The Power of Practice

prac·tice [prak-tis] - (n) repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency; (v) to train or drill (a person, animal, etc.) in something in order to give proficiency (Taken from Dictionary.com)

By definition alone, it seems that practice is important, especially for a competitive team.   You show up to practice and you work on your dribbling, your passing, and other skills that you'll need in the hard fought battles you wage for 32 minutes.  And it's an expectation that after so many practices those things improve, and your muscles commit the required movements to what is referred to as muscle memory.   In a perfect world, this is exactly how it plays out.  But we are not in a perfect world...

What happens if you only halfway do the drills?  It seems like too many kids feel like they can just skate through practice, and then come game day, the stars will align and everything will go well.  But that just doesn't happen.  Now I'm not going to pretend that adrenaline doesn't kick in and help you get that extra speed, that extra "up" - I've been there and experienced it. But that adrenaline dies at some point, even faster when you are losing, and well, then what do you have to rely on?  As cliché as it may be, you play the way you practice.  Shooting is an easy way to see the translation.  A lot of kids see people like Dirk Nowitzki taking those off balanced fade away jump shots off of one leg and consistently making it, and then wondering why they can't do it.  Here's why - For starters, he has committed his release point, form, and hand placement to muscle memory through just practicing a straight up jump shot for hours, making sure each time it is the exact same.   Then he practices putting all of those things into his fade aways while working to commit the take-off and the lean to muscle memory.  In short, you have a lot of practicing to do before you get to that point.  No matter what the skill, if you don't practice it right, it's not going to come out right.  But again, I'm simply stating the obvious.

But here's one thing my team has taught me this year about practice.  Practice earns you respect.  I've always been one to think you earn your minutes in practice, and this season I've noticed that it earns you minutes with your teammates.  I've always been pretty quick to pick up body language, and when certain kids enter the game, you can see the body language quickly scream, "Oh no, this just got harder!"  As much as I would like to break this attitude, it's hard if that kid is constantly making the same mistakes at practice over and over again.  Am I doing what I can to help him out?  Sure.  My assistant and I both are.  But we can only do so much.  If he is consistently dropping passes that are right at him during passing drills in practice, can I blame the kids for not wanting to pass to him in a game situation?  Not really.  So now my challenge is rectifying this.  It's not just me that has to fix it though, that player has to want to fix it too. 

We've got a tough schedule coming up in terms of quantity of games as well as caliber of opponent, and if we're going to get through it, I'm going to need 10 players to contribute and trust in one another.  I have an idea in mind that should help put us in the right position to get the results we want from all 10 kids. It's not going to be anything close to easy, but if I wanted easy, I wouldn't be coaching.

Apology....

Dear readers,

I apologize that I really don't have much to offer this week in terms of a true entry.  Between my full time job and coaching, I had a horrible week, complete with ups and downs, frustrations, and disappointments.  So much so that I am still trying to recover in preparation for the Gauntlet of Games we have scheduled starting Wednesday and hoping that I'll be able to eradicate the evil thoughts and replace them with more positive, and hopefully enlightening, ideas.  I did not want to get on here and blog about all the specific issues of my weekend and then portray my team or team parents in a negative light.  I hope you can understand, and I will see you all later. 

Regards,

Coach  Robert

Thoughts From This Week

I have a million ideas, but can't really find the words to express many of those thoughts in a way that I'm satisfied with.  We're going to try to get a couple of them out here though today and hopefully I can find the words for the others to keep my weekly posting schedule.

For starters, my team is playing very well right now.  It was like the break between the Holiday Slamfest tournament and our first game of 2012 really inspired them.  I mean, I did challenge them to play better defense, but we've made serious strides on the offensive side of the ball as well.  We're making that one extra pass to go from a good shot to a great one, and it's gotten us on a pretty good win streak which included a solid win against a team that we struggled with and lost to twice in 2011.  We're hitting our stride at the right time, as we have 'the gauntlet', a trip to Boston, league playoffs, and a Tournament of Champions coming up within the next 8 weeks.  I'm really happy with what's going on, and we're still growing.  The last two winter teams I've had I waited until about this time of the year to really stress man to man defense, which they seem to be picking up, but I'm not going to do that anymore.  I'll explain why in a minute.  It was good to see them picking up some of the concepts quickly.  We still have a lot of work to do, but it's a tough defense to learn because you have to process a lot of information and that's a lot to expect of 10 and 11 year olds.  I'm happy where we are, and tomorrow we have a game where we should be able to continue to fine tune it and then a second where we can put it to a real test.  I am definitely happy that I was able to arrange for 8 of my 10 players to watch the William Paterson Men's Basketball game today, because it gave them the opportunity to see someone else doing what my assistant and I are asking them to do.  Of the 8 that went, I definitely feel like 5 took something away from it that they will look to add to their skill set, and parents are interested in taking the kids to other events because they saw how helpful it would be to their child's development.  So we're moving in the right direction.  If we keep this pace through the gauntlet - 7 games between February 1 and February 11 - and have a strong showing in the Boston tournament, we will be a force to be reckoned with heading into the league playoffs.  The team is hungry, I'm hungry - we just need to get our seat at the table reserved.

I made the decision today that I will be starting all my future teams out with man to man defense only.  I did some reading on zone defense one day while looking for variations that I could add to my playbook, and came away wondering if I was helping these kids by teaching zone over man.  I admit, I fell into it because that's what the competition was doing and it was getting us wins.  After yesterday's game showed how much we struggle with man to man and how instrumental it is in upper levels of basketball, that article came back to my head.  Perhaps I am stifling their defensive growth by teaching zone first.  Here's what the article brought up -

1. Man to man (shortened to 'man' from here on out) requires you as a defender to know where everyone else is on the floor
2. Man demands you be energized and active or you'll get beat constantly
3. Man needs for players to see and close passing lanes and react while the ball is in the air
4. Man creates an accountability system

Zone defense doesn't necessarily require those things, but if they ARE there, that zone is exponentially improved.  Imagine a zone where 5 guys all react to every pass as if their man had the ball, one where once the ball enters a players zone he puts such intense pressure on it that the opposition has no choice but to either shoot a tough shot or pass it back out.  Some of you are saying, that's how a zone is supposed to react.  I'm telling you, go to a youth basketball game and watch the zones and tell me that is happening everywhere.  I admit, my guys play decent zone defense, but it's not very active, no matter how much I try to energize it and yell to "move your feet and rotate quick."  I honestly think it will be much better once man defense concepts are grasped and applied.

I actually have seen this first hand with my AAU team in the fall.  We started out with nothing but a full court man defense, simply because I had the speed and athleticism to do it.  We were pretty good with man, and they were putting good pressure on the ball most times.  Then I introduced a zone.  That was probably the best zone I've ever had.  It was fast, and the only way you were beating us while we were in it was with a kid on fire from long range.  Did I teach that zone any different?  No.  I did have a true center, but even when he was on the bench we were strong.  I'm absolutely convinced that if I'm going to be a coach at this level, my job is to start these kids with a solid defensive foundation, which starts with man defense.  Zone comes second.  Will it cost me some wins, probably.  But everyone loses, and its about what you do at the end of the season.  I'd gladly lose in the early goings, learn to play defense and dominate when there's a trophy that says 'Wayne PAL - NJJBL Conference Champions" at stake.  

Why I Do It...

Before we get into this post good, I have a clarification to make regarding my last post:

• I did kind of go hard on the parents without really considering that they could be right and the coach could be in the wrong.  So far I am pretty confident that I've avoided that situation, which is why I took that stance.  My point of view was a little one-sided on that one.  As a reminder to myself, and any other coaches - DON'T BE THAT COACH!! :)

Okay...on to business...

So a lot of people over the last couple of years have asked why I decided to get into coaching, and why I didn't try for a higher level like high school.  So I figure that it should be something I write about.  Should have been one of the first but better late than never I guess.

Truth is I wanted to do something with kids back when I was in high school, so I didn't mind doing community service when it involved being a mentor or big brother type stuff - that was fun.  It felt good, but not in a Sandusky kind of way.  I think that ultimately came from being surrounded by communities of people that cared.  Neighbors were looking out for you, making sure you were on the right path and all that jazz even though they had no real obligation to do so.  The mindset was that it took a community to raise a child, so everywhere I went someone was ready to teach me something that made me a better person.  As a big proponent of the "Golden Rule" it was only natural that I do my best to be like that to the generations that followed behind me.  So whether it was through coaching or not, I'd probably be invested in some youth program somewhere right now. High school kids tend to already be set in their ways, so the impact you can have is fairly limited.  Younger kids can still be swayed, and with enough positive energy from the right people, you get the success stories of the kid from the rough neighborhood that goes on to do great things because someone had the heart to make a difference.  Am I saying high school kids are unreachable, no.  But if you can catch it early, why wait?

The idea to get involved with basketball is just that I love the game.  Played it throughout elementary school on the playground all the way until I graduated from Baylor, and since I got to go to all the games for free I watched a lot of games.  Sometimes people hated going with me or watching with me because I did more commentating than the guys in the broadcast booth, and usually said the same thing before they did, had the same keys to victory, half time adjustments, etc.  So jokingly some of my friends would tease me with, "You know you aren't the coach or anything!"  And thus that seed was planted.

Put those two passions together, and here we are.  A coach trying to make it in a youth basketball program.  For me, it's almost like having your cake and eating it too, and I do find it fun, exciting, and fulfilling.  More so than my real job, and that pays with benefits.  Who knows, maybe one day coaching will pay the bills, but I'm happy where I am right now, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to be a part of 10 kids lives for a season.  Take my word for it, and I'm sure some of the other coaches will agree - there is no greater feeling than a having kid you used to coach come up to and tell you how some small thing you said or did helped them to succeed.  That is why I coach youth basketball.

Where has this gone?

Back when I was in middle school, you had tryouts and you did your thing, and when it was over you either found your name on the list or you found yourself doing some soul searching and that not-so-fun stuff.  But, you had winners and losers.  But making the team was only the beginning. Then you had to bust your butt in practice to show you deserved to be in the fight when it really mattered, or you got to be the water boy with a jersey aka the bench warmer.   If you didn't like it, you worked harder, or in the event that you get to come in during a blowout, you showed the coach something he missed during his evaluations that may get you in the game more.  You put in the blood sweat and tears...and hopefully you got to see the rewards, but you had the fight to stick it out, or you hung up the shoes and went to go do something else.  I miss that.  Where that mentality came from, I'm not sure, but I think it's just a trend in society.  We've become a society of entitlements rather than earnings.

I've had seasons where parents were furious that their kid only gets a couple of minutes, or only gets to play in blowouts.  Okay, well before you come charging me up, do your kid a favor and make sure he's earned that time.  More often than not, its the kid that has inconsistent practice attendance.  And then when he's there, he's not giving 100% or is constantly a half step behind.  You have practice for a reason - to PRACTICE.  Games are to compete and get a W, practice is where you learn.  If you aren't learning it with reps of practice, as a coach why should I trust that fate would have it just set in during a game.  In 95% of situations, the problems you have in practice are the problems you will have in games.  So yeah, I'm not going to put that kid in the big, close games.  He hasn't earned it.  As a parent, rather than coming after me, look at what you are teaching your kid.  Yep, he's really taking in things like 'commitment' and 'work ethic'.

You also have to understand that there are at least 10 kids on the team, and you are going to have an order of ability.  Someone is going to be #1 and unfortunately someone is going to be #10.  In many cases you aren't going to be able to just full sub on and off because of skill sets. And if #10 doesn't have a great skill set he probably isn't going to get that much time.  When I was a kid, you knew where you stood.  If you were the last kid to get picked in dodge ball you either cried and found new people to play with or you said, "How dare you pick me last" and then made sure every chance you had you made the most of it so next time sides were picked you weren't last.  Where did that fire go?  I have that on my team now and I honestly think #10 is perfectly happy with being #10.  "But coach, these are kids."  Yeah, but I knew it as a kid, our parents knew it, even you probably knew it growing up.  Learning it early is only going to bleed into their off-the-court life and make them a better individual.  I started coaching to impact lives of kids in a positive way, and learning that you have to work hard and the importance of putting in work should not be something I get crap for.

I miss the old days, where the bench guys made the starters keep their spots.  The starters knew that if they took a day off, some bench kid was right there ready to take his spot.  I may be alone in this, but it's what sports is.  You win or you lose.  Back in my day, participation trophies were crap.  The pity clap sucked. Second place was best loser.  All of that was fuel to your fire.  "I'm not getting that ribbon, I'm getting on that podium."  Oh, the good ol' days...

New Year, New Rules, New Post

Hey everyone. 

It's a new year, and various things in my life that happened in the last few days of 2011 that truly inspired me to change how I do a lot of things.  It was like my life just kept hitting me with big, strong words like 'integrity' and 'character' and it really got me to thinking about what those words mean and how I measure up.  I have to be honest, I've said on several occasions about various things that it will get better, and then didn't - and for no real reason other than I didn't think it mattered.  But it does.  I know I have at least a couple of readers, and so every time I let them down, it reflects badly on me, sends a message to them that they aren't important.  That is not an image I want to have.  So my personal mission in 2012 is to really work towards making my actions match up to the image I want to have.  I'm still trying to work out logistics for a lot of the moves I'm making and going to make in 2012, but I want to post once a week, and hope to be able to pick a day where my readers can come to rely on a new post.   Will posts be about the Wolfpack still?  Sure, but not always.  There are a lot of things that I have noticed I have to look at that make for interesting reads.  It started with my sportsmanship post, and it felt good writing it.  I'm even hoping to get some people to come to games and maybe get a few pictures to give the blog some more volume, but that's going to take some time.  For now, look for a new post each week.  Real talk.