KEY WORDS FOR COACH K

Those three magic words, “I love you” are words that are important and meaningful in any culture. But there are four words that are not said nearly enough by families interacting with kids or people interacting in a team environment.

In all forms of leadership, whether you are a coach, a CEO, or a parent, there are four words that, when said, can bring out the best in your team, your employees, and your family.

“I believe in you.”

Those four words can mean the difference between a fear of failure and the courage to try.

On a team or in a family, believe makes each individual stronger and also fortifies the group as a whole.

From “Beyond Basketball” by Mike Krzyzewski with Jamie Spatola

KEEPING A JOURNAL

One of the things I learned from Don Meyer very early that has been important to me is to keep a journal. Not a diary. I'm not writing down what I did -- I'm writing down what I learned. It has been a great source of release for me. I keep with me at all times. Below is an article from the late Jim Rohn on keeping a journal:

If you’re serious about becoming a wealthy, powerful, sophisticated, healthy, influential, cultured and unique individual, keep a journal. Don’t trust your memory. When you listen to something valuable, write it down. When you come across something important, write it down.

I used to take notes on pieces of paper and torn-off corners and backs of old envelopes. I wrote ideas on restaurant placemats. On long sheets, narrow sheets and little sheets and pieces of paper thrown in a drawer. Then I found out that the best way to organize those ideas is to keep a journal. I’ve been keeping these journals since the age of 25. The discipline makes up a valuable part of my learning, and the journals are a valuable part of my library.

I am a buyer of blank books. Kids find it interesting that I would buy a blank book. They say, “Twenty-six dollars for a blank book! Why would you pay that?” The reason I pay 26 dollars is to challenge myself to find something worth 26 dollars to put in there. All my journals are private, but if you ever got a hold of one of them, you wouldn’t have to look very far to discover it is worth more than 26 dollars.

I must admit, if you got a glimpse of my journals, you’d have to say that I am a serious student. I’m not just committed to my craft; I’m committed to life, committed to learning new concepts and skills. I want to see what I can do with seed, soil, sunshine and rain to turn them into the building blocks of a productive life.

Keeping a journal is so important. I call it one of the three treasures to leave behind for the next generation. In fact, future generations will find these three treasures far more valuable than your furniture.

The first treasure is your pictures. Take a lot of pictures. Don’t be lazy in capturing the event. How long does it take to capture the event? A fraction of a second. How long does it take to miss the event? A fraction of a second. So don’t miss the pictures. When you’re gone, they’ll keep the memories alive.

The second treasure is your library. This is the library that taught you, that instructed you, that helped you defend your ideals. It helped you develop a philosophy. It helped you become wealthy, powerful, healthy, sophisticated and unique. It may have helped you conquer some disease. It may have helped you conquer poverty. It may have caused you to walk away from the ghetto. Your library—the books that instructed you, fed your mind and fed your soul—is one of the greatest gifts you can leave behind.

The third treasure is your journals: the ideas that you picked up, the information that you meticulously gathered. But of the three, journal writing is one of the greatest indications that you’re a serious student. Taking pictures, that is pretty easy. Buying a book at a bookstore, that’s pretty easy. It is a little more challenging to be a student of your own life, your own future, your own destiny. Take the time to keep notes and to keep a journal. You’ll be so glad you did. What a treasure to leave behind when you go. What a treasure to enjoy today!

PRACTICE GUIDELINES FROM COACH WOODEN

1. Start the practice by warming up.

2. Close th4 practice with team drills.

3. Vary the drills every day so they don’t become monotonous.

4. Explain the purpose of the drills and you will get a better response.

5. Don’t continue the same drill too long.

6. Teach in small doses and give these doses frequently.

7. Follow difficult drills with easier drills and vice versa.

8. Teach new things early in practice when players are still fresh mentally and physically.

9. Stress shooting drills every day.

10. Stress fundamental drills daily.

11. Analyze each day’s practice while it is still fresh in your mind (before you leave, work out that day).

12. Early season practices are progressive in intensity and build up as you get nearer to playing games.

13. Use small organized groups of 3 to 5 players in teaching the fundamentals.

14. Don’t have 4 or 5 players standing around while 6 are working; have them all working all the time.

15. Shooting drills should be game-like (and working in pairs rather than alone).

16. Stress defense and offense on alternate days, but still work on each daily.

17. I believe, and have said many times, that most of our championships were won on defense.

18. How many of you coaches spend more time on defense than on offense? Offense takes more time because you must do things with the basketball. You have to learn to shoot the basketball, pass the basketball, dribble the basketball, protect the basketball, stop and turn with the basketball. You don’t have to do these things on defense. There is no question in my mind that the coach who spends more time on defense is not using his time properly. They are equally important, but it takes more time for offense than it does for defense. This is because of the object involved.

19. On days when offense is emphasized, the top 7 of 8 players will be on defense and second-line players will work offense. Many things I have mentioned here apply to both offense and defense.

20. When players come on the floor, they have been told certain things they need to work on. Early in the year, they shoot a number of free throws in succession to develop a rhythm and style for each individual – later on they seldom shoot many in succession, usually 1-on-1 or sometimes 5 or 10 in succession.

MAXWELL GAINING CREDIBILITY

From "Leadership Gold" by John Maxwell:

Making it to the top is essential to taking others to the top: A leader’s credibility begins with personal success. It ends with helping others achieve personal success.

To gain credibility, you must consistently demonstrate three things:

...
1. Initiative: You have to get up to go up.
2. Sacrifice: You have to give up to go up.
3. Maturity: You have to grow up to go up.

JIM TRESSEL ON HOPE

Jim Tressel on the subject of "hope" -- from "The Winner's Manual."

Hope is an unseen ingredient in any successful endeavor.

Hope is putting faith to work when doubting would be easier.

The type of hope I want to instill in my players is proactive and is based on reality, not on fantasy or wishful thinking. It’s not the kind if hope a person might have when buying a lottery ticket with the last of the grocery money. Instead, it’s a constant believe in the work that’s already been done, the planning that’s in place, and the potential that lies ahead.

"Hope is one of the principal springs that keeps mankind in motion." -Andrew Fuller

KOBE'S UTILIZATION OF VIDEO FOR HIS PREPARATION

From one of Coach Eric Musselman's archives is a story about Kobe Bryant's pre-game ritual that had ran in the Los Angeles Times:

There are few things more important to Kobe Bryant before a game than his portable DVD player. It goes wherever he goes before tipoff. On the padded table in the trainer's room. On the floor for a pregame stretching routine. Perched in front of his locker. The Lakers' all-star stares at his 10-inch screen, watching basketball clips of the players he'll be guarding. It is part of his longtime commitment to studying video, one of the foundations of a career still going strong in its 13th season.

The Lakers have had dozens of great players over the years, but according to the team's director of video services Chris Bodaken, "Hands down, he's the biggest video fiend we've ever had. I didn't know if it was possible to be more competitive than Magic was, but I think he might be. It carries over into his preparation, and this is part of that.

"The Lakers' video staff goes "through an opponent's last few games and find key plays from the players Bryant will guard, presenting him with eight to 12 minutes of edited footage."

The goal is for Bryant to pick up tendencies of rival players. Have they added any new moves? Have they been aggressively driving to the basket or have they been satisfied to drift from the hoop and settle for outside jump shots? Kobe's objective is "to find ways to take away comfort zones from opponents."

"It's a blueprint," said Bryant, an eight-time member of the NBA all-defensive team. "So if something goes down, it's not something you haven't seen before. Everybody's got tendencies. If he scores 40 on Monday, he's going to try to do it on Tuesday. You've got to take him out of his spots. That's the key."Says Patrick O'Keefe, another member of the Lakers' video staff:

"It's like a straight-A student who still goes to all the extra study sessions."

CONTROL WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL

Control What You Can Control: Let the Score Take Care of Itself

1. Flying by the seat of your pants precedes crashing by the seat of your pants.

2. Planning for foul or fair weather, “scripting” as it applies to your organization, improves the odds of making a safe landing and is a key to success. When you prepare for everything, you’re ready for anything.

3. Create a crisis-management team that is smart enough to anticipate and plan for crises. Being decisive isn’t enough. A wrong call made in a decisive manner is still the wrong call. I hadn’t planned for the “crisis” up in the booth against the Oakland Raiders, and we lost; I had planned for the “crisis” against Cincinnati when we got the ball with two seconds left on the clock and won. The former desperate situation was, indeed, desperate; the latter was not, because we were ready for it.

4. All personnel must recognize that your organization is adaptive and dynamic in facing unstable “weather”. It is a state of mind. Situations and circumstances change so quickly in football or business that no one can afford to get locked into one way of doing things. You must take steps to prepare employees to be flexible when the situation and circumstances warrant it.

5. In the face of massive and often conflicting pressures, an organization must be resolute in its vision of the future and the contingent plans to get where it wants to go.

6. You bring on failure by reacting in an inappropriate manner to pressure or adversity. Your version of “scripting” helps ensure that you will offer the appropriate response in a professional manner, that you will act like a leader.


From "The Score Takes Care of Itself" by Bill Walsh

BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE LISTENING

Even after you have begun to focus on the person with whom you are conversing, you may still experience many potential barriers to effective listening. Here are a few of them:

1. Distractions: Phone calls, TV, pagers and things of that sort can make good listening nearly impossible.
2.Defensiveness: If you view complaints or criticism as a personal attack, you can become defensive. Once you begin to protect yourself, you will care little about what others thing or how they feel.
3. Closed-mindedness: When you think you have all the answers, you close you mind. And when you close your mind, you close your eyes.
4. Projection: Automatically attributing your own thoughts and feelings to others prevents you from perceiving how they feel.
5. Assumptions: When you jump to conclusions, you take away your own incentive to listen.
6. Pride: Thinking we have little to learn from others is, perhaps, the most deadly of distractions to listening. Being full of yourself leaves little room for input from others.

From "25 Ways You Win With People" by John Maxwell

TWO DEFENSIVE DRILLS FROM MURRAY ARNOLD

Two teaching techniques that Murray Arnold "thought were awesome":

Emphasis on defensive transition. Opened every practice with the same drill. Five-on-four disadvantage at one end, twelve seconds on shot clock.
·Even if they score they take it out of the net and run.
·Don’t take the ball out of bounds during a defensive transition drill (it slows things down).

Four-on-four basketball:
·The game can be taught much better with four-on-four.
·Practice defensive transition and stopping penetration.
·During the preseason, they have a four-on-four competition with rules and a scoring system. Trophies are given to the winners at the team banquet.

BILLY DONOVAN: FOUR WAYS TO GET OPEN 3'S

1. Transition: push hard for early threes.
2. Dribble Penetration: drive and kick opportunities.
3. Post Kickouts: passing out of double-teams followed by ball reversal.
4. Offensive Rebounds: best time for open threes. Bigs feel that they’re entitled to shoot the ball off of an o-board, but this is a great time to find a shooter sprinting to spot up in an open area.