How to Use Timeouts Effectively

TYPICAL SCENARIO

How many of you have watched a varsity basketball game whereas one team was on a run, let's say it was a 10-0 run within just a short period of time.  Effectively, let's say the score was 10-6 in the first quarter, and the other team goes on that 10-0 run, the score is now 10-16.  

I'm sure we all know what is going to happen now... the coach is going to call a timeout and chew the players a new backside.  I'm sure we have all saw this happen at some point in your lifetime either as a player, parent or spectator.  This has probably happened enough times in your life that you're desensitized to watching young men and young women get yelled at by an adult.  While I totally get that some people are comfortable with this, but we do have to realize that there is a better way.  

This timeout usually includes the coach using the full 60 seconds to tell the players exactly what they already know.  "You let #22 go straight to the basket", "You aren't protecting the rim", "You're taking bad shots", "You are playing soft underneath" and the list goes on.  See, the fact is that the players already know this stuff.  They need guidance, support and encouragement that they can do this with a sounds strategy.  We have to realize these are young men and young women that are still learning how to leverage and trust in teammates to achieve a team goal.  

SPORTS TEACHING LIFE LESSONS

Often time we as coaches like to associate sports with teaching life lessons.  I'll be honest, if at any point in my life someone were to yell in my face whether it is at work or home, I would be getting physical with that individual.  Nowhere in your adult life are you allowing a grown adult to yell or scream your mistakes in your face. 

Before you say, "Coach, I know you were guilty of yelling in your timeouts."  Yes, in my varsity coaching days from 2008 to 2016, I was definitely coaching with passion and following the lead from my former coaches.  This was to utilize scare tactics, yell, push and bend until I found a breaking point.  Needless to say, those players to this day, say they didn't respect me, they feared having to run more than anything.  It wasn't the coaching that was effective it was the fear of running the entire practice for mistakes. 

As of 2016, I took a break from coaching to really find myself because what I was doing wasn't working.  I coached at the younger levels, K-8 and placed an emphasis on having fun, setting small goals, encouraging and empowering these young aspiring athletes to do something they continually said they couldn't do.  In your adult life, this is exactly what you would want out of supervisor, someone to sit by you side-by-side and walk you through the process without micromanagement.  When you achieve a small goal, you should be celebrated until you continue your goal achievement.  This is how positive coaching works, and it expands into your adult life - so why don't more coaches operate like this?

Yes, competitive sports are great for teaching life lessons.  You learn how to work as a team, and come to the realization that buying into a team concept is usually how you achieve your team goals.  Individuality has its time and place.  You learn how to be coachable and take instruction.  You learn how to effectively communicate, and that's usually using clear and concise information relay.  You learn about commitment, working on your craft and honing your skill set, you learn about playing roles, and all of the wonderful things you'll be expected to do as an adult in modern society.  Whether I'm managing a project for a company or youth sports team, I always start out the process with asking about everyone's goals.  Let me help you achieve your goals, and how you get out of this experience something that will benefit you personally.  

PURPOSE OF A TIMEOUT

So, let's start out with the reason coaches call timeouts.  There are a multitude of reasons, but let's cover a couple of them to really drive the point home as to how to use timeouts effectively. 

1. ​Manage the Clock:  The clock is late-game situations is either your friend or your foe.  If we are up a couple of points in a late-game situation, I tell the players that the clock is our friend - let's use our friend. If we are down, we have to focus on how to be aggressive and trust in our teammates and our skills to cut the deficit. 
2. Manage Mistakes:  A lot of coaches will call a timeout to remind the players of their mistakes, and this is a pet-peave of mine, as I have mentioned, the players know there were mistakes made and don't need 60 seconds to be reminded they made them. 
3. Stop Momentum:  When a team is on a run and in a groove, a timeout is a great way to slow down that momentum and put a monkey wrench into their groove. 
4. Change Strategy:  If you're pressing, and it isn't working, it may be time to move into a half court man-to-man, or jump into a zone - something to change up the strategy and give the other team something to think about for making an adjustment.  At this point in my coaching life, I already know why a coach is calling a timeout, it's to jump into a press, change to man, or change to a zone - so we make adjustments accordingly. 
5. Boost Morale:  Various points in the game, some players are rolling, and some players are struggling - this is a great opportunity to boost morale and remind them they are capable.  This is also a great opportunity to tell them how great they are doing and to keep up the effort or keep looking to expose the advantage we have. 
6. Rest Your Players:  Some teams like to play extremely fast and some teams are not equipped to play extremely fast.  This is where some coaches will call a timeout to get the players a bit of a rest to restore their mental capacity and get their legs a rest.  
7. Draw Up A Play:  In any given game, there are up to 14 timeouts allowable by both teams.  It is ideal that the coach have a play to draw up in each timeout.  Some teams are extremely effective at out-of-bounds plays, and can add an extra 8-12 points each game just on running effective out-of-bounds plays.   

HOW TO USE TIMEOUTS EFFECTIVELY

As a coach and business consultant, I tend to live life with the same principles.  My strategy is to have my teams and organizations operate by 3s.  3 goals. 3 steps. 3 rules. 3 guiding principles. 3 anything.  The European Journal of Social Psychology indicates that humans have the capacity to remember 1 things 100% of the time, 2 things 90% of the time, and 3 things 75% of the time.  When you get to 4 and 5, you're dropping to near 30% of retention, and you run into diminishing returns. 

​So, all of my team goals are based on Rules of 3.  In timeouts, I like to focus on 3 core items:

1. Reset:  As the game is in motion, some players will follow the game plan, while others may start to play individual basketball.  Some players are getting deflated, and others are getting discouraged.  This is a good opportunity to hit the reset button on their mindset, remind them of our 3 main goals and that we will be totally fine if we focus on those 3 main goals as a team.  One strategy I have found very successful with younger groups is to operate in 4-minute segments.  The next 4-minutes we are going to just run base offense, focus on ball movement, hard cuts, and attacking the time.  Look for the best shot - not the first shot.
2. Re-Align:  As mentioned in #1, its a great time to re-align the group and make sure we are all on the same page going forward, giving gentle reminders of why we do what we do and that if we trust the process we'll be just fine and start seeing success.  Our defense is designed to protect the paint, let's make sure we are all seeing the basketball, and in position to help - see both.  On offense, keep the ball moving, the ball will find the best shot, and if we push we can steal a couple early buckets.  Let's stay focused on being us, and not playing their style. 
3. Re-Position:  This is more of strategy play, but if something isn't working and tweaking isn't fixing the issues - we an change to something to manage the clock and slow the opponents attack.  Re-position your team to something where they can see small bite sizes of success and build upon that strategy. 

CONCLUSION

Coaching young adults is a wonderful position to be in, and you have the ability to mold them into great teammates, great students, and great athletes.  Positive Coaching can be just as powerful and in most cases more powerful than yelling or screaming.  

Basketball is a game and is meant to be fun, as parents, coaches and spectators we are there to watch an entertaining game not see a coach on a power trip screaming at children.  Effective communication starts at the top, and can easily filter down to the rest of the team or organization.  You can get your point across just as effectively as an eye-to-eye conversation.  In business, I say "Eye Level is Buy Level", it's a great reminder that if I'm going to try and get a new client, I'm not telling in their face all of their mistakes and telling them to make changes.  I'm working side-by-side to help them address their challenges, and offer solutions to become more effective.  This is a great approach in coaching.  

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