Digest. Instruct. Adapt.
“The fastest way to improve is to practice the smallest unit of the skill.”
Welcome to The Basketball Academy. 🏛️
Here’s what we’re serving up:
How the best systems are built on diagnosis, not decoration, and of course, an action to help your team get a quick bucket
🏀 Path To Mastery 🔑
🏀 Must Add Action 🎥
🏀 The Self-Regulatory Cycle- Same Idea 💡
🚨BONUS 🚨 Skill Of The Week
LET’S DIVE IN ⬇️
🏀 Digest. Instruct. Adapt. 🔑
The best coaches don’t copy. They digest.
In a recent piece on Chris Shula, the Rams DC broke his growth down into three words:
Digest. Instruct. Adapt.
That’s the whole formula.
First, digest what great mentors give you. Not just schemes, but how they teach, how they listen, how they correct. Shula learned this working around voices like Wade Phillips, Brandon Staley, and Raheem Morris. He didn’t rush to put his stamp on it. He absorbed.
Then, instruct it clearly. Shula made a deliberate choice: fewer layers per call, more clarity for players. Not because complexity is bad, but because confusion is. Players play faster when teaching is simple.
Finally, adapt it to your people. Your personnel. Your strengths. Your reality. The Rams’ defense isn’t a replica of anyone else’s, it’s a blend that fits who they have and how they actually play.
That’s the part most people skip.
They copy before they understand.
They install before they teach.
They chase innovation before mastery.
Digest first.
Teach clearly.
Adapt honestly.
That’s how systems last, especially for Shula.
Click here to read the full article
🏀 Must Add Action 🎥
🏀 The Self-Regulatory Cycle- Same Idea 💡
HOW TO KEEP IMPROVING / HOW TO GET OFF OF PERFORMANCE PLATEAUS..
Reflect (What am I good/bad at)
Plan (Experiment)
Monitor (Track w/ Precision)
Evaluate (Honest about how it went)
Practice Perfect: Chapter 2 Summary:
Most people don’t need more reps — they need better reps.
Performance = doing the whole thing
Practice = breaking the skill down to improve it
“Isolate the Skill You Want to Improve”
Precision beats volume: most teams do not take the time to let the players know that skill is being worked on and what that looks like during said drill. Are we emphasizing weak side cuts, attacking closeouts, specific footwork at EOD’s (End of Drives), closing out v contesting?
Isolate the ‘skill’ so the performer can put attention on it..
Slow it Down to Speed it Up.
Slow & correct, then consistent, then add speed. Many times, practicing a skill incorrectly is practicing failure.
There should be struggle, but the struggle should be productive, not chaotic.
Practice should isolate, simplify, and perfect the smallest pieces of a skill before putting them back into full performance.
🚨BONUS 🚨 Skill Of The Week
SHOT SELECTION
The best offenses don’t run plays. They hunt advantages.
That’s the lens Illinois Fighting Illini men’s basketball uses every game.
The first question isn’t what do we run?
It’s what’s our biggest strength—and where is their biggest weakness?
Everything flows from there.
Illinois talks constantly about creating, attacking, and maintaining advantages. One action into the next. Spacing as a weapon. Letting individual skill shine when there’s a switch—and flowing right back into team advantage if the defense stays home.
Shot selection is the backbone of it all.
They simplify it: gold, silver, bronze shots.
And then they constrain practice so players feel it.
No-dribble possessions.
Scores only off cuts.
Offense made intentionally hard.
Why? Because constraints teach players how many ways a possession can still produce a gold-medal shot.
Early in the season, they were playing fast—but the shot quality wasn’t good enough. So they adjusted. Now they’re one of the slowest teams in the Big Ten.
Not because slow is better.
Because it fits their strengths.
The result?
~50% of shots from three
~43% at the rim
~7% midrange (mostly late clock)
That’s not accident. That’s alignment.
Takeaway:
Great offense isn’t about pace or volume—it’s about discipline, spacing, and repeatedly choosing the best shot available.
🚨 Incredible Joke
John Mulaney w/ a GREAT joke done by Fred Armisen at the SNL 50th!