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The Wall

By: Matt Johnson, Director of Men’s Basketball Strength and Conditioning at Butler University 
Twitter & Instagram: @StrengthCoachMJ

58,318 – the number of causalities suffered during the Vietnam War.  We honor them with a memorial of etched marble in the shape of a healing wound in Washington, DC.  It serves as a reminder of the price of our freedom.

Sacrifice is a word thrown around by many coaches.  Over the years, what I’ve found is that kids don’t understand what the word means.  Sometimes drawing a parallel beyond sport is the best educational method for athletes.

Every athlete has dreams in life.  They all want to excel in and outside the lines of sport.  If you ask them, more times than not they will say “Get a college degree and go pro.” They enlist to accomplish their goals.

Every soldier has dreams in life. A doctor, lawyer, start a business, have a house, husband/wife and happy children. They also enlist but their goals get set aside to protect our freedom. They hold the line and fight so we have the chance to accomplish our goals.  

I am the son of a UDT (Underwater Demolition Team) member.  The team before what we currently know as Seal teams.  I grew up listening to war stories and looking at old pictures from my father’s military scrapbooks. Each photo had faces, a story and a similar end. “That’s (name). He was killed in action”.  I didn’t draw the parallel when I was young but I have now. The selfless act of putting your goals aside so others can accomplish theirs. That’s sacrifice.

Every Wednesday during summer training our Men’s Basketball team at George Washington visited the Vietnam War Memorial or “The Wall”.  We paid homage to our fallen heroes, did jumping jacks, performed push-ups and ran laps around the reflecting pool while each player was asked to remember a name. After making the jog back to Smith Center we ran a background on each hero and hung their profile in the weight room for the remainder of the summer.  Every visit to the wall increased the number of our weight room wall of heroes.  By the end of the summer there wasn’t a blank space on the weight room walls. Serving as a constant reminder to our players of their selfless act of sacrifice.

The reaction from our players was transformational.  None more than a freshman this past year when asked what visiting the wall meant to him.  He said, “If they can take a bullet for us then a few jumping jacks and push-ups aren’t really that hard.” Athletes need to sacrifice to accomplish their goals. But they first have to know what the word means.  This act of remembrance and devotion changed our players mentally and physically. It served as the centerpiece of our off-season training for my 5 years at GW. I left the University in June 2018 for my current position at Butler University. Nothing made me prouder to hear that the team was continuing their runs of remembrance. 

We must evaluate to understand our value. Two thoughts for coaches and athletes: Ask yourself these questions. 

Coach Perspective:

  • The sets, reps and exercises will eventually fade.  What are you doing today to be remembered as a mentor?

Athlete Perspective:

  • Every day you get to work toward your dreams. Are you grateful for the opportunity?
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Living Trophies Mindset: Creating Team Culture Through The Use Of Hidden Stats

By Vytautas Valiulis

Check out the 12 offensive and 12 defensive hidden stats to improve team’s effort and accountability to playing the game the “right way.”

This season can bring more satisfaction for you as a coach, along with improved buy-in with your daily workouts. Stick with this article until the end, and you’ll see how to chart your practices and games hidden stats that lead directly to more accountability, better team chemistry, and ultimately more wins for your program.

Being a coach at any level of basketball is a blessing. Each level has its own challenges and rewards. However, the higher the level you coach, the higher the number of intangibles you must take into consideration, which leads to the meticulous analysis of the team’s strength and weaknesses during preseason, all the while developing the team’s identity. At the end of the season there are only going to be a handful of winners in every conference, region, tournament, championship series and so on. The Villanova’s, Golden State Warriors, Madrid Real type of organizations are few and far between. These teams score efficiently, utilize position-less basketball, have a collective competitive mind-set, and the best group of talented individuals. Efficient scoring and position-less basketball rely upon players’ talent and athleticism, as well as the team’s style of play. These are supported by the coaching staffs’ philosophy, tactics and analytics. However, the most important trait is having a competitive mind-set; and the quicker you get buy-in from the team, the quicker exciting things will start to happen for your program.

“This might sound or look good in written words, Coach.”, you may be thinking to yourself, “But is it really that simple?”  There might be a lot of you sitting in your office or at home reading with thoughts about countless books, articles, and hype videos on YouTube about competition. Don’t tune me out just yet, because in next paragraph I will present you with the 12 offensive and 12 defensive hidden stats that will help your team become more competitive during practice, scrimmages, and games; as well as holding each other accountable.  Ultimately, these hidden stats will allow you as a coach to be more demanding of your players with words backed up by data.

For more drills, click here.

As you see many of them are self-explanatory as expected. I like to have it charted by quarters, this allows me to follow the game from skills perspective and see clearly defensive and offensive opportunities we miss, and each players activity on the floor. Give it to one of your assistants, managers to chart it during the practices and games, have them post weekly results in the locker room.

  1. Extra pass-you have an open look, but defender is running at you, leaving somebody on your team open.
  2. Corner 3Pts attempt-these becoming commodity, chart them.
  3. Cuts on drives-if your man on help side is ball watching on drive, cut behind him.
  4. Three drives per possession-this will give plenty of extra passes, and easy looks.
  5. Hockey assists- last pass that lead to assist.
  6. Transition possession-team should have 1/3 of possessions in easy scoring opportunities.
  7. Half court sets-another 1/3 of possessions called half court plays.
  8. Three Pts. attempts-last 3rd of offense is generated from 3s *  last 3 you can adjust to your needs
  9. Rim runs-bigs has to run to open the floor.
  10. Mini lane post ups-post inside the paint first.
  11. Multiple action-can your team create after initial action has been stopped.
  12. Paint touches-get inside the teeth of defense.

Defense

  1. Tactical fouls-stopping the fast break without unsportsmanlike foul, not giving a layup, stopping a dangerously evolving possession with a foul before bonus.
  2. Altered shots- wall ups, verticality,brim protection.
  3. Help the helper-somebody is going tohelp, sink and fill.
  4. Miss box out assignment.
  5. Charges.
  6. Jumps on fakes-don’t leave your feetof the ground before the shot goes up.
  7. Multiple stops-team getting 3 stops ina row on defensive end.
  8. Deflections-disturbing timing, getting 50/50 opportunities.
  9. Point guard rejected in PnR-this can be treated as activity in PnR defense, miss assignment on team’s defensive strategy guarding on ball screens.
  10. Big miss PnR-same for bigs.
  11. Middle break-not giving drives to the middle of the floor (it can be baseline)
  12. Multiple effort-giving extra after you have already done enough.
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Creating Living Trophies

By Coach Kevin Sutton

A teacher is a coach and a coach is a teacher, both are what I consider educators. The master educator has the unique ability to get the best out of their students/athletes. They see the potential in their students/athletes before the student/athlete sees it in themselves.  

A master educator is a person who: 

  • Understands the holistic approach to development of the individual. Emotionally, Academically, Socially, Psychologically.
  • Understands that you must have “believe in” before you can have “buy in”. Trust and authenticity are the bridges used to connect “believe in to buy in”.
  • Understands that they must meet the individual where the individual is especially from a maturity standpoint.
  • Understands that each person is unique. The master educator must have an understanding of where the student/athlete is from and where they are now, in order to guide them toward reaching their fullest potential.
  • Understands the power of motivation both intrinsically and extrinsically. This is a powerful ally to the master educator. Understanding the factors that motivate each individual is a process and takes time to accomplish. Dedicating time to understanding individual motives can be a valuable asset in helping the student/athlete to enhance their performance.
  • Understands the power that their words and position have on the student/athlete. Every day they have the opportunity to be a ladle that can either pour into the student/athlete’s bucket to make it full, or be a ladle that takes out of the student/athlete’s bucket.  

The ability to impact lives in a positive way can create what I call a “Living Trophy”.  As a coach when you win a championship trophy, after the initial celebration the trophy is put on display in the trophy case where it collects dust. The trophy is taken out of the case for reunions or other celebrations. Though this is something that you should be very proud of, I suggest you take the time on a daily basis to pour into your students/athletes in a positive way so they can become your Living Trophies, which is far more powerful and meaningful than an actual trophy. 

Living Trophies are those people who allow you to impact their lives. They listen and learn, then they apply that knowledge as they live out their best lives. Living Trophies become positive members of their communities. They give back to others and start to impact lives of those they come in contact with. Some will do this on a small scale, and others on a large scale. It can be anything from showing sincere interest in those they meet, to creating foundations to reach large numbers of people in need. Living Trophies are individuals for whom you have impacted in a positive way, and they in turn become a person that impacts others.

My challenge to you is to take every opportunity you can, as the master educator, to create as many Living Trophies as possible. Pour into your students/athletes; your time, your knowledge, your wisdom. Teach them to dream big dreams, and provide them with the essential values and strategies necessary to exceed their goals and dreams.