The Cross Over Movement Blog

I saw this comment by Mark Cuban linked on TrueHoop:

“At some point, hopefully someone will spend the time to put together sports alliances completely outside traditional high school and college ruling bodies that will allow students to be passionate and work hard for their dreams both on the court and field and in the classroom. Which is exactly what happens overseas in most sports. The supremely talented and promoted can still prosper in the current system, but for those who are willing to make up for whatever they may lack in natural gifts with hard work, and good tutoring, the NCAA doesn’t make dreams come true, they do their unknowing best to kill dreams. Coach Sampson deserves his share of the blame, and he is accepting the consequences. When are we going to realize that the NCAA deserves more than its share of blame. They are dream killers, not enablers.”

I agree. The final chapters of Cross Over: The New Model of Youth Basketball Development outline my proposals for an Elite Development League and High Performance Centers. I am still looking for people with enough clout to take an interest in the idea. Thus far, I have received inquiries from Nike (George Raveling did not show up for our scheduled meeting), Pony, Ka Eh Productions, Anomaly, a TV writer, Basketball British Columbia, Basketball Scotland, Suwanee Sports Academy, three individuals trying to build basketball facilities and existing academies in two different countries. I handed Mike Dunleavy a book in Ireland, and someone handed George Karl one at a clinic; I sent Jerry Colangelo a copy; I sent David Stern a copy through one of his employees; at least five copies are at Nike Headquarters; I sent a copy to Sonny Vaccaro’s house. However, thus far, the interest and inquiries have led to little action from the powerful people

“My job as a coach is to see more in others than they do themselves,” - Pat Summitt, Head Coach, University of Tennessee

The March 2008 Men’s Health features an interview with Mike Pressler, the former Duke University Lacrosse coach who lost his job amidst the rape allegations which tore apart the program, university and surrounding community in 2006. While I never followed the case closely and detest the he said-she said nature and gross generalizations which characterize most sensationalized cases, the article offers an interesting look at Pressler’s side, his reaction and his new life as a DII Head Coach. The article also features Pressler’s “7 Rules of Great Leadership:”

1. Build a strong foundation.
2. Define winning.
3. Create an environment of trust.
4. Tell the truth.
5. Be accountable.
6. Talk less, do more.
7. Live with honor.

Most of these are self-explanatory. In #1, I think many coaches struggle because they fail to set the proper expectations from the start. I see coaches who coach one way when things are going good and then after a couple losses, they want to change everything. A coach cannot be reactionary.

This goes along with #2. When everything is based on the scoreboard, it is easy to accept less than 100% effort provided the team wins the game. I was most happy with my team after a couple losses this season because we actually accomplished what we had focused on early in the season; unfortunately, we just had a bad shooting night against a more talented team.

If winning is the ultimate goal, results often distract from performance and the team is unprepared for tougher competition. If you build habits early in the season against weak competition, changing midway through the season to prepare for better competition is difficult. The expectations must be set first thing and the coach must hold the players accountable to these expectations, regardless of outcome, in order to build the habits that lead to the desired performance against better competition.

I also think many coaches struggle with #5. People in power are loathe to admit a mistake as they feel it erodes their power. I diagree. I think admitting a mistake empowers the individual and engenders a greater feeling of teamwork between the coach and players. If the coach refuses to accept responsibility for a mistake, players lose faith in the coach. For instance, I worked with a coach who had the team play a 2-3 zone against an outside shooting team. Our zone was primarily used to pack the inside and eliminate our height disadvantage. The opponent hit 16 3’s that night, but the coach never came out of the zone and never adjusted to their 4-out offense. Instead, he screamed at the players for a lack of effort for over an hour after the game. This did not motivate the players to work harder next time, but made the players defensive as they questioned the coach’s tactics and knowledge of the game.

From the latest issue of Fast Company:

Michael Harvey, writing in the Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, identifies curiosity as a trait that “stimulates learning and, concurrently, increases the effectiveness of decision making and quality management…” Curious leaders excel at problem solving by intuitively filling gaps “between what one knows and what one wishes to know,” and they’re so important that Harvey suggests corporations administer curiosity exams.

A reader emailed to point out this passage in Grant Wahl’s article about Vance Walberg:

“Where do innovators come from? An original idea - the new new thing - can be sparked anywhere, but the majority of college basketball’s greatest innovators share a common trajectory… they became head coaches early, often in anonymous hoops outposts. (Gives examples of Pete Carril, John Beilein, Bo Ryan and Bob Knight using their offense creations early)”

“No matter how obscure the team, when you’re a head coach, you get to tinkering with what you want.”

When Phoenix acquired Shaq, I wrote on my other blog:

PHX has the best training staff in the country. They keep Steve Nash upright; Amare Stoudemire practically performed a miracle with his quick return from microfracture surgery. What if the Suns’ staff can work wonders with Shaq, and Shaq gets to 85% of his normal Shaqness…Has there ever been a trade determined by the success of a team’s athletic trainer?

Phoenix was the first strength and conditioning staff to adopt the National Academy of Sports Medicine philosophy. Now, most NBA teams require or prefer their strength coaches to be certified as Performance Enhancement Specialists through NASM (I completed the NASM-PES certification in 2006). More than a blanket certification, the NASM-PES is a philosophy of training focused on building all aspects of athleticism and not just maximum strength.

I spoke to a source with the Suns today and it confirmed my initial belief: according to the source, after five days, Shaq is more flexible than ever. When the Suns did an MRI on Shaq, nothing showed up. However, Shaq had never done extensive flexibility training (what was he doing with the MMA fighters last summer?). His ankles and hips were very tight. Under the direction of the Phoenix training staff, he is working on these issues which should lead to improved on-court performance.

I have not seen Shaq play all season. However, with one of my players, tight hips leads to poor balance, lack of explosiveness and poor shooting. She struggles to stop on-balance when shooting because she cannot bend properly because of the tightness. Imagine playing in the NBA with poor balance and explosiveness. Now, imagine Shaq playing without these issues hindering his performance.

Is the improved flexibility enough to return his explosiveness? Maybe, although he is a big guy with a lot of miles who has absorbed a beating throughout his career. Is it enough to keep him on the floor for the last half of the season? Probably. Phoenix’s trainers are the best in the business (well, Arnie Kander with the Pistons, too) and if the Suns manage to win the championship this year, Steve Kerr will get a lot of the credit, but the athletic training and strength and conditioning staff will deserve the lion’s share if Shaq performs as my source expects after hearing the reports from the training staff.

Edit, 2/15: The Arizona Republic confirmed my post:

Suns trainer Aaron Nelson said Shaquille O’Neal’s flexibility has “vastly improved” since his arrival in Phoenix…”There isn’t any arthritis in his hip causing his problem,” said Dr. Thomas Carter, the club’s orthopedic surgeon. “He is in better structural condition than the vast majority of NBA centers. It was just soft tissue - flexibility and strength. And those guys (on the medical staff) have done a great job with him.”

Nelson said O’Neal has improved with every practice. “He’s been able to jump a little higher and move a little quicker,” he said. “He’s worked hard. He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do.”

From TrueHoop:

“Learning is a skill. Being a student is a skill,” [Grizzlies Head Coach Marc] Iavaroni said. “You have to seek out wisdom. You have to take notes. You have to set goals.”

And, Rasheed Wallace as the voice of reason:

Whether it is with a young frontcourt player like Amir Johnson, or the rookie backcourt of Rodney Stuckey and Arron Afflalo, Wallace has been in turns either in their ear or on their backs, constantly prodding them to, as he says, “Just play.”

“I am just trying to get them to play instead of them being so mechanical,” he said. “They are out there like, ‘If I make a mistake I am coming out.’ Nah, just go out and play. Be yourself and play your game. If you make a mistake or take a bad shot, it’s not the end of the world. Just play through it.”

This week’s newsletter has an interview with Mike Reid, a strength coach from Gothia Basket in Sweden. One question discusses shin splints, as I see players frequently complaining of shin splint symptoms, something I never even heard of when I was playing. As always, I am curious as to the causes leading to these changes. In addition to Reid’s answer which appears in the newsletter, he forwarded me this research paper. Unfortunately, it provides few answers:

Results: The use of shock-absorbent insoles, foam heel pads, heel cord stretching, alternative footwear, as well as graduated running programs among military recruits have undergone assessment in controlled trials. There is no strong support for any of these interventions…

Conclusion: Our review yielded little objective evidence to support widespread use of any existing interventions to prevent shin splints. The most encouraging evidence for effective prevention of shin splints involves the use of shock-absorbing insoles. However, serious flaws in study design and implementation constrain the work in this field thus far. A rigorously implemented research program is critically needed to address this common sports medicine problem.

Last week, I engaged in a discussion on a message board about burnout. The consensus was that high school girls who suffered from burnout were either not tough enough or did not love playing basketball. I disagreed. The consensus suggested that college and pro players play year-round, so high school should be no different. I disagreed.

In the latest FIBA Assist, New Zealand Strength and Conditioning Coach Claire Dallison writes:

The periodisation of a basketball year is often a problem for strength and conditioning coaches…The between-season training and recovery phases are reduced to weeks and sometimes days as players juggle their careers…As a result, players tend to spend their whole career in a continual maintenence phase as they train to play and train to recover from playing. As trainers, we need to challenge players to develop as athletes and to see those changes in their games.

Without the off-season training and development, players maintain, they do not develop or improve. I watched a college sophomore last night who I have known since she was in 8th grade and she is the exact same player now as she was as a freshman in high school. Moving directly from a competitive high school season to a competitive AAU season does not allow an opportunity for a proper recovery period or a proper training and skill development period. As Vern Gambetta calls it, the development system has a “survival of the fittest” mentality, while ignoring sports science.

I have a longer article about this in this week’s newsletter, as well as an interview with a professional strength coach in Europe. To subscribe, go here.

Sefu Bernard’s blog alerted me to the Nation of Wimps. As the author writes:

Armed with hyperconcern and microscrutiny, parents are going to ludicrous lengths to take the lumps and bumps out of life for their children today. However well-intentioned, their efforts have the net effect of making kids more fragile. That may be why the young are breaking down in record numbers or staying stuck in endless adolescence.

I see this every day and hear about it even more from my sister who teaches at a school where nothing is ever allowed to go wrong and no child is ever responsible for his or her own actions. How can a child really learn when a parent is right behind the child making excuses for every error rather than helping the child learn from his or her mistake?

What’s more, parents are seeking status and meaning in the achievements of their children. The trouble with turning tots into trophies is that the developmental needs of the young are sacrificed to the psychological needs of adults.

That is part of the premise for my book, Cross Over: The New Model of Youth Basketball Development. Parents and coaches approach youth athletics with an adult perspective, ignoring developmental needs. Last week, on another site, a poster asked about burnout in high school girls. I replied that it was indeed a problem. Most of the other posters believed those who burnout just don’t love basketball and don’t want to be great. While that is possible too, why don’t they love basketball anymore? Why do they not care about being great? In many cases, it is because they have been in this scholarship and trophy chase for 10 years already and they feel like they have missed part of their childhood. I believe young children can develop into elite athletes without completely sacrificing their childhood or their academics. But, it starts from parents and coaches taking a different perspective and approach, especially with the young players.

As any innovator will tell you, success hinges less on getting everything right than on how you handle getting things wrong. The ultimate irony is, in a flat world you don’t make kids competitive by pushing them to be perfect but by allowing them to become passionate about something that compels their interest.

This summarizes the talent development research I used in Chapter 4 of Cross Over. Before an athlete can develop his or her talent, he or she must develop the passion to invest time and energy in the activity. The motivated expert performers are not the ones who never fail, but the ones who handle adversity. At some point, the going gets tough. Those kids who have always been protected and never faced adversity because their parents always made an excuse for them will not handle adversity and typically quit the activity. Those who view mistakes or adversity as learning experiences or opportunities for growth persist through the tough points and improve.

I have not read the book, but the web site provides content which is on-point. Saving kids from disappointment or making excuses for kids is not good parenting, especially in terms of talent development, whether in sports or academics.

A friend emailed me this interview with Portland Trailblazers Strength Coach Bobby Medina. One interesting question and answer:

Blazersedge: Going back ten years or so, the consensus was that Michael Jordan and Karl Malone were the players in the best shape in the league. People would point at their body fat percentages and the number of minutes they played. Who would you consider, outside of the Blazers roster, to be the best conditioned players in the league?
I know hands down Kobe Bryant. I’ve had the opportunity to work with him. He’s a relentless worker. I’ve never seen a guy like him that will work as hard and as long as him. I would put LeBron in that category too. He’s a tireless worker. Tim Duncan, historically, stays in great shape. He starts his workouts in early August. Most of the Spurs stay in town and they work out with him. He kind of controls the workouts in the summer time. Those are three guys that would be on the top of my list.