Transforming Basketball: Changing How We Think About Basketball Performance

Despite the game of basketball frequently evolving, many coaching and organizational approaches have remained unchanged across the last several decades. Coaching practices within the basketball world are often based upon entrenched traditions, social norms and the way things have always been done. In Transforming Basketball, Alex Sarama - now an Assistant Coach with the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers - provides a completely new perspective on the role of the coach in the present day.

In recent times, pseudoscientific beliefs have been framed as ‘best practice’ ideas in basketball, despite such approaches often contradicting the science of motor learning. The potential to optimize basketball performance and access large competitive advantages through an evidence-based approach have not been harnessed. Until now.

Transforming Basketball provides the complete vision for how practitioners serving in any role can benefit from a contemporary approach. Written with a primary focus on coaching, the book provides tangible strategies which have the potential to transform the basketball world and reconceptualize how we view the role of the coach. These ideas can be applied to virtually every area of an organization including the front office, athletic performance, physical therapy, analytics and more.

Transforming Basketball goes deep into the theory, making sense of an ecological dynamics framework and the constraints-led approach by providing numerous practical examples. Within the book, readers will discover the true essence of skill while learning how to incorporate contemporary skill acquisition research into both coaching and wider-ranging organizational approaches. The gap is bridged between the research and its practical application through numerous illustrations, case studies, guest author contributions, links to interactive material and reflective tasks.

For coaches at all levels of the game - from volunteers working with beginners through to NBA coaches training the best players in the world - Transforming Basketball offers something for everyone. This book will leave every reader reflecting deeply on how they think and operate, while laying the foundation for how contemporary organizations of the future may operate.