Clarity & Containers

I had a high school basketball coach who could conservatively be called a “planner.” Every practice was planned out down to the minute, and was “on the clock” all the way down to the water breaks. The only time he seemed to stray from his plan was when he decided a suicide or two were required mid-practice! He had a “team assistant” that would run the scoreboard clock for the pre-determined amount of time for each drill. Every practice had the same system…Drill for time, reset the clock, next drill/instructions, reset the clock, repeat.

At the time, this seemed very strange to me. Why would he go through all that time and effort to plan out every minute of a 120-150 minute practice? Why do we always run the same drills? Couldn’t he just “wing it.” Couldn’t he come up with new stuff? He knew what he wanted to work on, so just write down a couple of drills each practice and let’s go, right?

Many times this is how we approach our lives…we “wing it.” We make a couple of notes here and there and then just make the rest up as we go. We switch out the precess that we use to track what we do. There is little detail and little consistency.

What I’ve come to realize is that Coach’s type of system for practice was not just a case of OCD. He had built a system for maximizing the results that we got out of each practice. He wasn’t just planning, he was creating a system that delivered clarity and containers.

The clarity was in the degree, or level, of detail that he was able to put into a system. His clarity on the process allowed him to deliver the best “roadmap” for where we were going. His clarity gave us an assurance that he knew what he was doing. There was no, “Well, I guess we could practice some rebounding now.” It was, “We will do the 2v2 rebounding drill for 6 minutes running clock, losers rotate out, winners get a point and stay on the court. Top team after 6 minutes doesn’t run.” Which sounds more clear to you?

Think about getting or giving directions to someone. One person may know that the route from A to B but can only give you a general overview and cannot provide clear, detailed directions. On the other hand, if I know the route from A to B and can tell you every mile marker, road sign, directional adjustment, and time required to get to each I have maximized the opportunity for you to find your way.

The other part of this system is about building containers. We used the same drills, and usually in a similar order almost every practice. There was always some variability, but the “core” of each drill remained the same and the time allotted to each drill was based on what the focus was that practice. These drills were “containers” for him to coach within. He didn’t spent time teaching new drills because the drills themselves were just the vessel used to provide coaching opportunity. We learned the “containers” early in the season and they became the vessels for us to hone skills and repetitions. Too often we provide information without building containers to hold that information and it becomes scattered. This is why acronyms, parables, and rhymes work well for recall…they become containers to hold the information that is trying to be communicated.

So, where in you professional or personal life are you “winging it” and not putting the time and effort into getting clear and building containers to work within? Clarity comes from writing down the what, why, when and how of the objective. Containers are the processes and systems you use to monitor, measure, and course correct your progress. Time to go!