Sport and the Growing Good

#192: Coach Phil Jackson on learning from roles models (Bell Cows)

Albert Bandura claimed that some of our deepest learning occurs socially – from what we observe and adopt from what we interact with around us. In this conversation with Coach Jackson, we discussed learning from role models, as well as how coaches can utilize players as models on their teams. Our conversation addressed:1.     Cows. Temple Grandin.2.     What Coach Jackson learned from role models. Unconscious modeling.3.     Learning by coaching in the CBA – the “minor leagues.”4.     One of Coach Jackson’s Bell Cows, Red Holzman. 5.     How rules can be inconsequential. Examples in action make the difference.6.     Players modeling desirable attributes on teams. 7.     Are leaders born? 8.     “I think there are moments when you’re vaulted into a leadership role. I think it sometimes makes us. There are situations that call for it.” 19:259.     “It’s not about me, it’s about the team.”10.  “You cannot stop. You cannot get stagnant.”11.  Gratefulness. “One has to be grateful. I think the first element of living your life in the morning is to spend time in gratefulness and practicing the presence of the universe, the order, the Supreme Being. Your God. And your belief system. And when you center yourself in that particular aspect, I think you become humbled.”12.  “When you read you have to have an open mind.”13.  Learning as a father. “As a parent, your children are your teachers.”14.  “The wealth of a man is measured by his family, his relations, his relationships, not by power or money.”15.  Coming through hard times, difficult times that we all face. “One of the things that’s important is accepting responsibility. Don’t blame. And accepting that you have to be grateful for these experiences because they are what’s showing you the ever-changing relationship we have with life. We’re faced with all these facets of life that bring change. And change is the most difficult thing for people to adapt to, to live with. Unceasing change turns the wheel of life so that we may see it in all of its various forms.”16.  There’s going to be unceasing change in your life. You cannot keep it static and what you always want it to be…All of these things are an opportunity for you to adapt and be part of the change. And accept it instead of fighting against it. That is one of the keys, I think, to living a peaceful coexistence with life.”17.  The responsibility of being a coach lays upon each one of you that wants to be a coach. You’re not just going to show the principles of your sport or the skills that are necessary for your sport, but you’re also going to teach a behavioral pattern to these younger people that are under your tutelage. How you address them and how you participate with them in this effort is really a responsibility of your own making. You’ve chosen this. And now it’s your responsibility to stand up to it and hold it and embrace it. Take advantage of the opportunity it is to portray some of the things that you think are important for people to learn: the basics of your sport; the love of competition; to compete with a passion and yet with still a joy.18.  Learning from a mistake early in his career.19.  Being receptive to insights from former players and recognizing that past players are part of the culture. “There’s plenty of room in the tent.” 33:3520.  Holding things back from the team initially so that there would be more to learn as the season went on.21.  Adapting to players. “If you have a really good idea, please bring it to us.”22.  Helping Kobe Bryant to become a leader. 43:46. “How do you expect to be a leader if you don’t participate in the community?”23.  Drawing from diverse sources to teach leadership.

#191: Coach Phil Jackson on sustaining success (2025 edit)

Winning is difficult – and maintaining success can be even more challenging. In this session, Coach Jackson and some special guests joined us to discuss the topic of “sustaining success.”1.     Reading your team when things are going well. Understanding them. “Getting out of their way.” Winning gets to be habitual.2.     Little inconveniences bringing a team together in new, deeper ways (hotel example in bad weather). Maintaining a positive orientation: “Life’s an adventure, let’s go get it!”3.     You can’t count on just “replicating what we had before.” Examples of players having off-season surgery that change what you have coming back on a team.4.     You have to maintain vision for your team.5.     “Dance of the wounded egos.” Guys overvaluing their roles on the team.6.     “It’s all of us. It’s about how we all fit together.”7.     As a coach something to think about: “Where does this person think he fits into our team effort? How can I make him feel important but also that we will go on regardless?”8.     Getting away from the game after the season. Focusing on family. 9.     Also using the off-season to envision what the team would look like.10.  “We always held something back.” Reflecting in the off-season: “What are we going to do differently this year?”11.  Allowing veteran players to teach newcomers what it means to be part of the group and “earning his credibility.”12.  Losing assistant coaches to head coaching positions.13.  Dividing players into groups with a particular coach who they’d get to know intimately. A mentor who would help them to get better.14.  Jordan and Kobe having specific things they worked on in the off-season. Setting the model for other players.15.  Keeping pace with a changing game. Growing as a coach. 16.  Phil Nevin on rules changes that affected coaching baseball.17.  Responding to the analytics movement.18.  Mark Sweeney on staying in the game “mentally and physically” as he prepared each game. 19.  Davey Lopes as an important coach to Mark.20.  Maintaining “drive” on winning teams. Finding new motivations.

#190: Professor Sameer Deshpande is at the forefront of sports analytics

Sameer Deshpande is an assistant professor of Statistics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Much of his work is applied in sports settings, where he has emerged as a leader in the field. Sameer is a BIOS fellow and key partner as we’ve continued deepening the connections between sports and research. In this conversation, we discussed:1.     The type of research Sameer conducts. Using probability to quantify all of our uncertainty. Bayesian Statistics.2.     Sameer’s journey to academia. Math competitions. Mentors and supporters along the way. Early studies that got him started in the field.3.     The relatively small data analytics community in professional sports. 4.     Study on the “plate discipline” of MLB players.5.     Study on surface-type and concussions in the NFL.6.     Study on associations between football participation during adolescence and mental health during young adulthood.7.     Study estimating NBA players’ impacts on their teams’ winning. (Dirk was #1.)8.     Teaching statistics and “meeting students where they are.”9.     Being a BIOS fellow: “It’s super interesting and inspiring…Working in sports research can be isolating…There are people who I’ve met through BIOS who I never would have spoken to and there’s a lot of fruitful collaborative work that can happen…BIOS has been a great way for connecting people…BIOS embraces the cross-cutting nature of this campus.”10.  Research that’s coming up: Spatial variation/heat maps for NBA players – modeling that allows us to use data smartly in new ways; Decathlon – Can new limits be reached and what would it take?11.  The Dallas Cowboys.

#189: Coach Phil Jackson on gameday leadership

We’ve studied many aspects of coaching including having a system, running practice, and forming team identity. Today’s topic will build upon these and other topics we’ve discussed to engage several specific aspects of “leading on game day.”1.            Coach Jackson’s favorite routes in driving thought the Midwest and western US states.2.            Organizing game day so that the players would have mornings of instruction and activity.3.            Game day meetings with coaching staff. 4.            Shootarounds. Basic drills. Activating the body.5.            Mike D’Antonio focusing on offense. 6.            Coaching in the CBA.7.            The heartbeat.8.            Gameday meditation. From five to ten minutes. Changes throughout the season.”9.            “At some point in that team meeting, I would ask a player, what do you think is important in this game?”10.         “’Let’s talk about your perspective, how you feel about how they guarded you the last time.”11.         Working on specials in the last minutes of the shootaround.12.         Pregame speeches. Limited effects. Focuses: information and emotion.13.         “It’s overrated, the ‘Gipper’ speech.”14.         Dennis Rodman’s pregame routines. 15.         Sending assistant coaches out in pregame.16.         Albert Mehrabian rule: “7% words, 38% tone of voice, 55% body language” 17.         Why Coach developed his whistling skills and used hand signals. 18.         Codes for communication.19.         “I think the voice is resilient and authoritative. I think it’s really important for the coach to have a strong voice.”20.         “There’s a locker room voice that is commanding, yet assuring. It’s instructive.”21.         The Horace Grant example. Positive Coaching Alliance.22.         Timeouts. Getting players composed. “I want you to find the rooted nature. Something that you know that gives you solace. And you can go to the bench and think of that space for ten seconds.”23.         Examples of the rooted nature. Where you were nurtured.24.         Others who were not in the game could encourage teammates while planning was going on. 25.         Sitting vs. standing in timeouts. 26.         Communicating with the team during crunch time of a game: Research on best strategies for leading during critical/high pressure times include:-use brief, clear commands-control body language and tone (players look to coach as model in these times)-activate leadership within the team (tie into a player-leader during time-out, etc)-emphasize the next play and focus on the process-encourage deep breaths-reinforce trust and confidence in the team and system-acknowledge the pressure …and frame it as a challenge that we’re ready for27. Red Holzman during crunch time. Defensive berating… then, “What do you guys what to run? What do you think will work?” “He left it entirely up to us…That was a real eye opener for me. I enjoyed that a lot.”28. “Michael Jordan was such a great finisher and so was Kobe Bryant. A lot of that was part of the success I had as a coach.”29. “I think the breath is really important. Take a deep breath and relax. We’re going to go into this. We’re going to be successful. Just be alert and react.”30. After the game in the locker room. “Temperament is one of the things you have to watch for… Don’t get too high, don’t get too low. You need to find that balance.”31. The Lord’s Prayer after the game for calming down.32. After leaving the arena on game day. “I used to take a few minutes by myself.”33. Coach Jackson and Coach Winter continuing to focus on their video analysis even as the plane seemed to be going down. 34. Communicating during the flow of the game with players.35. “Sometimes stopping the activity and getting your players to reset is important. And you have to think of creative ways to do that.”36. Accounting for different players’ pregame rituals. 37. Ensuring that your teams don’t start slow.

#188: Professor Bob Batt studies service operations

Bob Batt is an associate professor in the School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Bob focuses on operations and information management. He partners with hospitals and other organizations to learn about service operations. Additionally, Bob serves as a BIOS fellow and has been a valued partners to UW Athletics in recent years.1.     His expertise in service operations. 2.     Emergency department operations. Patient flow and physician productivity.3.     A couple examples of recent studies.4.     The impact of proximity on service operations.5.     Behavioral operations. Small nudges to change behavior.6.     Article: “The psychology of waiting.” “Anxious waits” feel longer.7.     Bob’s collaboration with BIOS on a Camp Randall Stadium project. How can we improve crowd flow.8.     What makes Chick-fil-A operations effective.9.     A partnership formed with Athletics through the stadium project.10.  Working in the Operations and Information Management Department.11.  Relationship with the Department of Emergency Medicine.12.  What’s next for Bob. 13.  Bob’s interest in sailboat racing.