Episode VIII: The Hunger Games Challenge
Episode VIII: The Hunger Games Challenge
“Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favour.”
Every week, I share a couple of things that I’m reading, learning or actively doing in my personal and professional life. This week, we dive into:
Current Podcast: Shaping Your Culture & Aligning Your Staff
Practice Idea: Be a Gamemaker
X’s & O’s: Golden Snitch
Leadership Thought: Artist’s Vision
Recommended Article: Do’s & Don’ts of Creativity
Reflective Question: Give or Take
Current Podcast: Shaping Your Culture & Aligning Your Staff
The Coaches Club Podcast is quickly becoming one of my go-to Podcasts. Luke Gromer has some great coaches on, and they never disappoint to provide a couple of golden nuggets. JP Nerbun dives into intentionality in this podcast and I think coaches will really benefit from it.
Practice Idea: Be a Gamemaker
In the movie, The Hunger Games, we are introduced to Seneca Crane, the Gamemaker of the 74th Annual Hunger Games. Crane’s job is to design and control every aspect of the games, from the arena to the clothes, to the obstacles to the scenery and so much more.
They are responsible for entertaining the Capitol in every aspect. If the game is boring and dull, then the Gamemaker will meet an untimely death. If the game is exciting and keeps everyone on the edge of their seats, then fame and fortune are to be found for the Gamemaker.
As coaches, an interesting challenge for us is to take on the role of a Gamemaker for a week of practice. We should challenge ourselves to design an environment that allows us to achieve our objectives, whilst still being entertaining and keeps all our players on the edge of their seats wanting to know what comes next.
Where does the technical development come in?
Therein lies the challenge, as Head Gamemaker, it would be your job to design drills and challenges that put your players in positions to use or learn the necessary skill to survive your Hunger Games. If not, they could meet an unfatal and harmless demise at your hands.
If your practice is boring, then you could meet the same ending as they would have.
“Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favour!”
X’s and O’s: Golden Snitch
A couple of things caught me at odds this week, so as a last-minute entry into the newsletter, I will share the game we played yesterday in practice.
The Golden Snitch is a theme taken from the Harry Potter World and its famous game Quidditch. Whilst both teams are trying to score the Quaffle, the seekers are trying to grab the snitch. Almost always, the team that grabs the snitch wins because it’s worth so many points - 150 to be exact.
Translate it to basketball - Our U16s have just been introduced to ball screen offense and all the complexities that it comes with. In order to get better at it, we have to practice it a lot. Unfortunately, when playing, our guys almost always resort back to their strengths and what has been proven to work - isolation and 1v1 action, which may work in practice, but won’t help us develop.
With our Golden Snitch rule, we play regularly (for a limited time), all scores count as normal, but the team that grabs the snitch wins. This way they actively start looking for opportunities to run a specified action. In yesterday’s practice, the “Drag Ball Screen” was the snitch.
Offensive and Defensive communication increased as both teams actively hunted opportunities to run the ball screen, while still playing the game normally.
I’ll be doing a deep dive into how we can use the Golden Snitch to add other elements in a later post. For now, as with the Hunger Games, you are the Gamemaker, and you can decide what constraints you want your players to work on.
Leadership Thought: Artist’s Vision
“An artist is not paid for his labour, but for his time”
James Whistler
Recommended Article: Do’s & Don’ts of Creativity
I genuinely can’t wait to see what Ana writes up every week, as she is an inspiration and really takes the time to question the status quo, especially as it relates to the development of kids.
This article is packed with some ideas on how to inspire and maintain creativity in our kids and translates so well to coaching, parenting and teaching.
Reflective Question: Give or Take
Do I leave the environment better than I find it?
That’s all for this week. If you found this interesting, I would appreciate you sharing it on your social media accounts.
Until next week.
Nabil Murad