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Hey Coach,
I've been on the road most of June.
Mark's been doing the same - different cities, different programs, different gyms. Installing RDS Offense, LockLeft Defense, running shooting clinics and player development sessions.
Here are 3 things I keep seeing…
1. X’s and O’s don't matter if your players can't handle adversity.
Every program I work with, the separator that determines their success isn’t their offensive or defensive system.
It's how their players respond to mistakes.
Can they lean into hard things? Can they give consistent energy when they're frustrated? Can they stay locked in when it's not going well?
The programs that have built that as a standard, win. The ones that haven't, don't.
It's that simple.
I've gotten to the point where I don't think I can make much progress with a program until we can sustain consistent energy over a long stretch of time. It doesn't matter what you do. It only matters how you do it. And if we can't do it with energy, it's a waste of time.
2. Space before advantage. Advantage before shot.
Most teams can make shots. Many teams can play with advantage.
Very few teams can create space in transition, maintain it through their actions, and then get spaced again after the play breaks down.
That's the separator on offense. The ability to shape the floor is what makes everything else work. Fill your spots, keep good spacing between players, and then reshape as you attack and hunt advantages.
Space before advantage. Advantage before shot.
If your team is struggling to score consistently, I'd look at spacing before anything els
3. If you're not running LockLeft, you're leaving something on the table.
The more I install it, the more convinced I am.
When we put in LockLeft with a program over two days, teams can't score on themselves - at least not at any efficient rate. And as players at every level continue to lack the ability to dribble, pass, and finish with their left hand, that advantage only grows.
But here's what most people miss: LockLeft isn't just about pushing the ball handler left. It's about taking away space. It SUFFOCATES the offense - overloading the ball, squeezing it, building a wall, and then hunting passes out of that limited space.
Hard to score without space. And LockLeft shrinks the floor.
We're wrapping up the in-person tour June 23rd-25th in Casper, Wyoming. Mark, Clare, and I will be there together for a three-day coaching clinic and team camp. It's the last one of the summer and spots are still open.
If you've been thinking about coming to something like this, this is it.
We'll also be in Phoenix, October 9th-11th. If summer doesn't work, put that one on your calendar now.
More from the road ahead.
Stay SAVI,
Tyler
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