By Doug Lemov
Doug is a former school teacher and school administrator. He also has played and coached soccer at competitive levels. While this book is written from the viewpoint of a soccer coach, he works hard to reach coaches of all sports and levels.
I apologize for the extra-long post (76 points), but I didn’t want to break up my recap in additional posts.
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Great coaches are learners who are obsessed with giving the tools and support to become a little bit better each day.
There is no 100% solution, only 100 1% solutions.
Power is in the aggregation of small improvements.
When I start running earlier than others, I appear faster - Johan Cruyff
Players have to do a better job of picking up cues in live play.
Coaches don’t teach decision-making during the critical development years, especially to the best players at young ages. Some of the players we teach the worst are those who dominate at a young age.
Unlearning bad habits is more difficult than learning better ones.
There is a balance between winning at a young age because no one else is physically caught up to the star, and coaching what will be necessary in five years when athletically, everyone has caught up.
Problem solving is slow | Decision making is fast
Experienced players on the floor look at less, but see more.
Regarding critical thinking: you can only think critically about areas you have knowledge about.
Want players to think better? They need more knowledge in their long-term memory first.
The best decisions are made from instinct.
Players, see as quickly as you can look.
Lemov’s Game Model
A set of team agreements
clear and concise
specific goals and outcomes
(I am working on forming one for our program. It will cover on-the-court situations and serve as a reference for our players).
Doing simple things at speed make them seem complex.
Creativity - unexpected application of existing ideas.
To ask which tool is better is to miss the point of the toolbox.
Clarity emerges in the aggregate. We receive bits and pieces at a time.
We have to coach in the way kids learn, not the way we want to coach.
Skill mastery reduces the workload on knowledge retrieval. Automaticity = Fluidity
The mark of expertise is using less working memory in live play.
In scouting: Why do they run the play? The answer tells you what the opponent’s coach is confident in.
The geometrics of basketball are critical to learn:
space / time
passing angles / receiving angles
how to get open
first steps and movement after a catch
When teaching or installing, connect it to the previous phase of play. (Dummy offense should include transition defense action).
Phases of play:
1/2 court offense
offensive rebound or transition defense
1/2 ct. defense and defensive rebound
transition offense
(repeat)
What players know dictate what they can learn. Understand your player’s prior knowledge of the game.
Should coaches have a Game Model Curriculum?
yearly mastery points
video based examples
principles of play
(the above should be scaled for 6th, 7th, 8th, Freshman, Junior Varsity, and Varsity)
Effortful / purposeful and deliberate repetitions = deep mastery
“Few enough drills to get deep mastery” (How many different close-out drills do we really need)?
During the practice season, balance the breadth of teaching with the depth of your teaching. (Deeper with older teams)
An extra hour focusing on the 20% yields more than introducing things from the 80%.
A coach cannot teach new things during a game.
Development for many players stalls when they enter the most competitive environment because their learning tips more to short-term goals.
If your practices are based on upcoming games, then you are sacrificing long-term development.
Intrinsic cognitive load: thinking about the thing they are trying to learn. Extrinsic cognitive load: things they are not trying to actively learn, but have to think about while learning.
There is an installation cost of each new strategy, activity, or practice program.
Isolate a skill, then integrate.
Practice and training should be harder than the game.
Feedback: guidance given to athletes after an initial effort at execution.
We have to be careful of adding related concepts thinking we can accelerate their learning.
A distracted coach = distracted players
Think of all the things a coach gives feedback on that athletes fail to use because they haven’t been given the opportunity to focus on them.
Important factor of feedback is how quickly the recipient gets the chance to apply it.
Players receiving feedback:
receive - try - reflect (we want to coach this player)
receive - reflect - try
Coaches need to improve their economy of language
fewer words
we are more likely to say too many things when we don’t know what the most important thing to say is.
Quit describing what not to do, and tell them what to do.
Coaches are like doctors: look for causes, not symptoms.
“Stop coughing” | “Stop turning the ball over”
The more intense a game moment is, the less useful the feedback is.
Your coaching feedback is true, but useless in those moments.
During a game - feedback can almost be a distraction.
Really practice being attentive to the language you use as a coach in moments of feedback.
Praise is a currency - too much = inflation.
When everything is “great,” nothing is “great.”
“You don’t” = judges the person | “You didn’t” = judges the action
When an athlete is struggling, is when their fear that a coach will give up on them is highest.
Give players space to struggle.
Coaching staff: have alignment, not necessarily agreement.
A player learns when they apply what you said, not when you say it.
Taking notes on mistakes in practice will limit your knee-jerk verbal reactions.
You can teach more than they can absorb.
The way we teach novices (FR and SOPH) should be different than how we teach veteran players (JR and SR).
guidance for young players
problem-solving for veteran players
Observing doesn’t feel like actively coaching, but it is vital.
Practice planning : anticipate errors and write them down on your practice script. You will be more effective in correcting them.
Exemplar planning: what the perfect execution looks like. Write that down as well.
Shouting and intense emotions doesn’t equate to high expectations.
Don’t’ let mistakes snowball.
this can be expensive from a cost of time standpoint
Identify mistakes before games.
Young players see superficial details, whereas veterans see underlying principles.
Model correctly (M+) | Model their effort (M-) | Model correctly again (M+)
Figure out the difference between responding and reacting
reaction is instantaneous
response is slower
Culture is a set of habits
Culture is built and sustained indirectly. It is communicated in small moments.
Culture is built in how groups of people do the familiar, the mundane, the everyday.
Teams with strong cultures have their own vernacular.
Culture is designed…
…must be shared
It must be distinct
It is expressed in habits…
…and language is the most important habit.
Positive Learning Cultures
a culture of error, or psychological safety
inclusion and belonging
attentiveness
excellence
character and candor
Have a challenging but not threatening team environment.
You want your players to make decisions slightly ahead of where their skills are.
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