In-Powered Principles: On CLA
I was holding out on you… But no longer.
By now, some of you may have had the thought…
CLA has to be Power. I wonder if Drew will ever do a piece on that?
We start today with a video and some text to focus on from Transforming Basketball (click tweet to watch):
In the first book of the series, Hawkins throws a list at us to delineate Power from Force. One of the two pages of these contrasts looks exactly like this. For context, the Power patterns are the 1st and 3rd columns to the left of the dots. Force is always to the right of the dots.
Your next question may be, well why is CLA considered Power? And what words from the tweet had me adding words to this massive Hawkins list?
Why is CLA Power?
You may remember from previous writing that at the critical point level of 200, something happens
Love enters.
It becomes very apparent at 500 and unconditional at 540 but it comes on scene at 200.
What is also apparent by watching one of these ‘new-fangled practices’ is that there is love present. Compare the body language, expression, and energy of the kids in the video and then walk into most hockey arenas in the country. You’ll see the difference. There’s no love in lines, rote learning, coach-led, demanding communication practices… It’s a cocktail that tastes… Disgusting. Throw that beverage out and replace it. And mix in some Love…
Courage is a form of love.
CLA encourages. (see what I did there)
CLA hands over ownership.
CLA sets an environment but doesn’t dictate every little thing that goes on in it. That freedom creates the space for joy.
CLA is faith. Traditional is control. In-Powered vs. Force…
Force coaches can’t handle the ‘chaos’ that a CLA practice creates. It doesn’t pass their ‘neat and tidy’ controlling mindset. A Force Coach is a control freak. An In-Powered Coach deploying this type of training has faith. Faith that the game looks like training for the first time in forever. *Cue the Frozen track.
And because training now looks like the game, things actually might transfer to that thing we make really important… The game.
Now let’s jump back to the text from Transforming Basketball’s tweet and throw a bow on this one…
CLA is Power
Focus on the word choice for a minute. Here was my initial take when I saw this post yesterday:
Force makes a player a ‘participant’ in ‘coach’s drill’. Power surfaces an engaged player giving full effort without being told to ‘try harder’.
Force leaves players bored. Power gets them and keeps them playing.
Force makes you listen to coach’s explicit instructions. Power gives minimum detail, only as much as necessary, and allows the players to create their solutions.
Force says, “it’s my practice.”
Power says, “it’s your practice.”
Power to the players.