20 Lessons From 2020

January 2021

Why the reflection exercise?

Other than ‘because Jack Fleming challenged his readers to’, I’ve always wanted to put fingers to a keypad and jot down thought provoking moments.

They say “reflection is the key to learning” — how we look at a mistake and reflect on the decision-making process, along with whether we were knowledgeable enough at the time, or had a sound understanding of a skill to execute said decision, then, find the potential for a moment of learning.

A complicated process our brains can do in a matter of seconds — incredible.

So here goes, my first piece of public writing, take what you like with a grain of pink Himalayan salt and maybe discover some things you don’t like — both are just as valuable! (None of these are in any particular order).

1. “You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with”

- Jim Rohn

Surrounding yourself with good people who bring out the best in you and allow you to do the same for them, cannot be understated.

2. Winning vs Development, should not be a competition — they are one in the same.

Teaching your athletes how to win is just as important as teaching them how to dribble and catch. Similarly, some lessons are more important than executing that perfect sideline play that you saw Nick Nurse run with his Raptors.

3. “If nothing changes, nothing changes” — Courtney C. Stevens

The modification of my lifestyle for the betterment of myself is hands-down the hardest thing I’ve ever done/am still doing.

Breaking bad habits and starting new ones is just as rewarding as it is difficult.

4. Find balance — everything is good in moderation.

With everything you do, it’s important to make time for that thing you always say you should make time for.

Whether it’s your partner, your family, your own personal/mental health or spending time on footwork, everybody/everything needs a little love now and then.

5. Make the monotonous enjoyable.

Sometimes, work is just work. The reality is, we can’t enjoy everything we do, some things just need to be done, even if we don’t feel like it.

But we can find a way to enjoy something in that task, even if it’s your own company, as a minimum.

6. “…There is no such thing as a dumb question.” — Carl Sagan

Never underestimate the willingness of other coaches to help — we’re never supposed to know everything.

7. ‘Paralysis by analysis’— pick your battles.

Zoom was a fantastic tool during lockdown, but too much input without any output is dangerous.

8. Build self-efficacy in your athletes (and yourself!)

Two athletes, identical skill sets. One has a low self-esteem, one is as confident as a pro — confidence will win, every time.

Make sure to nurture the belief they have in their skills, as much as their ability to perform them.

9. “Calculated Aggression” — 2020 Coaching Philosophy

“ABC — Attitude / Balance / Challenge” — 2021 Coaching Philosophy

Outline your values and what you stand for — your team buys in to you.

10. ‘Load Management’ vs ‘Managing Your Load’

The most hated phrase of 2019–20 (thanks Kawhi) — a great coach once told me something so simple, “load management also means managing your load” … well duh?

However, I never thought about it outside an elite athlete perspective. To me, managing your load is not dropping tasks, or operating at 80% to ‘fit everything in’. It’s finding ways to work efficiently, manage your time effectively and giving 100% effort to the moment you’ve allocated your time to.

“If you not gonna do something properly, don’t do it at all!”

- (The Late) Nonno Gianchino.

11. Screen Defence — off-ball is just as important as on-ball.

To learn, to teach, to perform, all of it.

12. Know your product.

Never underestimate how smart your athletes are. No matter how old they are, they can sniff out a lack of confidence from a mile away! Take the time to learn what you’re teaching, assistants even more so — nothing more embarrassing than a player asking a coach for clarification on something only to receive “I’m not sure mate” as an answer.

13. “I’m a development coach” …

… Was my excuse for not winning. Through a lot of conversations with hoop-heads of all ages, I’ve decided to adapt my philosophy going into 2021. As alluded to earlier, “balance” is my key word for this year. Development shouldn’t come at the cost of winning and vice versa. I forgot what it was like to compete in sport as a junior athlete and why I started in the first place.

14. Teach skills as much as you preach competition.

Eric Hollingsworth said it best on Basketball Victoria’s Talking Split podcast, “we compete athletes into getting better… we actually make all our young kids better through competition, not through the execution and development of the skill of the game.”, he goes onto say, “when skill becomes the essence of the winning in basketball…we’ve capped our athlete’s at the skill level”. This episode was released in 2018, but safe to say there was a lot of time to re-listen to old episodes during 2020.

15. Some skills will always be important.

After a lot of time off, the way in which I witnessed a return to basketball was quite humbling — I saw athletes from VJBL, BIGV and NBL1 levels revisiting the same skills and quite often, using the same drills, to get back into the swing of things. And funnily enough, for some skills, there wasn’t much difference in the ability level between age groups.

16. ‘Time and Space’

Creating space and learning how to use it are just as important. Teaching our players how/when/why to use it is a whole new skill.

17. Watching basketball is a skill.

It’s all well and good to sit down and watch a Euro League game, a WNBL game and an NBA game all in the one day, but what are you actually seeing?

Reading the game takes constant nurturing. Your ability to see what no one else is seeing at one point in time could be the difference.

18. “Mamba Mentality” was meant for one man — R.I.P Kobe.

There might be a reason people would say “you’ll never see anyone like him again”. His relentlessness and tenacity to be better was what separated him from everyone else. Trying to discover what a ‘mamba mentality’ looked like in a coaching world led me down an empty meerkat hole.

You have to find your own way to the top, someone else’s template may not fit yours.

19. Be the “Star Spangled Man with a Plan”.

Be over dressed, overqualified, prepare for more than is coming, be the ‘just in case’ guy/girl. I’d rather be ready for anything, than face situation I have no answer for.

And if you haven’t seen Captain America: The First Avenger, I strongly recommend doing so, if not just for the reference.

20. It’s okay to take a break.

If 2020 taught us anything, is that it’s okay to step away from the sport for a hot minute and recharge.

SIGNING OFF

I hope you enjoyed the read — there were many more lessons from 2020, some that a worth more of a conversation.

If you’d like to have any of those conversations, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Stay safe and bring on 2021!

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Facebook — Daniel Gianchino

Twitter — @DGianchino

Email — coach.danielgianchino@gmail.com