Watching Cobra Kai on Netflix, I was thinking about how this highly unrealistic show could be applied in the real world. Certainly, basketball coaches shouldn’t covert their clubs into gangs that brawl with their neighbourhood rivals but I thought of some other ideas and sent them to the Internet. Spoilers after the break.
Mental Training with Virtue & Moir
As coaches, we become myopic, scrutinizing every last detail of our own sport and ignoring, dismissing or perhaps even ridiculing other disciplines. On the surface, the attitude seems rooted in rationality. After all, how can a sport decided by judges be comparable to one which determines the winner based on points scored in a given time? Yet we should take a look around and see what is going on in the neighbouring pitch, rink or dojang. Improvement knows no boundaries. Firstly, we wouldn’t be coaches if we did not seek to fuse the objective with the subjective. Secondly, some of …
Learning from Losing
It was an eye-opening loss for me. Some losses you’re angry about and some losses you learn from. That loss, I think I learned the most from in a long time. I got so much better after that loss. I was able to improve a lot. I worked on things. I didn’t see the results straightaway. But months later, I started seeing the results, more and more. Serena Williams, reflecting upon her loss to Garbine Muguruza in the 2014 French Open.
Climbing the Mountaintop
In life, it’s very difficult to get to the mountaintop, because one day leads to another day and leads to another day. There are small wins and losses in the process. You win an election or lose an election. You can close a deal or not close a deal. But in sports, what you can do as a team, a with your fans feeling part of it, is show what’s possible for human beings to achieve if they work together, if they care about each other. Winning the title gave resolution to people who didn’t have much resolution in lives, …
Engaging Players in Practice
Successful teams practice as they play. For the youth coach, engaging student-athletes leads to success on and off the court, building confidence, improving fitness and instructing life skills.
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What Basketball Can Learn from Hockey
With an N.B.A. lockout underway until further notice, hockey and football must substitute as excitement for basketball fans these days. Also, Canada is a hockey country and the sport is destined to get all the love on television.
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Extraordinary Events
What is the overall effect of an extraordinary event on a single team? The death of Alexei Cherepanov during a game triggered an eight-game slide for Avangard Omsk in the K. The Superbowl champion New York Giants lost four of their last five games after receiver Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg. Teams can collapse when a key player is suspended or experiences a breakdown on the court. Yet other teams rally together when they experience a critical injury. What is the difference between a positive and a negative outcome in the face of adversity? A lot of a …
Sport in Canadian Society
The anthology, Sport in Canadian Society, contains theses about gender, violence, class, and other issues in sport. Although published in 1991, the chapter regarding media remains very salient. The authors believe that broadcasting sporting events can lead to a slippery slope wherein ratings influence telecasts in many ways. For example, a legitimate sport like skiing could be replaced by a dilatory exhibition like arm wrestling on A.B.C.’s Wide World of Sports or commentators might go beyond describing the action and actually create their own storylines. Competing for viewers, the networks distort the competition more and more, in order to create …
Tae-Kwan-Do Fundamentals
My friend told me that his Tae-Kwan-Do class was asked to perform some basic kicks. Despite their black belts, the class had trouble executing white belt maneuvers. The class was given a month to improve their fundamentals. Irrespective of the level of play, the fundamentals remain the same. All coaches should pay attention to these details and devote time to the basics. Elite basketball players still need the time to develop skills like footwork, passing, or shot-faking. This concept is not a sport-specific lesson in any way. Whether you are running the Princeton offence or trying to combine the playbooks …