TOP TRUTHS ABOUT TURNOVERS How to Reduce Turnovers & Win More Games

Are turnovers inevitable? Do turnovers matter? How important are turnovers? What do you do and say when a turnover occurs in a game? What about your players? Have you ever stopped and thought about turnovers? Have you ever wondered if things could be different? If you've wondered about even one of these questions, then this e-book is for you. www.jimburson.com Solution-Based Basketball 2

Turnover Turmoil This is what the headlines look like... Turnovers Cost Team Loss! Big Turnover at End of Game is Critical Turnovers Drop Team to 0-2! 29 Turnovers and 21 Fouls Thwart Chances of Winning Season! Pressure Defense Forces 31 Turnovers! This is what's usually going on behind the scenes... The coach screams, Why did you make that pass? It cost us a possession! It led directly to a lay-up. How dumb can you be? Don t you ever listen? Go sit down - get somebody in there who knows what he is doing! My confidence has been shattered. I know the coach just wants me to play smart and get better, but his screaming at me shakes my confidence. I am afraid to pass it, scared to dribble and absolutely horrified about attempting a shot. He yells at me again and my doubts are overwhelming. I want to scream back, Help me, show me, correct me. I will do whatever you want, but I don t know what you want! Making it worse The story illustrates the classic turnover situation. Committing a turnover is bad enough, but there are 3 typical ways that most coaches and players make it even worse: 1. Not knowing that you made one 2. Not being aware of why you made it 3. Not doing anything to correct it As coaches, we often create more problems by the way we react. Always address the turnover and correct it, then address the player and encourage and lift him beyond his doubts. www.jimburson.com Solution-Based Basketball 3

To turn it over or not to turn it over is not the question. Turnovers are inevitable. You will turn it over. The question is, how will you and your players respond? 16 ways to change your attitude about turnovers 1. Don t get too concerned about mistakes made with full effort and focus. Get on with the next play. Don't beat a dead turnover. Coaching Adjustment You want your players and the team to know why they made an error. You must develop the mentality in players to know what caused the turnover, not to make excuses but to find ways to improve. They need to learn to give reasons, answers and suggestions, not excuses. You want players to become analysis experts; not just the player who made the turnover, but all members of the team. 2. The players need to be active participants in turnover analysis. They need to understand and be problem solvers. Self-assessment is part of the solution. Coaching Assessment You must help your players learn how to be problem-solvers and conduct self-assessment. This is how they can improve and reduce their own turnovers. 3. Teach the players to analyze and understand the cause of the turnover and the situation involved. Was the error physical, mental, emotional or a combination? Only then can you and the players proceed with a plan to correct it. Coaching Correction Correct the turnover - discipline the turnover. Be sure everyone knows why the turnover occurred. Be positive with the player and negative with the circumstances and situations. This is difficult to do as a coach. It s hard to be positive in the middle of a turnover. The coach must see beyond it to what the player and the team can learn from it. 4. Help players and yourself to develop a mistake mentality which allows mistakes to foster improvement. Find ways to avoid effort-related mistakes and repeating the same mistake over and over. Coaching Axiom A coach who expects no turnovers is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. www.jimburson.com Solution-Based Basketball 4

5. Mistakes are often an indication that learning is taking place. Use the opportunity as a teachable moment look at mental, physical and emotional corrections. Remember, correction never ends because learning never ends. Continuous improvement is the goal. Coaching Patience Avoid impatience. Strive for calm. Control your anger. 6. Enhance a coachable spirit which allows the player to become reliable, trustworthy, and coachable in game situations. Coaching Explanation You must help your players understand that correction is essential to learning and improvement. 7. Respond to effort and behavior, not just to the turnover. Confront reactive behavior and less than all-out effort. Award effort and hustle that occurs after the turnover. Coaching Comment Players should not fear making a turnover but they should fear not hustling afterward or not being receptive to correction. 8. The coach needs to be a leader, not a blamer. Acknowledge the turnover and then do everything you can to correct it. Coaching Insight When you get upset and angry, it can destroy your players' confidence. When this happens, permanent corrections can't take place. 9. Are you a good coach? A lot of the evidence may be produced in how you handle turnovers. Show me the game evidence! Coaching Evidence What kind of coach are you? The best coaches are not those brooding, neurotic perfectionists who scream and rant and rave in practice and on the sidelines. Rather, the best coaches are those individuals who advocate leadership and responsibility in their players. They create an atmosphere where players are encouraged to think for themselves, reach for their best and feel free to make it happen. They ensure that everyone is taught the fundamentals of the game, the proper techniques, understanding of priorities, basic training and conditioning, and then let the players play the game. Turnovers and peace of mind do not have to be antithetical. 10. As a coach, you can have a degree of serenity even during a turnover if you know that the players truly understand. www.jimburson.com Solution-Based Basketball 5

Coaching Insight Correcting performance, particularly turnovers, and providing positive feedback is a never-ending task for coaches. 11. Happiness is not found in fewer turnovers. Happiness is found only in understanding, correction and acceptance. Coaching Benefits If you can hold your head up and admit you made a mistake and take positive steps to improve, then the mistake can actually be of benefit to you and your team. 12. Being free from turnovers is too much to expect. Turnovers are inevitable. A coach who expects perfection can shatter a team. Coaching Understanding You don t want freedom from turnovers. There is no such thing. Instead, you want understanding of the reasons and causes and you want to increase awareness so that you can reduce turnovers. 13. It s not the turnover that kills you; it s the time before it and the time after it that kills you! When you understand the situation and circumstances that led to the turnover (before) and also understand the reaction and hustle triggered by the turnover (after), then you can make improvements. Coaching Half If you have a great desire to reduce turnovers, you have mentally contributed to half of your victory; if you don t, you have contributed to half of your defeat. 14. Coaches need to free themselves from hating turnovers. Instead, they must transcend that hate and learn to love understanding the cause of the turnovers. Then they can take steps to correct them. Coaching Transcendence To make zero mistakes is not in the power of any team. But from errors the wise coach and good players can learn wisdom for the next game. Your players must know you cannot beat more talented teams unless you practice more diligently, improve fundamentals and reduce turnovers through awareness and understanding. 15. When you are able to remain calm and understanding while your team commits turnovers, you will take an important step toward being a great coach. Coaching Calm There is nothing more essential to the development of a great team than www.jimburson.com Solution-Based Basketball 6

the coach and players all having great character. 16. If you understand, the game will be just as it is. If you do not understand, the game will be just as it is. If you do understand, turnovers will occur; if you don t understand, turnovers will occur. Coaching Change Keep your mind open to change all the time. Welcome it. Court it. Enhance it. It is only by examining and re-examining your thoughts, opinions or ideas that you can make progress. A turnover doesn't necessarily cost you points, but it ALWAYS costs an offensive opportunity. There are 3 components to a turnover 1. Physical (psychomotor) This component is usually based on bad habits and sloppy habits. These need to be replaced with good habits. The only way to do this is constant, ceaseless repetition. You'll need to develop drills that improve your players' fundamentals dribbling, shooting, passing. Then you'll need to insist on running those drills in every practice. Example: A dribbling turnover on a pearl move in which the ball was loose (too wide) as it was pulled around. Corrections: Daily Dozen Dribbling Drills & Passing Drills Tighten the pearl move Work on quickness and strength 2. Mental (cognitive) There are a variety of ways that this component contributes to turnovers. Trying to do more than the player is capable of Being given too much information without time to turn it into knowledge; this leads to confusion Failure to recognize defensive changes Not being aware of danger points on the floor www.jimburson.com Solution-Based Basketball 7

Example: Player shoots with too much time on the clock Corrections: Work on clock awareness and on late game situations every day in practice. 3. Emotional (affective) This component refers to the ways that players and coaches react to the turnover: facial expressions, physical gestures, dropping the head, complaining to others, muttering under the breath; I'm sure you have your own favorites. Outward reactions like these must not be tolerated. Correction: Focus your energy on understanding situations instead of reacting negatively. This will lead to better decisions. Demand control, not reactions, in practice and in games. Coaches must be emotionally strong so that they can, in turn, teach their players to be emotionally strong. Then they can be turnover analysts. Both player and coach must be aware of the turnover but not waste time pointing out blame. Basketball is a game of pushing near the edge. There is nothing easy about cutting down on turnovers, because we want our players to play hard and push the envelope. We do not want to punish them for turnovers, but to increase their awareness and understanding and to develop habits of continuous improvement. Assessing turnovers Self-improvement and team improvement will come more quickly when players and coaches conduct self-evaluation, review and appraisal. First ask, Why did the turnover occur? Then ask, What lessons have we learned? How can we reduce the mistakes? What steps must we take? Make this an educational, not an emotional, process. Eliminate the screaming and yelling. You www.jimburson.com Solution-Based Basketball 8

must first learn to handle yourself; then handling the players will be easier and turnovers will improve. The process 1. Review the film of your game, stopping at each turnover, noting its nature and the circumstances in which it occurred. Ask yourself and your players questions, such as: Was it forced or unforced? Did the defense cause it or did we self-destruct? Did it lead directly to a basket? For example, how would you handle a loose ball going out of bounds under your opponent's basket? Was it a result of passing the ball across the player's body? Work on skills with both hands. 2. After you've done this for several games, you'll start seeing some trends. Now you and the players can answer some questions that will help you develop a correction program: What are our most common turnovers? What circumstances typically cause our turnovers? Are there any that can be prevented? Which ones can be reduced or minimized? How much is physical? mental? emotional? 3. Create a turnover analysis document based on your situation and team so that you document everything consistently over time. You'll identify problem areas much more quickly. www.jimburson.com Solution-Based Basketball 9

Solution-Based Basketball Turnover Triangle EMOTIONAL corrections Respond, don't react. Don't let the pressure get to you. Be proactive, not reactive. TYPES OF TURNOVERS Passing Catching Individual Drills Dribbling Fouling Awareness Situations PHYSICAL corrections Team Drills Repetition Shooting Coaching Decisions Understanding MENTAL corrections www.jimburson.com Solution-Based Basketball 10

5 components of turnover correction As you develop your correction program, keep these 5 factors in mind. 1. Totality Each and every turnover must be addressed, evaluated and studied, but be careful that you don't over-dribble a flat ball. In other words, watch out for analysis paralysis. 2. Awareness Do the players know exactly what the circumstances were that led to the turnover? 3. Knowledge Do the players know what steps must be taken to reduce the number of turnovers? 4. Habits New good habits must replace the old turnover-creating habits. 5. Repetition Are the players and you, the coach, willing to invest the time needed in repetition to create the new habits? Teaching turnovers Bobby Knight said that it is difficult to teach the game in the classroom. Learning is an active process. We learn by doing, by practicing correctly and through drills. We must apply our thoughts regarding turnovers and make them a part of what we teach and what we are. You will be attempting to develop new habits of doing and new habits of thinking. This will require valuable time, persistence and daily application in practice. The good coach must know why turnovers occur. Then he can do everything within his powers to help the players correct and reduce turnovers. In teaching your players, the following learning theory is very valuable: Explanation Demonstration Imitation Repetition www.jimburson.com Solution-Based Basketball 11

A word to the wise Don't overload yourself yourself or the players with too much too soon. This should not be a one-time read book. It takes time and commitment to change habits. Share this information with the players and other coaches on a daily basis. Make suggestions to each other, then apply your thoughts in practice and in the games. Don't expect instant results. Go over this day by day and year by year. Over time your program will improve. Your players will improve their awareness and understanding of turnovers; they will understand the situations that create turnovers. With constant and vigorous review and application your team will get better because their habits of thinking and reaction will change for the better. You can't read this once and then put it down and expect to know it. In the same way, you can't tell your players once and expect changes. It must become part of your psyche. The key to Solution-Based Basketball is to develop a great knowledge about every facet of the game, like turnovers. Along with that knowledge, you must find a way to simplify the information and make it valuable to the players. You build muscles by lifting weights. You develop fundamentals by shooting, passing and dribbling. You develop better attitudes by being a role model and being positive yourself. You reduce turnovers by understanding why they occur and spending the time necessary to correct them. www.jimburson.com Solution-Based Basketball 12

Dear Coach, This is the beginning of what you need to do for every phase of the game. This is, simply, Solution-Based Basketball. It takes time and dedication and very few coaches will sustain the effort to become the very best they can be. Congratulations on taking this path. And remember, you're not in it alone. That's why I've created the Solution-Based Basketball website. I'll continue posting blogs, I'll be holding online coaching clinics on topics that you tell me you want to learn about. I'll post lots of free information and resources for you. This is a place where you can ask questions directly and get direct answers based on real-life (thousands of games over a five decade career) experience. You'll be able to learn from your peers, too. I'd love to hear from you. Jim Burson's Solution-Based Basketball is dedicated to helping basketball coaches who want to be the best they can be. You can find me lots of places: my blog - www.jimburson.com Twitter - @jimburson Email jim@jimburson.com Facebook Jim Burson's Solution-Based Basketball Linked In www.jimburson.com Solution-Based Basketball 13