated as second class; they were second class with less attention to coaching, support, and media.
Remember the "weight room" at the NCAA Women's Basketball tournament. More like the "wait room for Women's Sports."
"Water the flowers." Players running the floor and fighting for position deserve the ball if they have finishing skills. If you don't water the flowers, they stop growing and sometimes they figuratively die.
"Put our program under the microscope." Challenging ideas and methods creates mental discomfort. I'm not the "smartest guy in the room" or the most original. Tools like microscopes allow us to see more and see a different perspective. Read another person's blog, watch a college practice, or exchange ideas with a group of seasoned coaches. I often refer to surgeon Atul Gawande hiring a mentor to oversee and comment on his technique. He didn't need humility; he benefited from another professional's experience. Everyone benefits from coaching excellence.
"Kill your darlings." Comedians spend careers shaving syllables. Figuratively, cut ideas, drills, plays, and concepts that didn't work or became outdated. Don't pay homage to a drill because you ran it decades ago. Players went to high school never having run "3 man weave" in middle school practice. I have drill favorites that other coaches may think are a waste of time.
Shooting 3 x 3 x 3. Train shooters to catch and shoot on the move, to communicate on the pass and deliver "on time, on target" passes, and condition within drills. Add competition for individual and team shots made in a defined time (e.g. 5 minutes).
"Ratting out" a problem can help solve it. Coaches can't always get under the hood of personal (and personnel) problems. Find help to unearth drama, confidence problems, and jealousy. A player or an assistant might access information that saves both culture and teams.
"The shortest distance..." (between two points is a straight line).
Take the correct angle to beat dribblers to a spot... and DO NOT allow direct drives to the hoop.
Winning percentage reflects a team's capabilities and the 'cupcakes' on the schedule. Teams pad their records by scheduling soft teams. "Iron sharpens iron" but cupcakes put lipstick on the pig.
"He's the glue guy." The glue guy is seldom the best player, the highest scorer, or a lottery pick. But he has intangible qualities that help hold the team together under pressure. Glue guys are winners. And it's a term of respect.
"She's the straw that stirs the drink." Coaches, players, and fans may acknowledge the special qualities that one person has to make everyone around them better.
Summary:
Analogies help us understand by linking unrelated concepts
They're all around us - metaphors, ads, parables, politics, sports
"It takes a village..."
Be aware of authenticity and posers.
"Water the flowers."
Put our program under the microscope.
Facing iron or cupcakes?
Lagniappe. The fastest way to shooting improvement is better shot selection. Skilled cutting might be next. Cutting is an underrated skill.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." - Einstein
Reinforce key lessons. Get feedback. Ask them what we said. And recheck. "Trust but verify." Situational play wins and loses games and championships.
"We lead by one with 31 seconds in the game and possession. There is a 30 second shot clock. What will the opponents do (look to steal or foul)? What do we do (protect the ball and get it into our best foul shooters' hands)?
Consider "practicing" timeouts. Test players on the message and if you've diagrammed something, ask them to reproduce it (paper and pencil). Most young player get lost.
Give and take. Give our best and take away our opponent's best. In 2003, Melrose went into the sectional finals against a team whose star scored 51 points in an earlier round. Melrose two guards worked in a triangle and two to contain her and lead the team to a sectional title.
"Do more of what works and less of what doesn't." Strong emotion imprints lessons. Share lessons so that others learn without suffering. If losing is pain, playoff elimination is agony.
A team lost a playoff game from doubling the post. Rotation failed three times leading to layups. Doing your job requires knowing your job.
Don't give games away. Make opponents beat you. About a third of games are decided by two or fewer possessions. Make every possession matter.
Take care of the basketball. Turnovers kill dreams. Live ball turnovers launch transition scores for opponents.
Take better shots. Everyone should know what a good shot is for them and for their teammates. Avoid what Doc Rivers calls, "shot turnovers."
Don't take stupid fouls - fouling jump shots, fouling bad shots, retaliation fouls.
Use tempo to your advantage. Match tempo to situation. Don't play fast to lengthen the game late if you have a solid advantage.
Don't save timeouts for a rainy day and drown waiting.
A season is like a film (analogy), the outgrowth of preparation, production, and editing. Training can fail at any of the three stages. "Don't shoot yourself in the foot." Avoid self-destruction.
Summary:
Reinforce key lessons.
Give and take.
Do more of what works and less of what doesn't.
Don't give games away (turnovers, poor shot quality, fouls, poor tempo)
Failure can occur during preparation, production, or editing.
Lagniappe. If you're old but young at heart, this epic pick-and-roll video has appeal.
If we teach young players, focus on learning basic reads and finishing basic actions first.
"The magic is in the work." Gather 'hard work' success stories and sources with translatable specifics.
David Cottrell shares great information in Tuesday Morning Coaching. One of his key phrases is and then some. Here's a screenshot of a chapter summary.
Compile hard work stories.
Outwork the competition. On his drive to UNC, Coach Anson Dorrance saw his star Mia Hamm running sprints alone in a park. Work makes magic.
Make the big time where you are. Floyd Lee took an assignment in Bagdad, Iraq to operate the Pegasus Chow Hall. He crafted a quality dining experience for soldiers amidst war. He assembled the best staff, served meals on linen tablecloths and proclaimed he wasn't in charge of food service but in charge of morale.
Craft excellence. Kobe Bryant worked hours a day in the 'offseason' because he understood that 1000 shots times 100 days meant 100,000 shots. In Mamba Mentality, he said, "I can’t relate to lazy people. We don’t speak the same language. I don’t understand you. I don’t want to understand you."
Good enough isn't enough. When Michael Jordan went to UNC, assistant coach Roy Williams asked how hard he was willing to work. Jordan answered, "I will work as hard as any player ever at Carolina." Williams told him that if he wanted to be the best, then he had to work harder than that.
Dream big and then work. As a child in New Zealand, young Richie McCaw dreamt of being a star rugger for the the All-Blacks national team. His uncle had him sign a paper, Richie McCaw, G.A.B. He committed to being a "Great All Black." Before every game, he wrote, START AGAIN in a notebook, because you have to prove yourself every day.
Renaissance man. A banker's son, Bill Bradley wasn't the fastest or the most explosive. At age twelve, he began a weekday training program of three hours a day and all day Saturday. He led Princeton to the Final Four and scored 58 points against Wichita State, the most points ever in Final Four game. He earned a Rhodes Scholarship, two NBA titles, and became a United States Senator.
More than walking. One of 22 children, Wilma Rudolph suffered polio as a child and was told she would never walk again. She didn't accept that prognosis. At the 1960 Olympics, she won three gold medals and set three world records.
Don't let people tell you what you can't do; show them what you can do.
If excellence matters:
Find a mentor.
Outwork the competition.
Become your own coach.
Invest your time, don't spend it.
Ask better questions.
Improve and track habits.
Become a learning machine.
Lagniappe. "Be quick but don't hurry." - John Wooden Develop a quicker release being shot ready and practicing a quicker release.
Lagniappe 2. Face up. Give yourself more or better options.
Learn by seeing, not just watching. Video is the truth machineand here are some clips from the Winchester - Lexington game using public domain video from YouTube and Winchester Cable Access. I don't know any of the players or families but played in this league from 1971-1973. In 1975, former Winchester player was taken at 13 in the NBA draft. In 1976, former Lexington standout Ron Lee was drafted at 10.
I look for:
What does each team seek to accomplish?
How is the spacing?
What is defensive proximity?
Examine player and ball movement and execution.
How is the decision-making?
As a ball handler, does this "on ball defense" bother you? Is it disruptive?
Black (Lexington) plays man D and white looks to break it down with dribble penetration. Why does it work? "See both" and "cover 1.5" (your man plus half of another). A Lexington defender doesn't see the ball and can't help on the drive. Defensive errors happen at every level from rec leagues to the NBA.
"The help can never get beaten." It's a similar story at the other end as Winchester (white) is in reasonable position to help but doesn't.
Nitty gritty. Lexington switches the ball screen and Winchester gets a jumper in the lane off a jab and rip move. Tip your cap.
"Damned if you don't..." The on-ball defender gets beat and again, there is no help. Now maybe he's coached to fake and not help off the corner 3 to avoid the drive and dish. Good two-footed finish.
"The best laid plans..." Winchester uses "Floppy" action into a wing ball screen. This generates a pocket pass that isn't handled in the "scoring moment."
Lexington goes into a "safe press" 1-2-2. Notice how Winchester keeps the second guard back, allowing for reversal at any time. They get an open corner 3 that doesn't go down. Maybe the pass could have come earlier. Not sure anything changes.
"Tilted horns." Winchester sets up a staggered ball screen but Lexington handles that. It resets into a wing ball screen which the ballhandler "rejects" but can't finish off the wrong foot. Elite players have multiple, multiple finishes.
Lexington's defense gives excellent help to take away the middle. The ballhandler isn't in control and leaves his feet with nowhere to go. "Win this possession" and Lexington does.
"Turnovers bleed into offense." The NBA points/possession off a dead ball are just over 1 and rise to 1.26 after a live-ball turnover...like this.
A game of separation... Winchester breaks down the defense on the dribble and draws 2. But the "contestedness" is high and perhaps a drop down was the better play.
The primacy of execution. Winchester runs 'horns' and Lexington handles the initial high ball screen. But Winchester gets "multiple action" off the second post but can't finish. Coach Popovich reminds us, "technique beats tactics."
Both teams are well coached. What video shows is how attention to small details separates success and failure.
Study other domains. Howard Marks wrote a brilliant investment book, The Most Important Thing Illuminated. James Clear's summary applies for basketball, too.
"You can’t do the same things others do and expect to outperform. The most dependable way to outperform the market is to buy something for less than its value. It is price, not quality that determines value: high-quality assets can be risky, and low-quality assets can be safe."
What does half a century in basketball teach us?
1. Make others better. Exceptional players make teammates better. They commit, communicate, connect, and become servant leaders for their basketball community. They put the team first. They're positive and coachable.
2. Make yourself better. Do the work. Develop skill, be the hardest worker, study the game and video. Never cheat the drill. To earn more minutes, role, and recognition, become more.
3. Impact winning. Make positive plays. Minimize mistakes. Take better shots. Take care of the ball. Make the tough plays and hustle plays.
4. Do not quit. We've all coached and played plenty of games where our teams were outclassed and outplayed. I only had issues when a team gave less than its best. Remember The Four Agreements of which one is "always do your best." Recognize that some days our best won't be great but our effort can still be. "Your best will depend on whether you are feeling physically tired or refreshed. Your best will depend on how you are feeling emotionally. Your best is going to change over time, and as you form the habit of practicing the Four Agreements, your best is going to get better."
5. See the game. Like chess grandmasters, "chunk the board" by familiarizing patterns. It breaks down to initial organization (spacing), player and ball movement, and the "scoring moment." When any of the former break down, the quality of the scoring moment decreases.
6. Understand tempo and situation. Match style and philosophy to people. If we have a big car and a small engine, the car won't perform well. The moment arises to play fast (extend the game) and slowly (shorten the game). Solid teams have effective comeback and delay games.
7. Move. If you're standing still, you're doing it wrong. If great offense is multiple actions and great defense is multiple actions, both imply movement. "Movement kills defenses" and "the ball is a camera." Move to have it find you.
8. Make the time. Invest time or spend it. Education and skill development take time. Use additional thinking time. Study specific areas that you feel will enhance skills, teaching ability, and problem solving.
9. Make a difference. As teachers, we can't reach everyone. But make that their choice not ours.
10. Simplify. Find ways to reduce. Remember Don Meyer's three stages of coaching - blind enthusiasm, sophisticated complexity, and mature simplicity.
11. Get everyone on the same page. No matter what your tactics, mental breakdowns cause failure. Execution requires knowing your job. Give and get feedback. Ronald Reagan famously said, "trust but verify."
12. There is no most important thing, rather a myriad of valuable concepts.
Lagniappe. Many teams have two major opportunity areas - turnovers and shot selection. A turnover equals a zero percent shot AND if it's a live ball, the points per possession off steals are higher than off of a dead ball or a rebound.
From Boisvert...
Zak Boisvert classifies turnovers as 'decision-making' or execution. Ironically, that also works for shot selection.
The most common turnovers (in my opinion) relate to poor passes and panic actions in response to pressure (fumbles, travels, ill-advised hot potato passes).
Lagniappe 2. Outlier success requires outlier thinking (from The Most Important Thing Illuminated).
SETH KLARMAN: Silos are a double-edged sword. A narrow focus leads to potentially superior knowledge. But concentration of effort within rigid boundaries leaves a strong possibility of mispricings outside those borders. Also, if others’ silos are similar to your own, competitive forces will likely drive down returns in spite of superior knowledge within such silos.
Heading into the postseason, few teams hit all individual and team cylinders to win. Make work our superpower. Simple works. As we approach the post-season, get players a leg up with proven behavioral edges. Give players specifics.
Sleep. The goal is to achieve seven to nine hours of restful sleep each night. "Regularity is king." Habits (like avoiding caffeine after noon) impact our sleep.
Baseline measurements followed by 5-7 weeks of sleep extension with goal of minimum 10 hours/night
Performance measures (speed, shooting accuracy) and sleepiness scoring
Improved sprint times, 9% improvement in free throw and 3-point percentages
Sleepiness scores improved
Subjective improvements in physical and mental well-being
Conclusion: better sleep led to improved athletic performance.
Freedom from alcohol. "Everyone does it." Baloney.
A single night’s alcohol use impairs hydration (alcohol is a diuretic), muscle recovery, healing, and can cause memory deficits for three days. Alcohol damages sleep. It limits absorption of key vitamins. It decreases endurance.
Teen girls are at even higher risk. Sports require both coordination and complex spatial processing. Studies showed decreased brain activity in relevant areas (by neuroimaging with functional MRI).
The New York Times shares classic information about teen alcohol risks. Aside from impaired judgment and driving risks, teen alcohol use predisposes to alcoholism and impairs brain centers responsible for learning, memory, and spatial relationships. "Just say no."
Nutrition. Carbohydrates should be over half the athletes diet, especially via fruits and vegetables, pasta, rice, and bread. Practice pregame meals PRIOR to competition.
Mindfulness. "The growing body of evidence suggesting the benefits of mindfulness on individuals’ and teams’ athletic performance could be meaningful for everyone from rec-league chuckers to the high-flying professionals." It's not a big time demand. Here's a link to short UCLA Mindfulness scripts.
Become more efficient. After caring for our body, make skill our priority. Shooting is a perishable skill that requires constant work. Exceptional players pay the price of unrequired work.
In 1973, in the second round of the playoffs, we played a team on a 17 game winning streak. No shot clock. No threes. "Get great shots." Our first possession, we made 22 passes before getting a great shot for a hoop. For the game, we shot 23 for 42 from the field and won by twenty. Quality shooting wasn't invented yesterday.
Summary (Exploit edges headed into the postseason)
Adequate sleep is proven beneficial.
Alcohol degrades performance.
Pay attention to nutrition (quality carbs)
Mindfulness fuels champions.
Be efficient. Keep it skillful.
Lagniappe (something extra). Don't run onto the court and start jacking up threes.
"Win in space...don't play in the traffic." Our parents taught us that for good reason. Basketball is a game of separation and players execute best in space. Teach players to anticipate how and where traffic arises.
Outcomes of playing in traffic:
fumbles
strips/steals
forced shots
blocked shots
traveling
charges
Let's examine video where players violate this principle.
Even great players wind up in traffic sometimes.
Consider what coaches teach defense, starting with protect the basket:
No direct drives
Cover 1.5 (cover yours and half of another)
Load to the ball
Talk to intimidate
Help the helper/help and rotate
Passing into traffic poses similar risks.
The issues are the same from the highest levels to high school.
How do players avoid traffic? Some examples:
Spacing
Avoid frequently initiating offense from the outer third
See the help defenders
Create space with cutting
Open gaps
Occupy help side defenders
Deception
Lagniappe. A key "commandment" is to make players around you better to impact winning.
Setting up behind the zone makes you "invisible" and available.
Build a catalog of thinking tools to coach better. Thinking well involves various strategies.
Stories
Mental Models
Analogy
Humans are the storytelling animal. Great stories convey valuable lessons. "He (Vince Lombardi) never had a losing season in the NFL, winning five championships in a program built on simplicity and execution. He rejected the NFL's racism and called players "Packer green." One of his themes was "Nothing But Acceptance," setting a standard that players who mistreated teammates would be off the team. That applied to racism, interracial relationships, and harassing gay players or front office personnel. He informed local businesses that any that refused one of his players was off limits to his team."
Mental models help solve problems. "Invert" to consider what the opposite approach might yield. Use "sample size" to limit overreaction to a short term phenomenon (Linsanity). Stay in our lane with "Circle of Competence." "Second order thinking" helps us understand complexity. To relieve overcrowding, South Africa relocated bull elephants. Shortly thereafter, something began killing rhinos. Be careful when you play with Mother Nature. Likewise, adding another star player may disrupt chemistry, roles, and flow.
Analogy relates unrelated concepts to help us relate to them. We use them daily.
"Win in space." Players often fail by driving or passing into traffic. Remind young players that danger lurks when playing in traffic. "Draw 2" and pass.
"A chain is only as strong as its weakest link." Lack of depth betrays teams without solid reserves to weather illness, injury, foul trouble, etc.
Kevin Eastman says, "success leaves footprints." When individuals or teams do well, examine their path. Who and what drove them forward?
"Chefs cook to nurture people; so do coaches." Lowering expectations doesn't nurture. Accountability holds players to higher performance.
Problem players who are disagreeable or selfish are 'cancers'. In extreme circumstances, we need to "remove" the cancer.
"Better ingredients, better pizza." Better players create better play. "Every day is player development day." Coaches help players see the game and execute more efficiently.
"That was some high octane basketball." Coach Bob Romeo commented after watching Lowell beat Melrose 90-88 over a decade ago in a high school holiday tournament game.
The point guard conducts the orchestra, gets everyone involved with great decisions, on-time and on-target.
"Teams that can't shoot free throws do as well in the post-season as dogs that chase cars."
Basketball teams employ traditional military strategy - the cavalry (speed game), infantry (power game), and artillery (long-range bombing).
At it's best, our defense creates chaos like a pack of wolves. "The strength of the wolf is in the pack."
What is the DNA of your organization? DNA determines who we are...to a degree. But the presence of genetic code for a condition doesn't mean that a gene will necessarily be expressed (create the disease).
We're all familiar with 'stations' at basketball camp, where players rotate through different skill areas. It's a byproduct of Henry Ford's innovation of the assembly line that reduced car manufacturing by eleven hours. A Chicago slaughterhouse (1913) inspired that as butchering occurred sequentially as processing occurred on a conveyor belt.
Summary:
Stories, mental models, and analogies help us solve problems.
Stories helps us collaborate
Mental models open paths to view problems differently
Inversion, Circle of Competence, and Second Order Thinking keep us on track
Analogies help us relate unrelated concepts
"Win in space."
Stations at camp relate to the original assembly line (1913)
"Success leaves footprints."
What is your organizational DNA?
Organize basketball offense like traditional military - cavalry, infantry, artillery
"Better ingredients, better pizza."
Lagniappe. To extend the analogy, we go faster downhill. Coach Hanlen demonstrates.
Learn across domains to train 'top guns'. Chef Roland Henin taught that "cooks cook to nurture people." Coaches nurture people. Haute cuisine involves "high performance" sauces. The five French mother sauces are Bechamel, Veloute', Espagnole, Hollandaise, and Tomato. The core sauces become others with changes, such as Bechamel becoming Mornay sauce (the core for mac and cheese).
MasterClass Korean chef Roy Choi shares his 'scallion dipping sauce'
Refine basketball mother sauces. Consider offense, defense, conversion, and special situations.
Remember Roy Choi's required cooking equipment - simplicity works. What ingredients belong in our mother sauces?
Offense.
Spacing - initial and secondary (creating gaps)
Player and ball movement ("movement kills defense")
Attention to early offense (drag screens, pistol, others)
Quality shots (find the shots we want - "Get 7s")
Quality shooting
Daily player development and competition
Limiting turnovers (the absence of ingredients can be critical)
Defense.
No easy shots.
Ball pressure/containment
No middle
Deny penetration via dribble or passes
Load to the ball/shrink space
Contest all shots without fouling
Conversion (defense to offense and vice versa)
Awareness at the moment of conversion
"Zero to sixty" ("basketball is a sprinting game")
Full mental engagement (no 'buddy running')
Press the attack versus slow the attack
Attack the basket versus defend the basket
Special situations.
Inbound the ball safely
Same play different formation/same formation different plays
Hard to defend (simple/complex screens)
Value in winning special situations
Practice outperforms 'spontaneous' plays
Find your own "mother sauces" with your unique ingredients. In fact, we choose philosophy and teaching to suit our tastes and experience.
Summary:
Cooks and coaches nurture people.
Find your mother sauces.
Simplicity works.
Spacing is offense and offense is spacing.
No easy shots.
"Zero to sixty"
Be hard to defend.
Lagniappe. An NBA shooting coach reviews...
Lagniappe 2. Separate with change of direction and change of pace. (Coach Hanlen)
Lagniappe 3. Cooking excellence takes a little more time. Last night's dinner used "salsa verde" (green sauce) for the rice base for the pork carnitas
For the cilantro rice
3 cups store-bought short-grain white rice
Ice water (for blanching)
6 medium tomatillos (about 6 oz)
1 whole garlic clove, peeled
Juice of 3 limes (about ⅓ cup)
Kosher salt or coarse sea salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 bunch cilantro (reserve a couple of sprigs for garnish)
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley (reserve a couple of sprigs for garnish)
½ cup water
1 cup rendered pork fat (reserved from the carnitas), plus more to taste
