Essential Philosphy
I have been doing quite a bit of reflecting recently on just how (relatively) simple teaching & coaching really is. Even when you boil the game of basketball down to it’s more essential intents. We are great in this profession add constantly adding, creating more complexity, and therefore more confusion in our minds and those that we work with.
The last 8 Weeks of #ecRACAchat on #dEClutteringSZN has been an incredible exercise at boiling down to what really matters. And to do that we need to trim some fat. Perhaps more importantly, if we come across something that we feel MUST be added, what are we taking away that is currently in place to make room the the (hopefully) new and improved? I decided to make a thread with the MOST ESSENTIAL pieces of my philosophy, from both on and off the court. This encompasses player, person, and program development. It covers the technical/tactical side of the ball as well as the #HumanComponent.
These ideas have not arrived over night. In fact, quite the contraray. This is the result of deep, deep, reflective work over the last nearly 15 years. This is influenced by some of the brightest minds I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, listening to, and connecting with. This is a lot of me learning what NOT to do and staying away from the type of teacher and coach I DON’T want to be. But more importantly it’s who I DO WANT TO BE. It’s the basis for what drives every decision I make. And it’s built on a foundation riddled with failure, mistakes, errors, losses, long nights, tough nights, being fired from my first head coaching job, followed by winning two state championships, and eventually walking away from coaching.Philosophy🧵
Essential Intent (Basketball):
•Shoot more 7s & 9s than they do
Essential Intent (Life):
•The next best decision
How?
•Play advantage basketball
•Turn a 1v1 into a 1v2 to find the 2v1
•Entries & EndgamesHow?
•Essential Elements-Sprint. Space. Seek. Select
•30 Point Possessions
•Exchanges. Changes. Paint. Kick. Extra. Zero.
Player Development?
•Environment In > Technique Out
•Learning > “Teaching”
•Tag. Keep away. Decisions. Mistakes.
•Get it wrong to get it rightProgram/Person Development:
•Human Component
•Recruit everyone. Every day.
•Climate > Culture
•Voice & Choice
•Inner voices > External Formulas
•Fight Entropy. No Unfinished Business.Assessment & Congruence:
•What we know > What we don’t
•Connections between phases
•RACA-Reflection. Awareness. Clarity. Alignment.
•Buy-In < Investment < (equitable) OwnershipEliminate losing/Reframe Winning:
•Reduce complexity & variability
•Competition = “Strive Together”•Us vs The (collective) Standard
•Redefine Character
•The Rest is music too
How?
Prioritize:
•Connections
•Speed
•Engagement
•HealthI hope you enjoyed this, found some value in it, and it spurred some ideas for you in creating your holistic, essential philosophy as well. Please feel free to reach out to me on twitter @coachk424 or through email: admin@essential-coaching.net if you have any questions about this, would like some more explanation on what the phrases, etc mean, or would like to being the journey of creating your Essential Philosophy.
The key here is not to create some beautiful power point of canva document that you can present in an interview to help you get a job. The key is to build something that you believe in, that helps you make one decision that guides the next 1,000 decisions. They key is to figure out who you are, what you believe, and strengthen your own inner voice to fight the external formulas and entropy that is sure to come. This is to create the blueprint for what helps you KEEP THE JOB. To THRIVE, not just survive.
If there is one lesson I have learned recently, it’s you can’t run form your convictions forever. You may feel you don’t have the option or choice to do the right thing because of the pressures that are placed on you, so you hedge, you start to talk yourself out of what helped get you the job in the first place, the promises you made to yourself and your stakeholders. Most often those that think they can run or hide form what may get them ultimately are just delaying the inevtiable. At the end of the day (season, career) you will have to look back and ask yourself, what type of job did I do? Are you able to sleep at night knowing you died fighting on the hills you deemed worthy.
We are here to help you do just that.To view the thread in full on twitter so you can interact with please click the tweet below.