Hey, What Are We Talkin' 'Bout?

I was at a high school practice the other day, and I got to thinking about what this blog is really about. Yeah, I knew before yesterday, but I am going to hint to at least a bit of what its broad scope is. Probably just as revealing as my explanation is what I witnessed at the practice that spurred my thinking.

But here is what I saw. A lot of standing, a lot of half-hearted play, and very little understanding from the players of what they were trying to do. You have all heard about setting goals and having the drive to reach those goals. And many of you have embraced that philosophy and it plays out in your every day life. And, to be fair, probably every basketball team (at least at the high school level and above) has goals for the season. Things like "win the conference", "Beat Watsamatta U", things like that. And many of those teams have other goals like shooting 70% from the line or 30% from behind the arc.

But what I'm talking about is not goals. It's purpose. And I believe your purpose can be broken down into small, chewable bites that reflect the larger purpose. And it is equally important in basketball as it is in life. We will talk more about purpose as we go along, but this is what is meant by a lot of coaches when they talk about their team having a personality. It is the team buying into their purpose and it comes out as their personality.

So what does that mean to you? The youth hoops coach? Simply this: you want to develop attitude and purpose with your team. And you do this by making sure your players know what their purpose is on offense and defense. And the beauty of this is that you can massage your strategy for different opponents because you already have a base from which to maneuver. In other words, you've taken away so much from your opponent that you can give up what you want to rather than accept what your opponent is demanding.

Let me give you another hint about what we are discussing in this blog. You don't develop purpose and personality by running plays or motion offenses. In fact, that is diametrically opposed to purpose. And your player's development. And fun. Most of all, it takes away from fun. Basketball should be fun, don't you think?

More to come.