Vault: Teaching

Alan Keane: Observations & Trends from FIBA U18 European Championship

These notes, reflections and observations by Alan Keane (England u18 National Team Head Coach) from the FIBA U18 European Championship 2019 is too good not to share – much less to allow to get lost in the Twitterverse. Raw. Candid. Actionable. This is the kind of share that helps to deepen our collective perspective of …

Mike MacKay: Developing World Class Basketball Players

This. Is. A. Coaching. Masterclass…! Seriously. It’s rare to observe basketball practices that have been mindfully designed to integrate the mental, technical, physical, social and competive constraints in a way that reads like a book. This is why we (affectionately) call Mike MacKay: Yoda Master MacKay. In his day “job”, he’s the Women’s High Performance …

Sharing The Thinking With Your Players

Read this quote today by Luke Walton (Head Coach, Los Angeles Lakers) on building a winning culture and developing basketball IQ: Let’s Go Deeper… I agree with the basic premise of the quote; yet, I think we can go deeper. Think about replacing freedom with responsibility. As the saying goes, ‘with freedom comes responsibility’. (I don’t think Luke will be …

Why Your Drills Suck

Did I get your attention with that headline? Man, I hate to have to use ‘click-bait’ headlines to get you to perk up. Yet, I’ll do what’s necessary to stimulate conversation. I’m really passionate the debate that centres around drills versus games. Turns out I’m not the only one… Stuart Armstrong, from The Talent Equation, has a strong point …

Coaching Is Developmental Science Not Rocket Science

Love how Dr. Kwame Brown, a developmental neuroscientist, frames it… “Coaching is not ‘rocket science’ but it is ‘developmental science’.  It is also developmental experience, and developmental awareness, and developmental temperament.” Same, Same But Different. — you need to convey your symptoms in vivid detail to get the proper diagnosis. Asking a coach who has …

Knowing vs Believing

Separating fact from opinion is one of the hardest challenges coaches face. It’s human nature for perspective to be clouded. And, notions of effective coaching are not immune to the myths of success (e.g. falling prey to it’s always been done that way and struggling to distinguish between because of and in spite of.) “Stay down in your stance… Don’t cross your feet when …