During every practice, Lady Vols basketball updates the whiteboard.
A method of accountability, Tennessee’s coaching staff tallies up mistakes from practice and shares them with the team. The public nature of the whiteboard forces teammates to reflect on their own performance.
“Sometimes we’ll have a consequence,” Tennessee head coach Kim Caldwell said. “Sometimes we’ll just use it as a teaching point, but just making sure that they’re self-aware. Sometimes as a player, you make the same mistake four or five times. You don’t really realize it over a two hour practice.”
Last season, small moments often cost the Lady Vols games. Whether it was losing an assignment on a last-second shot or not being consistent on the boards late in games, small moments often shaped Tennessee’s results.
That’s something that Caldwell’s whiteboard will try to correct. By making these small errors public now, they won’t have to be public in a game setting.
“We’re trying to get ahead of mistakes now, things that just are reoccurring in practice,” Caldwell said. “Little things like not boxing out, turning the ball over or not having the right person call back that are going to translate to points in a game.”
