Tag: momentum

How to Win the Timeout

Brad Stevens - How to Win The Timeout
photo credit: nbawire.com

Have you ever thought about what needs to happen for your team to “win the timeout”? NCAA.com reports that “Possessions after timeouts account for 15-18 percent of possessions in a game. The worst teams score around .7 ppp. Average teams score around .85 ppp. The best score more than 1.0 ppp. And there are many teams who execute better within seconds of receiving advice from the coaching staff.”

Brad Stevens, the head coach for the Boston Celtics, is known for having his team run highly successful plays “After a Time Out” or ATO. How can you “win the timeout”? Answer: If you think about the situation that created the timeout, there are certain things you can do, as a coach, to give your team the best chance for a successful play immediately following the timeout.

Why was the timeout called?

To slow your opponent’s momentum and regroup your team? Or is it the other way around and you are on a run so the opposing coach wants to slow you down? Whatever the reason for the timeout, you can use it to your advantage.

For example, if you are on a roll and the other team is trying to slow you down… why not switch up something when you come out of the timeout? Something that is different from what you have been doing could cause enough confusion on the other team for you to get a steal or force a bad shot.

Doing something unexpected is always a good tactic… as long as it is something you have practiced and that uses your team’s strengths.

Aside from the “unexpected”,
what else can we do to “win the timeout”?

HUSTLE. It can demoralize the other team if you show them that you are not tired (even if you are) by hustling to your bench. It also gives you an extra second or two together that the other team doesn’t get (because you arrive at your bench sooner).

3 PART TIMEOUT. If you are organized as a team, you will be able to accomplish more during your timeout. For example, I like to use a 3 part timeout process which consists of (1) Feedback, (2) Tactics and (3) Motivation.

(1) Feedback is a quick check of the status of your team. Where is their head at? Are they confident and engaged in the game? How tired are they and does anyone need a quick rest? This should not take long, maybe a few seconds, but you want to address any problems they are experiencing on the court.

(2) Tactics. This is typical timeout actions… drawing up plays, switching defenses, whatever you need to do to gain an advantage.

From NCAA.com… Advance scouting, game observation and gut instinct help coaches make the right call in a huddle. Clemson’s Brad Brownell is in his 15th season as a head coach. Over the years, he’s learned that the less information he heaps onto his players in a timeout, the better.

“A clear, concise message is important.” he said. “In a shorter timeout of 30 seconds it might be just giving them one thought as it pertains to what they’re trying to defend, preparation for something that could happen, anticipating, a couple of different play calls or whatever it is.”

(3) Motivation is getting your team excited to execute the plan you have laid out for them after the timeout. If you are not getting a strong response, this is your opportunity to “get them on board’ or make a slight change to the plan. By this point in the timeout, you probably won’t have much time and it is good to have a chant or yell that your team executes at the end of every timeout that gets them going. Again, this should be something that has been practiced so you know how the team will react.

Bottom Line…
Coach Wheeler with the Monadnock team at the Granite State Games
Go Team!

Will this guarantee that you will “win the timeout”? No. All it will do is give you a framework so that you and your team can do their best work. You never know what the competition will do… they may have even read this article too. All you can do is prepare your team and make the best use of the time you are given. That way you at least have a good chance to “win the timeout”. Now,  1-2-3… GO TEAM!

4 Part Basketball Year

The one basketball season ends and another basketball year begins. If you are only playing and working on your game during the “official school season” than you are missing out.  Below are the 4 sections / timelines that make up the “4 part basketball year” plus the off-season.  Let’s start with the day after your school season ends…

Off Season (Spring/Summer/Fall)

  • Spring AAU
  • Summer League
  • Fall AAU
  • Open gym(s) at school
  • Pickup games
  • Weight Training

Once practices can start, the season is officially ON !  Below are the parts of the season along with the focus area for each time period.

1st Quarter- Pre-Season – before first game

  • Tryouts
  • Practices / Conditioning
  • Learn techniques and formations
  • Scrimmages
  • Keep it simple / Learn The Basics

 

2nd Quarter – First Encounters (1st Half of Season)

  • Play first round of home/away games
  • Find out what works vs. competition (adapt as needed)
  • Fine tune & Accelerate “The Basics”
  • Continue conditioning / strength gains
  • Gauge the competition (Strengths & Weaknesses)

 

3rd Quarter – Revenge/Payback time (2nd Half of Season)

  • Must get better (the competition isn’t standing still)
  • Prep for playoffs
  • Keep conditioning / Make it Fun !
  • Maintain FOCUS. Stay sharp.
  • Take breaks when needed to maintain energy.
  • Cold & Flu season… rest to recover quicker.

 

4th Quarter – Win or Go Home (Playoffs)

  • Perform at your best.
  • Few “Easy Wins”… even lower seeds are playing hard.
  • Have a few surprises up your sleeve.
  • High level of Mental Toughness / Facing The Challenges
Why use “4 Part Basketball Year”?

Breaking up the season into “chucks”, each with a different area of focus and specific “feel”, helps your team fight the boredom of a long season. It also breaks up the grind of weeks of conditioning and keeps players fresh.

A physical test in each quarter, either as part of a game or practice, can be a good milestone to show progress when compared with tests earlier in the season.  I like to have some standard tests for evaluating players and it is good to come back to them in each section of the season to show players that they are indeed getting better.

Bottom line…

Looking at the overall season as a “4 part basketball year” helps your planning efforts as a coach. It should also make the year more enjoyable and more successful for your players. The outline above is just a starting point. Feel free to add your own components to each section and use the outline as a planning tool for this year as well as years to come. If you see something that doesn’t belong, please leave us a comment below. Even if you disagree, your comments and ideas will be helping us get better.

Overcome Laziness – Japanese Concept

Watch the video which will introduce you to a cool concept to overcome laziness. It is from Japan and called Kaizen. Watch the video and then we will talk.

Kaizen is a great way to make a change in your life. It starts a habit in the smallest way possible (for one minute) and allows it to take hold in your daily routine. Once it is a habit, you will begin to see results… which will motivate you to expand the habit and get even more success.

The concept of Kaizen is even more effective for young athletes who are just beginning to train their bodies for sports. While they don’t have the capabilities of a varsity athlete or the professionals they see on TV, they have a distinct advantage… TIME. By doing small tasks or workouts on a consistent basis a young athlete can become a superior athlete faster than they can imagine. Patience + Time = Results.

How could you apply kaizen to your life? Pushups in the morning for 1 minute? How about jumping rope for 60 seconds? How many jumps can you do in that time? What do you want to improve? Start implementing kaizen today!

Try it. Take a little bite. You will like what it does for you.

Publish or Perish… at least for this Basketball Coach

Motivation by WagerIt has been a while since I last posted on this blog and I know that unless I post on a regular basis (at least once a week) there will be very little motivation for readers to come back and follow along.

A keynote speaker friend of mine who is working on building his audience in the personal development world, started shooting some short motivational videos during a recent trip to New Hampshire with the goal of turning them into a regular feature on his Facebook page or other websites. Of course I encouraged him to do it… and to do it regularly. [It is always easier to give the advice than to follow it, right?]

The more I thought about how I could help him stick to creating & publishing his videos long enough to build some real momentum, the more I realized that I needed to do something similar… so I offered him a wager.

We would both commit to completing a post (me) or a video (him) every week for 52 weeks with the first one to miss a week to pay the other person $100. Then, if we got to the end without either of us missing, we would take the $200 and figure out a way to celebrate. We both liked the idea… although we did not want to wait a whole year to celebrate so we dialed it back to 26 weeks… STARTING TODAY.

So this is my first post… about the contest… but also about how I will motivate myself and what methods I will put in place to make sure my ideas make it from the concept stage to the publication stage (and, if they are good ideas… the implementation-by-others stage).

½ Done is “NOT Done”

True productivity requires something to be produced! If you don’t finish something, it is as if you did nothing. Not sure who said it, but it is true, “Compete is better than perfect”.

I’ve been doing lots of research, reading and thinking over the past few months but aside from creating the blog (and some graphics and some video intros), I don’t have the quantity of content that I feel I need.

Why do I need it?
What’s my real goal?

My goal is to move up the basketball coaching career path. My next step is a varsity high school team and while I have done more coaching (fairly successfully I might add) in the past year or so, I have also found that most coaching jobs are filled by coaches that have built up a reputation in the basketball (and athletic director) community. This blog is one attempt to showcase my philosophies & knowledge of basketball and position myself as someone worth hiring to coach your school’s team. That’s why I need to complete this bet !

Power of Habit by Charles DuhiggNext Question: How am I going to do it?
If you have not read the book “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg, you need to get a copy now. Here is the link to the Amazon page so you don’t have to look it up.

Why did I say that? Because our life is ruled by habits. Good, Bad, deliberately created or ingrained long ago it doesn’t matter. Habits are how we get stuff done and contrary to what most people think, there are some tricks to changing your habits into ones that support your goals.

I won’t go into all the details (you really need to buy Charles’ book), but the simple way to look at habits is 1) they get replaced, not eliminated and 2) they follow a structure that you can hijack. Anyone who has tried to “stop eating” something knows that unless you replace a bad habit with a good one, the vacuum created by trying to eliminate a habit actually makes it harder to “not do it”.

Quick example…
If your “go to snack” at 2pm is a chocolate bar and you want to lose weight, then you need to find something that will replace that snack with a healthy alternative. Maybe nuts or popcorn. The key is to recognize the habit and replace what makes it bad with something better.

Hijacking a Habit…
The process of hijacking a habit is very similar. Habits have multiple parts (explained better in the book) where you can mold the habit into something that supports your goals. For example, a habit has a Trigger, an Action and a Result or Reward. If you recognize the Trigger that gets your habit started, you have a chance to hijack the trigger and point it toward a better action. Alternatively, if you look at the other end and identify the Result or Reward that you are getting you may be able to think of an alternative Action which would yield a similar result but one that is more in line with your goals.

It seams simple but like most things in life, we rarely think about how our habits are shaping our lives. For me, I have part of a good habit… I take a half hour every morning, after making myself some tea, to meditate / think about ideas that I want to implement. Usually I can come up with at least 3 and then my day has some creative energy to use as fuel.

The problem comes in when I have the ideas laid out, but not ready to publish. My change will be to tie my lunch break into a “get on the computer and type” session. It isn’t really a question of ability… I can type pretty easily… I just need to make it happen and it is very likely that I will be creating much more than one post per week.

Where the bet comes in is when life gets too busy or distracted or whatever… it is like a backstop or brick wall that says “You will not go to sleep without publishing something.”

[As you might notice, this post was released very late on Wednesday, our posting deadline, so the bet is already serving its purpose.]

Additional Motivation…

What other forms or methods of motivation can I employ? I am sure that I will get a sense of accomplishment with each new post and maybe the comments from readers like you (hint, hint) will inspire me to tackle new topics or try new ways of providing value to the readers of my basketball coaching blog. Since I have not accomplished a whole lot just yet, at least as far as the blog goes, it is hard to see how this will be a large motivation but I will keep an open mind. Maybe I will build a “momentum of accomplishment” as my string of weekly posts grows… tune in to find out !

One last piece of Motivation… you !

I’ve always found that a public commitment is a great form of motivation. Even if the only person who reads this post is the person who I have the bet with, it is still out there and I want to win. Besides, that’s the title of this blog, “Building the Winning Mindset” so a public commitment to win this 26 week bet had better hold up… especially if you are going to believe all the other ideas I will be presenting around the topic of Winning!

How can you help?
I know you want to help, right? To be perfectly honest, I could use your help. I want to deliver articles (or videos or interviews or whatever) that are of interest to you ! What are the biggest challenges you are facing as a basketball coach? As an Athletic Director who hires (or fires) basketball coaches? What questions need answers? I am here to help and I read all comments on this blog. (Even the spam ones for “male enhancement” or “jump higher in 7 days”.) I look forward to hearing what you are encountering and what is working (or not working) for you!

What’s next? 

Over the next 6 weeks I will be working on pulling together my Score More Basketball Camp and will probably try out some ideas here on the blog.  In particular, the section of the camp that deals with Mind Control and a Winning Attitude will definitely be of interest to my blog readers, right?

Keep Your Focus !