Malcolm Gladwell and Full-Court Pressure

In Books by Brock Bourgase

A friend asked me to comment on this article, which was published by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker. First of all, Vivek Ranadivé is incredibly self-centered and should reevaluate why he wants to coach twelve-year-old girls. This statement does not absolve his counterparts of their boorish, loutish, and short-tempered behaviour but he is coaching at the wrong level. Usually, that particular age group restricts full-court pressure because of the destructive effects on skill development. If he had limited practice time, Randivé should have focused on fundamental skills. Obviously full-court pressure would work; most teenagers make horrendous decisions under any …