Blog Posting #78, September 20, 2009

Coach Hank Part V, Hank and Heuristics

Frustrated, because the efforts of his practice sessions were not generating more wins, Hank Bias, gave it one last shot; he paid Coach Wooden a visit. There, he received a prescription for coaching success: “The coach who has the ability to properly plan the practice sessions from both the daily and the long-range point of view together with the ability to devise the necessary drills to meet his particular needs for maximum efficiency has tremendously increased his possibility of success.” Hank was committed to plan properly and devise drills that would teach game execution.

But in order for that to happen, those “drills” needed to be connected to a system. Hank asked Coach to explain his UCLA High Post Offense. At the time, most coaches considered the offense “old school.”  But, as he heard Coach Wooden explain it, Hank saw it as a masterpiece for his team: complete, sound, and flexible. 

Coach Wooden had also told him, “It’s not what offense you use so much as how well you teach the one you have.” In that regard, what Hank had learned was, proper teaching was breaking the offense into smaller parts, teaching those parts, and then putting the offense back together again as a whole. This is exactly what Coach Hank did.

Heuristics
This, naturally, brings us to the subject of “heuristic anti-virus software.” (Hang on! Trust me!)

Basic anti-virus software scans a computer for incumbent viruses and for ones trying to find a way in. Heuristic anti-virus software is of a higher order. Every virus has its own signature and unique behavior. Heuristic engines remember those signatures, learn their individual behaviors, and then (This is really cool.), like a watch dog, waits for them to dare enter your computer and destroys them before they do. (Put that remote down. This is going to be worth it.)

When Coach Hank began to break the UCLA High Post Offense into parts (i.e. two-on-two, three-on-three, four-on-four), it was heuristic heaven. The repetition of working the same situation for ten minutes, caused the defense to make various adjustments to stop the play—the same adjustments opponents would make in a game. Consequently, the offensive players were learning by the minute, anticipating new adjustments, and making plays as they proactively read the defense.

The Friday Night “Aha” Experience
This repetition happened day after day and week after week and eventually transferred directly into game scoring. Here is an example. As Hank explains it, during a particular week, they had been working on attacking and defending the “Side-Post Option,” a two-on-two play, with the ball handler stationed at the top, weak-side, corner of the freethrow lane, and the guard, running past him, looking for a handoff pass. Running the play a dozen times allows players to experiment and see all the possibilities of the play (heuristics). Friday night, during the game, the ball handler read the defense perfectly. He faked the handoff, made the correct pivot, and got an easy shot off the glass. Hank explains how that player glanced over at him as if to say, “OK. I’ve seen that one before. It works.” It’s during the games when the players know the play really works. That’s the “Aha” Experience. 





For Coach Hank, the “Aha Experience” is the fun part of teaching. Before breaking the offense into parts and drilling those parts, he never experienced that feeling and his players didn’t either. Now, it’s not unusual to hear his players say, in the locker room or his office, “We got them high-low, coach.” or, “What a heady thing Adam did popping off the double screen when he did.”

Coaches on the Floor
Because Hank created a heuristic system, the players learned the same things Hank learned. They learned how things were supposed to happen. This gave Coach Hank’s players confidence, resulting in them taking ownership and responsibility for execution. In other words, they became “coaches on the floor.” Following are two examples.

The UCLA Cut is where the guard, after passing the ball to the wing, uses the center, located at the free throw line, as a screen to get open for a layup. The second option (should the guard not be open) is for the wing to pass the ball to the center who passes it to the opposite forward that has flashed into the middle of the lane. In this particular game, when running the second option, the center was receiving the pass too far from the basket, making his pass to the flashing forward too long and risky. The other players recognized it immediately and told him about it. Problem fixed.

A “Two-on-One Fast Break” is where two offensive players have only one defender guarding them. Through breakdown and repetition, players learned how it was supposed to be done. The two players get “lane-lane” separation (width of the lane or about 12 feet) with the non ball handler stays one step farther from the basket than the ball handler. The play continues with the  ball handler driving hard to the basket. If he is stopped by the defender, he delivers a bounce pass to his trailing teammate who makes the layup. The idea is to maintain spacing so the defender has to guard two players and make a choice. In one game, the non ball handling player was ahead of the play and too close by. During a time out, the ball handler told him, “Hey! I have no one to pass to!”
 



Conclusion
Thanks for hanging in there. If I did a good job leading you to understand the connection between heuristic anti-virus software and developing heuristic players through breaking down the offense into parts and drilling those parts so players learn to react to various defensive tactics, you might have, somewhere while reading this posting, had an “Aha Experience” of your own.

As I thought about this concept, it occurred to me: When we are training our players to be learners and problem solvers, isn’t that leadership training? Aha!