The Story of the 4 Minute Mile

    Until 1954, the four minute mile was something beyond human comprehension, and thus beyond human achievement. It was believed to be a real physical limit for a human being to run a mile in four minutes or less. “The four minute mile was the goal that athletes and sportsmen had talked of and dreamt about for so many years,” wrote British runner, Roger Bannister. Like climbing Mount Everest before Hillary, Bannister wrote, runners “used to think it was quite impossible, and beyond the reach of any runner.” It seemed to be as absolute a limit as the waterfalls cascading off the edge of the Earth were to early mariners. And it proved to be just as much a mirage.

    In May 1954, on an Oxford track, Bannister shattered this barrier, running the mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. Two months later, in Finland, Bannister’s “miracle mile” was again broken by Australian rival John Landy, who achieved a time of 3 minutes 56 seconds. Within three years, 16 other runners had also broken this record.

    What happened in those three years? Was there a sudden growth spurt in human evolution? Was there a genetic engineering experiment that created a new race of super runners? No, the basic human equipment was the same. What changed was the mental model. The runners of the past had been held back by a mindset that said they could not surpass the four minute mile. When that limit was broken, the others saw that they could do something they had previously thought impossible.

    Transforming our world begins with changing the way we think about it. The more we understand the role of mental models in this process, and the better able we are to recognize these models, the better we can examine the strengths of our models and their limitations. We can sustain the models that allow us to act effectively in the world and get ride of those that constrain us unnecessarily. 

    If Roger Bannister had accepted the barrier of the four-minute mile as a real, physical limitation, he might never have tried to surpass it. As Bannister writes, “No one can say, ‘You must not run faster than this, or jump higher than that.’ The human spirit is indomitable.”

–Yoram Wind and Colin Crook

"We're just a bunch of resilient guys...Some people gave us a chance, some people didn't, but the guys in this locker room stayed together and believed, and here we are, going to the Super Bowl."




     -Hines Ward

"Do not go where the path may lead.  Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Carrot, The Egg, and the Coffee Bean

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her.  She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire.  Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.  In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me, what do you see?" "Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft.

The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects  had faced the same adversity...boiling water. Each reacted differently.  The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however.  After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water. "Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond?  Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?"

Think of this: Which am I?

Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I become hardened and stiff after a hardship?  Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.  When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Zone Defense and Youth Basketball

This is another great video/article written by Breakthrough Basketball talking about the hardships of trying to teach everything to Youth players in such small time frames.  The U.S. system is set up to play games, with pressure and emphasis on winning at a young age, not to develop players.  The video/article points out the reasons why zone defense is taught to this age group, and the possible effects of it as players mature.  Youth Coaches are typically volunteers, people devoted to working with their son or daughter, with little access to practice time or facilities, and trying to teach players with little experience everything they need to know (zone offense, man offense, press break, baseline out of bounds, etc. etc.).  These volunteer coaches spend a lot of free time and give a lot of effort and attention to our players throughout the system, and are essential to the success of our programs.  I think this article is informative because it points out some of the struggles they are faced with, especially under a system with little rules as to how teams should have to play.  Youth coaches, we appreciate the time you devote to the players!

Outlawing Youth Zone Defenses

By - Joe Haefner

If you watched this Stan Van Gundy video below from our last article, you'll remember that Stan also doesn't like zone defense at the youth level. Well, some of you may be wondering why. Well, we're going to take a deeper look at why many experienced coaches believe zone defenses should be banned at the youth level. 

Why Youth Coaches Go To Zone Defenses

First off, I don't have a problem with zone defenses. I believe that zone defenses combined with good defensive fundamentals can help teams win games. However, in most cases, they should not be used at the youth and middle school level because of the way our current system is designed. 

Under the current system, most coaches get the unnecessary burden of having to teach skills, zone offense, man offense, press breakers, and defense with limited practice time. Some coaches only get one hour per week. Even at the high school level, it takes me at least 10 to 20 practices to get a good base to handle these situations. Some youth coaches barely get 20 practices within two seasons. 

Not to mention, most youth coaches are volunteers who have full-time jobs and kids! So they barely have any time to educate themselves on how to teach basketball to youth players. Nobody educates them on the age-appropriate skills and how kids learn.

So what happens is that a coach hears from a colleague, faces a zone defense, or sees another team playing zone. Then, they see how much trouble it is giving the opposing team. Next, the coach implements the zone defense and realizes it only takes a few minutes a day to practice. And they weren't even sure how to teach man to man defense in the first place. Next, games are closer and you might be winning a few games you shouldn't. So the coach decides he's sticking with the zone defense. 

With the instant gratification of winning now and the need to please parents, coaches end up coaching for the outcome, rather than the process. And this does hurt youth players' development in the long run.

Why Zone Defenses Work At The Youth Level

Zone defenses also work at the youth level because:

• Players have not practiced enough yet to develop the proper ball handling skills to beat zone defenses and break presses.
  
• Players are not strong enough to throw passes far enough and crisp enough to beat a zone. Defenses can send 3 or 4 defenders at the ball and still be effective.
  
• Players have not developed the necessary strength and coordination to shoot accurately from long-distance.
  
• Players have not developed the cognitive skills necessary to recognize situations quickly and react in the appropriate time needed.
  
• Coaches don't have enough practice time to cover all of the situations.

Why Teaching Zone Defense Can Handicap Your Youth Players' Future

1. Players Form Bad Defensive Habits

A big problem with zone defenses is that many youth coaches allow their players to develop bad defensive habits. Because youth players have not developed, defensive habits such as swarming the ball and lunging out of position for the steal every time will benefit them on the scoreboard. In a zone defense, they also tend to just watch the ball and they can still be successful in regards to wins and losses at the youth level. In order to be successful with a man to man defense, they have to be aware of both the man and the ball. 

As these youth players get older, all of the sudden these bad defensive habits get exposed because kids are bigger, stronger, more coordinated, and more skilled. 

Now, the kids with bad defensive habits are cut from teams, get less playing time, and in the extreme case, could even lose out on scholarship opportunities. Now, if you're at a school that doesn't cut, you just end up with a poor team and this hurts the player's chance of getting recruited. College coaches usually want good players from winning programs. 

And you might be wondering, why doesn't coach just teach them the right way to play when they get to high school?

• It can takes years to break the bad defensive habits. After players have spent most of their youth basketball career using poor defensive fundamentals, it's very difficult to break the bad habits.
  
• They'd rather keep the players with good habits and spend their time on other things to make them better players and make the team better. After trying to do this a few times, most coaches just end up cutting these players right away because they have learned that the process is so frustrating and not worth their time. And the coaches do this to keep the team's best interests in mind.

You also have to know man to man defense principles to have success at the higher levels even if you use zone defense as your primary defense. You can ask Syracuse's Jim Boeheim who is known for running a very successful 2-3 zone defense and he will tell you the same thing. 

2. More Time Should Be Spent On Fundamentals

As mentioned above, coaches barely have any time to work on everything. As a result, skill work is often limited or even completely left out of practice. Along with small-sided games and athletic development, skill development should be a focus for all youth players. 

Youth expert Bob Bigelow recommends that every player needs to have a ball in their hands for at least 1/3 of the practice. Why? Because the more often the player touches the ball, the better their ball skills become which should be one of the first steps in developing a basketball player. 

These are just more reasons that I believe in 3v3 should be mandatory before the age of 11 or 12. 

Another Argument For Zone Defenses At The Youth Level

I've also heard the argument that zone defenses aren't the problem, it's the lack of fundamentals being taught with the zone defense that is the problem. I agree with this. But it is a rarity at this age level for coaches to teach the proper defensive fundamentals with zone defense. And I still don't believe zone defenses are age-appropriate for youth teams for the same reasons mentioned above. On average, players are too weak and uncoordinated to execute the offensive principles that beat zone defenses.

Look at the baseball system. Players are eventually going to be taking leads off of first base and pitching from 90 feet, but we don't start the youth players out that way. We shorten the mound and we don't let players take leads off of first base until they reach a certain age. Baseball modifies the game for youth, not the other way around like the current basketball system. 

Possible Solution To Work on Zone Offense With Advanced Youth Players 

I wouldn't advise this until the kids are 12 or 13, but if coaches got together before a game during the second half of the season and said let's work on playing against a 2-3 zone defense during the 2nd quarter, I believe the benefits would be outstanding. That way, you could introduce zone offensive principles when the kids are ready and work on them in a game environment. 

Cherokee Right of Passage

I wanted to post something a little bit different, I think this is an interesting read...

Cherokee Right of Passage by Duane Silver

Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of passage?

His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone.

He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the

blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out

for help to anyone. 

Once he survives the night, he is a MAN. He cannot tell the

other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his

own. The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild

beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm.

The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically,

never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!

Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold.

It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He

had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.

Snow Valley Basketball School

The Snow Valley Basketball Camp has just come out with information on dates for this upcoming summer's camps.  I was fortunate enough to work this camp last summer and thought it was a tremendous experience.  I plan on working at the camp again and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to become a better basketball player.  The coaches that run and work the camp are second to none.  It is run by the USA National Team's Coach Don Showalter, who also coaches at Mid-Prairie Wellman in Iowa.  Other coaches that work the camp include both current and former college and high school coaches, NBA player development personnel, personal trainers, and more.  If you have any questions about the camp, shoot me an email and I will try to help you in any way I can.  We had 17 players total at this camp last year, grades 7-12, and I think it was a great thing for our basketball players and program as a whole.  I hope we continue to be fortunate enough to have players attend this camp! 

The Snow Valley Basketball School applications are on line at www.snowvalleyiowa.com  The camps were sold out last year and all indications are they will be sold out again this summer.  Check for all dates for the boys and girls sessions on the web site.

The Snow Valley Basketball school has been recognized as one of the top two teaching basketball camps in the country according to Sports Illustrated.