{"id":1448,"date":"2017-11-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/always-educating\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:44","slug":"always-educating","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/always-educating\/","title":{"rendered":"Always Educating"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Nov 02, 2017 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Always Educating<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Coaching & Development<\/a>, Leadership & Culture<\/a> <\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/always-educating\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n
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Assistant Head Coach Billy Lange on learning at the Philadelphia 76ers.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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When JJ Redick joined the Philadelphia 76ers in July he was quick to cite Head Coach Brett Brown and his renowned \u2018process\u2019. \u201cI told Brett Brown this when we met on July 1: the Sixers haven\u2019t been very good,\u201d he admitted upon his arrival. Yet Redick was persuaded to put pen to paper despite interest from elsewhere. \u201cThere\u2019s something about [Brown\u2019s] disposition, the way he has coached this basketball team, the way he has embraced the process,\u201d he added. \u201cThe spirit of the Sixers has never been broken.\u201d<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

The Sixers\u2019 process has long been talk of the league and the Leaders Performance Institute\u00a0wanted to understand why their practice facility remains so vibrant despite the often poor results. To that end we approached Billy Lange, the Assistant Head Coach who also served as Director of Player Development for four years, to ask how Brown and his staff create that feeling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen teammates and coaches know that the deck is stacked against us, we try to find ways to gain even a minor advantage,\u201d replies Lange. A passion for learning is essential. \u201cWe always talk about our players needing to learn but our coaches need to learn too \u2013 great teachers are students of their pupils,\u201d he suggests. \u201cYou as a coach have to be constantly studying your players, not only over the course of a career but even an 82-game season; your pupil can change physically, skills-wise, emotionally, or in terms of maturity. The more you learn of your players, the more the player can learn because you\u2019re constantly feeding that guy new information.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just create a strong passion and desire for learning. Spend two hours in our building and you can sense that.\u201d The Leaders Performance Institute\u00a0asked Lange how Philadelphia does it.<\/p>\n

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At the Sixers, you talk of \u2018always educating\u2019 \u2013 what does that mean?<\/strong><\/p>\n

BL:<\/strong> It applies to our rookies as much as our veterans. JJ Redick came in with a quality reputation, but the system and schemes he will now be part of, given that he\u2019ll be playing with a roster of different players, will allow him to tap into some skills that may have been dormant in his game for the past few years. With players, it\u2019s not all about previous stops; it\u2019s an admission that the scene has changed. We have to look for some nuances that we have to extract for JJ\u2019s game that our system and personnel will allow him to use that he hasn\u2019t had a chance to use on previous stops. I think we\u2019d be foolish if we thought there was a treasure chest of unused skills \u2013 it\u2019s not that deep \u2013 but the difference between a player reaching his ceiling or not is finding that one little pool that he has not had the opportunity to use. The focus of their skill development might change but there\u2019s something within each player that we can extract through our individualised learning environment.<\/p>\n

How will you work to identify those opportunities with a player?<\/strong><\/p>\n

BL: <\/strong>We break our development down into three different categories. The first is the functional component, which concerns the basic skills you need to develop per your position to play in the NBA. The second is the system, which refers to the role of the player within our system and the skills one needs to develop to play an effective role for us. The final one, and this takes the most time, is conceptual. In training terms, it\u2019s 30 to 40% skill acquisition, such as on-court skill, and it\u2019s 60 to 70% understanding basketball, which can be trained on-court, through video or through experience.<\/p>\n

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Going back to individualised learning environments, what do they look like at Philadelphia?<\/strong><\/p>\n

BL: <\/strong>We have created, through Brett Brown, what we call \u2018stables\u2019. Our mantra is that we\u2019re always developing; that means every coach, all the time. We purposefully pursue this mantra every day by each coach taking a stable of players; the make-up will depend on what the coach\u2019s duties are. A coach will have two to four players and they\u2019re responsible for their development. For example, a player in my stable will have, before every team practice, what we call a \u2018pre-practice vitamin\u2019; think of it like a vitamin you\u2019d take to supplement your diet. They will spend anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes depending on the day, time of year, or the player\u2019s learning curve or where they are in terms of playing time. During that time they\u2019re focused on what they need to do now to improve their game. So if you walked into our gym, you might see four baskets and one guy is shooting all three-point jump shots; on another basket, a guy might be working on all his finishes, his left-hand finishes or using the backboard a different way or shooting off the wrong foot; and then you look at another basket and the guy could be doing all fundamental ball handling drills. You could ask what are they doing and what they\u2019re doing is what the player needs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe difference between a player reaching his ceiling or not is finding that one little pool that he has not had the opportunity to use\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/h3>\n

Billy Lange<\/p>\n

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How do coaches determine what a player needs?<\/strong><\/p>\n

BL: <\/strong>It\u2019s up to our coaches to intimately understand their players \u2013 we become students of our pupils. We supplement that with video, one-on-one laptop learning, and classroom learning. We\u2019re trying to understand how players learn best and this takes a long time. Some guys can learn from video, some guys need to physically walk around the court; they might need to be put in places so they can visualise and see it while they\u2019re actually moving. As guys get older, some learn by conversation without the need for video or a walkthrough. But as we get to understand our players and their learning techniques and where their strengths are, we individualise almost everything we do.<\/p>\n

How do you ensure that practices are game relevant to players?<\/strong><\/p>\n

BL:<\/strong> Any methodology has its holes. If you\u2019re not careful, even if you\u2019re doing a great job managing individual development sessions, individual skill acquisition and individual learning, you need to function as a cohesive group for the good of the team. The focus cannot just be function; my role is to take a holistic view and see where each player fits in and then make sure we have them working together in system or conceptual training sessions.<\/p>\n

When players are working on team concepts, how are they empowered to ask questions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

BL: <\/strong>A lot have seen the seismic shift in coaching, teaching, driving and learning; it\u2019s much more of two-way street these days. We\u2019re all working to create an atmosphere of collaboration and buy-in; it\u2019s not just coach to coach, it\u2019s player to coach too. When we\u2019re sequencing a team move, we\u2019ll give the players a starting point and then let them create the action that they want; we\u2019ve found it\u2019s a really cool way to get them to buy-in and take ownership of their energy and execution of those sessions. The players will be talking to each other and calling each other\u2019s names. As a coach, you\u2019ll ask a player what they want to work on and they will tell you because they have become students of their own game.<\/p>\n

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What if you and the player have different ideas of what they need to work on?<\/strong><\/p>\n

BL: <\/strong>Even if we disagree with that we don\u2019t not do what they\u2019ve asked; we just find a way to do what we coaches think we need to do and also give the players part of the session. We\u2019ll provide the start but they might determine the finish.<\/p>\n

What are some of the challenges you\u2019ve faced in implementing your principles?<\/strong><\/p>\n

BL:<\/strong> You can\u2019t ask players to learn if you don\u2019t want to learn too. You have to constantly be searching but you also have to be smart and not reinvent the wheel for the sake of it. Also, if you\u2019re trying to create an environment where the players dictate the energy levels and creativity of the session, young teams don\u2019t tend to know how to create it \u2013 they\u2019re just not experienced enough. Often they\u2019ll gain the muscle memory but they can\u2019t conceptually figure out when to use it yet. We need to be patient, not getting ahead of ourselves; you can\u2019t ask players to take ownership without them understanding. That\u2019s why we individualise learning methods.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou can\u2019t ask players to take ownership without them understanding. That\u2019s why we individualise learning methods.\u201d<\/em><\/h3>\n

Billy Lange<\/p>\n

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How do the players perceive what you\u2019re trying to do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

BL:<\/strong> In the last four years our situation has created a lot of turnover and one of the best things we\u2019ve learnt is not so much when guys have stayed but when they\u2019ve left. We\u2019ve asked them for feedback and when guys get to new teams they often say, \u2018this situation is great, I love our coach, but they don\u2019t pour as much into us as you guys did\u2019. But more than retaining players, you feel that a player senses he\u2019s really improving under you \u2013 they don\u2019t want to leave the gym! They have energy, they\u2019re bright-eyed, and there\u2019s a willingness to sit and learn. You have to tap into that feeling they had when they first touched a ball when they had that desire to come back and keep doing it again and again; the feeling of watching it go through the hoop, the cadence of the ball bouncing up and down on the floor. Pressure mounts at this level but if you can create that childhood magic when these guys are men then you\u2019ve got something special going on. The way to create that passion is having them feel that people are invested in them individually; you explain why it\u2019s important that we work together but if you miss that individual piece then you\u2019re missing a major element of why they get up every day.<\/p>\n

Do you feel you\u2019ve had some tangible successes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

BL: <\/strong>Atmospheres and cultures are funny; most people validate cultures and atmospheres when the results tell everybody that it\u2019s obvious. Our results have not been obvious: we\u2019ve had seasons of ten wins, 17 wins, it\u2019s been hard and we haven\u2019t made a playoff for the last four years. We\u2019ve had national media attention really talking more about our failure than our success, but the people in that building, we feel like we\u2019re creating a developmental environment based on passion, joy and positive energy and teaching and learning and relationships that you can\u2019t win without. What won\u2019t draw attention to is the fact that we\u2019ve been able to maintain a daily joy for showing up every day and keep a locker room together; that was all because of the environment we are creating.<\/p>\n

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