In this very special episode, Alex announces the release date of his book "Transforming Basketball: Changing How We Think About Basketball Performance." Alongside…
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In this very special episode, Alex announces the release date of his book "Transforming Basketball: Changing How We Think About Basketball Performance." Alongside Transforming Contributors Gray Thomas and Adam Omiecinski, Alex, Adam and Gray take you behind the scenes of how the book came to be. From the initial writings in Italy in the spring of 2023 to its release this April, the book has had a tremendous impact on Alex and he hopes it will have an equal impact on the basketball world at large. In this episode, the three reflect on the first few drafts to what the final product became, favorite chapters and how the book can help change the way the game is coached and played going forward.
Key Takeaways:
01:05 - Book announcement and reflections
10:46 - How the writing process changed Alex
12:40 - How important is to understand the why behind each activity
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This transcript follows the original English audio.
This is the Transforming Basketball Podcast hosted by Alex Sarama. This is the podcast helping coaches and practitioners change the way we think about basketball performance. Our goal is to provide the ultimate resource for making sense of applying contemporary skill acquisition ideas within basketball.
Within this podcast, Alex and his guests unpack how an ecological dynamics framework Impacts our perspective of the game. If you're ready to join us in our quest to transform the basketball world, this is the podcast for you.
Welcome back to the podcast. We have a very exciting announcement today, and that's because I'm delighted to share that my book titled Transforming Basketball is going to be coming out on April 9th. So This has really been the last couple of years in the making.
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It's been an incredible process going through it, and I'm joined today by 2 people who have really helped me get to this point, and that's Adam Omiecinski and Greg Thomas. So, Adam, you were with me in Italy when I started working on this, and your contributions were immense throughout, helping me with so many of the chapter titles, the sections within, the illustrations.
So big thanks for everything you did to help me. get to this point, man.
Thank you for doing it. I'm much better at editing and like you said, alliteration and all that fun stuff and make sure it's concise. To actually write it, God bless you, buddy.
And Greg, you were the second person to read it.
Yes, sir.
From, uh, front to back.
Yeah, yeah, a couple times. It was really cool. It was a— like I said, the way I kind of found my way to you was the lack of any resources, uh, that aligned with like the research that I was already doing at UConn and trying to find An ecological approach to basketball, which naturally led to a CLA framework.
And I came across your work. And the main thing I liked that you did was you showed your work, the things you were talking about. You actually had videos of your practices and all these things and how you might implement it. And you weren't trying to overly academicize things, you know, talk over people.
You met people where they were and gave them the tools to succeed. So that was really nice for me. And like Adam said, the fact that you actually sat down and did the writing as any, maybe person, but as a personal academic, that's sometimes the hardest thing to do is take those great ideas that you have and actually put them on a blank page.
It's a very, you have to be in a vulnerable state to do that and also confident state to do that. So the fact that you did do that and there's a resource for this specifically for basketball, I think is amazing because there's obviously some constraints-led approach.
Papers, some books here and there, but, uh, the level of detail you took to apply it to basketball was very impressive.
Oh, I appreciate that, man. I think for me it was the best learning occurred writing the book, and it made me reflect so deeply on all my practices. And that ultimately, I think the reason why, why I did it was as this approach is becoming more popular, I think it's, it's very difficult to just say to people, oh, here, go, go to our website, check our social media out, and you'll be able to understand it.
Do it. And at the same time, I think due to the complexity of some of these ideas in the ecological approach to CLA, there's also been a lot of misconceptions kind of come up. You know, I've seen things like trainers on Instagram doing 1-on-0 floaters, saying using the CLA to develop floaters, and there's just huge kind of myths.
And I think what this book will do is really actually go into the nitty-gritty of what the CLA is and isn't. You know, we— I had to go through the theory, and there are some theoretical chapters early on, but the key thing is I think it's very practical.
It's always in a basketball context, which I think helps because some of these words, when we get to ecological dynamics, it's, it's not easy when coaches are looking at things like an affordance or perception-action coupling for the first time. So I, I really tried to have everything in the context of basketball And I'm hoping that practically, whether it's a coach or anyone working in basketball, this can be a resource to really bring the basketball world into the 21st century.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I think it'll serve as a great reference point. I mean, like, yeah, you could go on your social media and you could search through research papers and all that stuff, but it— this, I think, again, it serves as something— oh hey, go check out Alex's book.
It's just a key reference point. Will there still be misnomers? Absolutely. Will still people misinterpret certain things? Of course they will. That's just, that's just part and parcel with living on this earth.
Yeah, absolutely. And I think for me, just main use of the book is I want it to be used in a non-conventional way. So, you know, a traditional book, there's a buildup, you go from chapter to chapter. And I mentioned in the, in the introduction that I actually hope that coaches can flip through based on their interest level.
And I, I do think it's very important they understand the theory. That's key. But I hope it can be a reference point which coaches can continuously come back to the chapters of interest, the areas of interest. And it's actually a funny story. When, when I started writing it, it was— you'll remember, Adam, the first drafts, I had loads of chapters and it ended up being 200,000 words.
And it was just so unknowingly, I basically created a 2-part book series and it got to the end, had to send it to the editor, and it was like, she was like, yeah, there's no way this is what one book. So we've ended up with a 2-part series, and I think, you know, I can't confirm the release date for the second part yet, right?
But I think that's going to be interesting as a follow-up, and we'll be able to get in a lot of the reaction from this first book. We'll be able to answer questions that coaches have and really go deep into more practical areas. So it's, it's a tough one because there's a lot I wanted to get to in that first book— feedback, shooting, working with beginners, and I've had to put those whole chapters in, in the second part.
But I think that's okay because if within this first part we just really want to get coaches aware of, you know, what the CLA actually is, how can— how they can be more intentional in practice, challenge some myths which have been, you know, existent since basketball was invented in 1891, and then take it from there.
Yeah, and I think that's a great place. Uh, you mentioned the myths, uh, that's where you actually start in the book. Uh, so your first chapter after your introduction is Eclipsing the Status Quo: An Industry Built on Myths and Misnomers. And I think that's a wonderful starting point in the sense of, uh, so splitting it up into 2 parts actually isn't the worst thing in the world because if all they ever read is this first book, they can take these principles and apply it and come up with their own, you know, practice designs, their own
ideas for small-sided games or things under the CLA that would work for them. And then you take it a step further in that practical approach in the second book.
Yeah.
But I think having that foundation is the most important thing. And in order to establish that foundation, you have to point out common things that people don't even know that they're adhering to with those myths and misnomers.
And I think that's why we, we got all the case studies in. So I asked coaches at all levels of the game, from coaches working with beginners to— we've got contributions from 7 NBA personnel, front office and coaches who are exploring a CLA.
I think that will just help even more drive this home and share how these ideas practically manifest in environments all over the world. Adam, coming to you now, was there one particular chapter of interest in the book, and if so, why?
I would have to say it just comes— I mean, great start where we were starting with, like, where we're at. I think to lead into the next chapter, What Is Skill, I think that's just the most paramount chapter if If I were to point somebody, hey, like, start with this, that's what really starts to get the ball rolling and everything else will kind of just unfold from there.
But without that element, I think it'll be— yes, you can dive into the case studies and stuff like that and maybe take bits and pieces here. But if you truly start to understand what skill is through this ecological lens, that will really reshape your everyday practice.
Agree. Gray, what about you?
As far as favorite chapter, I think the contemporary player development. I think the idea of, you know, player development plans and all of these things absolutely provide a wonderful framework to actually change something. Like, I think the hardest thing for people to do is figure out where to start, right?
Like, what do I change? And we've experienced this in some of the consulting work we've done. Some people are, you almost see them freeze up and, and They're a little reticent to change certain things and they're like, well, I don't know if I can jump in and do all of that.
And then a lot of the advice we've given them is, well, just change one thing, right? Like see what you can change and do one thing. And I think the contemporary player development area and the principles of play, they kind of really go hand in hand because they have to be self-referential, right?
You have to develop the principles based off your personnel and your personnel is going to shape your principles. And I think that is universal to any type of transformational coaching that you want to do. So I think my advice for anybody who wants to change something, they don't know where to start yet, it may be tweaking constraints to some things that you're already doing, but I would really, really reevaluate your approach to how you're developing players, you know, and using that framework you provided.
And I think it's— I love that writing that player development chapter is a really interesting one. And we showed the Transforming Basketball player development framework kind of all based on this concept of a rate limiter. And how we identify those, how we, you know, create activities to help remedy them.
For me, I'm actually most excited, I'd say, about that vision of the future chapter.
Yep.
And, you know, for people listening, I asked contributors who I view as world leaders, uh, in each field applying a CLA. So examples of this being done in coaching, front office, scouting, athletic performance, nutrition, mental skills, mindfulness. So It's really showing everyone how the CLA can be used as a framework, especially, you know, all levels of the game, whether it's high school, beginners, elite NBA, WNBA basketball, how you can use that CLA to avoid this siloed approach, which is, you know, something we're seeing everywhere at every level, and how we can actually start to work
in a highly unified manner through the same framework. I think that one is, is maybe going to be the one which I hope has the biggest impact on the basketball world, especially at the highest level.
Absolutely. Let me ask you a question. When you were writing it, were there any chapters that you wrote that made you go back and reevaluate what you had already written? Like, did something click further along the way, like as you were developing the principles of play or different activities that kind of just changed your framework for seeing things?
Or do you think you had a pretty good outline of how you wanted that first book to go?
Yeah, I'd say I had a good outline. I think the thing was, the thing that really helped was just getting the ideas down on paper.
Yes, I think— Yes.
What I've noticed over the last year and a half is I've been able to articulate these ideas so much better just after going through the writing process. So, you know, even in the first kind of 2 chapters explaining ecological dynamics, and that's really not easy, I was like, where do we start?
Do we start dynamical systems? Do we start ecopsych? And just going through that thought process and of the terminology, like what terminology are we going to start with, you know, because there's so much within each field. So I think it was explaining it, having to explain it in a very rational way that the coaches would really feel like they understand completely coherently.
That was a great challenge.
So you think the writing process kind of changed how you even talk about it and present it in clinics and different things?
Yeah, absolutely it did. And I'm just, you know, finding analogies to bring it to life, the practical examples. Like for instance, the, the one in— we've got the, the chapter on It Takes Two to Tango.
Yeah.
Adam, that was your idea for the chapter name. And, you know, I was thinking, how can I explain affordance? And then, you know, we— it's like coming up with the idea of 3 players. We got Giannis, we got Steph, we got Nikola, all in the same scenario theoretically.
The ball at the top, teammate space, same amount of time left, like 10 seconds in the game. Well, they're all gonna perceive affordances incredibly differently in that scenario. And that was the fun part, just finding all these ways we could bring an ecological language to life with specific basketball examples.
Amazing. What's been the biggest kind of, not pushback, but I guess conceptual hurdle that you still find that you're facing when you're talking about these things with people who are open to getting it too? Not necessarily those who are trying to pick it apart, but people who come to these workshops, these clinics, these seminars, and they're engaging with the work and they want to change, but there's something that they just really can't get over?
I'd say the biggest thing I'm trying to get coaches understanding is why we would create an activity or manipulate a constraint, right? And I hope that's very clear in the book. Yeah, that was actually one of the main goals because the biggest thing I'm seeing is a huge disconnect between coaches thinking this is just another games-based approach, right?
And, you know, we're just using small-sided games and that's it. And it's just so much more nuanced than that.
Right.
So really, I want coaches as they read the book to reflect deeply on why would we even have this activity. We're not copy-pasting activities just, just to fill time in a practice, right? Every single minute has to have a specific purpose and intention.
And I think that was very apparent throughout the book, just outlining, okay, this is why we would change a constraint, this is why I would introduce one. And it's not just Let's set up a game and let 'em play. I've spoken about this a lot on the podcast already.
You know, every few minutes we're tweaking things in that environment.
So from our work that we've done on some consulting stuff and talking to different coaches, I think the piece of that that resonates with people is when you're trying to get at the why, I think something that gets overlooked is how this introduces adversity so early into the practice scenario, right?
And forces you to, forces you as a coach, forces you as a player to engage with failure at a pretty consistent level in terms of struggling through things and figuring things out yourself. Have you noticed that in your actual coaching?
Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's, it's funny, when, when we were at Brown, you know, introducing the first— it was the first week of working with Transforming Sports, and that point of athlete adversity was something that came up a lot in all the conversations with coaches of, of the different sports.
And I think The CLA naturally prepares players for that because it's what they're facing in the practice. It's just far more similar to what they're going to see in the game. And also coaching-wise, you're forced to be adaptable. And I think a theory I have is that a lot of coaches struggle to be very specific in games and create very effective interventions because they don't have that ability to spot rate limiters and then actually talk about you know, using ecological language to get players aware of it and then exploring other things to solve it.
So I think naturally, if you're using the CLA consistently, you become a very good games coach. And that's, I think, a separate topic which, which we'll save for another day on the podcast.
Absolutely.
Guys, thanks for joining me today. Obviously, for the listeners, Transforming Basketball, the book, changing the way we think about basketball performance, it's going to be released on Amazon worldwide on April 9th. So, uh, we'll be sharing a lot more information in the run-up to the book launch.
And if you want to stay tuned with all the latest updates, click the link in our show notes. You can sign up to our waitlist and you'll be the first to get all the information on the release. And you'll also be able to get some samples, previews of the book.
Thanks, guys.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Transforming Basketball Podcast. If you'd like to learn more about the work that we do, head to transformingbball.com to access our free resources and spread these ideas throughout the basketball world. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform.
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