The Sniper Story: Epiphany #4 - Shaping

Kids came flying out of class after sitting still for 8 hours. Most of them were in K-2nd grade, had never touched a basketball before, and were bursting with excess energy. I was quickly overwhelmed trying to teach practical basketball skills to a horde of hoodlums!

After several weeks, frustrated with the limited progress I was making and the standard "roll out the ball, control the chaos, and try to survive" method that I saw modeled for most After School Enrichment (ASE) programs, I started looking for solutions.

A couple of years earlier my wife had discovered TAGteach through her work with animal training and veterinary behavior (which also involves a lot of training the humans). She kept telling me this method would help me with coaching young kids...

but just like moving to New Hampshire - it wasn't a great idea until it was my idea!

Initially, I was skeptical. After all, I was already a coach, doing great work, enjoying it, and getting results - at least outside of the ASE program.

What I eventually realized was that the framework I used to help older players learn faster, and learn skills at a deeper level was the same framework TAGteach provided me -

The limitation to drive focused innovation

TAGteach is a simple framework that is based on behavioral science and the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). The "TAG" is an acronym for Teaching with Acoustical Guidance - or in common english - giving your learner a specific noise they can HEAR every time they do a skill successfully, precisely when they do it.


The setup for instructions is in 4 steps:

1) You must state what you want (vs what not to do)

2) You must focus on only one thing (you can't say this AND this)

3) The one thing must be Observable (not vague, abstract, or invisible - like thinking)

4) You must state the final instructions in 5 words or less

With this preparation, you then can simply say "yes" (or give no response) when the player attempts the skill.

The constraint of only 5 words or less, and a single word "yes" response is what really poured gasoline on the fire of coaching results...

This is what I now call THE communication shortcut.

Breaking down every skill or concept into a final instruction of five words or less and simply saying yes when executed correctly, and saying nothing (or "try again") when executed incorrectly.

This creates a few subtle changes that have a big impact on your player:

1) I take responsibility as the coach to further refine instructions if the player is not getting it - instead of blaming or punishing them if they fail!

2) I skip the entire 50-75% of talking time telling players what not to do, and what they did wrong

3) I am able to accomplish more in a shorter time with less talk, and more action!

Because of #3 I intentionally use shorter 30-min workout segments to prevent exhaustion from the intensity of mental focus and precision effort the player is making



This is Epiphany #4 - Shaping

With shaping I can take your player's prior experience as an asset - take what they're already doing well, and gradually modify it in a step by step progression such that they don't even realize things have changed.

Your player gets the feel of a video gamer, achieving and unlocking new levels, new nuggets of knowledge, and new capabilities that continue improving how many shots they make!

Contrast that with the "demolition" approach to shooting that tells the learner everything they're doing is wrong and they must start from scratch to build a shot with a lot of disjointed pieces (from your player's perspective) that don't make sense, don't connect to their prior experience, and don't feel natural.

Whether or not the final "ideal shooting form" is actually reached becomes irrelevant.

The progress made by modifying a player's shot in a way that doesn't make them destroy the familiar is so powerful that it quickly convinces the player to keep doing it.

With a coach as the "guide on their side" providing specific instructions and really precise feedback on every repetition, progress becomes virtually guaranteed, and changes become permanently integrated into your players "natural" shot!

Next up -  I will tell you the story of how one NBA player changed 10 years of my thinking on how to train precision shooting… (Hint: it's not Steph Curry)

See you on the court,
Coach BJ

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