Some just want to ball.

I’m not sure about the guy with the pink umbrella; but, yeah, some will do anything to play.

August 2 – Triple Threat Decision Trees

The baller’s decision tree in traditional triple threat has at least 9 branches.

Do I pass?
Do I dribble?
Do I shoot?
Do I fake?
Do I drive?
Do I go right?
Do I go left?
Do I pull up?
Do I go by somebody?

The baller’s decision tree in shot-shot-shot triple threat has ONE branch.

Do I not shoot?

Which Is Quicker? Which Is More Efficient?

In either triple threat persuasion, you eventually may need to go through all of the decision branches (9 or more); BUT, while operating in the shot-shot-shot triple threat, your first decision is already made for you, before the ball arrives. As soon as the ball lands in your hands you move to shoot and take the shot if it is open. Bang! Done.

With that immediacy of action predetermined for you before you receive the ball, you won’t miss out on a possible opening for a shot because you are ready to shoot rather than needing to somehow decide whether or not to shoot.

If operating by the traditional triple threat principle, you have to process 1 to 9, or more, possible actions in your decision tree before you can even decide whether or not to take the shot first. S-L-O-W! Still computing the decision.

The more choices you are given, the longer it is going to take you to make up your mind; and…

• the less confident you are going to be that your decision is correct,
• the less competent you are going to be in executing your choice.

August 1 – Game Review VS. PNS Sixers

Earlier today, I watched Saturday night’s game. 

What a game, wow!

When you got in the game and got your hands on the ball, it was a no hesitation drive to the hoop.

Perfect! 

It almost went in. That one goes in 9 times out of 10. Keep that in your head… it was a great drive that goes in 9 times out of 10. Forget the fact it missed. Next time it’s going in because statistics support that fact. That’s a done deal. 

Then you hustled and got in front of the giant who rebounded it, reducing his outlet passing lane. Fantastic!

Then, after that transition, you blocked out and got the rebound. Awesome!!

That’s how it’s played.

That was a great game. It got a little one-dimensional in the fourth quarter with a lot of extended one-on-one, rather than the regular team ball I see that it looks like is typical for your team. Shot efficiency took a dive as well. Both of those are things that were likely due to fatigue. 

During that span a lot of shots were hitting the front of the rim, a sure sign of fatigue. No one is at fault for the short shots, with the demands of applying the full court press pressure, any team is liable to get fatigued down the stretch. Unfortunately, the coach felt little wiggle room for substituting to give players full recovery breathers. If more substitutions could have been provided, more of those short shots likely hit nothing but net and NW Reign wins walking away.  

In the last minutes it could have been anyone’s game. Landon’s 3 didn’t fall. Had it went in, you guys may have won. It’s also unfortunate your team had so many fouls to give when you fell behind by two in the last minute. Something very advantageous could have been done, prior to that point, to avoid that (intentionally fouling a poor foul shooter many times along the way during the early portion of the fourth quarter), but at this level, that is probably too much to ask. Plus, that strategy runs the risk of placing you further behind than you were, come crunch time, if the poor foul shooter bucks the odds and sinks more than usual.

You guys were tremendously outsized, but you leveled the playing field with consistent hustle, positioning and poise.

Your team is a very good team. As far as coaching goes, to me it appears your coach has done a very fine job of coaching your team in terms of getting players on the same page, getting everyone to commit to playing all out, and for the most part, getting everyone playing efficient offense and defense.

There could be many positives if you can continue to play with them in the future (next summer?). If you do, you might be able to break in and become one of the main, go-to players. I understand with what you’ve gone through thus far this year, that possibility may not seem like much fun right now; but as teams grow and progress together, they change, sometimes for the better. Maybe you could be an instrument that will help them to change to become even better. That is in the future and the Lord knows what lies ahead. I know between Him, you and your parents, you will be in a good place, playing next summer, wherever that is.

One last thing of note. I recognized when you came into the game, your unit was tremendously outsized because the coach sat your bigs. You did have one of your bigger guys, but not two or three, which had been the case prior to your unit coming in. From what I could gather, he probably kept at least one of those bigs out while your unit was in because he was in foul trouble or getting close to being in foul trouble. I’m sure he needed rest as well. With those bigs out, immediately and for the duration of the time your unit was in there, the other team’s bigs scored at will. With that being the case, they gained only 5 points during that span. That says a lot about what your unit did. You did some splendid things to keep the lead very close to what it was when you came in.

Over all of the games I’ve watched thus far (maybe 6 or so), I have been very impressed with your game, your hustle and your commitment to being an upbeat team player. I am particularly impressed with how you box out defenders around the basket when a shot is up. Your team has retained and gained possessions many times because of that one factor. Keep that up. When you are on the bench, I see you cheering on and supporting your team. That, alone, speaks volumes!

August 1 – Discussions

Below is a list of principles that can dynamically improve your game. The principles apply aggressive mental attitudes to one’s own self. This will sound quite aggressive, so I will mention that this should be applied with this overriding principle; all things should be done in moderation and one’s own game must fit into the team’s game. Be a force, but don’t gain enemies on your own team or your opponent’s team by doing so.

That aside, I can vouch for the success of adopting the below principles. Before injuries slowed me, into my late 40s and early 50s I was still able to dominate younger, more gifted players. I blocked shots of guys 6′ 9″ to 7′ who were much younger and who could leap higher than I could. I routinely shot over these same guys and if I got on a roll, everyone wanted to pass me the ball. With what appeared to be quickness of hand, I could shock and stun an offensive player trying to dribble past me as I knocked the ball from him with “lightning speed”. The looks on their faces were absolutely priceless the first time they fell victim to this technique (I don’t cover that technique here, but eventually I hope to). 

Success was all about having a fierce competitiveness that was tempered with the realization I am playing against humans who have feelings. This fierce competitiveness stayed inside me. I never verbalized it against them and I never applied it against them in a derogatory (ugly, nasty) fashion, but they knew I’d be in their space. For an older player, it became all about the angles and I believe given your current size as sized up against your competitors, angles can pay off for you as well. Angles are a different discussion, but I thought I should at least mention that here.

Predictably, father time eventually caught up with me and I eventually became the guy they didn’t so much enjoy playing with. At almost 57, I’m still not willing to throw in the towel. I am convinced, if I can get my ankle right, I will once again, with a little respiratory/cardio conditioning, have an opportunity to dominate the much younger, more athletic, quicker opponent. It might be a pipe dream, but I’m buying it. 

3 Great General Principles

(For what it’s worth, I do know some NBA coaches who teach principles similar to those I mention below.)

1. Find the two or three things you are best at and master them. No one is great at everything.
2. Spending an hour or so doing hundreds of repetitions of something you are good at will increase your efficiency more effectively than spending an hour doing dozens of repetitions with several different things. Be careful with repetitive movements. You can cause joint injuries by overuse. Overuse is the tissue breakdown that can occur with too much repetitive use of a joint in what is an otherwise innocuous, innocent or safe motion. Incorporating offsetting motions into repetitive drills can help the body balance the complete motion of a joint for less overuse of one aspect of the joint’s movement. That can be a win-win. I can discuss ways of doing this later.
3. You can’t score without shooting. You won’t shoot much if you don’t figure out how to get open to receive a pass.

Domination Mindset

Some of this may be most impressionable if I were to verbally share it with you. In the future, perhaps I can go over it again, verbally. Remember, this is just in competitive games and it is tempered with a sensible, God-fearing respect for everyone.

As a “player”, your job is to compete against your opponent and to crush him. No kidding, as an “opposing player”, you must crush his spirit to compete against you. Done correctly, you’ll see guys give in and give you your way. I have seen some sense of this dynamic going on with Gavin in some of the game footage I have reviewed. Guys give him the lane because his will is to crush them on his penetration into the key. 

You need to make your opponent want to give up basketball. When you are finished competing against him, he should be thinking to himself, “I never want to do that again”. Seriously, you can do this without malice. You can do this with the Holy Spirit residing within you. You respect them in every way outwardly, but tempered within your mind, your thought is that you must crush their ballin’ game into a grade school recess activity.

A Little Twist On Read & React Offense

When you read and react to defense, you are acting second. 

Never act second. 

When you act second, you lose. Coaches will teach read and react and I’ve taught it and will likely discuss its values because it is a good principle; it’s just not the most optimal principle.

Offense is about control. Whether you have the ball in your hands or not, your goal is to control the defender with what you want to do. This is the opposite of read & react. You are not bringing your O-game at him based on what he’s giving you; you’re taking to him what you want to take to him because it is what you like doing. 

Your mindset is, “When I get the ball, I am going to do with it what I do best and I dare you to stop me. I am going to attack you with what I do best. If you stop my first move, I am going to have one or two counters and you’re not going to stop me.”

Defense Is Offense

While you are defending, if you are in control, you are in offense. If you can force your opponent with the ball to go in the direction you want him to go, you are on offense while he is trying to defend his wish to go in the direction you won’t let him go in. Your mindset is, “I am not going to let you do what you want to do”. This is accomplished by footwork. I can still pull this off, at my age, against much younger, quicker players. It’s all about angles and footwork combined.

If your opponent plays against you for 12 minutes and he doesn’t get to do one single thing he wants to do, how much fun is that going to be for him? None. That’s just how you want it. 

True Triple Threat

The best triple threat position is the following. Your first threat is a shot, your second threat is a shot; your third threat is a shot. Shot is the only threat that exists. 

Here is how to understand what that means. Should you shoot the ball every time you touch it? No, but everything about you is shot. A pass or a dribble penetration is not a threat, it is only a bridge to a shot. That eventual shot is the threat. You do pass and you do dribble, but you are about shot, shot and shot. You think shot, you move to shoot, you shoot!

The ABasketballC’s Of Hoops

If basketball were the alphabet, A is the letter that represents your game. Why?

What letter comes after A?
What letter comes before U?

Why did it take you longer to name the letter that comes before the letter U than the letter that follows A? Because of the way you learned the alphabet. You learned it in a certain order. You didn’t learn T is before U. You learned A,B,C…R,S,T,U…. You know the letters, but T before U is not the way you learned it.

Shot is the A in your basketball alphabet. When you start with shot, everything that comes after it gets easier; but if you start somewhere else you have to search for the parts of the game, just as you had to search for the letter that comes before U. This is why if basketball were the alphabet, A is the letter that represents your game.

When you think shot, other parts come easily. Footwork flows naturally. You automatically hold the ball where you are ready to shoot. When you think shot, your awareness goes to the area of the rim. When you see the rim, you see everything you need to see for you to shoot. You see the defense and you see your teammates.

Do you want to get quicker? Think shot. If your triple threat is shot, shot, shot; you have one decision to make when you get the ball, shoot. The freedom from the necessity to decide between dribble, pass or shoot will make you much quicker, because you have only one decision to make, and that is not to shoot. With your triple threat being shot, shot, shot; you don’t have to decide to shoot. You already know that when you get the ball, you are going to shoot. The only decision you have to make is, not to shoot. 

With only one decision to make when the ball is passed to you on offense, the game is so much easier and defenses will have a difficult time stopping you.

A Few Questions

How do I adapt the above into a coach’s philosophy if he wants to pass, pass, pass? Adopt the above as your personal guiding principles. Develop your skills such that your play is capable of carrying out these principles. If a coach is adamant about a certain number of passes, still keep in your mind your triple threat is shot, shot, shot. You simply have to decide, each time you get the ball, not to shoot until the team has passed enough to progress in the play to the point the coach allows a shot. Playing for the Northwest Reign, from what I see, it doesn’t look like your coach would have any problem with your thinking shot, shot, shot. Remember, it’s not that you shoot every time; it’s that you know you are going to shoot every time until, at any one time, you decide not to shoot.

If you ever are on a team that is pass heavy or who kerplunks through a slow, set offense and you think the team is held back by the pass heavy offensive game plan, any player can always talk to his coach about what he as the player thinks may benefit the team. So long as it is first taken up privately and respectfully, no harm is done. He may not agree with you, but he will respect you for voicing your viewpoint. There is always the possibility of the pleasant surprise he may agree to give your idea a try.

I’ve given you a lot here. When you have time, read it, re-read it and read it again until you fully understand it. We can always talk, at some point, about it. I or your parents wouldn’t want this to take over your life or for it to become an obsessive compulsion, so keep an even head about it. Progress, improvement, skill and mental focus take time to build. I’m sure you know that, but I felt it worth mentioning.

And remember, no Crunch in the pool, next week. It seriously is a very dangerous game. Perhaps a “flag football” version of it might be possible. We’ll call a flag football version, Spongeball. How’s that sound? It doesn’t sound like you could get hurt playing Spongeball. Check with Mom first, though. She may have an entirely different opinion. 

July 31 – Game Review

I watched all three of the first games played in this tournament (Max Hoops Stay & Play, Las Vegas) and it being my first opportunity to see a game I tried to take in every part of the game… offense, defense, rebounding, inbounds, full court press, blocking out, etc., so I do not yet feel I have a great feel for what the coach wants the players to do on offense… I really need to look more at offense “only” to try to get a good feel; however, it looks like it is a basic motion offense that allows for freelance options as the players sense what to do and where to go. 

One thing that did stand out strongly to me was your reluctance to get yourself involved in both driving to the hoop with the ball and cutting to the key without the ball. Not having seen very many games I wasn’t sure if this reluctance had something to do with this tournament or if it is your typical level of mixing it up.

If it is typical, I totally get it if you have stopped cutting and driving because you’ve done it so much in the past with little cooperation by your teammates passing you the ball when you did cut to the hoop. Unfortunately, when that occurs, when it continues to occur and when one “knows” it won’t change in the future, to continue cutting without getting the ball is a little like opening an old wound. It hurts. It stings. No one goes around digging into a scab when it needs to heal. It is impossible, at this point in time, for me to know why teammates are not passing the ball to you much. Is it just because you are new? Do they feel you don’t move in sync with them or could you have provoked them somehow or have they misunderstood your attitude as provoking? You might know and be able to tell me why this is occurring.

I will say, on transitions and fast breaks I saw you hustle to the appropriate spot where you were ahead of the defense and got open for the most logical next pass and your teammates chose to not pass you the ball, and rather, they tried to take on multiple defenders with a drive into thick traffic or a dribble away from your side so they could pass to a teammate somewhere away from you. Something is going on there. Maybe we can figure out a way to remove what is going on.

One time the absolutely correct pass to make in one of their transition plays was to pass it to you. They didn’t and I was very surprised not to see the coach jump off the bench to point out the miscue to the “guilty” player.

Overall, for the level of talent on the team, I would say the coach has been very successful at getting your team to play a hustling, aggressive style of play that has the team experiencing a level of success that their level of talent, alone, is not capable of achieving. Your team has an amazing commitment to playing pressure defense. They force a large number of turnovers with raw hustle.

One factor that I believe gave the Local Legends the ability to pull ahead was that they began double teaming the good penetration dribbling that was more effective earlier on. The reaction to thwart that should be non-ball handlers darting to open space to help create a pass out of or before the double team. There could be many reasons for that lack of adjustment. It may have been being too tired to give the extra effort to get to space to create a pass opportunity or not recognizing the need for it, but I’m guessing the team just felt too defeated and overmatched by the LL’s size to try to do much to try to come back.

I noticed something of interest. The early first half of offensive play for the Local Legends was very disjointed because the refs called so many fouls on us. That factor made it tough for the LLs to get into their offensive flow. It was a big advantage for us. They continually went to the line, missing several free throws, and failed to get their offense going. Also, our player in jersey #1 (Landon) got hot hitting several 3s that helped establish the big, early lead.

I could tell, for the LLs, they were shocked a much smaller team was having their way with them. Those early 3s and the barrage of swarming defense forcing turnovers had them feeling sick in their gut. That was the emotion I was getting from the LLs. I believe they felt they could lose.

Regarding your personal play, you had some very good things going on. A great job blocking out your guy. You had the recognition of the importance of doing that even off the ball (away from the center of ball activity). You were scrappy (a good thing) getting rebounds when you didn’t have the leveraged position. You shot well! Some sweet, no hesitation, quick release 3s. Your two 3s kept the team within distance before the LLs, later, finally pulled far out into the lead. In all three games, you did a great job of switching on defense in the middle of the opponent’s flow, switching to defend who it looked like you should move to according to the coach’s defensive game plan. Against the LLs, I saw no drop off in team effectiveness when you were in the game vs. otherwise.

July 31 – Discussion

Anything worth the effort is worth the effort.

Every day we are faced with decisions that beckon a response. Our response to each decision carries with it some value. The value, great or small, is determined by the quality of ourselves we invest into the response. The quality of ourselves that we put into something can be measured in several ways.

Most seasoned teachers who know their students well will be able to recognize whether an essay assignment was written in a rushed, last minute, before the deadline flurry of activity or whether it was written, thoughtfully, over the two-week period the student was given to work on it. Time is one quality of a student that they can put into, invest into, an assignment. The more of their time that they invest, the more they are giving of themselves, the more value the assignment will have.

As an experiment, if a student turned in the same assignment to two teachers, the assignment could receive an A+ from one teacher and a B- from another. That is because the value of the student’s work is evaluated through the teacher’s lens, their judgement of the “worth” of the end result. Regardless of the grade awarded, the time invested was the same. The value of the time the student invested was the same in both examples, of course, because it was the same report given to two different teachers.

Whether the investment into an assignment is time, energy, thoughtfulness, critical thinking or creativity; it all has value because the assignment was created from what the student put of himself into the end result. If it is awarded an A+, that is only someone else’s estimation of its “worth”. The true worth is what the student knows he put into it.

If the student had copied an essay, turned it in as his own work and it was awarded an A+, the student would know the A+ does not reflect its true worth. On the other hand, he’d know the A+ was its true worth had he done all the work himself; and that brings us back to, “Anything worth the effort is worth the effort.” If it is worth the effort, it is worth the investment of one’s self. So, what is that worth? The answer depends on how much of yourself you put into it; it depends upon how much of your time, energy, thoughtfulness, critical thinking, creativity, and more, that you invest into it.

There is no right or wrong regarding how much to invest. In the end, everything we do has value, great or small, determined simply by the quality of ourselves we invest into what we do. A coach’s awarding to a player a given number of minutes in game time may or may not be an accurate reflection of the player’s value to his team. However, you yourself will always know your true value, because you will always know how much of yourself you invested into your team.

Is it worth the effort? If it’s worth the effort, the rest is easy. Invest what it’s worth and you can live with the results, great or small, because it’s not the great or small grade that counts. What you gave of yourself is what counts.

Anything worth the effort is worth the effort.

July 27 – Discussion

Have any of your coaches taught offense similar to what I describe, below, as NextThreat™?

NextThreat™ offense is a quick strike offensive theory that links team awareness and individual threat-ready movement. It is offensive execution with the mentality that the next pass is always a potential assist. When the entire team runs through every offensive set with this overriding awareness, good shot opportunities occur more frequently. The rapid-fire shot positioning at every pass of the ball puts defenses on their heels because they are exposed to each offensive player reading and reacting to floor space to be the potential, next threat in a continuous air raid assault.

The above is, essentially, a team principle of approaching offense with a nuanced understanding between all players that with every pass of the ball, the player receiving the pass has the responsibility to immediately be ready to shoot or drive to the hoop by positioning his body’s stance and balance (a technique the team practices together) and immediately, upon receiving the pass, reads his position in the space his defender(s) give him and reacts by shooting first if the defensive spacing confirms a shot is preferable and dribbles or passes, second, if the defensive spacing confirms a shot is not preferable. 

The team can still have set plays they go through if the coach uses set plays that he signals in or which the team learns and knows to run based upon situational appropriateness, but with the NextThreat™ theory, players execute set plays with the overriding principle being, that each pass of the ball is a shot if the defense gives the space for a good, quick shot.

On July 27 I asked if you had ever had a coach teach your team this offensive theory. On July 27th I had not yet seen any of your game film. Now that I have seen film of Northwest Reign, I can see it looks like this team’s offensive theory is very similar to NextThreat™.

July 23 – Discussion

“On a measuring stick marked 1 thru 10, at any one point during a game, what in your mind determines how much effort you are putting forth?”

July 19 – Discussions

Team Aspect

Do you want to become successful or do you want to succeed? Is that a trick question? No.

To score 28 a game, grab 7 rebounds, dish out 7 assists and solidly defend, is to become successful. If you have played and practiced long enough to accomplish that, you have become successful. This impresses the fans.

However, to succeed is another step, a big step, beyond becoming successful. To do all of that while also playing in a manner that makes your teammates better, is to succeed. This impresses the fans and it wins games. Do you want your game to impress or do you want to win?

Thankfully you don’t have to choose between one or the other. You can have both. However, to have both requires laser focus that is applied with sustained determination. Working on one’s own game does require focus and determination, but the inclination to work on it comes easily and naturally. Working on making teammates better is usually completely missed because of the natural tendency to look at one’s own game through a magnifying glass. Making other players better is where the laser focus has to be applied with a more sustained determination. It requires a self-awareness that realizes the game is more than just one’s own game and understands that any player can actually improve his teammate’s game by intentionally observing and working on their game with them.

To have an impressive personal game is to become successful. That is good. Better, though, is to have an impressive game while also working to make your teammates better. To do that is to succeed. When you succeed, your game wins more games; because the individual games (personal skills) of several players overlap and fuse together into a highly coordinated force. Such a force is difficult for opposing teams to defeat. It is worth asking again, do you want your game to impress or do you want to win?

How To Succeed: Position Is Fundamental To Winning

To know where your body should be on the floor, at every moment, as your teammates change location in the flow of the game and to understand why you are in your current location may be the single most important element of the game you can master that can make your teammates better. To know and understand this spatial-orientation, while also being able to anticipate or “feel” the several options of where you may go next, in relation to where your teammates might go, is a subtle, underlying principle that is crucial to experiencing a team’s highest potential. Most players are never taught this and few figure it out on their own.

Time Spent On The Bench Can Be An Eye-Opening Education

You can learn this academically with Xs and Os on a whiteboard. Better yet, you can learn this by tuning yourself in to how each of your teammates move on the floor. The first requires paying attention to the coach’s instruction. The second requires paying close attention to your teammates’ movements as you observe them playing at those times when you are watching them from the sideline.

As you watch, try first to learn each player’s movement preferences. After time has been invested into learning their movement preferences, as you watch more, try to anticipate their next move. Guess, based on your growing knowledge of their preferred movements, where you think they will go next. If you can master this, it becomes your sixth sense and it will exponentially empower your ability to complement your teammates. Additionally, it will naturally impose a vibe upon the minds of your teammates with a recognition and a sense that you are a team leader as your anticipation of where to go next (because you “know” where they’re going) will give them a sense of comfort and familiarity with your on-court presence and movements.

If 8 or 10 players on one team can master this, it becomes a team of leaders. Leaders know where to go, know where teammates will go and they adjust their own next movement accordingly. When a team is composed of leaders, it is a formidable presence. When a team is composed of leaders, the game becomes truly enjoyable. It becomes “easy”. Yes, easy is nice. Easy is good!

Very few teams intentionally focus on mastering this element of the game; and for good reason, it takes more effort and more commitment than the more common and more narrow focus of improving one’s own personal skills.

This is an important step in the direction of doing more than becoming successful (mastering your own skills). It is the definition of succeeding (making your teammates better). It will enable your game to do more than impress; it will empower your game to win, because “your game” is “your team’s game”.

Other Spatial Orientation Principles

Body position is a key to every aspect of the game. One can grab more rebounds if he knows how to keep his body in a position or location in space in relation to his opponent that provides leverage in his ability to be more apt to reach a rebound before the opponent potentially does. 

In defense, a short player can impose unbearable leverage on a taller player with the strategically placed positioning of his body against the taller player’s body. Few, almost no players, practice this art. Over the last decade I have experienced a shorter player apply this technique against me. I know he’ll do it and I know it’s coming, but in many respects his defense is more effective than the defense of those taller players who guard me.

The principle of body positioning in space applies to steals, assists and shooting efficiency. If several members of a team get close to mastering this aspect of basketball, both team scoring efficiency and team defending efficiency ratchets up several notches. 

I believe, too, it translates into each player getting the most out of whatever level of personal skills they have developed because the team game becomes much easier and more enjoyable, which in turn reduces the stress of individual performance expectations. Everyone is more efficient at anything they do if they are not over burdened with debilitating stress. A certain amount of stress can heighten focus and efficiency, but too much has the reverse effect.

Team Communication

There is a layer of team communication that few teams enter into. It is an open, honest form of communicating in team sessions where teams break down the misconceptions that hinder team unity, team flow and the team mentality. One player can be instrumental in facilitating such a session if he attempts to do it through the appropriate avenue of talking with a coach beforehand. Its success is reliant upon that player’s humbleness in breaching the subject with his coach and teammates. If carried out successfully, it can add another level of camaraderie that makes all of the other that much easier. Easier is good!  

July 18 – Discussions

As a personal coach, or mentor, the role is to come alongside a player as he develops as a player and young man. There are insights the Lord shows that can greatly assist any youth team, that if incorporated into team sessions, can substantially increase their productivity as a seamlessly executing unit.

Team sessions require brutally honest and open communication among the entire team, coaches and players included. A mentor may not gain the platform to address an entire team, but a team session is certainly something any player can facilitate if they gather the determination to lead their team. It essentially takes one player; one humble and honest player, to lead a team in a change of a magnitude that can have it playing at a level they never knew was possible.

A team session for improving respect among fellow players and coaches is based on the following premise, which the personal experience of playing on and coaching of teams has substantiated.

Youth athletic teams involve verbal and non-verbal interactions. These interactions include those communications between teammates, communication between coaches, and communication between athletes and coaches, such that the individuals on both ends of those interactions are left with perceptions of the others that are inaccurate, and which over time, lead to future perceptions of one another and interactions between one another that drive an unspoken division between players that degrades optimal team mentality, negatively affecting a team’s capability in realizing the full potential of its collective talent, athleticism and intelligence.

It can be interesting to see the fruits of team sessions where a player leads a team into naked honesty among its individuals. Team sessions involve the unmasking of misperceptions, pride, prejudices, etc. Most teams operate far below what they are capable of accomplishing. Watching a team transform closer to its optimal capabilities can be exciting!