On Christmas Day, since I had mentioned that I had wanted to hook up my camera and break down film from my last game earlier in my visit, my parents and sister all said to hook it up and we'd all watch it. After all, they've never seen any of my games.
I was a little shocked to see how much they were contributing to my analysis - in a good way. "He looks like he's nervous in that spot." "Have you worked with him on his crossovers? He'll be good if he can get that one step." Granted, most of their comments were things I've already keyed in on to work on, but it was good to see that I was seeing things that were actually problems and not just figments of my frustration with our struggles as a team. Allow me to clarify - I am not frustrated by any one particular player, and I don't want it to be taken as such. I am more frustrated by the fact that I believe in my team, and just haven't quite found the winning formula for them yet. And when you are frustrated, you see things and can easily make a mountain out of a mole hill. It was assuring to hear them spot the same issues I did.
It was also great to hear the comments from them after the video was over. It was 19 - 2 at half time and we ended up only losing by 6 in a great second half effort. "That was a pretty good comeback. They need some more practice time, but they need to hear from you and their parents that they have people that believe in them. A lot of the issues and problems were just that they are unsure about so much that they overthink and underperform." Didn't see that coming. But its true. In the past, my teams just needed to know that they weren't in first place or feared to keep working, so all I had to do was remind them that they lost by X points to Team A and they would refocus. New team, new approach.
We play tonight assuming that my flights and the weather cooperate. While we didn't get an opportunity to practice since that game, based on the emails and quick conversations I've had with the parents, I feel good about how we'll perform. Maybe just that one extra vote of confidence will give us the edge we need. If so, that will be just one more way my family has found to continue to support me in my journey. Thanks Mom, Dad and Nikki. Again :-)
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Monday, December 24, 2012
The Trip
By my count, it looks like I owe you all 3 more blog posts to catch up for the year. Guess we need to get started.
Every year I go back to San Antonio to visit my family for the holidays. It's the one time all four of us are in the same spot, so it's pretty much a staple even though it always seems to interfere with the Winter travel Holiday Slamfest Tournament in some way or another. We'll figure out someway to get everything to work out, but in the mean time, we'll just have to deal since family is kind of important.
This year, just as I was making my last rounds in my apartment to make sure I had everything packed and in the car (if my plane is delayed a little, I am set to go straight from Newark Airport to the gym) I got a phone call from the airlines. "Due to delays, your new flight information is..." Great. Turns out I was going to have to either lose a whole day to travel or spend the night in Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. I chose to spend the night in the airport just because I needed to get some errands run, and losing a whole day to travel was not what I wanted to do. The first leg of the flight was fine, then came the 6 hours of sitting in the airport all by my self with nothing but my tablet, laptop, and the Internet. It was time to be productive.
Over night I went back and looked at my team's stats. We need to work on sharing the ball a lot more. We do a great job of rebounding, but we need to make sure we get points off those rebounds and not air-balls and bricks. I started putting together some practice plans to address those issues. I also went through each player's stats. I don't have stats for every game, but I have enough to get a read on how the stats would look for the ones that I'm missing. I have guys who get minutes that have a lot of zeros on the stat sheet which means I need to work with them to get them to be productive with their time on the court. They are hard workers, it's just that they are new to competitive basketball. They need attention. I have guys that are good players, but are inconsistent or try to do too much when the competition is stiff. Need to get more consistent in that area and develop some trust in their teammates. As the other players develop, both of those areas should improve. Coaches that don't keep stats are really missing out on a great tool and source of information. Yes, you can get a feel and see these things during games, but stats not only puts numbers to it, but it also lets you see just how bad it is. Sometimes in games, you feel like you are doing better or worse than the numbers show. You get that certainty that concrete numbers will show you versus the feeling of the game. The game of basketball at every level is about putting in work outside of games and structured practice, so I sent each child and parent the stats and what I saw based on looking at them so that when we get together again we all have a sense of what we are going to work on together. If you don't want to use stats for yourself as a coach, use it to motivate you team to keep working hard and improve. Nothing says fix this than seeing that you average 8 turnovers a game, or .42 rebounds a game. Even better is being a total 0-10 from 3-point range. It should say, "Your range is not there yet, stop wasting possessions" so that you don't have to be the bad guy - Dad will for you.
I also took some time sitting in the airport to clean up some of the plays I had and draw out new ones. They aren't entirely new, just that I'd never actually sat down and drawn them out. Players seem to have either transitioned to being more visual learners or just gotten so focused on themselves that they only learn "their spots" so I've decided to fight that by drawing the plays out and sending .pdf files of them to the parents, as well as creating a "playbook" that comes with me to every game. But it also helps me as a coach see where the flaws are, and has even shown me possible options I didn't see before now that it's on paper. I love win-win situations!
We have a while before we play again, but many of the parents have said they are working with their kids to help improve their abilities based on the stats they got, which I believe because they understand the challenges facing us as a new team this season. I still have video to watch and put together a film session so they can see how they got some of those numbers on the stat sheet, but I'm kind of thankful for the layover. Game me a chance to just work without distraction. Well, almost. I did have to battle sleep a little, but that was it.
Every year I go back to San Antonio to visit my family for the holidays. It's the one time all four of us are in the same spot, so it's pretty much a staple even though it always seems to interfere with the Winter travel Holiday Slamfest Tournament in some way or another. We'll figure out someway to get everything to work out, but in the mean time, we'll just have to deal since family is kind of important.
This year, just as I was making my last rounds in my apartment to make sure I had everything packed and in the car (if my plane is delayed a little, I am set to go straight from Newark Airport to the gym) I got a phone call from the airlines. "Due to delays, your new flight information is..." Great. Turns out I was going to have to either lose a whole day to travel or spend the night in Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. I chose to spend the night in the airport just because I needed to get some errands run, and losing a whole day to travel was not what I wanted to do. The first leg of the flight was fine, then came the 6 hours of sitting in the airport all by my self with nothing but my tablet, laptop, and the Internet. It was time to be productive.
Over night I went back and looked at my team's stats. We need to work on sharing the ball a lot more. We do a great job of rebounding, but we need to make sure we get points off those rebounds and not air-balls and bricks. I started putting together some practice plans to address those issues. I also went through each player's stats. I don't have stats for every game, but I have enough to get a read on how the stats would look for the ones that I'm missing. I have guys who get minutes that have a lot of zeros on the stat sheet which means I need to work with them to get them to be productive with their time on the court. They are hard workers, it's just that they are new to competitive basketball. They need attention. I have guys that are good players, but are inconsistent or try to do too much when the competition is stiff. Need to get more consistent in that area and develop some trust in their teammates. As the other players develop, both of those areas should improve. Coaches that don't keep stats are really missing out on a great tool and source of information. Yes, you can get a feel and see these things during games, but stats not only puts numbers to it, but it also lets you see just how bad it is. Sometimes in games, you feel like you are doing better or worse than the numbers show. You get that certainty that concrete numbers will show you versus the feeling of the game. The game of basketball at every level is about putting in work outside of games and structured practice, so I sent each child and parent the stats and what I saw based on looking at them so that when we get together again we all have a sense of what we are going to work on together. If you don't want to use stats for yourself as a coach, use it to motivate you team to keep working hard and improve. Nothing says fix this than seeing that you average 8 turnovers a game, or .42 rebounds a game. Even better is being a total 0-10 from 3-point range. It should say, "Your range is not there yet, stop wasting possessions" so that you don't have to be the bad guy - Dad will for you.
I also took some time sitting in the airport to clean up some of the plays I had and draw out new ones. They aren't entirely new, just that I'd never actually sat down and drawn them out. Players seem to have either transitioned to being more visual learners or just gotten so focused on themselves that they only learn "their spots" so I've decided to fight that by drawing the plays out and sending .pdf files of them to the parents, as well as creating a "playbook" that comes with me to every game. But it also helps me as a coach see where the flaws are, and has even shown me possible options I didn't see before now that it's on paper. I love win-win situations!
We have a while before we play again, but many of the parents have said they are working with their kids to help improve their abilities based on the stats they got, which I believe because they understand the challenges facing us as a new team this season. I still have video to watch and put together a film session so they can see how they got some of those numbers on the stat sheet, but I'm kind of thankful for the layover. Game me a chance to just work without distraction. Well, almost. I did have to battle sleep a little, but that was it.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Your Practice Makes My Practice Better
I meant to post this over the weekend, but got in a bit of a funk and just really fell into doing nothing but some soul searching and the like. Soul searching may be too intense a word, but there was a lot of thinking about how I've managed my team this winter. In a better mood, so back to posting.
A few weeks ago I decided to take Coach D up on his offer to come sit in on one of his college practices. The intent of my visit was to get a better way to practice. I knew I couldn't really use any of the drills with my team at this point in the season, so my focus was on the flow and how practice is run for a nationally competitive team.
Well worth the couple of hours that afternoon. I did see a drill I could use in a few weeks, but more importantly I saw little things that can be used at any level. There was no goofing off, but it wasn't completely militaristic either. Just guys putting in work. If a pass was supposed to be a bounce pass because that's how the coach said it should be - it had to be a bounce pass or they did it again. If they missed a lay up or caused a turnover, they had to run baseline to baseline. But it had flow, which is the most important part. It made sense.
So I've taken that stuff into my practices. Missed lay ups and turnovers now result in sprints. One player did ask me why and I just told him to think about what happens in games - if you turn the ball over you have to get back on defense, so think of it as sprinting back and getting a stop to try again. He was satisfied, and now I don't even have to say it. The players tell each other to run, unless the player realizes it first and just takes off on his own. I was surprised to see one player throw a bad pass to his teammate who bobbled it out of bounds run with no one telling him to. When he got back, he must have seen the confusion on his teammates faces, and just said, "I threw him a bad pass so it was my fault too." Accountability is a good little side effect to have! I've also made sure that my practices are more structured. It's not at the level as the practice I visited, but it definitely feels like it flows better. There's less time transitioning and more time working. If I say I want bounce passes, and some one throws a chest pass, it gets corrected and we redo the rep. If it's still not done correctly, it's considered a turnover, and that has helped to improve the attention to detail.
Seems players aren't the only ones who need to go to practice. You can learn a lot watching other practices. I need to find a few more opportunities to check out Coach D's practices.
A few weeks ago I decided to take Coach D up on his offer to come sit in on one of his college practices. The intent of my visit was to get a better way to practice. I knew I couldn't really use any of the drills with my team at this point in the season, so my focus was on the flow and how practice is run for a nationally competitive team.
Well worth the couple of hours that afternoon. I did see a drill I could use in a few weeks, but more importantly I saw little things that can be used at any level. There was no goofing off, but it wasn't completely militaristic either. Just guys putting in work. If a pass was supposed to be a bounce pass because that's how the coach said it should be - it had to be a bounce pass or they did it again. If they missed a lay up or caused a turnover, they had to run baseline to baseline. But it had flow, which is the most important part. It made sense.
So I've taken that stuff into my practices. Missed lay ups and turnovers now result in sprints. One player did ask me why and I just told him to think about what happens in games - if you turn the ball over you have to get back on defense, so think of it as sprinting back and getting a stop to try again. He was satisfied, and now I don't even have to say it. The players tell each other to run, unless the player realizes it first and just takes off on his own. I was surprised to see one player throw a bad pass to his teammate who bobbled it out of bounds run with no one telling him to. When he got back, he must have seen the confusion on his teammates faces, and just said, "I threw him a bad pass so it was my fault too." Accountability is a good little side effect to have! I've also made sure that my practices are more structured. It's not at the level as the practice I visited, but it definitely feels like it flows better. There's less time transitioning and more time working. If I say I want bounce passes, and some one throws a chest pass, it gets corrected and we redo the rep. If it's still not done correctly, it's considered a turnover, and that has helped to improve the attention to detail.
Seems players aren't the only ones who need to go to practice. You can learn a lot watching other practices. I need to find a few more opportunities to check out Coach D's practices.
Friday, December 7, 2012
Frustration
I normally don't post immediately after games, especially loses. I'm pretty sure it's obvious why. But today we need to make an exception. They say animals can sense emotions, and my dog who normally can't stand to not be in the same room as me has decided to very quietly stay in the kitchen. I need to vent or something....
I don't like losing. Yes, it comes with the territory. Sure, in competitive sport there has to be a winner and a loser. Such is the way of things in the basketball world. I completely understand that. Yet, it doesn't make accepting loss after loss any easier. It doesn't make seeing your team struggle to do fundamental things well and with success less painful. It doesn't make it any less difficult to see the other team score at will. It straight up sucks.
Maybe I have been spoiled in the past, with players who had a bit more experience and understanding of the game. I need time that isn't available. Every team I'm going to face from this point forward will have at least a whole year's head start. A whole year to understand how to protect the basketball. A whole year to understand how presses work. A whole year of learning to dribble with their heads up and see the floor. It may not seem like a lot, but a whole season is at least 16 games. 16 games of learning. 16 games of growing together. 16 games of experience.
I don't like losing. But most importantly, I don't like feeling like I'm letting my boys down.
I let a guy who was working hard to contribute with every ounce of his body foul out half way through the third. Nothing is more depressing than seeing a kid who is giving his all have to sit through 12 minutes wishing he could be out there helping his team. I let him down. I lost my cool over a series of bad calls and lost my right to the coaches box with 2 minutes left in the first half. Also gave the other team two free throws and possession. The team lost its energy after that. The bench got quiet. The guys on the floor kept playing hard, but it just didn't feel the same. We didn't really gel defensively after that. I hurt the entire team.
Maybe I'm not preparing them right. We're working on dribbling, rebounding, and passing in practice. We're explaining how to react in certain situations and then making it happen. But we're just so far behind everyone right now.
Am I going to give up? Absolutely not. But I can't afford to keep spinning my wheels like this. I don't blame the team. They are working hard. This is on me. This is absolutely my loss to bear - and it hurts. It's going to be a long night...
I don't like losing. Yes, it comes with the territory. Sure, in competitive sport there has to be a winner and a loser. Such is the way of things in the basketball world. I completely understand that. Yet, it doesn't make accepting loss after loss any easier. It doesn't make seeing your team struggle to do fundamental things well and with success less painful. It doesn't make it any less difficult to see the other team score at will. It straight up sucks.
Maybe I have been spoiled in the past, with players who had a bit more experience and understanding of the game. I need time that isn't available. Every team I'm going to face from this point forward will have at least a whole year's head start. A whole year to understand how to protect the basketball. A whole year to understand how presses work. A whole year of learning to dribble with their heads up and see the floor. It may not seem like a lot, but a whole season is at least 16 games. 16 games of learning. 16 games of growing together. 16 games of experience.
I don't like losing. But most importantly, I don't like feeling like I'm letting my boys down.
I let a guy who was working hard to contribute with every ounce of his body foul out half way through the third. Nothing is more depressing than seeing a kid who is giving his all have to sit through 12 minutes wishing he could be out there helping his team. I let him down. I lost my cool over a series of bad calls and lost my right to the coaches box with 2 minutes left in the first half. Also gave the other team two free throws and possession. The team lost its energy after that. The bench got quiet. The guys on the floor kept playing hard, but it just didn't feel the same. We didn't really gel defensively after that. I hurt the entire team.
Maybe I'm not preparing them right. We're working on dribbling, rebounding, and passing in practice. We're explaining how to react in certain situations and then making it happen. But we're just so far behind everyone right now.
Am I going to give up? Absolutely not. But I can't afford to keep spinning my wheels like this. I don't blame the team. They are working hard. This is on me. This is absolutely my loss to bear - and it hurts. It's going to be a long night...
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Practice...
Yeah yeah...I'm slackin'. We'll get caught up. Trust me.
So once upon a time there was this one guy who had a press conference and shared his attitude regarding one part of being an athlete. You may remember, you may not. But just to make sure we're all on the same page:
Maybe it's because I'm a coach that I disagree with his tone, and his last statement. I will say that I think some guys in the next generation of "ballers" have this same mindset. I see it in my practices, some of my fellow coaches' practices, where great talent fails to really push themselves to get better because it's practice. Yes, we talkin' 'bout practice. Maybe people don't pay to see practice. And yes you can compete at a high level and all that outside of practice. But where are you improving your game? Remember, people have this thing called pride, and some even have this ego thing going on. They aren't going to take you embarrassing them lightly. What will they do? PRACTICE. I saw a shirt the other day that pretty much sums it up: "Each rep you take off gives someone an opportunity to beat you."
So, yes - we talkin' 'bout practice.
The last statement is pretty disturbing though. "How...can I make my teammates better by practicing?!?" Really? Here's how:
1. Builds chemistry
Okay, so you are the franchise guy. Great. So your check is much larger than everyone else's. That's not going to make them like you. But to see you, who the owners, coaches, and fans have deemed "the great one" working just as hard as the lowest of the low, if not harder, says something. It gives your words added weight when you tell someone to pick it up a little. It usually means that when people come after you for a mistake or have issues off the court, that someone will not only help you, but stand by you when the vultures come out. People will not only see your franchise tag as a label, but will see it as a symbol of leadership and a rallying force.
2. Pushes boundaries
People have a natural tendency to live in their comfort zone. When people show up to practice with the right mind set, you should spend a little time outside of your comfort zone. Do it enough and now your comfort zone grows. When people play you close, you are used to it, so it doesn't throw you off your game. When people take away your first option, you are okay looking for options 2 and 3. When you get to that point where your body used to say stop, you can keep going a little longer. If you are comfortable in practice, you aren't working hard enough. If you don't practice then you definitely aren't working hard enough.
3. Teaches your coaches
Coaches tend to have their own idea of what the strategy will be. Sometimes the strategy won't work, and you can get that from practice. Perhaps he/she had a vision of how a play would go with a certain squad. Set up a couple of reps against a live defense and we'll see just how genius that vision may be. Practice lets you fine tune the little things before the game. Set this screen a little higher, cut a second later. Or maybe we just need to scrap it all together because the skill set just doesn't favor that scheme. Those adjustments can be made well before the first fan walks into the arena at practice.
The list could go on and on, but I have to finish laundry and prep for my game tomorrow. I'm sure the above young athlete (Allen Iverson, if you didn't know) grew older and wiser with time. Hopefully the athletes I noticed with a lackadaisical attitude towards practice will have a similar opportunity to keep playing and laugh at their younger self, as he did.
So once upon a time there was this one guy who had a press conference and shared his attitude regarding one part of being an athlete. You may remember, you may not. But just to make sure we're all on the same page:
Maybe it's because I'm a coach that I disagree with his tone, and his last statement. I will say that I think some guys in the next generation of "ballers" have this same mindset. I see it in my practices, some of my fellow coaches' practices, where great talent fails to really push themselves to get better because it's practice. Yes, we talkin' 'bout practice. Maybe people don't pay to see practice. And yes you can compete at a high level and all that outside of practice. But where are you improving your game? Remember, people have this thing called pride, and some even have this ego thing going on. They aren't going to take you embarrassing them lightly. What will they do? PRACTICE. I saw a shirt the other day that pretty much sums it up: "Each rep you take off gives someone an opportunity to beat you."
So, yes - we talkin' 'bout practice.
The last statement is pretty disturbing though. "How...can I make my teammates better by practicing?!?" Really? Here's how:
1. Builds chemistry
Okay, so you are the franchise guy. Great. So your check is much larger than everyone else's. That's not going to make them like you. But to see you, who the owners, coaches, and fans have deemed "the great one" working just as hard as the lowest of the low, if not harder, says something. It gives your words added weight when you tell someone to pick it up a little. It usually means that when people come after you for a mistake or have issues off the court, that someone will not only help you, but stand by you when the vultures come out. People will not only see your franchise tag as a label, but will see it as a symbol of leadership and a rallying force.
2. Pushes boundaries
People have a natural tendency to live in their comfort zone. When people show up to practice with the right mind set, you should spend a little time outside of your comfort zone. Do it enough and now your comfort zone grows. When people play you close, you are used to it, so it doesn't throw you off your game. When people take away your first option, you are okay looking for options 2 and 3. When you get to that point where your body used to say stop, you can keep going a little longer. If you are comfortable in practice, you aren't working hard enough. If you don't practice then you definitely aren't working hard enough.
3. Teaches your coaches
Coaches tend to have their own idea of what the strategy will be. Sometimes the strategy won't work, and you can get that from practice. Perhaps he/she had a vision of how a play would go with a certain squad. Set up a couple of reps against a live defense and we'll see just how genius that vision may be. Practice lets you fine tune the little things before the game. Set this screen a little higher, cut a second later. Or maybe we just need to scrap it all together because the skill set just doesn't favor that scheme. Those adjustments can be made well before the first fan walks into the arena at practice.
The list could go on and on, but I have to finish laundry and prep for my game tomorrow. I'm sure the above young athlete (Allen Iverson, if you didn't know) grew older and wiser with time. Hopefully the athletes I noticed with a lackadaisical attitude towards practice will have a similar opportunity to keep playing and laugh at their younger self, as he did.
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