Turning fundamentals into habits on the court

I recently read "Beyond Basketball," a great book written by my good friend Mike Krzyzewski, the head coach at Duke University. In the book, Coach K addresses key words such as Belief, Challenges, Enthusiasm, Poise and Trust as they relate to the game of basketball and more importantly, to everyday life. His thoughts about Fundamentals really resonated in my mind because it felt like he was writing about our On Court Player Development program here at Suwanee Sports Academy. Here’s a paragraph from the Fundamentals chapter:

"To help turn fundamentals into habit requires intensive, intelligent, and repetitive action. If any one of these elements is missing, something will be missing from the foundation of your team. This is why, in every practice, even late in the season, I always have my team continue to work on fundamental drills. It is vital that the athletes actually drill these basics. I constantly remind myself of the most basic formula of teaching: you hear, you forget; you see, you remember; you do, you understand. And when you truly understand, that is when the basics become habitual."

And that is the exact approach we use in On Court. We teach, we demonstrate, we explain the "why" and then each athlete executes the drill repetitively until it becomes a natural movement for the body – a habit. At times the focus on the fundamentals may seem dull, but the repetitions are a requirement for success, as Coach K explained during one of his camps:

"Every summer, we host a basketball camp at Duke for youngsters ages eight to eighteen who come from all over the world to learn from me and my staff how we do the fundamentals. One of the campers’ mothers came up to me at registration and told me that her son would be attending two of the three sessions. I thought to myself, "This is great, she really understands the importance of learning how to drill the fundamentals." But then she asked me what her son would be doing differently in his second week of camp. I explained to her that the second week would be more of the same. There would be different coaches and different competition, but the focus would continue to be on the basics of basketball.

I explained to her about fundamentals becoming habits and how the drills we do in camp are a step toward that. What’s more, I told her that her son would be in even better shape if he continued to work on the drills when he returned home after his two weeks at camp. If you want to strive for excellence, you must embrace continual work on fundamentals."

In On Court, we give our athletes the tools to improve their skills and their understanding of the game. As Coach K states, each person needs to work on his or her own in the driveway, in the empty gym or on the blacktop to develop and grow those skills.

"I thing it’s amazing that everyone can always remember that with intensive, intelligent, and repetitive work, we can all do the basics, better."