Latest / The Strength In Numbers Podcast / EP 30: Develop vs Display | A Framework for What to Do, How Much to Do, and When to Do It

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EP 30: Develop vs Display | A Framework for What to Do, How Much to Do, and When to Do It · The Strength In Numbers Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Strength in Numbers podcast.
• 0:02
  I'm your host, John Bloom, and today I'm going to talk about a
• 0:05
  framework I use for myself called Developers Display.
• 0:09
  Now, when thinking about what to do, how much to do and when to
• 0:13
  do it, I like to think of this continuum with develop on one
• 0:17
  side and display on the other. And, and this is kind of related
• 0:21
  to the fitness fatigue model where where fatigue can mask and
• 0:26
  cover the gained fitness effective training, meaning
• 0:30
  meaning the, the fitness that you're gaining might only be
• 0:33
  seen once fatigue is gone and you've kind of shifted down your
• 0:38
  work. And this is a constantly
• 0:41
  shifting balance of training, hard enough to experience the
• 0:45
  adaptations and results that you're trying to get, but also
• 0:48
  managing fatigue to see those improved actual effects of the
• 0:53
  training. So when I'm thinking about this
• 0:57
  on the continuum of developer's display, I try and think about
• 1:00
  like is this a time where the athlete or team needs to develop
• 1:04
  their ability or do they need to display their ability?
• 1:07
  Developing would usually mean that there is going to be
• 1:11
  activities that are going to 'cause you know, with more
• 1:14
  volume going to cause more fatigue.
• 1:16
  And displaying is going to involve less volume and, and
• 1:19
  less fatigue with more potentially potentiating
• 1:22
  practice or training that allows that athlete and team to then go
• 1:26
  show and display their best ability.
• 1:28
  Now, the more that we try to develop abilities, the harder it
• 1:32
  is going to be in that moment to actually display them.
• 1:36
  And I use this concept to think about this on on both a yearly
• 1:38
  level for different phases of the year, but also you can use
• 1:43
  it even within a week and differentiating between
• 1:46
  individuals and certain periods on the same team, even and even
• 1:49
  on a given day based on those athletes needs and their role
• 1:54
  within the team. And there needs to be a balance
• 1:56
  of the two of the developers display within a year where
• 2:00
  there's going to be fluctuations that serve kind of like AI feel
• 2:03
  like a yin and a Yang, but you you can't if you never leave one
• 2:07
  side. I I think that's going to stunt
• 2:10
  long term growth, right? Sticking too long on one side of
• 2:13
  the continuum is going to it's going to limit the long term
• 2:17
  ability and growth of an athlete.
• 2:19
  If an athlete is always stuck in the developed side one in
• 2:23
  season, there's going to be times where they're not able to
• 2:26
  be their best when they need it, but also longevity wise, they're
• 2:30
  going to run down and adaptations are going to stop
• 2:35
  because you're always pushing that developed side to the match
• 2:39
  now. Now on the other side, I I think
• 2:41
  if all you're doing is trying to display and always make them
• 2:46
  feel their best and have no fatigue and feel great, they're
• 2:50
  probably like, if you do that in season, they're going to feel
• 2:52
  really good in a few in a few games for a few weeks maybe.
• 2:55
  But even if we're just talking about the end season period, a
• 2:59
  season is going to last months and if you completely take away
• 3:02
  development, your team is going to lose physical qualities and
• 3:05
  lose the required technical and tactical progression needed to
• 3:08
  be the best at the end of the year.
• 3:10
  I think there's this trend sometimes and, and myself
• 3:13
  included sometimes in the past. Where is this trend to go Too
• 3:16
  much to display all the time, right?
• 3:19
  Never truly developing, especially for the long term
• 3:22
  where we're we're always trying to display leads to being able
• 3:25
  to display less in the actual long run.
• 3:28
  Now on the other hand though, if we're looking in season, like we
• 3:31
  talked before, if we're always stuck in developed, right, if we
• 3:34
  never shift from the developed side in season, what what's the
• 3:38
  point, right? What's the point of all the
• 3:40
  development all year, right? The whole reason we pushed so
• 3:42
  hard all year, in offseason, in season, all that is so that we
• 3:46
  can go display and increase the ability when it matters most.
• 3:50
  That doesn't mean you fully stop doing work, fully stop trying to
• 3:54
  develop, but you do adjust in certain periods to pull back to
• 3:58
  help the athlete feel and perform really good when it's
• 4:01
  needed. Now, time of year is going to
• 4:03
  play a huge factor in deciding to focus on developers display,
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  but the offseason's obviously going to be the biggest period
• 4:10
  of time that we can focus on the develop side right where we're
• 4:14
  not. We're not as worried about
• 4:15
  having this level of fatigue and soreness and volume when there
• 4:20
  aren't games being played. This is when we want the
• 4:22
  athletes to adapt to this higher level of volume so that when you
• 4:26
  get to the in season and you do want to display, you actually
• 4:29
  have this foundation of volume to pull back from thread.
• 4:33
  I think, I think that's that's one of the problems with that
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  trend I talked about of going too much to display all year
• 4:42
  round is then when you need to pull back, you don't really have
• 4:46
  anything to actually pull, pull back from.
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  So you might have, you might have had them feeling really
• 4:51
  good in the offseason, but sometimes feeling really good in
• 4:53
  the offseason leads to not feeling good in the end season
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  because now you're not, you're not ready for the level of
• 5:01
  stress and the duration of that stress that comes with the
• 5:04
  season. And you don't have that, that
• 5:07
  foundation to now drop down from, right.
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  It's kind of the same from a training standpoint.
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  And then the, the load of the season pushes it even further
• 5:16
  that you're not necessarily adjusted and adapted for.
• 5:19
  Now when you do get to the season, I, I don't think it
• 5:22
  should shift fully to display same concept we've been talking
• 5:26
  about, right? You don't just fully shift
• 5:27
  there, right? Because it's going to be a long
• 5:29
  season. And I think as you look at where
• 5:33
  the games are, number of games in a week, look at opponent
• 5:35
  strength, right? You can undulate your your spot
• 5:38
  on the continuum more towards developer display based on who
• 5:42
  you're playing, when you're playing certain parts of the
• 5:45
  year and and you know, like during the non conference, you
• 5:49
  might be shifting more towards develop overall to help prepare
• 5:52
  the team to still be their best when it actually matters most
• 5:56
  towards the end of the season. Now, as you get towards the end
• 5:59
  of the season and postseason play, you're probably going to
• 6:01
  want to shift more towards display because you've spent so
• 6:05
  much time in the offseason and now also certain parts of the in
• 6:08
  season pushing develop and now it's time to win, right?
• 6:13
  It's time to perform at the highest level possible.
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  So now let's pull back so we can go display and be our very best,
• 6:18
  because like now's now's when we need to do that.
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  And you know what, I also think it kind of depends on your
• 6:24
  situation as a team, as we're thinking about this in season
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  stuff, right, because I've seen like really good team like it.
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  If you're you know, I've seen some mid major teams that are
• 6:33
  that are just down, like they know they know they're going to
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  win their mid major conference to get a a tournament bid.
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  And so that allows them to operate and make decisions in a
• 6:42
  different way. Then maybe a team that is
• 6:45
  fighting in the SEC or Big 12 where every game is like a, a
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  ranked match up or, or if they're in the mini Major League
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  where everybody's battling for that one bit.
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  And it's, it's extremely competitive, right?
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  Where I feel like I've seen those teams that know they're
• 7:00
  going to get that bit. They can push that developed
• 7:03
  side longer and more because they know they're still going
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  to, they have a, you know, kind of a blanket where they know
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  they can still have some fatigue or still push that develop a
• 7:14
  little bit and they're still going to win and, and, and get
• 7:17
  where they need to be. And then now once they hit the
• 7:19
  postseason, they've been able to develop more than maybe these
• 7:23
  other teams that are fighting in battles every night.
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  And now they're in a they're in a better spot physically when it
• 7:29
  gets into the year. And then now when they pull back
• 7:31
  into display, they're doing they're looking really good.
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  Now when you think about maybe like big, big power for schools
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  now, like in non conference, usually you're going to play,
• 7:42
  you know, a lot of matchups for maybe some smaller schools that
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  like are by games, you know you're going to win during those
• 7:49
  periods, you can push that develop side more.
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  And then maybe once you get towards the conference play
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  where you're battling these other power four teams and every
• 7:58
  night's battle, then it shifts more to that display a little
• 8:01
  bit. So I think it's understanding
• 8:03
  your situation and and understanding how we can
• 8:06
  fluctuate between these periods based on what the schedule is
• 8:10
  showing. And and you can even think about
• 8:13
  this less even even from, yes, a like non conference conference
• 8:18
  standpoint, offseason in season, but even a shorter period of
• 8:22
  just a week. I like to think of it on a week
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  to where you know, which part, which days are really pushing
• 8:28
  development more? Which days are we pushing
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  display more? And it kind of similar concept
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  like the quadrant system or something like that, where you
• 8:35
  know, you have these differing focuses of stress in both
• 8:38
  practice and training and in the weight room.
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  Same thing with developers display, like maybe if we're
• 8:43
  playing like a Thursday, Saturday games, we can push
• 8:47
  development a little bit earlier in the week when we're further
• 8:50
  from those games. And then as we get closer to the
• 8:52
  games, then we shift that continuum more towards display.
• 8:55
  So even within that that smaller time period, we're still seeing
• 9:01
  kind of undulation between developed display continuum.
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  And while we we have these heuristics for like when to
• 9:07
  develop and display during the year for the team, it might even
• 9:11
  be different for individuals. Red shirt or very low minute
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  athletes could stay towards the developed side.
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  Almost even more could stay towards the developed side,
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  almost the whole, you know, more of the whole season.
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  Again, we don't want to have them stuck fully develop the
• 9:28
  entire year that there's got to be a little bit of balance there
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  I think at some points, but you can really basically push that
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  develop for them if they're not playing games now, extremely
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  hymenite athletes might shift more towards that display side
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  and training during the season. Now they're, they're going to
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  get a lot of development from their higher minutes in the
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  games too. So that's kind of helping with
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  that balance a little bit. And, and when we when we think
• 9:54
  about taking this, this timeline of the continuum down to an even
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  shorter level 1, important thing I like to think about is, is
• 10:01
  game day. And, and when looking at a game
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  day, I believe it is about displaying ability, unless it is
• 10:09
  that red shirt or no or low minute player.
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  And for me, that means that, you know, if you're a basketball,
• 10:17
  like a shoot around volleyball server pass, you know, whatever
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  it is you're that you do before a game, that should run our
• 10:23
  pregame prep earlier in the day, should be about doing enough to
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  have your, your team or athlete feel technically intactly ready
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  to go during the game, but not enough to truly take away their
• 10:37
  energy or, or cause them to have fatigue during the game.
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  Same goes for warmups before the game.
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  You know, in the basketball, it's common for players to spend
• 10:46
  so much time and energy shooting before the game even starts.
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  You know, I'm, when I was at Texas Tech using connects on
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  data, we had this huge game at Kansas.
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  You know, I think like #2 team in the nation or something like
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  that. And I found a player accumulated
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  way more load and mileage in the the combined shoot around and
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  pregame warmups then he did playing 28 minutes in a a high
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  intensity, crazy environment at Kansas that came down to like a
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  two point game against one of the top teams in the nation.
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  You know it. I remember when I was at Oral
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  Roberts, I, I would talk to the team because I started to see
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  some of these things too, that, you know, this happens every
• 11:28
  year. And I talked to them a few games
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  in the season about, about this concept developed display and
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  thinking about game day. Like, you've got $100 to spend,
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  right? And would you rather spend
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  $50.00 in warmups and shoot around and then $50.00 in the
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  game, or would you rather spend $15 in the warmups and shoot
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  around in $85 in the game? And what, what truly matters?
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  What do you want to what do you want to spend your money on?
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  What, what what matters most game day is, I don't believe
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  necessarily time to develop new skills or abilities.
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  If you're someone that's playing real minutes that if we're
• 12:01
  talking about basketball, an athletic post player that the
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  coach needs to roll hard, run in transition, rebound and play
• 12:07
  great defense doesn't need to spend an hour and a half
• 12:10
  shooting 3 point shots before the game.
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  And I see that happen. But that's not how they're going
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  to impact the game, right? They're going to impact the game
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  by being fresh to go play their role with as much effort and
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  intensity as they possibly can and displaying their ability.
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  Now maybe a highly skilled player might spend a little more
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  time preparing for the game, but I still believe that they should
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  not work so much that they take away from their ability to shoot
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  in the game. Great.
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  When I was that we were state at the end of the year, I kind of
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  tried to break down some stats because we had three of our best
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  players were just absolute gym rats.
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  Like insanely, insanely competitive, insanely hard work,
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  hard working, and in the gym all the time.
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  They were awesome, but there's also, you know, there's a
• 12:54
  balance of that again to do the the right amount of work so they
• 12:57
  can be their best. I try to break down some stats
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  from looking at home games versus away games versus neutral
• 13:04
  site games on like, you know, MTE or the conference tournament
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  and kind of kind of situations without home games.
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  Those guys would normally do a skilled workout on their own in
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  the morning, then we'd have shoot around, then they would
• 13:18
  have a skilled workout earlier before the game and then we'd
• 13:22
  play the game and then on the road, they wouldn't be able to
• 13:26
  logistically do that morning skill work on their own.
• 13:29
  So basically they'd have shoot around, they'd have the skill
• 13:31
  workout right before the game, then we have the game.
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  But now at at conference tournament at Mt ES, right,
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  You're usually not going to get a lot of time to do those half
• 13:42
  skill workouts or even have long before the game where I even
• 13:45
  have a long shoot around. Usually, you know, sometimes
• 13:47
  like you get a 30 minute shoot around for your, your conference
• 13:51
  tournament and it's like that you got to get off completely
• 13:54
  after that and you don't get all those extra skill workouts.
• 13:56
  And then, you know, maybe you're warming up on the side of the
• 13:59
  court at first before the game before you finishing.
• 14:02
  So you don't have as much time to do all that pre game warmups
• 14:06
  and actual skill workouts. OK, so the, the work throughout
• 14:09
  that day is taken away a lot. That's what I tried to do is I,
• 14:12
  I broke down those 3 guys shooting percentages from those
• 14:15
  three different situations. And what I found is at home they
• 14:21
  had the lowest shooting percentages, on the road they
• 14:25
  had the second highest and then they had their highest shooting
• 14:29
  percentages on the conference tournament MTE games where we
• 14:35
  had the least amount of game day work done right.
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  And I think with a lot of players, there's this concept of
• 14:41
  I need to do all this work to be able to go shoot well.
• 14:45
  But I've, I've often seen it work the other way, where the
• 14:48
  more work people do, the less they're able to perform and
• 14:53
  shoot well in those games. And I'm not saying to not do
• 14:56
  anything the day of a game because I think especially for
• 15:00
  skilled players and, and players that put in a lot of work, there
• 15:03
  is this factor of feeling mentally prepared, right?
• 15:06
  Feeling like they've done their work and they've got their
• 15:09
  rhythm. But I think we do need to keep
• 15:12
  the main thing the main thing and be able to go display the
• 15:15
  ability on game day, right? I had, you know, another player
• 15:19
  or Roberts, I remember in in the summer league were at during
• 15:23
  conference play, most of the pretty much every Saturday game
• 15:26
  on the road would be like an afternoon or morning tip off.
• 15:30
  So we usually wouldn't, we'd sometimes have an optional shoot
• 15:35
  around on those days where they could just go kind of shoot like
• 15:38
  we wouldn't really do all that work.
• 15:39
  And then those guys also they're not getting extra skill
• 15:42
  workouts. They're not doing all that.
• 15:44
  We had this one guy that and he's literally led the nation, I
• 15:48
  believe in minutes, like 39 minutes.
• 15:50
  And it was funny because in those games where we would go no
• 15:55
  shoot around and just show up like he would play his, his, his
• 15:59
  best games or shoot best shooting percentages.
• 16:01
  And, and some of those games, and I feel like this because
• 16:05
  like if you're playing 39 minutes of the game, like you
• 16:08
  need to spend as much of that $100 on the game as possible.
• 16:12
  And it can be different for a 10 to 15 minute athlete, but
• 16:16
  especially if you're playing high minutes like that.
• 16:18
  And we need to prioritize spending, budgeting our money to
• 16:22
  actually being able to use it when it matters most.
• 16:26
  Now, when we think about the other side, one, one thing I
• 16:28
  think about a lot is like how to keep those low meter no minute
• 16:32
  players ready for when their opportunities called with
• 16:36
  continue continued development for them in season, while at the
• 16:39
  same time keeping high minute players maybe when they need to
• 16:43
  be towards the display side and practice.
• 16:45
  So kind of having these differentiation within the the
• 16:48
  practice side. And like, one thing I've thought
• 16:51
  about is like, OK, the day before a game is usually going
• 16:53
  to be a shorter practice, right, more towards the display side.
• 16:56
  And and they're usually work, you know, the, the the stars
• 16:59
  going to work against the scout team compared to maybe a more
• 17:02
  live competitive play type of day.
• 17:04
  One question I I frequently think about is how to keep no
• 17:07
  minute or low minute players ready for when their
• 17:10
  opportunities call with development in season.
• 17:13
  Because I think what you see is like as the season shifts on,
• 17:17
  there's might be less of that. Just live play and practice.
• 17:21
  But then like the guys, the athletes that are playing,
• 17:24
  they're getting that in the games.
• 17:25
  But if you're not playing, you're missing out on that
• 17:27
  aspect. And then obviously they're
• 17:29
  usually getting extra lifts, extra conditioning, maybe extra
• 17:32
  skills. But I think that live
• 17:34
  competitive piece is critical to actually developing from a, from
• 17:40
  a decision making, from a skill standpoint, from just so many
• 17:43
  aspects, even just a actual real game conditioning standpoint
• 17:48
  too. So like, how do we keep them
• 17:50
  ready for that? But then it's also like we could
• 17:53
  throw more than in, But then what if they do have to play?
• 17:55
  And then it's like they did that the day before or after the
• 17:57
  game. So, so one idea I have has for
• 18:00
  for basketball recently is to use small sided games.
• 18:04
  Are these players within a practice that shorter and and
• 18:07
  maybe less competitive like the day before a game, right, where
• 18:10
  we're trying to just display like more on the display side.
• 18:14
  So the players that are going to play can feel good the next day.
• 18:17
  But then again, these players are missing out on that.
• 18:19
  So it's like, OK, after that practice throwing something like
• 18:22
  2-4 minute full court three on three games, right?
• 18:26
  Maybe one of them is like halfway through practice and
• 18:28
  one's at the end of practice and where they're they're getting
• 18:31
  some of that conditioning that they're getting developed their
• 18:33
  skill and live competitive abilities.
• 18:34
  And they're going to put a lot more effort into that than just
• 18:37
  just an extra conditioning session.
• 18:38
  And, you know, in order to keep the entire team engaged, like I,
• 18:42
  I even want the hymen players to coach the teams, right?
• 18:45
  Let them develop their their tactical ability and game
• 18:48
  situations without taxing them physically, because I think you
• 18:52
  don't want to disengage them from that practice.
• 18:55
  And I think to make it even more fun, engaging for all the
• 18:57
  players, right Stat, everything, right, both of the players
• 19:01
  playing and players coaching and keep leaderboards over the
• 19:03
  course of the season in the locker room, right.
• 19:07
  And I think like athletes that are stuck completely in the
• 19:08
  developed side in season with no hope of playing like that, like
• 19:12
  they know they're they're not going to get a play or even like
• 19:14
  obviously Richards know that. I've definitely seen it where
• 19:17
  they start to lose motivation right to work that they did the
• 19:20
  same the way they did in the offseason.
• 19:22
  I think giving them opportunities like that to truly
• 19:24
  compete, have fun playing the game they love and even earn
• 19:28
  some bragging rights for doing it with those leaderboards can
• 19:30
  be a great opportunity to keep them engaged in their
• 19:33
  development and stay ready for when the number does get called.
• 19:36
  If it does and there could you could do that a million
• 19:38
  different ways. Like I know teams that do that
• 19:40
  like the day after. It's just always like figuring
• 19:44
  out the best logistics of when you can do that while if you
• 19:48
  know, making sure that they are still going to be ready if they
• 19:53
  do have to get called in if somebody gets hurt something the
• 19:55
  game and they're not just dead from that extra stuff.
• 19:57
  So it's kind of a balance, but I think there's a lot of ways you
• 20:01
  can play around with doing that. And we could go on and on
• 20:04
  talking about the different factors, different situations
• 20:07
  that could influence where to be on this develop versus play
• 20:10
  continuum. And it's not a black or white
• 20:13
  model, but I think it's a model that can be useful and just and
• 20:16
  just helpful and thinking. You know about what to do, how
• 20:20
  much to do it and when to do it. And just asking yourself some of
• 20:25
  those questions and, and thought processes of of, of really what
• 20:28
  you're trying to get out for an athlete or a team based on kind
• 20:32
  of where they're at in that year season.
• 20:34
  But I think some questions that you can ask yourself as you're
• 20:37
  thinking about this is, is 1 like when do we need to be our
• 20:41
  best right? To what times of the year can I
• 20:45
  push the development button? The hardest three, do I find
• 20:48
  myself constantly sticking or leaning to one side versus the
• 20:51
  other four? Am I differentiating based on
• 20:54
  individual athlete needs and roles?
• 20:56
  Plus the time of Year 5 is an app.
• 20:59
  If an athlete or group is stuck on the development side, like
• 21:03
  the red shirts in season, how can we provide the mental aspect
• 21:06
  of getting to go compete and display what they can do?
• 21:10
  Because I think that's going to really help with long term
• 21:12
  development. And then lastly, we can ask
• 21:14
  yourself is what is actually going to help the athlete be
• 21:17
  their best right now, develop or display?
• 21:20
  So there's some questions I think just reflect on at certain
• 21:22
  parts of the year that can help guide decision making.
• 21:25
  You know, I hope this was helpful.
• 21:26
  This is something that that has been really helpful for me as I
• 21:29
  just think through decision making.
• 21:31
  Thank, thank you to everybody. Listen today.
• 21:33
  I'll catch you next time on the next episode of the Strength in
• 21:35
  Numbers podcast.