WILLIAM TWIGG – LONDON LIONS ACADEMY HEAD COACH – EPISODE 989

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Email – coachtwigg95@gmail.com

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William Twigg is currently the Head Coach for the London Lions Academy.  He also has coached for the Essex Rebels in the Women’s British Basketball League, the NewVic Knights at the college level in the UK, and the Oaklands Wolves – an English Sports club.

Twigg was a Cavs Academy Coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers during the summer of 2018.  In addition, he has coached at Snow Valley Basketball Camp in Iowa for the past seven summers beginning in 2018.  Twigg’s ultimate career goal is to coach at the highest level of the game in the NBA.

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What We Discuss with William Twigg

• Developing his dream of coaching in the NBA when he was playing and coaching for his local club in the Uk at age 11
• The benefits of older players coaching younger players
• Creating a community within a basketball club where players at all levels feel connected to each other
• Teachers at school that tried to tell him he could not become a successful basketball coach
• ” If you don’t align your goals and your aspirations within a team, then it doesn’t really work.”
• “I really tried to have my own individual way rather than be the kind of copycat kid.”
• Balancing being cool and collected versus being enthusiastic and passionate
• “If you’re passionate about this, you know you don’t really do it for the money.”
• His first paid coaching position at NewVic
• Building communication skills in himself and his players
• “There’s positive reinforcement for what’s happening. And it’s that coach’s clap.”
• Watching film from all different sources and levels of the game to improve his coaching
• 3 on 3 cutthroat as the best example of the Constraints led approach
• The rapid learning takes place when coaches share knowledge like the London Lions Academy does
• “I try not to turn down opportunities. I see value in an opportunity where I can network as well at the same time.”
• His opportunity to work for the Cavs during the summer of 2018
• The steps he’s taking to achieve his goal of one day coaching in the NBA

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THANKS, WILLIAM TWIGG

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TRANSCRIPT FOR WILLIAM TWIGG – LONDON LIONS ACADEMY HEAD COACH – EPISODE 989

[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here without my co-host Jason Sunkle this morning, but I am pleased to be joined by William Twigg, head coach at the London Lions Academy. William, welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod.

[00:00:16] William Twigg: Hey Mike, great to be here. Thanks for having me. Really appreciate it.

[00:00:19] Mike Klinzing: Thrilled to have you on. William and I got a chance to meet in person a number of years ago at Snow Valley out in Iowa. So it’s good for us to be able to reunite. William, let’s start by going back in time to when you were a kid. Tell me a little bit about how you got into the game of basketball when you were younger and what made you fall in love with it.

[00:00:38] William Twigg: Sure. Yeah. So this basketball crazy journey started when I was about eight years old. Me and my dad and my, my brother and my family, my sister and brother, we used to go to this holiday park. And there was this outdoor basketball court. My brother brought back a Sprite USA basketball from Florida.

And we used to play basketball in this outdoor park. And that is where the love of the game right started. And then from there, it’s been a whirlwind of a journey. But yeah, that’s the quick version.

[00:01:08] Mike Klinzing: So as you get into the game, was your family as into it as you were?

[00:01:14] William Twigg: So funny enough, no, like, so basketball is a very it’s a very small sport here in the UK and it’s got bigger over, over the last 29, 30 years. It’s got a lot bigger. But no, my dad played a little bit at high school from the area he’s from and that was it, but no real big background.

We tried football or as you guys call it, soccer out there. Once upon a time, I realized I had two left feet and I couldn’t kick a ball straight, so then I picked up a basketball and that was it. It was a story over.

[00:01:43] Mike Klinzing: It always seems to me, I always used to say, because I played almost zero soccer and it’s funny because the community where I grew up and where I still live today is a big soccer slash football community.

And at the time when I was younger, it wasn’t nearly to the same level that it is today, but I never was a soccer player. And I always kind of joke with people. I’m like, yeah, in order for it to be a real sport, you have to use your hands. And so it never seemed like I’m like soccer. I just can’t, I can’t get over the fact that I can’t use my.

And it’s probably an outdated way of thinking and people in my community probably won’t be happy, but it’s okay. I completely relate. My point is, I completely relate to your upbringing in basketball and why you chose basketball over soccer. I think it was a very, very good choice. So, as you get into the game more, what about the game?

Did you like, and as a player, were you already thinking about coaching at some point, or was it something that you didn’t really think about until later on in your life? So just, again, when were you thinking about coaching and what was your playing experience like?

[00:02:53] William Twigg: Sure. Yeah. So I played for my local club, Redwood Fire from the age of seven, eight my mom and dad found just the local club to near me and that was it.

And then by the time I used to love that. I used to absolutely love that. It was like two sessions a week all community based, loads of young coaches and they’d help out. And I still have very good memories of a lot of them coaches and the inspiration they gave me to be where I am today.

And from the age of 11, I got invited by the club, the owners of the club. Do I want to start helping out in their underage session? And the moment it was a no brainer for me to do that. It was to be in a position where I could do the things I lots of role models at that age, cause they, they were very good at putting young figureheads as role models and inspiring, like the next generation was great if young people and that, that really took off for me.

And that’s, and that’s where actually the coaching journey started. And then from very young age, 11. Obviously I’ve always, all my friends have said the dream of playing in the NBA, not one of them made it, obviously. The UK is such a very small my goal is obviously a coach in the NBA. And that’s been my dream ever since.

And I’ve got an end goal and I think I’m going to get there one day and I fully believe that.

[00:04:08] Mike Klinzing: it’s funny when I hear you talk about just getting a start by coaching younger kids when you’re only 11 or 12 years old yourself and you’re getting involved and you’re talking about your experience looking up to role models.

And it’s one of the things that when I look back and I’m a lot older than you, but when I look back on myself, As a player and my introduction to the game, both from a playing standpoint, and then I guess a little bit on the coaching side, although I guess I wasn’t really thinking of myself necessarily as a coach, but when I was a kid, we used to have in my community, our recreation program, where the, High school players would coach the younger kids and that would be the recreation league.

And so I still remember, and a lot of cases, I still talk to a couple of the guys that coached me when I was, let’s say, 9, 10, 11 years old. And then conversely, there’s some guys that I coached when I got to high school that I still am connected with today. And I feel like that connection that was made between the younger and the older players, kind of like you were describing where you looked up to the players that were older than you and your club.

And then the players that were younger than you got, you got an opportunity to influence them. And I really feel like that’s a really, really good system for just inspiring kids to want to continue to be a part of that particular organization, whether it’s. Like you described in the UK, where it’s a basketball club or here in the United States, where it’s a high school basketball program.

I just think it’s something that is really, really good for kids on both sides of that equation. And in so many ways here in the U S we’ve gone away from that, where. You don’t see very many of young players coaching other young players. It’s all become parent driven where almost all the coaches of youth basketball are parents who are, and again, not that necessarily you as an 11 year old were trained in the skills of being a great coach, but a lot of the parents that we have here are not.

Always skilled in the ability to be a great coach either. And I just think that there’s, there’s something missing that I feel like it sounds like was a really good experience for you. And I know it was a good experience for me in terms of just that interaction between different age groups within the same, again, in your case, club, in my case, high school program.

[00:06:33] William Twigg: Without a doubt. And I think when it hits home at that age of being really susceptible to actually change and different people and you’re learning and taking different environments and I think it’s a great tool. And I think it could be definitely in the UK, it could be done more to actually create not necessarily just better coaches, but better people as well.

Better young people as well. And at one point in my career when I was at a college in East London so this is, so college in the UK is obviously 16 to 18 year olds. We have six forms at the end of high school. So it’s that senior level. We also call it college which is a different Institute of education and We really try to push the players I had there to go out into East London and teach in different deprived areas and just teaching basic leadership skills.

And that really helped them progress. And I think it’s such a good tool. Yeah. And the fact that you’ve still got the memories, Mike, with your age versus my, my age of 29. Yeah, I mean, it’s a no brainer for me, but yeah, it’s great.

[00:07:37] Mike Klinzing: I just feel like it’s beneficial on both sides. I feel like it’s beneficial for the kids who are receiving the coaching from older kids that they look up to.

And then conversely, for the older ones to be able to, to try to teach the game and articulate it and step into those leadership skills that you talked about. It feels to me like it’s something that. We’ve missed here in the U S I don’t think it’s ever going back, unfortunately, but I do think it’s something that when I look back on my own experience, that I really feel like was a positive in my development as a basketball player, but also, as you said, my development as a person.

And I think from a coaching standpoint, that’s something that is really critical. Looking back at your time early on, when you first were getting those opportunities to work with those younger players, About coaching. Did you love right away? Was there one or two things you were like, man, I really like this aspect of getting to coach again, in that case, young kids.

[00:08:36] William Twigg: Yeah. So it, they were the club that was at Brimwood fire. They were really good. The two owners that ran it, they were really good in creating a community within the club. And they had ages from under eight all the way through to senior men. So there was a pathway and it was a continued pathway. But there would be constant like there would just be constant contact of opportunity.

And they were, and they were very smart in a business sense and tactically of creating different opportunities. So we have various holiday breaks in the UK. So every half term of school, there’d be a week off. So they would theme that week on a certain element. So for example, it was called Hoops Habits.

It was all skill development. There was no necessarily playing and they, they were good at creating like a certification through that, through in the club, not an official national certification, their own like criteria. And that would be for half term. But then when you get to the big holidays, you said that was October half term and you got to the big holiday, which is Christmas, then there’d be a big Christmas camp for, I don’t know, four or five days and that would be a different element to it, where it’s more fun and more, more games and competitiveness, but they would, they would get all their young coaches to take a team and teams were like drafted and selected.

And it would all be like on a scoreboard like on a big white board and everyone would have a team name and everyone have a certain color shirt and there’d be like a, you got to design your shirt on one day and all that and you can cut the sleeves off and do whatever. It’s just constant memories I’ll never forget and it’s definitely implemented on me of running a small, successful club. And really, really, yeah, really hits home. And that’s a massive thing. I think that they’re the memories of like camps like that. Then obviously in season, there were teams would go abroad and play in Italy or Holland.

Yeah. And it’s, yeah, they’re just memories. My mom’s been clearing out the house and she found a load of photos. And then as this would sort of be, there’d be a load of photos as well. There’d be photo opportunities where you could buy photos and all that and keep all the memories. And like a camp tour DVD.

So I had to find a DVD player recently, trying to, because obviously my MacBook doesn’t have a DVD slot. So yeah, They were very good at that. And I think that’s had a big big drive for me and especially someone I, I really struggled in education. I really struggled being dyslexic in primary school and high school.

We just combined the middle school and the high school together. And, and basketball has really been an outlet and coaching has been a bigger outlet for me for where I can feel I can really progress in in my career. And it’s really helped.

[00:11:16] Mike Klinzing: Was there a moment that You knew you wanted to be a coach?

Was it a light bulb or was it more of a gradual realization that, Hey, I think this is what I want to make my profession. Or was it one moment where you were just like, man, coaching is what I want to do. I don’t know if either one of those describes you better.

[00:11:35] William Twigg: So if I take it back to the education side, I had a lot of experiences where it’s, Oh, you can’t do this, or you’re not able to do that.

And you’re not really good at that. And I’ve had teachers say that to me before I really, I remember 12 being at 12 being told, oh yeah, you’ll never do that. You’ll never go and be like a successful basketball coach. There’s no career in that, et cetera. I remember a teacher telling me that.

And I think realizing, being in a real positive environment at a young age of trying to help seven, eight year olds to start and then building up all the way through and the young people in front of me enjoy the opportunity they’ve had in their past experience. I think that’s been the biggest selling point for me.

I’m a bit of a dreamer and I like to, I’m a bit of a go hard or go home and my goal is to be the best I can be and have that performance mentality and obviously the biggest, the highest level in NBA second obviously the Olympics I’d say with that just being done. But yeah, that’s the.

I think the realizations of, more of the two realizations, the yin and yang of it, has been really the thing that’s really motivated me and get me.

[00:12:49] Mike Klinzing: So you mentioned some teachers that sort of tried to kill your dream and tell you, hey, that’s not really possible. Who were, a person or two or who was a person or two that inspired you that you looked to that maybe you looked up to as a mentor?

[00:13:09] William Twigg: Sure. Yeah. So one of them was a high school PE teacher. He was in a really big basis in hockey. He used to play hockey for England’s like national team. But He was just a real fan of the game to start, but actually took the time and education to devote and learn basketball to a T. And not just like the basic fundamentals or the skill element, as some might say, but actually the tactical technical and the X’s and O’s, which was quite surprising for someone that’s never played the game.

But he, he gave me a lot of outlet and a lot of opportunity during high school. One to get to play again because I went through phases of playing and coaching when I was young and I’d always coached but sometimes I stopped playing to coach because I just had more satisfaction and more enjoyment out of that.

And at that age, being a really young, immature coach, like, enjoyed the winning element as well, saying, Oh yeah, I like this. It’s a bit different now, but I think anyone that coaches the game, there’s that element of obviously they want to win, and all the players, they want to win, and they obviously, they burn off if you don’t kind of align your goals and your aspirations within a team, then it doesn’t really work.

But yeah, no, from a young age, that was the thing. But yeah, he was a great guy, Pete Ware. He was a really great guy. And he’s a counterpart of Gary Sapsford. He was like the head of sports. So a little bit like an AD. But he would also teach me at the same time them two, yeah, them two, two big figureheads.

I’ve had look after me and took me under their wing during my high school days. And really motivated me and really pushed out the boat for me as much as I could.

[00:14:46] Mike Klinzing: So when you think about one or both of them, is there some part of your coaching today that you feel like traces back directly to their influence?

Is there anything that you can point to and kind of your coaching style, your coaching personality that you can trace back to one of those guys?

[00:15:07] William Twigg: Yeah, I think it’s developed over the time, Mike, from where I started. So I think with coaches are very good at I think it might’ve been Alex Sarama who’s approved on this.

And we’ve spoke about it yourself and spoke about it before. It might’ve been someone else actually on Hoop Heads. It’s like people copycat, they kind of copycat and relate back to how they were coached. How they were coached as players so I really tried to have my own individual way rather than be the kind of copycat kid, if that makes sense, but, but some things, they were both very different.

And again, there were a bit of the yin and yang as well. One was very Not uptight, but very enthusiastic and very passionate on the sideline. Not in a negative way, I think in all in the right way. And then the other was more cool, calm, collective. And I know sometimes I try and the way I see coaching now in this day and age, as a head coach, it’s, you’re putting on two hats, but it’s also like, it’s drama and you’re acting.

In a sense. So like, rather than get too emotional and too attached and not be able to think rationally and logically, I’d put on my sapo hat and I’d find you to pump them up a little bit and be a bit more enthusiastic or get on the refs back a little bit just to get the players re motivated and that hat will go on or if I need to just more stand back and watch the environment that’s in front of me and be able to challenge and make changes with a logical sense.

I then put the other hat on. And so if that answers your question.

[00:16:28] Mike Klinzing: No, it does. I mean, I think again, obviously your evolution as a coach and just how you think about the game and how you approach what you do as a coach changes over time. It’s natural as the game grows and you get exposed to more things and you start to look and you figure out what works for you and what maybe doesn’t work as well for you that works for somebody else.

And clearly all the time, when you have innovative minds, and you obviously mentioned Alex who’s somebody that is on the cutting edge of a lot of new things in coaching which we’ll get to here in a little bit, yeah, I think you and change from where you were at the beginning of your career. And so tell me a little bit about the first.

I don’t want to say real coaching opportunity, but your first true employment, as a coach, as opposed to just work in within the club while you’re still playing.

[00:17:19] William Twigg: Yeah. So I’ll have a. Funny enough, I actually started making money from the age of 12, which was great. So I started to, I volunteered for a year and then they were paying me like 20, I think it’s like 15 or 20 pounds an hour, which was incredible.

And then yeah, and I was smart. I was able to save my money and mum and dad directed me in that sense and made some good investments and I was fortunate to get an opportunity to go to Cleveland to volunteer. So I spent a lot of money on that and some, and my Nan gave me some money to do that, which was great.

Just to shout out to that experience and that opportunity. But my first real paid full time job was the college I mentioned earlier was New Vic Sixth Form College. And funny enough, my now wife, she found me that opportunity cause I was in an opportunity where it’s prior to that was about 10,000 pounds for the season.

So like a stipend, but paid over 10 months. And it was quite wealthy area. And that was tough cause about 500, so it was about a grand a month. And the salary for that. And it was it was about 500 pounds on bills and the rent and then the rest was like the food and the shopping and all that, but, but yeah, as, as, as if you’re, if you’re passionate about this, you never know you don’t really do it for the money.

That’s a lot of people do. But yeah, that new NewVic was great and that gave me a real opportunity to flourish as a young head coach with everything on my own back, the whole performance program, all the individuals scouting, film stats, the lot, the organization, the team managing. And that’s what it’s like in the UK.

You’ll find that there are a lot of coaches that will have to go or try and do all of that if they can manage it, they’ll do it or certain things will drop off. But that’s a really big thing. But yeah, that was the first full employment role I had.

[00:19:12] Mike Klinzing: Do you have a favorite aspect of, you’ve talked about right there, just doing Kind of everything as a head coach, if you could keep some things on your plate and maybe take some things off your plate, what are the things that you absolutely love that are, hey, no matter what position I’m in, I want to make sure that I get to do these things.

Like there’s some coaches that are analytics. Some guys love player development. Some coaches love the X’s and O’s. Some love the, the culture and the, and the relationships they build with players. What are sort of your. Non negotiables of things that would have to be a part of anything that you do as a basketball coach.

[00:19:53] William Twigg: Sure, I think as a head coach in any environment you have to be get to know film really well and that’s something I’ve enjoyed more and more watching film and I’ve been doing a lot more actually watching a lot more. I will now always film myself coaching and I’ll put a tripod in the area and I can watch all certain things in another environment.

I was in another work and we used GoPros, which was great. And, and that way I would be able to see players reactions to how the session goes and, and et cetera. And that was really good. I learned a lot from that, but definitely the film element is something like. I think you’ve always got to be, if you want to be in the professional industry, but then also just as an enjoyment, it is film, that’s for sure.

The other element to it is, in that environment, trying to get, making the players, the students, the kids realize that they’re 16 to 18. They’re trying to earn their education to go to university. Majority. All 23 players, there was probably about four of them that had their heads screwed on.

Right. The rest all thought they were gonna go to the NBA all year. Of course, of course. It’s and that’s or the B or the BBL in our case or whatever the new name of it is now basketball Super League and, that journey of educating and creating a performance environment to some young people that have probably never been in a performance environment or will never get the opportunity further going on to be in a performance environment that is a real big take on it.

So just the, having the team meetings and giving them my like, I’d have like four I’d pick, or the team would pick four players and they’d be like the leadership group of the team. And they would bring to me any like issues, any problems like as a, more of a team collective, like they all had, I had an open door office.

So all 23 players could knock on my door in my office and if they needed anything or education’s going wrong or, or the teacher said this, or the teacher said that I’d always get both sides before making decisions. And sometimes I’d take the kids. Be brave about it, but I take the kids back over to some of the teachers, not saying that’s always the right way to do it.

But obviously having them difficult conversations. And I was a guy that the thing that I missed is being in an institute of education and we were big on Gmail. They love Gmail. They just implemented Gmail and Google or the Google drive and all that. And that was great, but I would always follow up an email. I would always have the conversation first. Face to face. Never, I’d never just rely on emails. Right. Be someone being a keyboard warrior, I hated that. I would always make sure, just day to day conversations, all different departments in education and facilities and the heads and that was a big thing I loved.  I think that’s important element as well.

[00:22:42] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, that face to face contact. And I think having conversations with players and then, as you said, just being part of a larger community, there is something to be said for that. I know there’s a lot of coaches at all levels of the game that, that really do enjoy that aspect of sort of having their program be Part of a bigger entity, whether that be, again, a high school level, college level, whatever it might be.

And then you’re just getting to know people outside of the team, outside of basketball. And there’s, there’s a lot of things that can be a positive from that. And you talked a little bit about film and I’ve talked to several coaches that have filmed themselves. And it’s always interesting when you watch yourself coach and you pick up little things.

And I know it’s funny that when I’ve filmed myself and my own kids always tell me, dad, whenever something goes wrong, you always put your hands on your head. And it’s something that I don’t really notice obviously in the moment. And then you watch it on film. You’re like, Oh my gosh, I do it almost every single time something goes wrong.

I’m like, I got to fix that. And so was there anything that jumped out at you when you were watching yourself over the years? Is there anything that you’ve picked up on that? You’re like, Hey, I’ve got to eliminate that. Or, Hey, that looks really good. I got to do more of.

[00:23:54] William Twigg: For sure. It differs. So in a game when I was a lot younger and I was coaching, so club, so national league the biggest thing is, and you see it quite common in a lot of coaches is commentating, actually commentating what’s happening on the floor.

And that was one thing that I started, I think it’s just that natural process of you go through. And that was one thing that I saw to start. But then on the other sense, something I do pick up and I still do it now. And I think it’s a good thing. It’s a coach’s clap. It’s when whatever, if you’re running the triggers or gets or actions or motion or sets or whatever you’re running in your offense or your defense, et cetera and the outcome might not be a basket, but there’s there’s positive reinforcement for what’s happening.

And it’s that coach’s clap and then, Hey, great job. And. That’s something I’ve picked up that I’ve tried to keep. And someone actually brought that to me and said, Oh, great coaches clap. And I was like, Oh, thanks. I was like, what is that? And then I looked back at film and I looked back at about, I looked at film about 10 years ago, I had some really, really old film and yeah, seeing, I was doing that then. That was quite cool to watch. But there are two little qualities I’ve seen, definitely.

[00:25:07] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. Who or what do you watch beyond your own team? In other words, where are you going to watch things that you can take, borrow, incorporate, steal, whatever word you want to use?

Who are you watching that’s doing interesting things that you try to pick up when you’re watching film?

[00:25:25] William Twigg: Sure. So in the past, I think it’s definitely Snow Valley’s been a big help. Being there for six, seven years as a volunteer and being able to have that big grasp of network, that’s really helped.

And obviously watching people’s social medias off the back of that has been a big help. So someone like a Joel Lincoln from GameShots, who I know you’ve spoke to before like we stay, we’re really close and we stay in contact and like seeing different outlets like that on social media for sure.

Definitely Olympics and Free World Cup. That’s a big one. And even past games, I remember at university, me and my friend we both worked at the same club at university and we were like dorm buddies. We were across dorms from each other. We’d rewatch old Olympic games from 2012 and 08, Beijing and, and we’d watch, we might have a beer in our hand watching it, but we’d still make notes at the same time.

We’d find different corny ways to watch film like that. And just so it doesn’t get too repetitive and too boring in a sense. And we’d have great conversations off the back of that. Shout out, yeah, to Kieran for that. Matthews. But yeah. It’s definitely progressed more, Mike. From someone who’s very committed and dedicated to basketball, I didn’t spend a lot of time watching film at a young age, and over the, I’d say over the 10 years, it’s definitely increased more and more and more and more now, probably a bit unhealthy right now the amount I watch, but well that’s what my wife tells me.

But definitely for sure It’s a mixture. It’s got to be a mixture different from coaching clinics off YouTube. From as you said, like Olympics World Cup, NBA at times. Listening, even, even listening to podcasts, like obviously the JJ – LeBron one, that was quite interesting to listen to.

Can’t remember the name of it top of my head, but different, different, obviously yourselves, but different, I try and pull as much as I can from different areas to watch.

[00:27:27] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. Tell me a little bit about how you came to embrace the constraints led approach and then how you’re using it today in your coaching and, and what coaches out there who maybe haven’t heard of it or aren’t using some of the concepts yet, how they could kind of incorporate that into what they do as a coach.

[00:27:50] William Twigg: Sure. So the first interaction I had with the approach was when I went back to university. So, I went back to university two years ago to finish my bachelor’s degree. Because obviously my goal is obviously professional and I believe you have to have a high level of education in that sense, in that area.

But definitely that was where I started to learn about teaching pedagogies and obviously of linear and non linear and that one being constraints of the approach, CLA and one being traditional. And that’s where I first learned about the CLA and that is where. I opened, going back into university and the lecture going on to it and I was like, well, what in the world is this?

Like, and it’s just absolute, it’s like this guy that is just an educator. He doesn’t know, he’s got no coaching experience. He got a Scooby. That was my logical thought at the time, as a 20, 27 year old sitting up with a bunch of kids. 21 year olds trying to finish their bachelor’s degree.

And they all kind of like it’s a bit of a drop off at that age for them. But anyway and I’ve got real life experience at that time. And then the bigger experiences having an opportunity with London Lions, they had a coach’s program and Don Showalter and Alex Sarama were involved.

With some individual like coaching development sessions. I’ve known Alex before that we’ve connected prior to that before but we’ve got to learn each other over the time and that’s, that’s where we start, I start to learn about the further, how you apply the constraints that approach to basketball.

And then obviously very soon off the back of that transforming basketball was started. And yeah, that’s the big of it. And I think the thing that the easiest way I’ve determined how to explain the constraint in that approach is through on three cutthroat. So anyone that’s interested in it imagine creating separate and different rules, constrain a small sided game and how that would then create real opportunity to develop and skill acquisition.

And I would like it. In the past I’ve said, yeah, it’s a bit like cutthroat in a sense.

[00:30:03] Mike Klinzing: I couldn’t agree more with cutthroat being a great example of, from a simplicity standpoint of helping someone understand what the constraints led approach looks like anyone who’s ever been to snow valley and been involved in and seen cutthroat there firsthand, you get a pretty good idea of again, what it can do.

And obviously there’s a lot more things that you can add to it in terms of the constraints and. Can make the game fit what it is that. You’re trying to teach in terms of a given concept or something that fits specifically to your team. And it’s, when you really look at it, it seems like a no brainer in terms of a player’s development, in terms of developing your team, when you’re trying to work on, again, whether it’s a particular action or you’re trying to reinforce a particular behavior on the floor, it feels like it’s a really, really simple way to be able to get yourself out there.

into the constraints led approach. And then obviously you can get into it more when you start talking about individual player development and doing it with two players and one on one. And there’s just a variety of different ways that you can have players who even have different abilities, but by adding in constraints, you can allow those two players to still be able to interact and improve and get better within the confines of what they’re doing, despite the fact that their skill level isn’t exactly.

The same, which we know that there’s, it’s rare that you have two players that have the exact same skillset. So to be able to put those constraints in place, to be able to help players improve, I think is something that just makes a ton of sense. Tell me a little bit about what your day to day is like with the London Lions.

What’s your role, what you do on a daily basis there?

[00:31:52] William Twigg: Sure. So this part, I’ll go through this past season, which I think is a good one to go. So we had four, we started with four coaches, academy coaches and we had three managers. Two of them were the GMs of the women’s team who won the Euro cup final this year which was an incredible achievement.

And then our other manager was Alex. And we created a whole program through Alex with all Monday New Pedagogy with the CLA. And we developed young players that came from all various areas of the UK. We had players from Bristol, we had a couple, one or two players from Bristol we had players from Midlands, we had obviously from London as well, Essex, so they were quite spread out.

And some internationals as well. And we would create a program over the season where they would everything we’d done was untraditional and it was an incredible different environment. And we made sure we could action different, for example, principles of play. Involved, and we had terminology and the beauty of it, every kid was under the same principles of play.

Every kid had the same terminology, and all the coaches were able to all four of us, all five including Maddox as well, we would all we would all go to different sessions, and we would coach each session, and we would have a big Google Drive of everyone’s session plan, and there was about 150 session plans at each age group.

And what we would do, we would obviously like reflect back on the previous session of what they’re doing. We would discuss the each age group’s rate limiters and we would create player development plans for our age group, the, the, an agenda we had, but then we’d also obviously that, as I said, touch base with each of the groups.

And so they would always constantly get, they’d get a different coach with different small sided games. But always the same out the desired outcome that we were trying to teach based on their rate limits as a team. And that was incredible to be in an environment like that. Majority clubs I’ve been involved in or schools, it’s all either you do it on your back and it’s all on your own and it’s what you know or it’s, we’re going to try and implement this.

And then no one really enforces it. And then everyone starts to do their own thing. And the difference I personally saw with the, the camaraderie we all had together and we’d meet once a week at that and, and all going off on the understanding of the same basis, but we all had our personal twist on it a little bit as well.

That was really powerful and that was probably the thing I thought I wasn’t going to enjoy the most is that continuity working with four or five other coaches and being able to bounce ideas off each other. And that was, that was incredible. And from, from our understanding, from what we were told from superiors, like it’s just who have been around various areas of basketball in Europe and the US, it just doesn’t exist.

Not many club programs do that even at the senior level. But yeah, it was incredible, Mike, absolutely incredible.

[00:34:49] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, to be able to collaborate. And I know one of the things that I’ve talked to a couple of guys from IMG Academy here in the US and told a similar story of, it’s just the ability to walk down the hallway or go to someone else’s practice or just talk with someone else who’s in a similar situation and be able to collaborate and bounce ideas off of people as you described.

I mean, I think that that’s a powerful thing because too often I think coaching is like this. I think teaching is like this, that everybody kind of gets in your own little room and you’re doing your own little thing and you get trapped in your own little problem. Sometimes when you can step outside of that and just present what’s going on to somebody else outside who’s not as deeply Invested, involved in the situation, then they can see and bring some clarity to it.

And before you know it, everybody’s improving, getting better and bouncing those ideas. It just seems like it’s something that in all levels of working with, in this case, players, but students, whoever, it just feels like that’s something that we could all in lots of different walks of life do better in terms of collaboration.

Cause like you said, too often, you kind of have everything on your own back and you’re just trying to do it all instead of, Hey, there may be somebody that sits right down the hall from you that. has the answer that you’re beating your head against the wall trying to figure out. And so to be able to have that to, to utilize, I think is, is tremendously powerful.

I want to ask you one final question, William, about your goal to coach in the NBA. So when you think about that as your long term goal, what are one or two of your next steps or what are some things, some actions that you’re trying to take to make that dream come true?

[00:36:27] William Twigg: Yeah. So obviously being a, being a native to America, that’s not an easy thing to do. It’s definitely been a journey these past 18 years. And obviously I’ve been a bit of a yes man and I try not to turn down opportunities I see value in and an opportunity where I can network as well at the same time. But obviously part of it is that and really trying to branch out and network as much as possible.

And I’m continuing that journey. Very fortunate to have my spouse, my wife, he’s she works for an American company. So hopefully we might be heading out to the States sometime soon. I’m trying to figure the logistics of that, but that’s my next step to get it, to get into the country where I can be the number one legally and then which is the most important thing and then you know Well, right.

And then and then obviously you go from there. I mean, having an opportunity, I had a taste with it, with the Cavs. I know you guys, you and Jason are Cleveland guys. And obviously having a three, four month voluntary opportunity with the Cavs back in 2018, that really sold the, okay, if I can figure out a way to volunteer and get involved with the Cavs and create a network there back in 2018,  it was like, there’s no stopping me.

There’s got to be a way I can do it and there’s got to be an opportunity. And that’s, that’s been the biggest selling point. And I think I’ve got some exciting stuff coming forward, coming soon. Hopefully with all this move going ahead. It’s a grind, but it’s not worth doing nothing.

Nothing worth doing is easy, right? And it’s not. And that’s my thing.

[00:38:10] Mike Klinzing: Got it. Very true. Good stuff. All right. Before we get out, I want to give you a chance to share. How can people connect with you, find out more about what you’re doing. So if you want to share email, social media, whatever you feel comfortable with.

And then after you do that, I’ll jump back in and wrap things up.

[00:38:27] William Twigg: Great things, right? So my social media is if you go on, sorry, you’re throwing me off completely there. Let’s start with Gmail. My Gmail is coachtwigg95@gmail.com. My, Instagram, my Twitter my LinkedIn or is under a link tree, which is a VCoach_Twigg each of them social medias have a link to my link tree where you can access all of my information and all my content as well.

[00:38:55] Mike Klinzing: Perfect. William, cannot thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule this afternoon to jump on with us. Really appreciate it. And everyone out there, thanks for listening. And we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.