The Road to Zero Gravity: Mental Toughness

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of taking a trip down memory lane. The days of playing basketball in one of the many driveways on my street with a basketball goal on a warm , 90 degree summer evening. Out there, if you don't break anything and there's no serious blood, you don't let the idea of crying foul creep into your head. It won't get honored, in fact you'll be laughed at as the opposition digs for reasons that he was in the right place and you just lacked the talent to score. Oh, the good ol' days...

The bad news is this trip took place because I felt like that's what we were dealing with in the first game of our tournament. It was like someone transported the Texas heat and locked it in this gym all day; you started sweating lacing up. Being from Texas, the heat doesn't really bother me much, so I made myself watch half of the game before mine, with the intention of scouting the other teams. That didn't take long. Pressure the ball handlers, make them shoot off the dribble, look to score in transition, and look for backdoor layup opportunities. Both were running a 5-out offense (which baffled me because they didn't cut hard or have anyone who wanted to beat their man off the dribble).  Maybe it was the heat, but that was probably the most stagnant game of basketball I've watched. But good thing I showed up, because I got to watch the officials. Why would you scout refs? They have the ability to control a game, so knowing what they look at, miss, temperament, easily influenced, et cetera could be the difference between winning and losing. The crew that night was not on the same page at all and were letting just about everything go.

The game ended and we were up next. As part of my pregame meeting, I told my guys to make sure they hydrated and that I'd do what I could to help them manage the heat so that they wouldn't have to play slower than we normally do to avoid problems. I also told them that they would be in for a physical game and to just play through the contact. Note to self - elaborate on what exactly that means next time...

Didn't take long before the officiating and heat got in our heads. Our pace was dreadful, we shot poorly from the field and the free throw line. Our defense was always two steps behind. At that point, I realized that if we were going to make any kind of run in a national tournament, our mental toughness had to improve. We've got guys who can take hits, so it's not a question of being afraid to get touched, but more so a question of when things don't go as we want or expect, can we find the will and determination to stay the course until it does.

The next day we had two games in the same oven, so I changed our pregame up a little. One thing I've learned from the high school coaches in our program, is that adjustments are paramount in tournaments. It's not just something the NBA does during playoffs, but even at our level, being able to adjust is huge. I had my guys stretch in a slightly cooler part of the school we were in. I also just talked to them about what it takes to  find wins at any level. I talked to them about what we as a group set out to do that one weekend when we started this journey. Then I probably blew all of their minds -

As much as I love you guys, the one thing I wish is that more of you would stop being so nice to everyone. The basketball court is a war zone. The only people you need to really be concerned with are the guys on your side; every thing else is just in your way. The other team, the refs, the crowd, and in this case, the heat - just obstacles. We obviously have to find some kind of compromise with the heat, and you leave that to me. The crowd is easy controllable with good defense and smart, efficient offense you'll have only supporters talking - the haters will shut up. The other team can be broken in the same way as we've done on several occasions.  The one thing I'm going to ask you to do at this point is to demand their surrender from the beginning. Don't drag it out and leave them with hope until the last 6 minutes. You go for the throat early. You set the tone by being aggressive and physical - for both the opponent and the officials.  If the refs let it turn into a street ball game, then you play street ball. If the ref does his job and calls it fair, then we play by the book.  They have to control the game or they won't be able to control the crowd, which never ends well for them. No more nice basketball. We're going to war.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are rules you have to follow, and we never want to see those malicious, dangerous fouls. But sometimes the only way to get a call is to be very, very physical. Put the ref in a tough situation where he has to call something. In the first game, there were a lot of times where we went to the basket without much conviction, got fouled and there was no call, and then on the other end the exact same thing resulted in an "and 1" situation. They were aggressive, we were not.

I guess my point got through (thanks to reminders during timeouts and half time, along with a "but don't kill anyone") as the next two games were just what we needed to test our new found toughness. The first game  was a back and forth game that looked like an old school tug of war game on field day. Just when the other team thought they had it with 2 minutes left we went on an 8 - 1 run to win. The same was true of the second game, just the ending was not as pleasant.  Back and forth the squads went, momentum swinging like the pendulum of a clock.

In the last 30 seconds, we were down one with the full length of the court in front of us. I get the ball just across half court to call a play looking for a back door cut into a layup (thanks BDG for the gem, by the way).  Only problem is our execution was terrible. We had time though so we looked for another opportunity. My point guard drove down the lane, got the defense to commit and dropped it off to my big man. If only he'd been ready for it...ball bounces off his fingertips and out of bounds. Eighteen seconds left, and we're in practically full ball denial.  The only option for the inbounder is their big, and we foul right away. The expression on his face, his teammates, and his coach said it all - he was a terrible free throw shooter.  We still had a chance! I put four guys on the blocks, the other coach only puts one, anticipating us to come down the court like lightning on the miss. First shot goes up, gets a friendly bounce and goes in, so we're down 2. Second shot goes up - bounce, bounce, off the left side of the rim! Yes!!! Wait, NO BOX OUT!! The one guy on the blocks gets it and tries to put up a shot, but gets fouled. He drains both, so we're down 4 with 13 seconds. I have two time outs, so I use one. I look at my point guard and tell him to get the ball and get it to me, I'll take the last time out to set up something. The other coach has his guys deny the ball just enough to keep us from rolling it to preserve clock, and we lose precious time because he opted to dribble it over rather than pass. These things happen, and I did tell him to bring the ball, so that's on me too. Have a quick teaching moment that next time pass because it's a lot faster and then draw up a play to get us a look at a three and bump the defender enough to hopefully get him to fly into the shooter just after the release so we can go to the line. The energy and excitement was there, but in enough of an excess that our execution failed yet again. We were able to get off a 3 at the buzzer, but there was no foul, and we lost by one

While it was tough to lose a heart breaker like that, the purpose of playing in the tournament was to get guys more opportunities to learn what to look for in special situations and more about ourselves as a team.  I would say, and quite proudly at that, we achieved both of those goals in that weekend. We fought through some pretty nasty situations in the last two games to remain competitive and at no point did it feel like we weren't trying to impose our will. It was even better because our second game was officiated by the same guys that did our first and they quickly realized that they were going to have to keep this under control and called a much better game. With one more tournament to go in preparation, I like the path we're on.

The Road to Zero Gravity: The Invitation

This Spring season, now that I have my own team to coach and opportunity to compete in a national event, I only found it fitting to record some of the events and the journey relating to it just as I did last Spring for the 17U team. The difference is that I'm starting a little earlier, since I know that I'm going. The next few blogs (and there will be a few between now and then) will be my attempt to have my first blog "series".  I'm not really up on all the blog lingo, so I'm not sure if that's even a legitimate thing or if it already has an uber cool name - but whatever. And now the world premier of...

The Road to Zero Gravity

(So yeah, that's not the most original title ever but I couldn't come up with anything. Open to suggestions though...)

Whether it's by rule or my own competitive nature and disgust with paying your way into things like this, I made it clear that we had to earn our ticket and invite. No trying to get by with a big enough check, sliding in as the New Jersey extension of the Zero Gravity circuit, or that we were sending so many other squads and we should just get to ride their coat tails. Though I'd be pissed about being the only coach not going, if we didn't get our invite, my team and I would be sitting at home doing nothing while the rest of the program was having a blast in Foxborough. In order to get the invitation, you had to win your division in a Zero Gravity event, and we had three on our schedule.


Event 1 - Hudson Valley Showdown

This event is one of those things that got lost in that period where my mind was a complete mess. It was early in the season and we were having rudimentary problems that just left me quite quite dumbfounded.  We made the drive and at times played terribly. The team was down on itself, from the top down. The good thing that came out of it, was all the driving gave everyone plenty of time to reflect. In our final game of the tournament with nothing to play for, we met and came to the consensus that everyone would find a way to help turn this ship around. We ended the meeting with the agreement that we were going to help the team we were playing, know that they could go home right after the game like us (we overheard a few of the parents talking about how inconvenient it was that they wouldn't know for a few hours whether they would advance - and we can't have inconvenienced parents, can we). Sure enough, we played our best game to that point and found new life, a renewed sense of confidence, and an enormous weight was lifted.

Event 2 - Spring Crossover

While things may have been a struggle between these two events (hence the Rocky Road post and lack of posts in between), we never what we wanted to do. We needed to win our division if we wanted to go to Foxborough, and we were running out of opportunities. We recognized that we let one slip away, and found ourselves working harder in the weeks coming up to it.  The week leading up to the event, we eliminated the distractions that had plagued us the weekend before. We came out and just balled like we were on a whole different planet. Ball movement was amazing, defense was suffocating, and we were hitting just about every shot that went up...at least during pool play.  Once we advanced out of our pool and got into the playoffs, the shooting seemed to cool off, which got in some of our heads and other things got a little sloppy. Nonetheless, we held it together enough to advance into the championship and earn our bid. Unfortunately, we ran into a beast in the championship and lost.

Event 3 - Garden State Classic

This event really didn't mean much for us in terms of getting an invitation, but we approached it as another opportunity to test ourselves against others who wanted to get their invitations and play on a national stage. In  essence, this was for confidence purposes. We finished the tournament well, but started off a little too sluggish and didn't get to advance out of our pool. We learned a lot about ourselves that weekend, and ultimately that's all we wanted from the event anyway (2 invites doesn't really mean much, it's like having 2 copies of the same movie).

Tournaments after our invite was secured served only as a way to build momentum leading into our national event. That momentum would be invaluable as most of these guys have never been on a national stage, and would need all the confidence, swag, or whatever the term you've coined for it is. Will we be the cartoon snowball that gains size, strength, and crushes all in its path? Tune in next time to find out!

Tomorrow...

I had a post all typed up, but then decided it probably wasn't  appropriate for what I'm trying to achieve here. Ctrl + A + Delete = Mature decision

I'll post tomorrow when I'm not fighting sleep while trying to eat and post.

To Play or Not to Play

Couple of administrative type things to get out of the way first...

Our Program Newsletter: May Edition - take a look: Click Here

Pancake Breakfast - Call the number on the flier or me for tickets: Click Here

And now to business.

We recently had a dinner event after a practice and I did something I rarely ever do - I sat down and had lengthy conversations with parents without being asked to discuss something. Don't get me wrong, I don't have it against the parents, just I got burned my first few years talking to parents about stuff, and just decided that it may be better for all parties involved to limit how much time we spend talking while I am their son's coach. Fortunately, I broke my own rule, sat down with the parents and we just hung out, talked about what's left of our season, and the like.

One part of the conversation that really struck me was that the parents were asking what our plan was for the next few weeks as we prepare for the Zero Gravity National tournament in Boston. I honestly hadn't quite decided what we were going to do as I was still trying to see if we wanted to play each weekend leading up to the tournament for momentum or play in one last tournament and then give them the weekend off to rest and recuperate. I know what you're thinking - you coach 8th graders, they don't need rest. I know that. But they do get burn out. Is was also my way of saying that I didn't want to kill the parents playing every weekend for the last 3 months with only 2 free weekends. In the past, I had parents complain about how busy the schedule was. I also had younger kids, and less experienced parents. Needless to say, the veteran parents - okay all of the parents - turned to me, looked at their kids, and then said, "Seriously, do you think they need a break?"

Well played, parents...

They then started throwing out all the reasons they wanted the boys to play. Momentum, staying active and engaged in the game, getting live game time experience with special situations and different styles of play and coaching. So yeah they won.  Which is good. I don't like off weekends. I get bored and then spend all weekend surfing the web looking at new gadgets and stuff that I really have no need to be looking at (or buying). I'd much rather be on a sideline somewhere. Besides, with some of the stuff that may be coming down the pike, I need every last opportunity I can to get better. Whether it's better with X's and O's, relating to my team, or even little details of the rules, I stand the chance to learn every time we play.

Maybe need to reevaluate my rule on parents.

Star Power

With the recent commotion regarding the Zen Master's (Phil Jackson for those that don't know) comments on Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) discussion has once again heated up. I typically stay out of such conversations because I feel like you can't compare across generations easily, and no one ever categorizes what is a requirement for being considered the GOAT. In essence, I could say Yao Ming was the greatest of all time, or Derek Fisher - just because it's currently, in most circles, an opinion based topic that requires zero substantial statistical backup.

In one recent discussion I was drawn in by some comments aimed at a friend and his stance on the subject. He came right out and said Jordan was a better player than Kobe, but he felt that Kobe was the GOAT because through all his accomplishments, he's still working hard while living in the shadow of His Airness and having done more than most in that discussion for a lot longer. Someone then said a few other names who could be thrown in there based on some other comments, and he went to say that he should be able to consider Tim Duncan in the conversation. I strongly disagree. While Duncan is a very fundamentally sound player with a great all star resume and a shoe-in Hall of Famer, he's been surrounded by a fairly decent cast through his career to help him achieve his best games.  To be among the GOAT's (in my OPINION), you have to have that star power that consistently forces teams to gameplan around you.  Kobe, LeBron, Rondo, Jordan, Westbrook - fit that in my opinion.  How often do you see teams play those guys straight up without demanding the help-side to attack them?  Duncan can be handled one on one.  Duncan is not a necessity for his team to win consistently (granted, they have a really good coach in San Antonio, which may hurt him in this particular argument).

As crazy as it may sound, you even have those guys at my level.  I have seen teams play like they have two different identities due to "that guy". In the past I would have denied this to a fault. "I believe in my guys, and as long as any 5 show up, we're going to battle." While that's partially true, I realize I may have been a little naive. I think I do a decent job of getting the guys to give it their all game in and game out, personnel plays a huge factor. I have that guy with the "star power" factor I mentioned above (I am not putting him in the GOAT conversation just yet mind you), and I've seen my team changed so drastically when he happens to miss a game. I coach the game the same way. I call the same plays. We just don't have that same edge, intensity, or fire like we do when he's there. He sets the tone on defense, and we find our way into more turnover and tough contested shots. His offensive ability to penetrate attracts the defense and he's got the willingness to make that extra pass to an open teammate. He is a game changer. His presence alone seems to give the team that little bit of cocky you need to compete. I see it on other teams in our program as well.  When they have that guy, the teams look to be on a completely different level.  Teams searching for that guy may play well, but struggle (I've coached a few of those).

Don't take any part of this post the wrong way. I'm talking about guys in high school and lower that may not see a minute of professional basketball or even Division I college ball. And I will not say that star power is the only factor to consider in the GOAT argument. One thing I can say with certainty is every coach knows what I'm talking about.  And the beauty of it is that "stars" are born every day. I wouldn't be surprised that because of being around a guy with star power and a little leadership, that a new star emerges. And in the case of star power, I'd have to give Kobe and Jordan a tie - but only in that case.

Rocky Road

So things in my life didn't level off like I thought they would.

It didn't level off for the team either.

It's been nothing short of your cliche "peaks and valleys" model.  We had a great couple of weekends of basketball, and then a total breakdown.

Times like these test your mettle, and they let you know more about who you are, providing that crucial understanding of who you are and what your identity is.  Some people fold, some people rise to the challenge, some people may even go as far as "evolving" into a completely different self altogether.  While I'm not sure which of these the team and I fall into yet, I will say that having my birthday roll through this turbulent period prompted me to do a quick reflection on things.

For those that don't already know, my disdain for having my name shortened comes out of respect for my father and all the things he's done for me.  While I'm not saying I was a terror child, I will admit dealing with me was not a simple task.  I'm sure he had moments where he couldn't be prouder of me and then I'd do something absolutely stupid and ridiculous that would probably have him asking if he'd been getting through to me or talking to a wall.  Through all of those less graceful moments, he always remained positive, inspiring, and never gave up on me.  I only have to deal with my team for, at most, 16 hours a week.  My dad put up with me for a lot longer.

One thing I always remember was that when I "slipped" he would always be there to explain what I did wrong and how much it disappointed him because he knew I was capable of so much more.  While it may not solve the issues at work or in the other areas of my personal life, it perfectly fits into the struggles we are having on the team.  Hopefully all the talks will pay off and we'll get back to playing with passion and intensity.  Time will tell, but if it worked for me, I'm sure I can find some success applying it to the team.

Finding Comfort in Discomfort

So yes.  It's been a while.  I intend to get back on schedule and post on my normal Monday evenings.

I want this place to be dedicated to coaching.  The struggles, the victories, the excitement, and the frustrations.  I realized I was not in the best mental space due to stresses on the job and that the purpose of my blog would have been corrupted by a few posts.  So I made the decision not to blog until I felt like I was ready and in a better place.

Then the season kicked in and we had our share of struggles.  Didn't really help.  Actually, let's just call it what it was.  I was a mess.  I felt like I couldn't do anything right, doubting myself, and just completely miserable.

I don't really know if a switch in my head flipped, or if someone said something, but I just suddenly found myself with less.  It hit me.  As much as I try to keep my two lives separate, that's a little naive.  When I see success and joy in one, the other seems to improve.  When one gets overworked and stressed, the ability of the other is weakened.  I hate that. Coaching was supposed to be my escape.  It was my place to put all the stresses of the "9-5" in a box and shut the lid tight.  You can't though.  You can control it to a point, but it's like all things in life - When the cup gets full, it's contents have to go somewhere.  Once we made that realization and accepted it.  Rather than split them entirely, I just made the decision to refocus the energy a little bit and became more determined to maintain a balance that had a more positive result.

It all rings true with the theme the team has come up with this season as we work collectively to learn from our mistakes and "right the ship" this season.  In essence, we all said we need to find our next level.  For them it's about thinking faster, executing sharper, and playing harder, but for me its about preparing, game time adjustments, and things like that.  But you have to be mentally ready, mentally committed, and when you get to that point where you find yourself wanting to be lazy, or take a shortcut, to have the conviction to stop yourself and refocus and push to the goal. It's been said that if you want to get to the next level, you have to be uncomfortable.  I was absolutely uncomfortable for about a month. Through that discomfort, I've learned, refocused, and seen improvements in my coaching ability (and yes things at work got a little better).  As we push through the season, the last few weeks of practice have sent the boys home practically exhausted, and most are actually sweating - but our play has seen improvement.  We're not where we want to be.  In fact, we're far from it. Once we adjust to the system, and the uncomfortable becomes comfortable, we'll have found our next level and have a season we can be proud of.

While it isn't something you want to do constantly at an extreme clip as I did, every now and then you need that jump start to encourage (or practically force) you to find that next level.  It's been a while since I felt that, and as a coach it was a nice reminder of what I'm asking players to do all season long.   It reminded me that to be effective, I have to not only encourage growth but take time to celebrate it so that players don't get to a point where they are overwhelmed as I was.