Adaptability – The Basketball Coaching Roadmap

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” – Leon C Megginson

Season to season, game to game, minute by minute, adaptability can set you apart from all other coaches; if you can adapt you can succeed.

You will have seasons where your player’s skill-sets don’t match your preferred system. You have two choices: force your system on the group or adapt your system to suit your team. You will achieve more success (click here to read about our definition of success) when you put your players in positions that give them the best chance to succeed. Having players who feel confident about what they are being asked to do is extremely important. Asking them to display their strengths brings out that confidence.

I am in the midst of a season that couldn’t be more different than the last few years. Last year we won a conference championship (OCAA) and lost in the National Final Four (CCAA) with a group that featured:

• Fifth year National Player of the Year, Matt Fennell.
• Fifth year shot blocking machine, Taylor Dowhaniuk.
• Fifth year offensively dominant post player, Andrew Cicuttini.
• Fifth year sharp shooting point guard, Matt Savel.
• First year all-round talented guard, Lamar Barr.

We had a ton of size and experience and an absolute scoring machine in Fennell. We ran loads of set plays on offense and played almost exclusively zone at the defensive end.  This season we still have some experience but we are much smaller, more athletic and very young at the guard positions.

Our assistant coaches and I had a choice: continue to do the things that made us successful the last few years or adapt and modify the system for the group in front of us. We chose the latter and it has invigorated us as coaches. We are teaching new principles, playing a different style and enjoying the fresh outlook. We are playing man to man defence, we are pressuring more, we are going deeper in our bench and we have changed to a dribble, attacking offense. What are the results thus far? Well, we just finished our first ever perfect semester in league play winning all nine games. We are 14-0 overall against college competition. Our scoring has not dipped this year even though we lost 76% of last year’s scoring. We are currently ranked fourth in the country when most people would have pegged us to be scraping for a playoff spot.

You can’t be afraid to adapt, to change on the fly, to admit things aren’t working. We have had times when we’ve spent an entire week preparing to defend a certain player a particular way in pick and roll situations only to have them come out and score effectively against that strategy. As coaches, we aren’t afraid to admit our strategy isn’t working and explore alternate solutions immediately.

I try to recruit players that are capable of solving problems, thinking quickly and showing adaptability. I love when players offer suggestions about in-game adjustments. We encourage their suggestions and consider implementing them; doing something they want empowers them and makes them further accountable. Don’t be rigid, they have a different perspective than you and many times they are able to see and feel aspects of the game you cannot. The key is to be willing and open to adapting.

In order to achieve long term success, adaptability is essential. Look no further than Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs and Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots – they are both famous for their in-game adjustments, sometimes completely revising their strategy during half-time. The reason they’re able to make drastic adjustments is because they have an open mind (even though their press conferences would indicate otherwise) and they approach each game as its own entity. Their system is adaptability.

“Set patterns, incapable of adaptability, of pliability, only offer a better cage. Truth is outside of all patterns.” – Bruce Lee

Another aspect of adaptability is how you motivate or teach your players. Not all players are created equal; they all have different backgrounds and experiences that have shaped who they are. Some players respond really well to being challenged, either by the coaches or opponents, and some will look to shut down. As we discussed in the Communication article, it is your job as a coach to understand your players as individuals. What motivates or inspires them? How much responsibility can they handle? How do they respond to failure, challenge, pressure or success? That understanding comes from personal interaction. Do not make the mistake of treating all your players as if they have one equal personality. They don’t… and you wouldn’t want them to. Adapt your message according to the audience and you will maximize everyone’s chances for success.

Next item on the Basketball Coaching Roadmap is Consistency: