Author: coachmessam

I am a level 4 basketball coach with 25 years coaching experience at the Regional and National levels of the game. As a Doctoral student I continue to pursue advancement in my practice and better understand coaching behaviour. To this end I engage with and participant in numerous opportunities to improve my knowledge and practice as a basketball coach.

Practice three – Game Sense

What were we doing? Four sessions in and that is the best we have got! The game (drill) was a 1v0 progressing to a 1v1 situation (close out and play defence). The focus was passing and cutting, appreciating space, moving into and out of space. I had highlighted passing in stance and receiving into stance (triple threat) and being shot, drive pass ready. However, what I saw before me was players out of stance, ‘soft’ and ‘lazy’ passing (as oppose to on-time and on-target passing, poor movement mechanics and patterns, and generally a very casual execution of the game. I paused practice and asked the head coach to say a few words about effort, intensity and learning. Although framed somewhat differently the key messages were the same, which was both pleasing and convenient as it served to reinforce my thinking and what we had agreed our season would look like (myself and the U16 squad).
We moved into our next game-based activity, passing the ball ahead and trying to score from a short jump shot. The intensity was markedly increased, however, the decision making and problem-solving were still missing, or was it that I was seeking for something more and that in actual fact the players were making-decisions? What would this look like? Would I even know? The players had to score ten shots as a team, the only condition placed on the game was the rotation of their movement (fast break – rebound, outlet, push ball middle, hit the wing for a shot), in other words players had to follow their pass. Throughout the game not one player opted to take an extra dribble, drive the basketball or catch the ball closer to the basket in order to be successful in their attempt. Nor did the rebounding position put the ball back (rebound) as a means of securing a score. Framing the game to allow these options to emerge was on me, or was it? Convinced that my questioning and setting up of the game did nothing to promote decision-making or problem-solving I conceeded to doing more within my planning.
The theme continued throughout the remainder of the session, players did not demonstrate a willingness or ability to apply game thinking to the practice setting. Instead, I found myself correcting movement, identifying missed opportunities to create space, move into space and to pass the ball. The work was there, the players were physically engaged and employing effort, however, there was a limited degree of cognition demonstrated by them in the execution of their movement, almost as thought it was somewhat detacthed from the game itself.
Having spent some time reflecting on the session it is clear that the information I provide to the players does not establish the parameters of the activity clearly enough that it would lead to any degree of cognitive processing (problem-solving, dialogue etc.). Having read a number of articles on spatial awareness, game-sense and game-based delivery I sought to emulate this approach, I was saying all of the right things – “hold each other to account, you make decisions based on what is infront of you” – however Iseemed to get little response. I can only conclude that my planning needs to improve and include clearer details of the questioning I need to employ to yield exploration from the players.

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Game One…

The feeling that joins me on game morning is like no other, it is almost an all consuming paralysis, it quickly takes hold regardless of how much you wish to control and dampen your emotions, you lose with regularity. The me wishes to employ an appropriate presentation – controlled, calm and professional, but it has always been the same, the excitement of game day moves me to an elevated state of arousal, a place where I know coaching is my comfort blanket, the place I wish to lay my head.

I haven’t done much planning for today, my new nine to five is somewhat crippling at the moment and has left me some way short of where I want to be, which is of course in full out coach mode! However, the walk into the gym is as it always is, full of excitement and anticipation. As I enter the venue the previous game is playing out its last 7 minutes and 30 seconds, not an uncommon affair, hardtops are a difficult find and an expensive one at that. I sit with the players and pose questions based on the play of the two teams on court, we laugh and there is a joviality to our conversation. But I am also trying to get them to think, to engage their analytical tool box as a means of reflecting on their own play. The time goes by quickly and we are now changed and on court.

The warm-up is something I have given over to the players for the past three or four years now. At the beginning of the year we talk through what they believe a warm-up should accomplish, how they wish to warm up and what is the most appropriate exercises to include in the routine. I often find myself correcting some of the movement, but generally speaking they are pretty good at it and it provides them with an opportunity to lead. The pre game talk is short, a motivational sandwich with a hint of instruction and lots of smiles. I can see that one or two of the new players are nervous, hence I try to relax them with a smile and a joke.

The ball goes up and for forty minutes there is a mix of behaviour and performance, some good and some not so good. Whilst I try to confine by interactions to the bench I find myself, on more than one occasion, bellowing instructions out to the court and the five players that occupy it. It continues to be a fine line between supporting players and providing instruction at every roll and bounce of the ball. Our performance is very much up and down, the highs provide an array of fast break points as a result of wide running and swift ball movement. The lows leave us stood spectating as one players over dribbling of the basketball that reduces our ball movement principle to a distant memory.

At the end of the game I believe my frustration was more at my inability to get them to make decisions and own them, to understand their role within our five principles. This being said, I was also quite harsh on them, after all, it was the first game of the season and they executed many of the things we had talked about during practice. The short of it was, I perhaps needed to better understand the cause and effect relationship between training and competition and have a little more patients!! An hour later and I get a phone call to congratulate me on our win. The question is, when is a win actually a loss, and when is a loss actually a win?

Practice two – Expectations

Punctuality being one of the identified expectations of the coach this year, and an attribute I believe I display with regularity, I arrived at our practice venue in good time. The scene before me was a common one, multiple courts occupied with enthusiastic faces, bodily movement in the familiar movement patterns of the sport and the ever present coach voice. Having organised myself, greeted the parents and cast an eye over my charges I called them in at 19.30.
Nine players stood before me, some eye contact, one or two smiles and an almost ‘what now coach’ expression staring back at me. “How are we all?” I smiled and waited for a response. Having received one or two nods and a confident “good coach”, I proceeded to handout game schedules and playbooks whilst asking the players what they think we should be doing for the remainder of the session. The response was less than full, so I posed a further question, “I would like to continue with last weeks theme, what do you think?” Convergent, if not directive, the reply was always going to be “yes coach.” The construction of a question as a means of prompting and promoting thought, particularly in the precise moment you wish to ignite cognition and reflection, is not an easy undertaking. I had to do a better job!
We moved into a number of drills – orientated around three of our five offensive principles – communication, constant player movement and ball movement. I allowed them to get deep into the drill before pausing play to ask them the aims of the activity. There was a degree of understanding reflected in their responses, a number of individuals countered confidently and in close proximity to the leadership voice I sought from them. We continued and the energy levels were pleasing. There was however a degree of noise from me that I perhaps could have done without, I wanted to hear them more than me, I wanted to feel their participation and see their learning occur in front of me. Silence and observation were difficult traits to achieve, especially as I found myself wishing to correct errors, to raise intensity and direct the flow of movement. This however was very much against what I had committed to, an athlete-centred approach that promoted the players voice above mine, that focused on the individual athlete and their reflection on and in action, and that removed me as the central theme of the training environment. The traditional coach to athlete monologue continued to gain momentum and the instructionalist took charge, much to my chagrin.
As we moved through the practice plan there was a declining flow of energy, at times the concentration levels of some of the players appeared to dissipate, leaving me frustrated. My coach default position would continue to gain ground as the dominant behaviour, challenging, motivating and consuming the air with direct instruction, took over. This was the complete opposite of what I had wanted from our practice. The final moments were not our greatest, what played out on the practice floor was far from the detailed, efficient movement, controlled by the decision-making and problem solving of the athletes I pursued within my planning. Perhaps this needed to be something we all strived for? Conducting and orchestrating are perhaps not the hallmarks of an athlete-centred approach that emits examples of dialogue and inquiry. Was it that I was inpatient? Did I want more than I was going to get in 90 minutes of movement and interaction? I departed practice consumed by a blend of frustration and disappointment, aimed directly at my performance, which at the precise moment of my emotional expression turned to my planning as an area for improvement. The drive home was a long one!!

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First Practice

Leaving a somewhat hectic day of conferencing, networking and generally attempting to stake out a small piece of the coaching landscape, I head over to the sports hall where the ‘rock’ and ‘hard top’ await. The walk over wasn’t particularly long yet the excitement of another year, another opportunity seemed to be consuming my thoughts with random strategies of game and player development. “How shall we run our fastbreak this year?” “What players will we get?” “How much will the returning players have developed?”

Having spent a couple of hours drawing out some plans for the next two-hours I was still unsure where the next two hours would take us, or even what the immediate future would look like. 18.02 and five players casually throw a number of balls around, not quite what I was expecting, where was everybody? I walked around and greeted the current attendees, parents included, as I see their participation to be central to all that we do. In fact, I spent a great amount of time talking to parents, generally asking them about the welfare of their son’s, what the summer looked like and what we wanted to do together over the next six-months.

18.08 – I call the players in and allow them to lead their session for the next 12 minutes. In this time I was hoping for the remainder of the squad to arrive. Self-directed practice is a brave approach but a vital one in the development of decision-making and autonomy. I often use this as a means of engaging the players in cognitive processes as quickly as possible. I allow them to use the first fifteen minutes to do what they think is appropriate to that moment in the season, their performance to-date and within a developmental frame. “What did you get out of that drill?” They had opted to run a 4 vs. 4 full-court game with no dribble. The responses eluded to working on spacing, movement and communication, however, they were critical of their performance and felt as though they needed to improve their communication in order to inform their use of space and movement.

We spent the next twenty five minutes constructing our player and coach expectations for the season. This activity, for me, is a fundamental part of establishing a collective direction of goals, aspirations and wishes, as well as an opportunity to articulate the detail and bring individuals together. The players did a fantastic job of sharing their ideas, working together and communicating. Little did they know that they had already started practice and that it was going very well!! I looked up to see the club’s Head Coach looking on, our current activity – writing, debating, problem-solving didn’t much resemble a typical basketball practice – but then is there such a thing?

19:00 – We get ourselves fully engaged in a number of game-based activities, 3 vs 3, 4 vs 4, establishing a number of principles for our Game Model, sharing thoughts and posing a number of questions. Throughout the drills I challenge the players to hold each other to account, to ask questions and to communicate in a leadership voice. The successes, at times, are in short supply but they are meaningful.

I call the players in at 19:59 to finish the practice, netball were poised on the sidelines and eager to take over our court. The effort, intensity and work rate had been good. Players were sharing ideas, communicating and correcting where appropriate. My behaviour had been more observation than anything else, a position that I do not recall taking very often. However, I was pleased with this, I wanted to step back more, to allow the knowledge and understanding of the individuals to emerge and for the players to share ideas and ask more questions of each other.

Walking back to the car, fuelled by energy and excitement at how well the first session had gone I allowed myself to smile and enjoy the moment. Whoops, the universe counteracts with the presence of a parking ticket stapled to my windscreen!! Reality comes crashing down all around me and I get into my car annoyed!

Reflecting: Effort and the competition setting

Reflecting on my athlete-self, tough, determined and hard working, and the developmental journey towards my coach self, a vision yet to be realised, a relationship between the two had not figured centrally within my introspection, that is until recently. As an athlete I was mediocre at best, yet I contributed a degree of effort second to none, effort born from observing high levels of labour at the cost of my parents time. Indeed, I was selected to teams based on my employment of effort, an exertion I applied and was rarely vested. I consider this characteristic now central to my coaching philosophy as I wish to play witness to effort and hard work within my charges, and within the reflections that follow. I seek assiduousness in self and others throughout the planning, practice and execution of all that is undertaken, and in the pursuit of individual and collective goals. To this end I focus my coaching on intensity, concentration and mindfulness of the effort applied to the task at hand. Certainly within my self-reflections this is situated as central to my coaching practice and within the training environment:

“I was negative on the bench, lots of screaming and shouting in an attempt to raise the level of intensity.”

And again:

“I had spent a great deal of time planning and was determined that I was going to get a greater showing of energy and intensity out of the players.”

Further:

“I got after them early in an attempt to get them to play hard, to raise the effort level at both ends of the floor.”

In fact, I often found myself questioning the players’ level of effort and application, suggesting that a negative correlation existed between low levels of intense output and poor performance. Finally, I ask:

“Why won’t they fight? Why won’t they try harder? Our levels of effort and intensity remain poor for long periods within the game and it is killing us.”

Beginning to plan

I coach because I wish to, because I enjoy the task, and because it is who I am. Coaching affords me membership within a familiar culture, access to veiled dreams, lofty aspirations, and the challenge of liberating the flourishing edition of self. I coach so that I may repay my gift to a culture that rescued me, fashioned who I sought to become, and gave confidence to the identity of my coach-self.

As I sit in my makeshift coach’s office, poised and ready to set about the annual task of preseason planning, I consider what I deem to be basketball important. I recall effort a central component of my values and beliefs, both beyond basketball as well as behind. This driving force underpins the very intimate and personalised raison d’être for which I find myself here. Effort of self, the athletes within my charge, and collectively towards assent that we will each be present in every moment. I seek this form of effort in the individual and collective confidence, work rate, and motivations present within the sum total of the team. Returning to my philosophy (earlier posting here) I am comfortable reciting my impetus as a negotiated state of elevation with prolonged and sustained effort towards a personal and culturally agreed direction. It is with this baton that I begin to sketch the latest expansion of my coaching practice.

Autoethnographic Examination of self

The following is an exert from my doctoral thesis, an autoethnographic depiction of my philosophy, and reflects how reflexivity brings the past forward:

I coach with fondness; basketball is my amour, an opportunity to indulge in an interpersonal exchange beyond family yet equal in support and trust. I believe that to coach is to dialogue, to engage in the development of ones charges and ameliorate individual and collective performances, based on principles and values allied to that of a positive contribution to society. As a relatively young and inexperienced coach, I referred to the game of basketball as a three-dimensional dance, a vision of artistry, athleticism and sporting talent across three spheres of play, cognitively challenging, and simultaneously rewarding. Some twenty years removed and a great deal of choreography later, I still believe the dance demands adherence to roles and responsibilities, reflected in our relational conduct, both with self, others, and towards a harmonious being driven by effort. In short, I still wish to coach with the same passion, trust and love for the game that initially drew me to the sidelines.

In employing an autoethnographic approach to the examination of coaching I hope to draw the culture in and prompt introspection as a means of development.