Exploring basketball's best ideas, strategies, and coaches around the world

Happy Sunday and welcome to all the new subscribers from around the world!

ICYMI: Last week we released Part 2 of our "Film Room" study with Birmingham Squadron Head Coach, TJ Saint, on Middle Ballscreen Spacing concepts and Playing Small. View the full breakdown HERE.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: Bernie Holliday - The Trusting vs Training Mindset

🎤 Slappin' Glass Podcast: David Riley on Creating Efficient Offense, Simple BLOB Sets, and Winning with Non-Shooters {Washington St.}​

🥇Best of the Week: UCLA Entries & The Reverse Offense​

🔒 SG Plus Coaches Corner: Implementing Peel Switch

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Let's dive in...

Trusting vs Training Mindsets

In late January we were joined on the podcast by the Director of Learning and Mental Performance for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Bernie Holliday, who is widely considered one of the top minds in the world in the field of high performance. In what has sneakily become one of the more popular conversations of the year, we discussed the benefits of anxiety and other strong emotions, as well as the concept of having a "Think Box-Play Box" when it comes to high performance. However, the majority of our conversation focused on the relationship between the "Trusting" and "Training" Mindsets, and how these two frames of mind impact each other when it comes to performance, especially in high pressure situations.

Today, we'll pivot slightly from our normal tactical deep dives to look at some of the important underpinnings of how athletes learn, develop, and perform from someone who helps coaches at the highest of levels (for your X&O fix please see the "Best of the Week" below). This week's newest edition to the SGTV library features a terrific presentation from Dr. Holliday on the "Trusting vs. Training Mindset," focusing on the idea that the mentality required to develop skills is different from the mentality needed to let skill out.

Let's dive into a few of the key tenants...

"Trusting" and "Training" - Two Complementary Mindsets

The first thing to focus on is the differences that Dr. Holliday discusses when it comes to the two mindsets, and how they should be used to complement one another in the development process. Let's look at the tenants of both mindsets...

Training Mindset- "Bring Skill In"

The overall goal of the training mindset is to "bring skill in" and focuses on:

• Active thinking
• Busy mind
• Correcting Weaknesses
• Mechanical Work/Internal Focus
• "Making it Happen" and Trying Hard
• Evaluating - Analyzing, Criticizing, Judging

Trusting Mindset - "Let Skill out"

Conversely, the "trusting mindset's" overall goal is to help an athlete "let skill out" and is characterized by:

• Sensing and Reacting
• Quiet Mind
• Trusting Strengths
• Situational Rehearsal/ External Focus
• "Letting it Happen" and Playing Hard
• Supporting - Conviction, Reckless Abandon, Acceptance, Self-Compassion

Dr. Holliday explores all of these points in great detail in today's video, along with how both of these mindsets should work together when a coach is designing practice and development programs for athletes and teams. He also breaks down the percentage of time coaches should aim to spend working in each of these mindsets in practice, and the benefits of doing so.

The "Real You" vs "Imposter Moments"

Another terrific part of today's video is Dr. Holliday's exploration of the "Real You" vs "Imposter" moments. He shares his ETA exercise (Energy/Emotions, Thoughts, and Attention) to demonstrate the power of the mind in relation to releasing skill and achieving high performance.

Through this exercise Dr. Holliday emphasizes the importance of bringing awareness to how we think and feel when we are struggling to perform versus when we are "flowing" or at our best, along with highlighting that in moments of struggle, these internal states are nothing more than imposter moments.

In times of struggle, we tend to over-analyze and overthink, leading to "Paralysis by Analysis", and hindering our minds ability to perform. In contrast, athletes are at their best when they are simply reacting instinctively to the environment. When it comes to games, criticizing and analyzing impede the body's ability to perform in moments of high stress. Therefore, the distinction can be made that athletes should not always train in a critical, analytical, think-about-it mode (training mindset) when attempting to become better high-performing athletes.

Dr. Holliday is one of the world's most sought-after High Perfomance coaches both in the sports and business world, and we're fortunate today to be able to add such a valuable resource to the SGTV library. For much more depth on all of these topics, invest in an SG Plus membership and watch here...

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Slappin' Glass Podcast

We had a blast sitting down this week with the newly hired Head Coach of Washington St. MBB, David Riley! In this insightful conversation we dive into the areas of creating efficient offense, different types of advantages, the value of teaching through 3v3, and talk BLOB sets and winning with non-shooters during the always fun "Start, Sub, or Sit?!"

Listen to the entire conversation here...

Together with Hudl

We're proud to partner with one of the best tech companies in the world of sports, Hudl! Every play, every stat, every breakdown. On their own, they’re essential. But all together, they’re undeniable. Hudl recently introduced their newest product, Hudl Instat – a new advanced data platform that integrates with Sportscode and every Hudl product you rely on to create an all-in-one data powerhouse. Hudl Instat’s advanced tagging and next-level stat reports help you develop your team – and its global film library helps you find the missing piece to get the most out of every second of film. Visit ​hudl.com/slappinglass​ to learn more.

Tactical

📺 Screen the Screener - UCLA • Argentina​

"A UCLA entry into an "Argentina" Screen the Screener design to generate an advantage for a shooter."

✚ Pair With: Mornar Bar with another variation for a shooter off the UCLA entry.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdown on the Argentina Break.

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📺 The Reverse Offense - Reject • Inverted PNR​

"Another variation within the Reverse Offense, rejecting the hand-off to clear space for a 1-5 inverted PNR."

✚ Pair With: St. Louis Head Coach, Josh Schertz, running an Inverted Step Up Screen for center Robbie Avila.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdown on the Reverse Offense.

Interesting Reads

📚 Team USA Is Tearing Through Its Olympic Tune-Up Games. What Has Stood Out?​

"For all the star power on Team USA, it’s the two oldest players who generate the most unstoppable two-man game in the entire tournament. It’s a beautiful thing watching Curry and James elevate each other. These are two basketball revolutionaries with more than three decades of combined experience at the NBA level, still creating problems other teams aren’t creative enough to solve."

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📚 The Right Kind of Stubborn​

"The optimal amount of obstinacy is not zero. It can be good if your initial reaction to a setback is an unthinking "I won't give up," because this helps prevent panic. But unthinking only gets you so far. The further someone is toward the obstinate end of the continuum, the less likely they are to succeed in solving hard problems."

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📚 Manipulating Constraints to Train Decision Making in Rugby Union​

"Allowing some elements of a movement pattern to vary ensures the ability to meet immediate task demands despite the need for stability"​
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Join the conversation, gain insights from others, check up on previous newsletters and help your fellow peers! SG Plus is a community of coaches that can connect and share ideas in the Coaches Corner. Some reason conversations include...

📋 Implementing Peel Switch {🔒}

Coach Matoh asks..."Any HS coaches had luck implementing peel switching? I’ve got a pretty homogenous group size wise, so I think it would be good for us. I’ve watched everything I could find from Will Voigt {🔒} and Paul Kelleher {🔒}. Just curious if anyone here has introduced it and has resources/data to share about how it worked for them."

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📺 Coaches Roundtable Replay {🔒}

Our latest Coaches Roundtable discussion is now up on SGTV! We had a terrific conversation on areas of the game coaches were studying, teaching off-ball cutting, transition outlets, pace, and much more.

Quote of the Week

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Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

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