The Slow-Down Effect

I’m a big fan of NBA basketball, dating back to my childhood, when my dad would take me and my brothers to attend Philadelphia 76ers games at the now non-existent Spectrum. I grew up cheering for the teams led by superstar Julius “Dr. J” Erving, making me a lifelong fan of the team and of the sport. As a result, I often watch professional basketball games in the same why I watch hurdle races. I’m looking for a sense of flow and rhythm, a sense of continuous motion.

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One of the things I’ve noticed recently in watching a lot of games on TV this year is that very few players truly play under control, “letting the game come to them,” so to speak. In watching my sixers regularly (yes, I purchased an NBA League Pass account just to watch the sorry sixers), I’ve noticed that almost every player on the team seems to be in a rush. The sixers are a young team – the youngest in the league – and one of the ways in which their youth shows has to do with their impatience, their tendency to make unforced errors because of their impatience, and their inability to slow down and let the game come to them.

The sixers have already played the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers twice this year. Both games were very competitive, with the sixers playing a little over their heads to keep the games close, but in both games the cavaliers imposed their will at the end and pulled out the victory.

What really captured me while watching these games was the calmness and composure of cavalier stars Lebron James and Kyrie Irving. Especially James. It looked like he as moving at half-speed the entire game. Sometimes he’d assert his will by scoring two or three baskets in a row, but for the most part he was looking for teammates, getting them involved, looking basically like he was playing a pickup game in the park. To say that he actually was going at half-speed wouldn’t be fair, and it wouldn’t be accurate. It just seemed that way because he made the game look so easy.

As a consequence, it seemed that all of the cavalier players played with a similar calm, a similar focus, a similar ease of motion. With the sixers, meanwhile, everything seemed effort-ful. Everyone seemed in a rush. Guards were dribbling into traffic, committing unforced turnovers. Other players were trying to break through double teams instead of making the extra pass. Others were trying to drive all the way to the rim, committing offensive charging fouls, when they could’ve easily pulled up for open 10-foot jump shots. It became frustratingly evident to me that the sixers were constantly shooting themselves in the foot with this tendency to rush rush rush every possession. It also became evident that the difference between a young team like ours and an experienced team like theirs is that the cavaliers knew how to be patient, how to let a play develop, instead of always pushing their foot on the gas pedal.

Of course, the hurdle coach in me couldn’t help but make the connection. Over my career, I can definitely say that the athletes who made the most progress – whether over the course of a session, the course of a season, or the course of several years – have been those who mastered the art of being patient, of not rushing things, of not being in a hurry. Like Lebron, such athletes seem to be comparatively nonchalant, but the truth is that they actually have a clearer understanding of how the process of improvement works.

At a school where I was coaching a few years ago, the school environment itself was quite hectic, with nothing but noise and fights all day long, so the athletes tended to bring that same energy to practice every day. As a result, many of them were difficult to coach. I had a lot of kids that year who were new to the hurdles, and they came out in November, when the indoor practices started. Many of these kids were very athletic, had gobs of potential, but didn’t have the patience necessary to really learn how to hurdle. I would set up a basic quick-step drill or even a simple pop-over drill to serve as a teaching tool for hurdling mechanics. After the second or third rep, I’d literally have kids asking, “Did I get it right that time Coach? Did I finesse it?” My usual response was to stare blankly and say, “It’s getting better.” But in my mind I was thinking, do you really think you can pick up all the details of hurdling technique in three reps?

Usually, such new kids would flit from event to event. They’d try the hurdles, then the next day I’d see them over at the long jump pit or training with the sprinters. Over the years I’ve had a lot of kids who have wanted to do hurdles “on the side.” Pole vaulters, jumpers, etc. who want to practice the hurdles once a week. Such athletes may be able to make it through a race, but they generally don’t improve significantly, and they make a lot of mistakes that could easily be corrected just by dedicating more time to the craft. I generally prefer that such athletes go away. If you want to be a pole vaulter, then go ahead and be a pole vaulter. No hard feelings. But don’t denigrate my event by acting like you can excel in it with one day’s worth of practice per week. Unfortunately, head coaches are often looking for point scorers, so I have to compromise, or just straight-up lose the battle.

When it comes to hurdle races, whether we’re talking about the long hurdles or the short hurdles, ease of motion is a common quality exhibited by all of the best hurdlers. A Liu Xiang, an Allen Johnson, for example, always looked like they were in complete control of what they were doing, no matter how quickly the hurdles were rushing up at them. Edwin Moses never looked like he was running at full speed, even when he was running sub-48’s. The greats make it look easy because they know how to run the whole race. They know how to distribute their energy, and they don’t panic when they make mistakes.

I feel that hurdlers can learn a lot about composure, about staying calm under pressure, from watching athletes from other sports. I mentioned Lebron James, but he’s only one of many. I’m far from being a Tom Brady fan, but man, look at the way he stays in the pocket until the last possible millisecond before releasing the pass. There’s no panic, no rushing around scrambling. The focus for such athletes is always on execution, never on emotion or adrenaline. For a hurdler who is attacking hurdles at full speed, the feeling of being overcrowded between the hurdles can be overwhelming, the eagerness to get out fast and stay fast can divert focus from executing the movements. The key is to always stay in control, to stay patient, to trust your training, to trust your instincts.

So the point is, don’t be in a rush when it comes to learning, and don’t be in a rush when it comes to racing. The level of composure exhibited by an Allen Johnson, or a Lebron or a Brady, is not something that can be learned overnight. It has to be practiced the same as everything else.

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