Part 2: Short Attention Spans and "Working Memory"

     Overcoming Short Attention Spans in Players: Part 2 This is part 2 of Coach Brent Tipton’s series on coaching players with short attention spans and how to better develop them. Let’s get right into it! Here’s Coach Tipton… As noted in Part 1 of this series:  One of the most common requests I (Brent Tipton) get from parents and coaches is to provide tips on overcoming players’ short attention spans and getting them to focus on the task at hand…  Because without focus, learning cannot take place.   Of course, the widespread use of smartphones and social media, as well as the consumption of short but entertaining video clips on apps like TikTok and Instagram, can certainly be distractions that contribute to shorter attention spans…  But let’s face it…  Those things are probably here to stay.  (though I have implemented a “Screen Time Challenge” with my players…more on that in Part 3)  That’s why I’ve found it most effective to learn some basic human psychology…and tailor my coaching around leveraging those insights to my advantage…as well as to the advantage of my players.   With that in mind, I want to introduce the concept of…  Working Memory This is a fairly simple but profound psychological concept…and having a better understanding of how it works has really helped me improve the effectiveness of practice time.   Working memory is simply a person’s short-term ability to retain different pieces of information…and then be able to apply them in the present.   Or as Psychology Today defines it:  “Working memory is a form of memory that allows a person to temporarily hold a limited amount of information…for immediate mental use.”  This would include things like…remembering a person’s phone number while putting it into your cell phone…or a basketball player’s ability to retain the instructions of a drill and then executing them.   Our working memory is almost exactly like a computer’s RAM (Random Access Memory)…which is the short-term storage that a computer uses to access data immediately (as opposed to its hard drive, which is used for long-term storage).  And just like a computer’s RAM, our own working memory has a limited number of slots for us to hold on to information…  Once we reach the full capacity of our working memory…our brain automatically begins to make room for new information by kicking-out the older stuff.   And it’s important to remember that kids (and adults) with ADHD generally have fewer slots in their working memory…you can read more about this connection [here]( and [here](   So what do we do with this information when dealing with our players?  We’ve all experienced players looking back at us with their eyes glazed-over while we’re trying to teach a new offensive concept.   And we’ve all been guilty of stopping practice and going off on a teaching point for far longer than was necessary.   One change I’ve made so that my instruction is more compatible with players’ working memory is to get in the habit of providing quick feedback on mistakes...feedback that’s to the point and captures only the most important change I’d like them to make…  After providing this quick feedback…it’s important to immediately give the player the opportunity to apply that feedback.   Remember…working memory is not just short-term memory…it’s short-term memory PLUS the ability to use that information.   From my experience it’s important to give feedback in 30 seconds or less…and then give them a chance to apply your instruction. If it takes longer than 30 seconds you run the risk of players forgetting your central teaching point.   In general, I try to follow the advice of Coach Peter Lonergan, Basketball Australia’s Director of High Performance Coach Development: “Teach in soundbites, not soliloquy.”  Another technique you can use to work with players’ working memory is to dedicate the skill development portion of practice to drills that require minimal instruction and simulate [real-game situations]( so that players can spend more time playing rather than listening.  [NBA Skills Coach Don Kelbick’s drills]( that boil the game down to just 3 pivots and 3 counters would be a good model for this and follow them up with some [game-based drills](   So…  What do you think of keeping feedback short and sweet… to less than 30 seconds?   Have you found that limiting the number of “big” concepts per practice makes learning more effective?  Do you like to give players the opportunity to immediately work on concepts and utilize game-based drills?  Reply back and let us know!  All the best,  Brent Tipton Breakthrough Basketball            This email was sent to {EMAIL} because you indicated that you'd like to receive emails and updates from Breakthrough Basketball on 2016-12-16 05:42:39. 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