Monday, May 17, 2010

HOW DOES YOUR PRACTICE "SOUND?"

I recently heard Buzz Williams of Marquette speak at a Nike Clinic and he posed the question, "If there was a blind man that came to your practice, what would he think of your team?"

I thought it was a fascinating question. What does a good practice "sound" like? Obviously there would be a lot of talking. The talking would be instructional and encouraging. But at a good practice, the vast majority of talking would come from the players. You should hear some hand clapping...constant squeeking of shoes.

In terms of vocabulary, what are the words you want to hear coming from your players?
Coach Williams went on to say that he has shown film to his team minus the visual part -- simply a black screen for them to hear practice. He said he even has practice dumped on CD at times so he can "listen" to it in the car on the way home.

I think it is an outstanding concept and one that we are going to use with our team this year. Communication is huge with Coach Williams and I will share some more of his thoughts and theory in this regard in the near future.