Great teams can come together by luck or by recruiting, but great programs are no accident. They are built and sustained around core concepts, which provide players with a vision for success and the drive to achieve it.
Why do great programs breed great players? As Swedish psychologist K. Anders Ericsson states in The Talent Code: “We’re pre-wired to imitate. When you put yourself in the same situations as an outstanding person and attack a task they took on, it has a big effect on your skill.”
Greatness has a way of rubbing off, and skill begets skill down the line. That’s why ignition can fuel your program at all levels, and this can be achieved both through creating exclusivity and establishing a vision.
Ignition Through Exclusivity
Create exclusivity through awards for kids performing certain measurable skills, such as:
- Skips (between-the-legs) contest
- Free-throw contests
- Shot club
For the last one, I know of some schools that have a 10,000 or 15,000 shot club during the summer. This is great to create an exclusive club and encourage kids to work on their game. Coaches can do this by making players turn in recorded sheets at the end of each week. Could players cheat on the sheet? Of course. But the ones who do will know that they truthfully do not belong in the “club,” which takes away the exclusive feeling for them.
Another thing you could do is create a workout program that the kids have to do during open gym times, so you know how many shots they are putting up.
Ignition Through Vision
It’s also important to pair this exclusivity of clubs and award with a concrete vision for the program. This is a window through which kids and parents can see possibilities.
If you have already had a great team or player, use them as examples to say, “you can do this too!” Provide them with the opportunity to experience the joy of winning a conference or state championship. Take them on an empty tour of the facility you play your state tournament at, and add to that with a visualization exercise where the kids are imagine playing in front of thousands of fans while wearing your school colors.
Here are three examples of motivational tools that give me the chills. First, there’s the NCAA’s “One Shining Moment” song and video (the old one was much better). There’s also the video clip of Ladysmith High School winning the 2003 Wisconsin State tournament on Forrest Larson’s Take it to the Rim website. Maybe it was special because I was there and knew how hard he worked to accomplish the goal. Regardless, it works for me. Lastly there is Alan’s Stein’s video “What is Hard Work?”.
Here are some other tactics to help create a vision for your program:
- Try featuring youth dribbling shows at halftime. Parents and kids are going to like this more than playing games because every one has a ball and is part of the “show” unlike a game. But, I think you can and should do both. The more you can get them involved in the varsity games, the better.
- Get current varsity players involved in coaching and in skills clinics. The kids in the youth program look up to your varsity players, no matter if they are the star or the 12th man on your bench. When we did programs in college, I was that 12th guy on the bench, and the kids enjoyed being around me (at least I think they did). What does this do? The kids look up to the players, they want to be like them, and they want to be good at the game so the varsity kids will accept them. It’s no accident that success breeds success.
- Make your players into youth coaches. I can’t tell you how many times I have said to myself in the last five years, “I wish I would have known this as a player.” When your players become coaches, they will see things in entirely different ways, essentially making them smarter, more aware players. You learn by doing, and teaching a skill can bring about a deeper understanding of the game as a player.
- “If she can do it, why can’t I?” Coyle’s example is Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile mark in 1954, which physiologists and athletes regarded as an unbreakable barrier. Within three years, at least 17 runners had matched his four-minute accomplishment.
Here’s a basketball example. We held a contest on YouTube about a year ago. The contest was a two-ball dribbling drill where the players had 30 seconds to do as many two-ball, between-the-legs dribbles as they could. I got 63 in 30 seconds. A couple of months later, a high school player from Canada sent me a video response. He beat me by two! When we’re at camp and do this drill, I tell every kid, “If you can beat 63 in 30 seconds, I’ll give you a copy of each of our DVDs.” To which most kids respond, “That’s impossible.”
The key here is to make them believe it is possible, because it is—through deep practice. They start to believe they can do it after I tell them a kid from Canada actually beat my record. Get your kids to work on their skills by showing them something “cool” they can do if they are good at it (i.e., 63 skips in 30 seconds, or even 65). Or have them imagine playing in a gym packed with 8,000 fans in your school colors. Or they can star in a halftime-dribbling showcase. Create a vision for them and let them be a part of it by teaching them to be a part of it.
However you choose to construct it, every program needs to have a vision—a set of goals to strive for and something to be inspired by. This will also result in players who are more motivated for deep practice, perhaps so motivated that they will want to become teachers of those same skills at the youth level.
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Mike Lee Basketball Services trains thousands of middle school through NBA players across the country each year in their skill development training, camps and coaches Academies. The owner, Mike Lee, is also a former Nike Girls Skills Academy instructor and former assistant director for the Stephen Curry Skills Academy. Recently the company has authored 7 skill development DVDs and created miSkillz Online Basketball training. To host an event in your city please email mike@mikeleebasketball.com
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Click here for more information on Daniel Coyle and The Talent Code