Barking Abbey Academy Coach Rikki Broadmore - Winningest Academy in UK History

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Welcome to the Transforming Basketball Podcast. On today's episode, I'm joined by Ricky Broadmoor, head coach at Barkanappy and the mind behind The Secret Trainer on Instagram. We're going to be digging into some practical ways he's transforming player development. Ricky, welcome to the show.

Thank you ever so much, George. Appreciate being here.

Yeah, Ricky, I want you to tell me just about your experience at Barkan Abbey and how you maybe transitioned from the start of your career to now. And just quickly, we were speaking off camera, Barkan Abbey is the most successful academy in the UK.

I think you said this, over the last 20 years, it's produced over 180 NCAA athletes.

All college, so NIA, Juco, Division III, II, and I NCAA. So all of them.

How does that happen? How does the program happen? And then just tell me about you and your coaching progress there.

So the academy was first started in 2005 by a very well-known legend of our game in the UK called Mark Clark. And Mark Clark is the father of Dan Clark, who's the GB, or was the GB general manager. And his idea was to start an academy to have a place for young people that had an outlet to still do their education, but also play basketball to a high level, an elite level, and create an environment for those players to succeed.

So that was his whole idea when he first came. And he was by himself. And I was very fortunate that I was part of that first intake of players in the academy. So I've actually been here since 2005. So I've just finished my 20th year.

So I played at the academy for 3 years. So I did a 3rd year and the academy was obviously running. We went from 16 boys, 4 girls in the first year with 1 coach. And then a year after, we had went up to 20 boys and 15 girls.

And we brought in another coach guy called Lloyd Gardner, who's now at Surrey 89ers coaching professionally. So those guys obviously came in and kind of started the program and got it to where it was over the last 20 years. So they were here.

Mark obviously left about 5, 6 years ago, and Lloyd left when I took over. So that was in 2019. So those 2 guys wanted to start something special, which obviously it's been quite special over the period of time. And yeah, so I went and played semi-professional basketball.

6 weeks into the season, I dislocated my knee and tore my ACL. Unfortunately enough, I was doing some community work. I was refereeing, I was doing some local tournaments for Mark's wife because she ran the school sports partnership that went into schools. So I did a little bit of that when I was in.

I didn't think anything of it. So then when I got injured, got to about December, and I got a call from Lloyd saying and asking if I wanted to be a part of this apprenticeship scheme that was run by the government. That's how I got my foot in the door as a coach.

So I spent 10 years here volunteering. So I didn't receive a single penny from the academy, and I've literally volunteered here for 10 years. So my first 3, 4 years I was here, I was working in a primary school across the road, so I ended up coming over to practice.

And then I worked at another academy that we started up, was like a stepping stone for players that weren't quite good enough for EABL. And I did that for 6 years, and then still volunteering at Barking, so coming in for individuals, team practice.

Then I worked for Greenhouse and worked For a charity that provides sport to one school. So I was in one school throughout my 3 years that I was at Greenhouse. We did individuals, team practice, games. And then through that, I then still volunteered at Barking.

Yeah, you had so many different coaching experiences while you were volunteering before you actually took over. So from '09 to 2019, what did you see and what made you change? Because I don't know if you always coached like this. I don't imagine you are.

And we'll get into it. how, you know, with the secret trainer stuff, but what actually made you change? Because I imagine a lot of the stuff that you saw early on, especially like greenhouse and, you know, just different environments, it's more traditional, right?

No, actually, this is a really interesting misconception that we've been actually been doing the CLA since I've been in school here. We did differential learning, we did loads of different things, but there was no name to it when we first started doing it.

And then all of a sudden, the science started to come out, the research papers started to be published, and We're looking at it like, oh, we've been doing this. We've been doing this for quite a long period of time. And it all kind of started when obviously Mark and Lloyd were here.

And then we had the Slovenian coach. I'm not going to say his second name because I'll end up butchering it, but a guy called Dejan. He's now the assistant coach for the Slovenian national team, senior men. And he came in for 3 years and he was really super technical.

Everything about his individuals and his team practices was just super technical. Not So much playing. Like, we did play, but it was just so meticulous in what he did. And I'll always remember it. And I did 5 individuals with him. He got me to write down every individual after every individual had finished, and I wouldn't be able to leave work until I'd finished writing down everything they'd done in that practice.

So then he left, and we were blessed again to have a guy called Luis Gil. When he first came in, he got fired from the ACB, and he wanted to learn English. And he was a lawyer before he was a full-time coach, and he Dan Clark's lawyer.

So he got fired and wanted to learn English and ended up coming over to the UK. And at the time, he was regarded as one of the most successful junior national team coaches in the history of the Spanish national team. And then he came in and he was able to then completely change the dynamic.

And all he did was play. Everything was play, play, play, play, play. Small-sided games, loads of situational shooting. And that was his whole emphasis, was just You got to play. You got to play to get better. And that was obviously 13 years ago.

He then introduced the Flow Motion, which is the continuity offense. He ran that and we ended up adapting it. And we was one of the first teams to run the whole continuity of offense. And yeah, I was just very lucky that I had Mark Lloyd at those times.

And then obviously James came in, also helped me. So the change of philosophy wasn't really a change of philosophy. It was just more so linking the research to what we'd kind of have been doing. So that was quite fascinating in that sense. But the change for me, so I was coaching, I was assisting on our junior teams, our under-14s, 15s, and 16s.

And then one year, Lloyd asked me to take the under-15 boys team. And I'll always remember it. He asked me to go and watch our game back, and we had just won a national final. So obviously, we're all feeling quite good, right? And next thing I know, he's asked me to clip film of the final and asked me to clip the philosophy, my philosophy, what have I been teaching the kids.

So I had gone in and done all these clips thinking, yep, this is why we were successful. Yep, this is why we did this. Yep, this is why we've done that. And he sat me down, he went, that's not philosophy, that, that's just a, that's just a technical something that you haven't even done, they've just done it.

And then he went off again and, well, that's not, that's not philosophy, that's, that's just them being good. And he just picked apart all these clips And luckily enough, that same year challenged me a lot. And I just didn't see anything that I had been teaching these kids, or I thought in my mind that I had given these players to get better, and they just got better by themselves, really.

And then that summer, I went and worked with Luis on one of his camps, and I met a guy called John Paul, who was regarded as one of the gurus of fundamental basketball. And we started talking about all these different types of things, technical, tactical, How the body moves, the eco-dynamics of things, the way the— but what the players do, self-organization.

And I got back that summer, one of my good friends now, I just coached him at under-20s, and he asked me to come in and do some individuals with him. So he was like my guinea pig. And this was about 8 years ago.

And that same year that I was with Lloyd, I kind of just sat on the bench. I didn't really coach. I just sat there. I was like a minibus driver, good for the vibes, you know, good kind of teammate. But like, no one really— I didn't really do anything.

So I kind of used that experience and my years of volunteering and working with some of the world's best. And I was like, right, I'm going to have a niche now. I'm going to do individuals. That's going to be my whole entire niche now.

James is really good with the team stuff. Lloyd's really good with the team stuff. So how can I separate myself from them? And that was through the individuals.

I want to get into more of the team stuff later, but right now I'm curious because I went to your clinic that you had for HoopsFix. I think it was a couple years ago now. It was awesome. It was great. I actually filmed it.

I still refer to it to this day when I'm like creating practice sessions, contested shooting practices. So I'm just curious, because I know in your shoot in the clinic, you had players hold the ball in like 9 different locations, right? How did you come up with that?

And what's that about?

What we've got to understand is that through the spine, we have a nervous system. And through that nervous system, the only way that the nervous system works and learns is by doing things realistically, putting them in realistic positions to be able to get better and make the mistakes that they need to obviously improve.

So the 9 spots are locations that we would potentially catch the ball in. So the way that I would introduce the 9 positions was to be able to put them on both shoulders, hips, out in front, to the sides, above the head, off the floor.

And I mean, you can make up loads of others if you wanted to, but they're the base levels for us. But yeah, the whole idea was to be able to synchronize the body with the ball, and we used it in a shooting form.

So originally, I did it with a shooting form, and originally, I did it with a long period of time. Over the years, I discovered that we only needed to do it for 5, 10 minutes a day. But the whole synchronization program with the shooting techniques was all simulated And designed for them to be able to relate that to how they would potentially shoot in the game.

Right. And then if I remember, you also had the external cues that you use. Could you share that with us? I remember one is like, the ball must have energy. And then there was a few, I think there was 3, there was 4 altogether, if I'm not mistaken.

Oh my gosh. I haven't taught this for a while. So yeah, so the ball, the ball must have energy. So how do we create energy? So the first thing is how we catch it and the timing with the body. So the reason that we want to catch it at the same time my feet land is because the natural movement— when we jump and land, our body naturally moves down like a suspension.

So we want to catch the ball at the same time that the feet and the ball land, which then generates rhythm. So that's the first part about how to create energy, is the timing of the catch. And there's loads of different other things that you can do.

You can do off-time set and, and whatnot, but The timing of the catch was the first thing. The second thing is the ball must move first. So our body can be moving downwards, it can already be in a ready position, but the ball must move first.

It helps with connection, it helps with how the body gets underneath the basketball. So that's the second thing. And then the third thing is that the ball must go up in a straight line. So we We always give cues of the ball must go up and straight, up and straight.

Those are the 3, right? It was only 3 that, and they're so simple. And I think honestly, when you're teaching shooting, it's all you need. I thought that clinic, it was great because it was super practical firstly. And like, it's stuff that I literally the whole next season, I used it like the, you know, the whole time.

The one that I really liked that I enjoyed a lot, it was, I think the player, the offensive player has their eyes closed somewhere around the 3-point line. The other player throws the ball and when the ball bounces, they can open their eyes, listen to it bounce, catch the ball, and then go into their shot while the player that passes it can come give a light contest or a real contest, just depending on the level of difficulty.

But I thought the whole clinic, it was powerful. We'll share some clips when we put this episode out as well.

Well, it was my first ever clinic, so I was nervous as hell. I was so nervous. And then obviously I went before Alex and Alex was just a Masterclass at doing it. So obviously I've had a lot of practice since then, which is nice.

But yeah, that clinic, it was just more so an idea of how to use self-organization to be able to shoot better and increase shooting percentages because everyone shoots differently. Like we had one boy in that session who shoots like Dame Lillard where the ball comes, his fingers came off the ball and it slapped the ball.

And we never really corrected it because it went in. But the ball must, he must catch the ball at the right time. He must create energy by moving the ball first. And fast and making the ball go up and straight.

Awesome. So, all right, moving on to like team concepts now. Obviously, you know, I've been to your skill sessions. They're awesome. And I think it's evidenced by how many former students and players at Barkan Abbey come back, but also how many pro athletes come back every year to work with you.

And it's like, I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's like every day sessions and they're, you know, the athletes are there and it's a good atmosphere. And all that. So I know how, like, not technically, but like your skill sessions, you know, through the roof.

I only got a chance to watch you coach a team practice once, but I also understand how successful you've been as a coach. So I do want to talk a little bit about that. I'm curious, when starting a new season, what are the 3 most important principles that you add?

Well, our principles don't change. I think that's got, we got to make that extremely clear for what we might see. So The principles don't change. In every practice, there's 4 things that I'm always working on: transition, spacing, the use of corners, and the extra pass.

And then there's subcategories of each one, and it could be forever-ending. But basically, the offensive category would be how to create space and how to attack space and decision-making and how fast we play and smooth we play. And then defense would counteract what the offensive principles were.

So it was quite easy in how Because the comparison was just very easy. It's just overall offense does this, so defense must take this away. So yeah, so our principles are always the same. We must play fast. And the way we play fast can be a number of different things, because depending on the players and the system that we have and the guys that we have.

So the year before, when we won everything, we rarely passed the ball ahead. We dribbled the ball ahead, or we hit the second side in transition, but we still had to play fast. We wanted to get the ball over the half within 3 seconds, and we also wanted to score within the first 8.

We wanted a gold medal shot within the first 8. So transition is always the first thing, is how fast and the up-tempo, and then the spacing within the transition. What does that look like? Where do we run to? How we run? Do we run wide?

Is it a hit ahead? Is it the second side? Is it dribble? How the big runs? Is it front of the rim or behind the ball? But the principles for us are exactly the same. So fast, 0-second decisions, and we have to have good spacing.

And how we teach spacing, it's the big circle. It might be a garden, that's what they then circle, how we use the corners, how we use the extra pass. So again, like the principles for us, regardless of what group we have in front of us, they'll always be the same.

Yeah. And I'm curious, you spoke about spacing. Can you share a small-sided game on how you teach spacing?

Small-sided games. So we introduce our spacing rules within 3-on-3. That's the first thing that we do when we get to a team practice. So our spacing would be within 3-on-3. So we use defensive or offensive cutthroat, depending on what we're kind of emphasizing on an offense and defense.

Can you just explain that a little bit? I know maybe some coaches have heard of it, but not everyone. Can you just quickly summarize cutthroat?

So cutthroat is if you break a rule or a principle, your team is kicked off. And then a new team would come in to play. So if it's a defensive cutthroat, if you don't pressure the ball, if you don't move on the fly, or if you're not in a correct position, you're kicked off, for instance.

Offensively, if you don't play with a zero-second decision, if you go in, you must get out, and you can't be in a position where one can guard 2. So that's how we would teach our spacing rules. And then based upon the way the team would play, our guards would fill the corner, the wing, Our guards, our bigs will be able to operate in a triangle block to block or to the top, and then push and pull if penetrations happen.

So the rules would get bigger and bigger and bigger once we've acquired the first 3. Then it would be, if a penetration happens and you haven't cut at the right time, you're kicked off. If a penetration has happened and you haven't moved in space to the corners, drift and dragged, then you're kicked off.

If you're not following the 0 seconds, you're kicked off. So the rules can be completely endless. It just all depends on what you're trying to implement to the players for them to get to a game.

That's the key, isn't it? Because it's like, you can change the rules, you can add any constraint you want, but it's all about what you're trying to work on. And I think to your point, like, oh, we're going to be working on spacing.

We're going to be emphasizing the spacing principles. Then we'll level up. And it's like, all right, the spacing principles are great. The guys are really good. Now let's work on our off-ball cutting. And we're going to emphasize the off-ball. If they don't off-ball cut, well then their team is off and you keep going like that.

I was just going to move on because I know that there are, I don't want to say limitations, but it can be challenging to replicate specific game cues in practice. So for example, it's easy when you start in a static situation, let's say it's 3-on-3 and it's an advantage start.

And then, you know, the players are working on cuts. If they don't do it, you know, it's a turnover.

Mm-hmm.

But how do you do it if you're actually trying to make sure it has transferred to the game? And so what's the most difficult cues to replicate in practice, and how do you make sure that what you're teaching transfers to the game?

Typical question, because obviously we get the kids at 16, and obviously they've gone from playing, practicing twice a week if they're lucky, to a game on the weekend, not every weekend, to practicing 4 individuals S&C for team practices. And the transition with the new group is always difficult because they don't know as much as you would like them to because of the exposure to time and access before they've even come to us.

So the biggest factor for us is decision-making. Creating gold medal shots is the hardest thing to implement in the kids' first year. Gold medal shots. Because they've gone from playing under-16s basketball to being able to do what they want, being the best player.

on their team, to then coming into a team where you've got 12 to 15 players that can all play basketball, and everybody plays. So the ability to create gold medal shots for us is probably our biggest rate limiter when they first come in, and how to generate those through triggers, through spacing, through zero-second decisions.

So all of our practices, especially with our first-year group and our individuals, is a lot of one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three. advantage games within it. So that's probably my biggest rate limiter is how we find gold medal shots.

And so you start like, I guess, simpler games with like maybe advantage games, 2-on-1, 3-on-2s, 3-on-3 with an advantage, and then you start building complexity. And then I guess the second part of that question is, how do you ensure, you know, once they get to a level or, you know, learning is nonlinear, so it's never about like, okay, they can do it, let's move on.

But it's How do you ensure that now we're going to try and get, make this drill more game representative? So how do you ensure that that has transfer over to the game with a player still trying to learn to get a gold medal shot, still trying to learn to create an advantage in the pick and roll, but how can we ensure that, you know, maybe if it's a 2-on-2 game, that they can still do it in the 5-on-5 in a game scenario?

So I think that the first thing for us is to be able to put the players in positions that they would be in games. So if you're a wing or a guard, you're able to be able to use the wings, the corners, the slot kind of space.

So the drills are always designed for me to be able to put them and start them in positions that they would see in games. So it kind of makes sense. Well, this is my spacing in practice, so this is my spacing in my one-on-one drill.

So if we're doing a one-on-one drill, for instance, we're always teaching where to stand, what can we do within it. Then you build it up, 2v1s, 2v2s, and so on, and then putting them in positions that they would see in games. So we would watch film.

My assistant is a data analyst, so he would build data reports of where people generate shots from, how they would shoot their shots from, the locations, and the amount of gold, medal, silver, bronze that we would get. So then we were able to put them in positions in practice.

Say, for instance, you've got a shooter that can use come off a pin down and only go right-left, but he can't go left-right. So we would then switch the sides to then use the pin down in a small-sided game to work on the footwork that they would see using that side of the floor.

So the whole idea for us to translate it is to be able to play and do things within our individual sessions that they would then be able to replicate in small-sided games within team practice, so that then when they would get to a team practice or a game, They would see greater success within their performance in that moment.

No, that's great. So you get super specific, even if it's one-on-one, all the way up, you know, until then they're ready. So just adding that level of specificity is what I'm hearing you say. Now, that's great. Transitioning, I want to talk about the MAYA principle, most advanced yet acceptable.

You have a lot of professional athletes that come in and work in the offseason. You mentioned you were just getting started with it. And I do miss those sessions. I thought that I always, you know, I had a lot of fun going there.

I always appreciate.

Yeah.

You opening the doors for me way back when. So I'm really grateful for that. But I'm curious, in terms of the level of challenge for a player that comes in, you have players at all different levels. How do you determine, you know, because you're kind of using the same drill across the gym, how do you change the level of complexity for different athletes?

It comes down to preparation first. So we have development plans. So the guys will be sent a development plan that they have to fill in and all the things that they want to be able to work on or refine. So for instance, I had Jabril in today.

He wanted to work on his touch around the rim. He wants to work getting in the pick and roll and getting out of the pick and roll, post-ups, so on and so on. And then, for instance, we have an academy kid whose development plan in that exact same session would be taking people off the dribble, facing up more, catch and shoot.

So within the same drill, well, I think people get confused sometimes. It's like, oh, well, I've constrained the drill, so they're all getting better. Well, no. Well, why can't we constrain the drill? But also constrain the individual players to help with their development that's on their development plan.

So when you have an Okwasi Ugbowa and Cole Wheatle coming into the same session, Okwasi's a 2, 3, sometimes a 4, where Cole can play multiple positions, including the point guard spot. So he still needs to be able to get the things that they want to be able to get in for the summer, but then they also have to work on their own specific position.

So if I'm doing pick and roll stuff, Karl might have 2 dribbles, and AK might only have 1, because we want the defense to go under, or so on and so on. Or he might be playing off the ball while Karl was in the pick and roll, doing some one-on-one, and Akwasi's waiting in the corner, or using spacing to be able to help his side of development.

So every drill is designed not just for the group, but for the individuals within it. So today, for instance, Jabril had 1 dribble. My other guys didn't have a dribble when we was doing finish work.

Okay.

Because Jabril needs to work on the one dribble stuff at this moment in time, and the other guys don't.

And then I guess it's also about linking players. So like, for example, the example you gave is like, let's say Karl and Gabe are at practice. Maybe they're on the same team. Karl's the ball handler, Gabe's the picker. And so they're still working on pick and roll, but they're working on their specific situations.

And then obviously you can constrain it with the individual constraints.

Or you can develop the drill. So you're using the pick and roll and the pass goes and you've got help side coming over and then What normally happens after a pass has happened in the pick and roll, they break out. So they receive a ball and play one-on-one.

So you've got 2 sets of one-on-one going on at the same time, working on 2 different things to help those both sets of players.

It's like the 2-on-2 game, small-sided game, and it breaks into a one-on-one. So just so I'm clear, and this is one of my favorite things to do at individual skill sessions, it was like, let's say we're a 2-on-2 pick and roll. Whoever scores or gets the chance to score on that first one, you, you know, you're, you're out.

And then the next player is going to play one-on-one with with the mismatch, if it's a switch, or, you know, one-on-one, depending on what happens. And then you're getting, you know, more time on task that way.

And you're also working on defense all at the same time, because when you're in a drop coverage, the pass might go, and then you have to then recover. So again, it's just putting them in environments where they're working on those situations, but individually knowing that these are the things that they must do.

Awesome. I'm a big fan of that. And I guess you could even do it 3-on-3. I've never even tried. I've never tried it, but like Be no reason to.

I sometimes go 3-on-3 into 2v2 into 1v1. Team stays on offense, team stays on defense, or every time that it goes from 3-on-3 to 2v2, 2v1, you must change. So there's loads of different ways you can do it. You can even do it 5v5 into 4-on-4 into 3-on-3.

Like, it's just endless.

Let's get back to Bark and Adby a little bit. You guys, you know, you get a great recruiting class every year as well. I'm more curious how you educate the players on the benefits of how you coach. So maybe like Maybe some of the theory behind ecological dynamics.

Basically, how do you get buy-in from the parents and the players?

To be honest with you, interestingly enough, my whole philosophy in their first year is to be able to teach them how to work out by themselves. So if I'm not there, they can still work out. We're now getting to a point now where we're getting the players to lead the sessions of how and what should be done, all based upon the design that we've given them throughout their first or 2 years.

So the way we get out, we don't really get parents really fighting against us, just more so because we are good at what we do. And you can see it with the players that leave us and the progressions and how much better the players get.

So we don't really get kind of a fight back with them. So again, it all starts with individual workouts. We design practice so they have routines. So we work on technical aspects of the game. More so closed practice, a little bit away from the CLA, but we give them 10 minutes to be able to prepare their mind, body, and how it works with the ball for the first 10 minutes of every practice.

So when they first get in for 2 weeks, we do loads of technical work, and we're building all of these routines for them to be able to do. And that could be anything, ball handling, shooting, finishing, passing, just anything in terms of that one kind of skill.

So then, Over the first 10 minutes, they can do multiple, or they can just do one. But we get all the detailed stuff in as early as possible, so that when the season starts, we can then have 10 minutes of warm-up, that kind of free, do what they want, whatever they need to work on in their development plan to be able to get better.

And then we play loads.

Lots of small-sided games to address, so that they can actually work on the skills. Yeah.

There you go. So then once we've explained what the constraints are, we don't tell them what is a constraint, we just tell them how to drill, to do the drill basically. And then over a period of time, we introduce, you know, you can constrain whatever you want in these drills.

Oh, really?

Yeah, you can control, you can constrain the individual, the space, the environment. You can control, you can constrain pretty much anything you want. Right, right, we're going to do this drill. I'm going to do this first shooting drill with you. Now I want you to come up with your own.

So they then design what they want to be able to do in sessions. So by the time I get to, you know, after their first, second years, I can take a big step back and just let them figure it out by themselves. So then when we get to a game, they can figure it out by themselves.

And I think that's the magic, isn't it? Like, it's not necessarily about like leading somebody, but it's giving them what they need so that they can lead themselves, but then obviously helping them where they need it as well.

Yep, we go through loads, loads of it. I give them the answer eventually of how I'm coaching and what I'm coaching. And the other thing is, is I've actually been doing quite a lot of these podcasts, and they've been listening to the podcasts.

And a lot of them would come in the next day and be like, listen to your podcast last night. I didn't realize that's what we were doing. I was like, yeah, that's what we're doing. That's how we do it. That's how we design our drills.

So could you design your own drill now for me? Yeah, I could do that now. And then I'd go off and do it. So that's the cool factor. And then they come up with drills that you're like, oh, never thought of that. Or we're going, like yesterday we did some ram action stuff in the pick and roll.

And I asked them, I was like, right, you can ram screen from either side. I just want you to tell me what it looks like and what it feels like. And then they're all, they're then stopping the drill going, coach, we don't like that.

So we're going to do this. And then all of a sudden I'm like, oh, that's a really good idea. I'm going to steal that and I'll implement it in other things I teach. So I actually learn from the players more than they probably learn from me sometimes.

I agree. Yeah, I think, Ricky, like sometimes, like, I don't know the answer. So it's like, I don't know how maybe what's the best way to defend the pick and roll. But then I, you know, maybe I just tell the players like, listen guys, we're going to play 3 on 3 and they cannot catch the ball in the paint.

And then maybe I'll give them some suggestions. Maybe, you know, the tag can be up to not allow that catch. But then it's kind of like, okay, all right, so that was really effective. Maybe, maybe, all right, we can change the principle now that if there's a pick and roll, we can have a

And just have him take away that paint area. So it's like, I'm just learning by, you know, what's effective with the team versus going in and saying, all right, you know, this is how I've always done it. It doesn't matter who's on the team this year.

I'm going to keep doing it like that. Like, no, let's see like what works best for this team. And again, I completely agree with what you said. I'm learning from the players.

I think the most fun one is when we're in team practice and we introduced the Spanish pick and roll this year. Well, we used to pick and roll, but the way we introduced pick and roll Is that we would say we would run a set, or you might constrain me and say, right, you can't run any sets, you can only run our continuity.

And before you can score, you must find a way to get into a Spanish pick and roll. And all of a sudden they're doing stuff within that continuity offense. And you're like, I've never even thought of that. That's a really good idea. Like, really, thank you ever so much for that.

But again, like, the whole idea for us is that we don't micromanage games. I had to a little bit this year just because of the experience of the group. But the year before, I would stand up and be like, right, horns down. And they're like, nah, I'll wait too.

And I'm sitting there like, yeah, I'm not going to argue with you. I don't play basketball. You're on the floor playing. You have a better feeling of what we potentially might need. So if I can prepare them to do stuff by themselves, I have done my job.

Well said. And I think it's a testament to not only the success that Mark and Abby has, but also just the environment. I think if any coach You know, has the pleasure of going into a practice session that you run, or, you know, I believe any of the coaches over there run, they'll just see how the environment is.

And it's, you know, player-led and empowers players to just be the best they can be. So kudos.

That's the fun part, the environment. It's really cool to see.

I appreciate having the conversation and just learning a little bit more about the strategy and the team stuff. Because like I said, it's always been, you know, more the secret trainer. For me, you know, getting to know you. But I'm curious, I have one more question for you before I let you go, and it's our transformative tip.

We ask every guest this: what is one piece of advice you would give to a coach to instantly improve their practice environment?

For a young coach wanting to coach or learning, it's not about you as a coach, it's about the players. So are they having fun? Are they learning? That's the biggest thing. Are they in environments that you can, or are they in a situation where they've got a smile on their face, they're continuously having communication with their teammates, and are they getting better within the performance of the games?

So the biggest advice for me is to let the ego go and only worry about who you are working with.

Well said. Keep the players first.

We've all been there. I've been there. What does it look like for me? What does it look like for me? Well, I'm the best this, I'm this, I'm that. When in actual fact, no one actually cares. The only people that do care are the players.

And as soon as I let go of my ego, the players got better.

Well said. Ricky, thank you so much. It's been great talking to you.

Thank you ever so much. I appreciate the time and being invited. It's been very nice.

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