Blog Posting #40, March 11, 2009

365 Little Bits

This is a follow up to the last blog posting, “Teach Like This is Your Last Season; Learn Like You’ll Coach Forever.” In that lesson, you were encouraged to adopt Coach Wooden’s off-season research and development system, tackling one subject of basketball, each spring and summer. We discussed how difficult it is to limit your off-season study to one area of the game: Rebounding, Zone Offense, Pressure Release, or Half-Court Defense. What I’m going to ask you to do now may be even more difficult. 

Most children begin walking around one year of age. I was different. I began at seven months. As soon as the fog cleared from my eyes (some may say it never did), I observed my mother, father, and sister carefully. After she fed me, I watched my mom get up and move from where I was to the kitchen or bedroom. I watched my dad suddenly appear and, like God up above, smile at me and say stupid stuff like, “Gagga Booboo.” And my sister—if I would have been able to control my hands, I would have strangled her. Right next to me and purposefully bumping me every ten seconds, she played with her stupid dolls and said venomous things like, “I can play and you can’t ‘cause you’re just a baby.”

Day after day, I had to go through this torture. Everyone was moving and I had to lie there, on my back, puking, gurgling, and Gagga Boobooing. And I’m not even going to talk about that incessant and obnoxious merry-go-round hovering above my crib. After six months of that, I said to myself, “I’ve had agoogoonough of this. I’m going to walk.” 

One day, like usual, my mom had put me down in the living room, on my back, on that worn-out Winnie the Pooh blanket that never did lose the smell of baby-processed Gerber Chicken and Carrots. By then, I had visually memorized every kernel on the cottage cheese ceiling and fabricated twenty-four zodiac-type patterns, including a horse riding on Abraham Lincoln. Up to “here” with the status quo, I got up and walked from where I was to where my mother was, in the kitchen. She was so happy for me, she picked me up and hugged me. Heck, I wanted to walk. “Put me down!”

For one day, I walked and walked and walked. I made it a point not to look up at Abraham. I had graduated to seeing cabinets, doors, and electrical outlets. Electrical outlets. That’s another story for another time. I just want you to know, I learned so much about walking in one day, I got bored so I took a week off. What is that you say? I should have kept walking, every day, and I would have become a fluent walker much sooner than I did? I know! I know! But, at the time, I thought I had learned enough. Heck, I could walk, couldn’t I?

By now, you’ve figured out the above story is not true. I learned to walk about the same time as normal children. But the point is this: Had I continued to practice walking every day, improving a little each day, I would have become a great walker in a hurry. Soon, I would have been running, cutting,  jumping, rebounding, shooting jumpers, and doing 360 dunks with the nurf ball on the side of my crib, talking trash and saying, “Yo Mama.”

In the made-up story, after one day of walking, I took a few days off because I was happy with what I had learned. I thought I could walk. When you begin your off-season study of one subject, the same thing is going to happen to you. In a few days, you’re going to take in some pretty cool stuff. There will come a point where you convince yourself, you know a lot. You may even think, ‘I’ve learned a ton and I’ve still got three months until the next basketball season. I’ve got plenty of time.’ That’s baby talk. 

Diving to the depths of a basketball subject is no different than learning to walk. Don’t spend hours a day on it; spend an hour, but do it every day. If you improve a little every day for one year, 365 Little Bits, you’ll be amazed at what you’ve learned. There are benefits to this approach. For one, you won’t forget what you learned before and you won’t have to review. Secondly, you will have made yourself accountable to a routine.

Sorry about the long story. I know the message could have been delivered in a lot less words. I just got carried away. One last thing. For those that saw me play ball, don’t make any connection between the way I ran down the court and me taking a few days off during my Gagga Booboo days.