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 Building the right foundation is key to game on and off the court
By Liz Feeley
For 21 years as a basketball coach, I consistently reminded my players to pay close attention to the life skills the game taught, and how those skills translated into the real world. Okay, so I never really lived in the real world. After graduating from college, I went directly into coaching college basketball and stayed there for 21 years.
Admittedly, it was the only job I ever had.Two years ago, I retired from coaching and finally entered the real world I so often spoken of to my players. It was time for me to “walk the walk,” so to speak. My original retirement plan was to start a design and building business that specialized in home renovation projects. Many people commented on the lack of a connection from one career to the other. After all, construction was completely different from coaching – right?
Not so fast. I have found one very important underlying connection: the need to build a solid foundation. Without a solid foundation, the integrity of the parts that make up the whole will be compromised. This is the case quite, literally, in the construction business. How well will the walls and floors perform if the foundation is not level and structurally sound? Take the game of basketball court: How effective are a player’s tactical skills and her ability to execute a team system if she hasn’t established a sound set of fundamental skills?
When a high school coach recently told me he didn’t know if he could afford to spend practice time on fundamentals, my immediate response was. “How can you afford not to?” Would you hire a crew to build a home on a pile of gravel or sand with just a pick and shovel? Think about the foundation. Providing the proper tools – the fundamentals – is your job as a teacher/coach.
So if a coach expects her players to run her offense, she must teach direction. If she wants her players to be more effective at faking before making a move, she must teach balance and control. And if she wants to see her players get a shot off quicker, she must stress economy of motion.
The Player Development Pyramid from On Court Player Development® provides each coach with a visual aid demonstrating the need to schedule practice time for fundamentals. Just like when building a home, your house must sit on a solid foundation. Without a strong foundation, don’t expect your players to hold up (pun intended) in a game.
As Henry David Thoreau once said, “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” OC
Liz Feeley has served as a head women’s basketball coach at Princeton, Colgate and Smith College, and as an assistant at Lehigh University (her alma mater), Cornell, Holy Cross, and Notre Dame. Over the years, she also has participated in a number of speaking engagements, and stressed the fundamentals at basketball camps and clinics. |
