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Friday, March 22, 2024

Basketball: Ten Ideas Worth Stealing for More Effective Practice

I love practice. After players, practice is our most precious resource. 

Coaches earn recognition because of our teams, our players, and our lessons. One of my idols is Bowdoin rhetoric professor Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. During the Civil War, without military training, he became legendary winning a battle at Gettysburg, earning the Congressional Medal of Honor. His secret? "I can learn." 

Make practice work, effective, fun. Here are ten guaranteed methods.

1. Expand from Brian McCormick's "no lines, no laps, and no lectures." Practice time is precious. Get everyone involved early. Set up a group at each end, inside the arc, playing "dribble tag." Someone is "IT" and needs to tag someone. Add constraints like non-dominant hand dribbling or every third between the legs. This is an excellent warm up activity.

2. Condition within drills, such as Kentucky Layups. Go for your personal best. 

3. Make activities competitive. Shooting practice is always competitive. Pressure is a privilege. 

4. Alternate highest intensity activities with lower intensity ones, e.g. such as free throw shooting. 

5. Every activity should impact winning. Revise or eliminate segments that don't promote winning. 

6. Apply the structure of Performance Expert Dr. Fergus Connolly - skill, strategy, physicality, psychology. Take complacency out of your dictionary.

7. Include 'special situations' practice that works offense, defense, and understanding situation, time, and score. We played three possession games including offense-defense-offense beginning with an ATO, BOB, SLOB, or free throw. 

8. Maximize touches with small-sided games. Clip-and-save these from Coach Fernandez. 

9. "Spacing is offense and offense is spacing." - Chuck Daly   When practicing "team offense," work core principles and monitor spacing, player movement, ball movement, and finishing. 

10.Build in "gotta have it" sections, scrimmaging with purpose. For example, "close and late." 

  • Tie score. One timeout. Six seconds left with the ball. Fullcourt to navigate. Teach them to advance the ball in the least possible time to get the ball to halfcourt to use the timeout. 
  • Down one. Three seconds left. BOB or SLOB. What's your best action? Practice it. 
  • Up three, ten seconds left, without the ball. Are you fouling? 
Bonus. What helped us go 21-4 and win the top division sectional championship in 1973? Advantage-disadvantage. Full court press break, five-versus-seven, no dribbling allowed. Cut and pass and cut.

Lagniappe. An excellent shooter is less so when you pass to her ankles.  

Lagniappe 2. Timing is everything.  

Lagniappe 3. Know thyself.  

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Thursday, March 21, 2024

Basketball: Mastering the Art of Coaching?


The lessons flow from the title. 

Seek mastery of the art of coaching. What does that even mean? In cooking, it often distills to time, temperature, and effective use of sauces. In coaching, it won't be great without great ingredients, the Jimmies and the Joes. 

1. Mastery is relative. Coaching professionals and pre-teens is not the same. Even coaching girls and boys is not the same, according to a woman four-time state championship girls' coach who also coached boys to the state finals. 

Elite coaches master simplicity. They refine fundamentals, teaching, communication, and motivation. 

I had one group that seemed incapable of running the simplest of actions. It reduced to pass and cut. It wasn't a lack of their effort or my instruction. The next group wasn't inherently smarter, nor was I but they 'got it'. 

2. There's art. If there were no art, "any idiot with a whistle" could coach. Kids will "run through a wall" for coaches if they have a purpose, a degree of autonomy, and self-belief. 

Coaches need support, especially from parents. How can anyone expect a child to listen to their coach if the parents badmouth the coach? So the art includes getting buy-in from parents to add value for their children. 

3. Coaching. Pete Newell said the coach's job is to help players see the game. That truth impossibly oversimplifies, with no criticism of the great coach whose team beat Wooden's eight consecutive games. 

  • Skill. "Every day is player development day."
  • Strategy. "It takes a village" and a lot of video. 
  • Physicality. Coaches must learn about strength and conditioning or find others to help instruct and reconstruct athletes. 
  • Psychology. Chuck Daly's famous, "I am a salesman," gets at the heart of convincing players. A coach helps them reach their goals to get 'paid' in minutes, role, and recognition. 
Lagniappe. Trust is hard to earn and maintain. 

Lagniappe 2. Vision can be 'taught' to a degree. Kurt Warner points out that it's neither automatic nor easy. 

Lagniappe 3. Coaches want aggressive defenders.  

 

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Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Basketball: What Is the Problem?

Studies show that group solutions (crowdsourcing) are more effective than one individual's solution. 

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"Crowds are moving into the mainstream; even if you don’t take advantage of them, your competitors surely will."

Crowdsourcing isn't without issues including potential exposure of 'intellectual property'. Ego, overconfidence, and lack of experience with crowdsourcing may also interfere. The authors point out, "It exposes a problem to widely diverse individuals with varied skills, experience, and perspectives."

Diverse, distant opinions might overcome unwillingness to hear local voices. Anonymous expertise has no 'axe to grind' with local management. 

Excellent coaches have little to fear from outside input. Insecure coaches often fear any questioning of their methods. "Who are you to question me?"

Examples. What inputs could go into analysis? 
  • Season statistics (e.g. EFG%, rebounding and turnover percentage)
  • Game video (complete games)
  • Game video (selected highlights)
  • Breakdown of special situations (e.g. BOB, SLOB, ATO)
  • Study of close and late (e.g. two possession games, final four minutes)
Have you ever asked or been asked to help? 

Lagniappe. "A triggers B." Chris Oliver shares video on a concept. 

Lagniappe 2. "Tell me about yourself." Some of you will interview for other positions and want to present your best version. 

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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Basketball: Defensive Don'ts

"Basketball is a game of mistakes." - Coach Bob Knight

Coach Knight wrote the exceptional, The Power of Negative Thinking. Knowing what not to do has great meaning.

1. "Don't allow easy baskets." Winners don't give away hoops. Shorten it to "no easy baskets" or "hard twos." 

2. "Foul for profit." - Kevin Sivils   Don't put opponents on the line where the points per possession are most unfavorable for the defense. Note the exception for the "Hack-a-Shaq." 

3. "Don't foul perimeter shots." That's an extension of number two. Grayson Allen leads the NBA in three-point percentage at over 47 percent. That translates to just over 70 percentage at the free throw line. Why convert a harder shot into easier ones? 

4. Don't play "dead man's defense," six feet under the ball. Defense begins with ball pressure. Dead Man's Defense converts weak ball handlers into adequate ones. "Don't back down." 

5. Don't allow second shots, restating "ONE bad shot." Second shots are higher percentage shots. 

6. Don't be a head-turner. See both...the ball and your assignment.  

7. Don't be silent. Talk on defense. "Silent teams lose."

8. Don't "buddy run." Get back faster in transition and be fully alert and engaged. Bad transition defense shows both lack of concentration and/or lack of effort. 

9. "Don't just guard your man." The ball scores. Cover 1.5, your assignment and half of another.

10."Don't allow easy cuts." Fight for space. 

Lagniappe. Staying under control...from Coach Dags 

Lagniappe 2. Teach floaters better...not my area of expertise. 

Lagniappe 3. Think zipper away, pin-down near. 

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Monday, March 18, 2024

Basketball: Public Speaking

Coaches teach players how to succeed on and off the court. Public speaking is a life hack. People judge us by the content of our writing and speaking. That may not be fair, but it's true. Improved speaking and writing helps you advance. 

The best time to fill your toolbox and add life hacks is when you're young. That allows you to maximize the Achievement Equation: 

ACHIEVEMENT = PERFORMANCE x TIME

Start young and benefit from TIME.  

Readers get basketball information across multiple domains. But my blogs also shares ideas for personal growth:

Remember that "Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted."

Tips for better speaking:

Impact. Great addresses change the world. You've heard some, like The Gettysburg Address, President Kennedy's Inaugural ("Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."), General MacArthur's speech to West Point graduates ("duty, honor, country"). 

Audience. Know your audience. To reach them, learn about them. Find out their needs and desires, their backgrounds. The graduates of the most affluent communities differ from those in less affluent ones, especially regarding scholarships and financial resources. 

Connection. Find ways to touch the hearts of your listeners. Admiral McRaven spoke to graduates at the University of Texas explaining SEAL training, starting with make your bed. After the hardest day imaginable, it's great to return to a well-made bed. 

Communication. Speak the language of your audience. Jargon, slang, and cursing might work for a few audiences, but usually not. I recall one speaker at a college event telling students about preparing for interviews. She began, "Flip flops are not shoes." 

Humor. Humor helps us connect. Most stories, however short, have three parts - beginning, middle, and end. "What were the last words General Washington told his men before crossing the Delaware? Pause... Get in the boat." 

Stories. Stories make memories. In Made to Stick, the Heath Brothers share the acronym SUCCESS - simple, unexpected, concrete (specific), credible, emotional, stories. Reading widely helps arm you with stories. 

Questions? Sometimes questions help frame a debate. Dan Pink reminds us of the 1980 Presidential election where Ronald Reagan asked, "are you better off than you were four years ago?" But only ask when you are certain... You remember 2020, being in the throes of the Global Pandemic. MVB didn't have a fall season. 

Practice! To become a better speaker, practice your delivery - alone, in front of a mirror, in front of trusted friends. 


Screenshot from MasterClass

"But they might not like me or my presentation." Don't worry about what other people think. Remember this Four Agreements suggestion, "Don't take anything personally." Other people's comments say everything about them and little about you.

Lagniappe. We've all seen teams win or lose games from inability to enter the ball.  

Lagniappe 2. I teach defenders this line, "bigs away come back into play." It's not always true, but often.  

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Sunday, March 17, 2024

Basketball: Teaching Points, Tigers Top Lions in Ivy Final

Every game shares teaching points. These are Columbia-centric although Princeton wins the Ivy title. 


 The nightmare is already visible, doubling the post without enough help. 


Princeton runs a horns guard cut reminiscent of 1986 Bird and Walton...but Columbia shuts it down. 


Ball screen leads to draw two and then a three.
 

Columbia scores on a BOB with great spacing via a Princeton defensive error. 



Dribble handoff into shifty individual effort and tough finish for the Lions. 


Great play design off a SLOB with a fantastic slipped cross-screen into a layup.
 
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Basketball: Seek Greatness for the Exceptional Player


Coaching the exceptional player blends privilege and opportunity. And it happens rarely. What distinguishes the exceptional player from the other hundreds of players we coach?

The list is incomplete.

1. Ambition. Influence expert Dan Pink describes qualities of autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Special players showed exceptional commitment from a young age. Autonomy informs 'self-starters'. 

2. Physical gifts. Top players have at least two of three qualities - size, athleticism, and skill. Coaches can help with athleticism and skill, but coaches cannot transform players without inherent gifts. 

3. Curiosity. Newell's mandate, "see the game" manifests as being in your notebook and regularly studying video. At higher levels, become your own coach, learning how to 'utilize strengths and to attack weaknesses'. 

4. Say, "Yes." Opportunities arise for extra training, extra instruction, extra development. That implies the will to tolerate physical and mental fatigue. "Champions do extra," says James Kerr in Legacy. The exceptional player takes advantage to develop an edge. 

5. Mentoring. Selected figures in history leveraged force of will to success, such as Abraham Lincoln. Mostly, "mentoring is the only shortcut to excellence." 

6. Coachability. Excellent players thirst for coaching. They translate listening into practice into high performance. 

7. Athletic training. Few individuals, such as Bo Jackson, develop the strength, power, and endurance to excel without intense physical training. But the rest need focused development. On sites like Threads.net, readers can direct desired posts using the word, 'algorithm'. 

8. Multilevel scoring. The game has evolved. Players need to score and facilitate scoring at all three levels. That requires instruction, tracking results, and competition. Knight's prohibition of 'free shooting' makes sense to reduce the dropoff between practice and live action. 

9. Resources. Training, teams, and competition takes time and money. Strong family or external support help. 

Lagniappe. Don't matter, too. 

Lagniappe 2. Get more direction with exit interviews.  

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Saturday, March 16, 2024

Basketball: Hidden Landmines

Coach Bob Knight said, "basketball is a game of mistakes." Many mistakes are obvious - passes thrown away, poor quality shots, missed free throws. We've all made these mistakes and had our players do the same. 

Some mistakes appear less obvious to untrained eyes. Many fall under "basketball IQ."

Missed opportunities: 

  • Failure to reject ball screens
  • Failure to slip overplayed screens
  • Failure to "look ahead" in transition
  • Casual cutting creates no separation (less efficient possessions)
  • Unexploited mismatches 
  • Offense habitually initiated from sidelines

The defense gets advantage by shrinking space, loading to the ball, which is magnified farther the more that offense runs from the sideline. 

Opportunities created for opponents:
  • Lack of communication
  • Allowing opposition to get into their offense too easily. 
  • Poor clock management including 2 for 1s end-of-quarter (shot clock) and misuse of tempo during comebacks and closing out games
  • Live ball turnovers
  • Poorly organized (numbers to the glass, shaping up, protecting the rim) or executed transition defense
  • Allowing impact offensive players to get the ball too easily
  • Excessive fouling including fouling perimeter shots and allowing opponent to get in the bonus early
Where is the low hanging fruit? That will vary by team. Several "difference making" examples:

1) Make it harder for opponent's scorers to get the ball and get it in their preferred locations. (Reduce EFG%)
2) Clarify transition assignments and how many players go to the offensive boards. Transition points often change momentum. (Reduce EFG%)
3) More urgent cutting
4) Reduced fouling should be a priority 

Lagniappe. Backdoor cuts can create high percentage shots. 
Lagniappe 2. Long closeouts create opportunity. 
Lagniappe 3. Slip-sliding away. 


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Friday, March 15, 2024

Basketball: Optimism


Learn optimism. 

What is optimism? Optimism is fuel. Fuel doesn't guarantee a smooth trip or pleasant destination. Fuel helps us complete the journey. 

Optimism is part of our controllables - attitude, choices, and effort. Optimism helps us start, keep going, and finish. 

Optimism centers blind faith and crippling doubt. 

Optimism forms part of the shield that helps us withstand pressure. In Performing Under Pressure, Weisinger and Pawliw-Fry construct a metaphorical "COTE of armor," comprised of confidence, optimism, tenacity, and enthusiasm.

Optimism benefits from periodic rewards, like wins at a slot machine. Tough to lose all the time and remain hopeful. 

Coach Sonny Lane assumed a losing basketball program in the summer of 1970. One of his first leadership moves was helping paint an outdoor court including a sign reading, "Tech Tourney, 1973." In 1973, he won his first sectional championship. 

What good is it? Does optimism improve outcomes? 

How do we build optimism? 
  • Organization
  • Preparation 
  • Focus 
  • Practice 
  • Psychological training 
Optimism flows from confidence and in Bill Parcells' words, "confidence comes from proven success." 

Training helps us visualize successes (e.g. highlight reel), affirm identity (be a sharer and valued teammate), and performance (get after it every day at home, at work, and add value for others). 

Optimism crosses time. Our past achievements predict our future performance. 

A few quotes about optimism:

"The best way to predict the future is to create it." - Peter Drucker

"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Extraordinary people are ordinary people making extraordinary decisions." - Sharon Pearson

Summary: 
  • Optimism is our choice. 
  • Optimism fuels our journey. 
  • Optimists have better mental health. 
  • Optimism produces better athletic performance.
  • Optimism helps performance under pressure. 
Lagniappe. Cut hard and tight. Poor cutting is a big cause for offensive failure. 
Lagniappe 2. Kobe mindset.
 
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Thursday, March 14, 2024

Basketball: We Tell Stories

We tell stories. Most are not 'consequential' in the big picture.  Consequential implies meaningful, making a difference. Life embeds basketball lessons when we pay attention. 

Basketball leaves scars. Some are physical, others psychological. Always take the physical over the psychological scar. My first basketball injury was a fat upper lip on my own tooth in sixth grade on a rebounding collision. Geno Auriemma describes growing up poor in Northern Italy. He rolled into a fire and sustained abdominal burns. Basketball leaves scars. 

Cold shooting. During a late sixties Christmas vacation, we had a  basketball game in Watertown, suburban Boston. They never turned the heat on. We wore coats on the bench and the chill frosted everyone's breath. I made three perimeter shots off the wooden backboard. My coach asked whether I was aiming for the board. Sam Jones was my favorite player. "The bank is always open." 

"C team." I started coaching in 1999, starting a sixth grade "C" team because my daughters didn't earn slots on the "A" or "B" team. The team wasn't very good, nor was the coaching. I trained one of my twins as a point guard because I wanted her to learn passing. She became the second best passer on her high school club. The best was Shey Peddy, a future WNBA player. Their teams went 90-6 in high school. 

"Girl power." Basketball teaches life lessons - sacrifice, hard work, competition, resilience, sportsmanship. Boys always had access to these lessons while girls were often relegated to second class. Empower yourselves. 

"History lessons." Preach. Develop a portfolio of stories that teach principles. Lee's victory at Chancellorsville in 1863 taught winning against overwhelming odds. Arlene Blum's ascent of 8,000 meter Annapurna taught how women could summit with audacity and also succumb to fatal avalanches. Risk and reward travel together. 

"All politics is local," said Tip O'Neill. Whether it's about finding, keeping, or losing your job, politics matter. Sam Jackson reminds us, "Remember that the toes you step on today may be connected to the *** you have to kiss tomorrow."

"Endangered species." The last fifty games I coached, I don't think the zebras determined the outcome of any. When our girls played well they had a chance. When they played less well or I coached poorly, we lost. Scapegoating referees happens far too often. Point fingers at ourselves first. 

"Family matters." Although coaching our children can bring joy, it's not automatic. Coaches can coach our children harder, so it can go either way.


"Faith and patience" flank the peak of Wooden's 'Pyramid of Success'. A copy watched over our locker room six decades ago. Coaching children demands belief and time. Inconsistency litters the courts of young kids. You'll ask how they can play so poorly in the morning and so well in the afternoon. Don't lose our minds over what we can't control. 

"Lost in space." Most youth teams have poor spacing, allowing defenses to shrink space. Rather than make excuses about zone defense, make a commitment to space and to disrupt space with shot fakes and ball fakes. 

Watch for life lessons wherever you go and help players write great narratives. 

Lagniappe. Learn to self-regulate, from @booksforaspirants 

Too many people self-medicate with alcohol or substances. 


Lagniappe 2. Learn this skill...even if it's to play inside-out. 

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Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Basketball: Third Rails

"Social Security is the third rail of American politics. Touch it, you're dead." 

What are the third rails of basketball? What areas are so toxic as to foster fatality? 

1. Politics. Nobody can isolate politics from policy. Carl Pierson's The Politics of Coaching belongs on every coach's bookshelf. Don't be undermined by what you don't know. 

2. Work-life balance. Finding a balance to maintain healthy family relationships challenges every coach. 

3. Isolation. Coaches need help. Whether it's formal like Coach Calipari's "Personal Board of Directors" or less so with mentors, assistants, or other confidants, hear other voices. Good ideas come from anywhere. 

4. Acrimony with parents. A state Coach of the Year coach told me a parent literally "bought out" his contract with a generous donation. Even a hired gun can get taken out by bigger munitions. 

5. Playing time. The Unholy Trinity of minutes, role, and recognition dominate perception. Even with the wisdom of Solomon, you will not be able to divide the three to everyone's satisfaction. A coach who won multiple state championships told me he got a phone call from a parent FIVE MINUTES into the season complaining about playing time. He turned the phone off from then on. 

6. Strategy. Unless your name is Krzyzewski or Summitt, you'll be second-guessed by people with only fractional basketball knowledge and experience. That doesn't account for game management. 

7. Lack of discipline. Players seldom work to undermine coaches through on-court actions. But all too often, off the court actions can be coaches' undoing. 

8. On-court player decisions. It's the math. Teams need a maximal number of winning possessions to succeed. Turnovers and bad shot selection are the undoing of too many well-meaning coaches. 

Lagniappe. Create advantage.   

Lagniappe 2. Rip it. 

Lagniappe 3. Urgency flows from coaches to players' situations.  


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Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Basketball: Fast Five (Teaching Highlights)

Video is the truth machine. Truth on.

The midrange game works for Ayton.  


Pritchard 'draws 2' and opens up White for a trey. 


Sleight of hand. White drives and defenders prepare to block his right hand but he switches at the last second. 


Help your teammate. Horford interferes with the help on a Tatum drive. 


A switch turns into a dunk for the Blazers. 


The J's have played together long enough to improvise with flair.
 

Give-and-go as simple actions work. 


Work on a quick release. Sam Hauser's is his career calling card. We worked on a drill would slam the ball down, catch and release as quickly as possible. 
 
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Basketball: Be Eclectic and Choose Your Program Values and Priorities

Kansas State football coach transformed a football program, centering his approach around 16 behaviors. Players received a laminated card with these values. I imagine many still carry theirs around. 

Ask ourselves, can we consolidate and simplify these values. After all, it's hard to remember a list of 16. 

1. 49er coach Bill Walsh demanded a "Standard of Performance."

2. Don Meyer reduced his to PUSH-T, Passion, Unity, Servant Leadership, Humility, and Thankfulness. 

3. Kevin Durant awakens asking, "How can I improve today?"

4. Samuel L. Jackson informs, "Bring the best version of yourself today." 

5. Steve Kerr reduces his philosophy to MINDSET, CULTURE, and MENTORS.

6. Use the THINK model when speaking - is it TRUE, HELPFUL, INSPIRING, NECESSARY, KIND? 

7. Be mindful. Be present. Coach K says, "Next play." 

8. Investigative journalist Bob Woodward lives to "seek the best available version of the truth." 

9. David Brooks says focus on EULOGY VALUES over RESUME VALUES...a "moral bucket list." "I came to the conclusion that wonderful people are made, not born — that the people I admired had achieved an unfakeable inner virtue, built slowly from specific moral and spiritual accomplishments." Brooks described himself as a 'narcissistic blowhard'. 

10. Benjamin Franklin shared a list of virtues, unfortunately lengthy and equally difficult to achieve. 


The point? Everyone has a different set of priorities. Simple is hard. My suggestion? "Model excellence." Choose elements that resonate for you. 

Lagniappe. How much are we invested? 

Lagniappe 2. Some players see the world through the prism of "numbers." That needs retraining. 

3. Lagniappe 3. This is a bottom line business.  










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Monday, March 11, 2024

Basketball and other Animals

Sport overflows with metaphorical animal references - king of the jungle, ruling the roost, 600 pound gorillas. We anthropomorphize the beasts and ascribe animal attributes to athletes.

Chris Paul plies the 'snake dribble' to create space.

 

Blend balance and power with an exaggerated 'crow hop'. 

 

Offenses catch defenses unaware with the 'blind pig'. 

Everyone played H-O-R-S-E. Curry and Durant play P-I-G. 


Players use the 'crab dribble' to protect the ball.

Other animal references exist, too. 

  • Of a gritty player, "he has a lot of dog in him."
  • Teams that play an overly physical, dirty style play "gorilla ball." 
  • A player responsible for defeat wears the 'goat horns'.
  • An out of control player is a "bull in a China shop." 
  • Mismatch, "mouse in the house." 
  • Win by getting a bunch of gym rats on your team. 
  • Give the zebras a break. An African proverb says, 350 zebras must die so that one lion may live."
Do you have a 'spirit animal'? 

Lagniappe. Move a defender. 

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Lagniappe 2. Chris Oliver shows how another way to get inside position. 

Lagniappe 3. Majerus. 

Lagniappe 4. Stop to separate.  




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