Principles & Laws of Learning

This post is one of those unexpected and unplanned joys. I was looking through some old notes trying to find some inspiration and creative ways to get my post player to stay in a defensive stance. Just like "mystery money", you know... that $5 bill you find in the pocket of your pants before you throw it in the washer, I was excited to find this brilliant piece from Fred Litzenberger.

PRINCIPLES AND LAWS OF LEARNING

1. We learn better when we are "ready to learn". Have an open mind. Have the "will or desire to learn". Recognize a problem and see the need to learn.

2. We learn better when the subject is presented: in small bitesize doses and in logical order.

3. We learn better when we: Go from simple to complex. Don't move on until it becomes a habit. Hear the same terminology every time.

4. We learn by doing - Learn technique first then add speed and quickness. First in practice. Then in game situations (Drills must be game-like). Mental learning helps physical learning - Understand the subject.

5. We can only develop skill through perfect practice. Perfect repetitions. Helps when you learn it right the first time. Fixes your learning.

6. We learn better and fast when: We have some success (Build success into all drills). We feel good about ourselves (Which comes from success). We feel we are learning something that will help us.

7. We retain our learning better when: It has time to "soak in" / it becomes habit. We can see some success.

8. You can evaluate progress (skills) when: Everyone is taught the same technique (With some allowance for individual ability). The teaching is in a logical progression.

Excel Practice Plan Form

A request was made for an Excel file practice plan template that would calculate the actual time by simply entering the length of time to set the clock for. Ask and ye shall receive! I thought this was a fantastic idea and went to work on putting a working model together. With the help of my Excel guru, absolutely brilliant “numbers” man, and compadre, Mike Rohr, this came together. My head coach here at the University of Dallas, Jarred Samples, is using this form now and likes the time feature (although he is struggling with one unfortunate “glitch”).

I have 2 versions of this form. One for Windows 2007 and one for Windows 97-2003. When you go to these links, it will probably look crazy. I tested it and it still works. Once you download and save the file, it will look like the example below.

Some things you need to know about using this form:
- In the “Start Time” cell, you can enter the time either HH:MM or H:MM. You do not have to use military time, nor do you have to add AM or PM.
- Once you enter the Start Time, you will not have to edit the “Time” column down the left side of the form.
- Under the “Clock Set” column, you will need to enter the time H:MM. In other words, a 5 minute drill will be entered in that column as “0:05”. Once you have entered the Clock Set, the “Time” in the next row should automatically update.
- You are able to enter multiple lines of text in an individual cell under the “Drill” column. To do this, you need to hit the alt button and the enter button at the same time (This is the struggle for Coach Samples I mentioned earlier). In the example below, the first drill would be typed like this: “Individual Work (2 @ 7:30)” [alt+enter] ”-Ball Handling (JS)” [alt+enter] ”-Shooting (MG)”
- Once you enter the text, you can tab out of the cell and it will automatically adjust the height of the row.
- You may have rows that are not used at the bottom. The Time column will still print “#NAME?”. You can highlight the rows, right click on them, and click “Delete” to get rid of those rows.
- You cannot insert rows. The time function will not work if you insert rows. You can cut and paste.
- You cannot have blank cells in between Clock Set times.

If you have problems with this form, please feel free to contact me. I will do my best to provide some customer service (notice I didn’t say technical service, but I can get answers for you).

Excel Practice Schedule Example

Practice Plans

Basketball season is upon us! Friday kicks off the 2010-11 season for college basketball teams all over the country. If you coach high school ball, I am sorry to get you worked up and excited but your time is right around the corner. I challenge you to think about how you organize your practices. There are so many great ways to accomplish outstanding practices. Here are just a few ideas that you may want to implement into your practices.

Listening to Fran Fraschilla this summer at Coaching U, he talked about practice being sacred. The questions in preparing practices you need to ask yourself are, "What do you stand for? Do your players know?" You should prepare practice like your mentors (he used Bill Parcells and Hubie Brown) were coming to watch. Fran also recommended making a list of Clips in order to organize what you want to accomplish. Each Clip is a portion of time, for example clip 1 could be from the first day of practice until your first scrimmage and clip 2 is from the first scrimmage to your first game. Under each clip, you list the things you wish to have completed offensively, defensively, and special situations. It is a fantastic organization tool and measuring stick for where you are and where you wanted to be.

Rick Pitino organizes his practices into eight 15 minute segments. 1 = Warm-up, 2 = Fast Break, 3 = 1/2 Court Defense, 4 = 1/2 Court Offense, 5 & 6 = Press Defense, 7 = Scrimmage, and 8 = Specials and Zone work. In order to provide organization and variety to practices, he lists numerous drills (similar to Fran's clips) that can be utilized in each segment.

When I worked for Ray Giacoletti, he planned practices to be 1/2 defense, with a break, and the other 1/2 offense. The following day, we would flip the order, going offense first and defense second. The break was not only a rest opportunity for the players, but a mental transition. They knew that it was time to shift gears in terms of emphasis. After the break, Ray liked to use shooting competitions to get the competitive juices flowing again.

Tom Oswald had what I consider to be the best practice plan sheets of anyone. He would type them up every day which made them legible and easily read. On the back side he listed the date, the practice #, the emphasis of the day (for example: defensive stance), the thought of the day (usually a motivation quote or a mental focusing point), a list of what players were in what color that day, a list of our MASH unit (guys with injuries), and notes about upcoming events (practices, study hall, community service, etc.). This was also posted in the locker room every day for the players. The front side was an extremely meticulous and detailed practice plan with a column for how much time each segment was and a column with a detailed description of the drill or activity.

One idea I would add to Tom's practice plan would be some blank court diagrams. How many times in practice do you have an idea and want to scribble it down for later? I know I do frequently and this is a great way to make it easier... and in my case much more readable.

Would love to hear more ideas in regards to practice plans. Please comment and discuss!

Planning Part II

I've had a few people contact me in regards to my "Have a Plan" posting last week. There has been some confusion as to what I was referring to. Just as we have game-plans for our teams, we must also have a life-plan. That life-plan must take into consideration all of the members of our programs. Some simple things to consider:

- Work with the women's team coach to come up with a master calendar of practice times.

- For college coaches, have a master recruiting calendar of games you or your staff would like to see. This is a simple task that can allow the rest of your staff to plan ahead. If you designate a recruiting coordinator, this should be one of his tasks.

- If you choose to proctor study hall sessions for your team, explore times and locations early so that your team and staff are able to plan around them.

- Share a team calendar with your staff, players, support staff, and other important people involved such as professors, academic advisors, tutors, library staff, janitors, etc. This will eliminate the need to improvise. If you employ the player notebook system, players can keep this calendar in their notebooks.

- Post your team calendar in places your team will see it. Outside your office and in the locker room are two very obvious places.

- Conduct individual player meetings to discuss time-management and organization weekly if possible. Include this in the players' calendar.

- Communicate changes in the schedule as early as possible. Have a plan of how to communicate changes and confirm that the message is received.

I think we can all agree that when plans are not made and "last-minute" rules the day, we become extremely frustrated. These are just a few ideas to get the wheels turning. The goal should be to eliminate as much of the "last-minute" through thorough preparation.

John Beilein on ESPN.com

Great article on ESPN today on John Beilein. The article describes how detailed, thorough, and almost OCD about watching film (or the currently more appropriate: digital video captures). Most coaches, especially at the college level, already use video as a powerful instructional tool. Players have the opportunity to see what it is that we see.

I am jealous of Beilein's table. When I worked for Ray Giacoletti at Eastern Washington, he had a desktop with a court painted on it that his dad made for him. I thought at that time, it would be great to use that as a teaching tool with the team. It has always been in the back of my mind to have a scale version of my court for teaching purposes when I get a head coaching job. Guess my "innovation" is no longer so innovative any more. Doesn't mean I won't still do it! I think it is a fantastic supplement and has the potential to reach a diverse group of learning styles.

Here's a picture of Beilein's "coffee table":