Monday - This weeks objective was to show and teach the players Trumbull Highs offensive and defensive schemes and plays. This week was most like an actual team practice compared to the other weeks. Coach Manuel gave me a list of plays that he wanted me to teach to the kids so that they knew them and understood the reasoning for them. He gave me a DVD on the Flex Offense and told me to watch it. I watched it in the morning before camp to really understand the ins and outs of the Flex Offense. I knew how to run the play, but I was a little foggy on why each move is the executed as it is. So watching this DVD was like studying for me. I brought my knew learned knowledge to the kids that day and we broke down each cut, fake and pass of the flex offense. We went over different reads and different scenarios. When the kids knew the play, I had them play defense against it because when you see how hard it is to guard certain things, your understanding becomes much more clear.
Tuesday - Tuesday was a rainy day in which we went to the weight room again. I took this time with the kids to explain to them that we were amongst a very important week in the matter of next years team. I reminded them that I report back to Coach Manuel and that the players who try and understand these plays and schemes the most are definitely going to be highly considered for the team based on their motivation and desire. At the end of the lifting session I put the kids through a 10 minutes jump rope work out, so that they can do it on their own in the summer. This work out was to enhance the quickness of their feet.
Wednesday - This day was a long and strenuous day for everyone. I tought the kids Trumbull High's basic offensive set including almost all of the different plays that were possible out of it. The kids had to remember the names and the corresponding play. Of course they weren't going to be perfect after just one day of this, but they got most of it. The plays consisted of ball screens, down screens, V-cuts, zipper cuts, all of which we had went over in the previous weeks so I am glad that it paid of because the kids understood the cuts. The most difficult part for the kids was executing the plays on not only the right side, but the left side of the floor as well. The most difficult part for me was rotating the kids in and out, to positions where I thought they would best fit. I wanted a couple of the kids to learn a couple different positions. This is what made the day strenuous, but I know how tough it is.
Thursday - To start the day off, we reviewed the plays from Wednesday just to refresh the kids minds. I figured we would do it that everyday and this could only help. However, the focus of today was zone defense. Trumbull High plays 3 different zone defenses, all complete with different slides and responsibilities. The first zone was a 2-3, half court zone. This zone is mainly used by Trumbull High if some players get into foul trouble or if they need help rebounding. This is a good zone to play if you need to rebound because no matter what, when the shot goes up, you have atleast 3 players underneath the basket at all times playing their zones. The next zone was a 1-3-1 zone. This zone is used to force turnovers and trap the ball in corners and on the sidelines. The key to this zone is the one man up top. He should be tall and athletic in order for this zone to be most affective. His job is to push the ball to one side and try to deny a ball reversal. After pushing the ball to one side, this is where the trap comes and hopefull forces a turnover. The last zone they play is a 1-2-2. This zone helps to slow down the pace of the game and force the opponent to take a bad shot most of the time. This is because the 1-2-2 covers a lot of ground and unless the other team knows how to beat it, it is good if your looking for a low scoring game. Most teams play this when they know that the opponent has 1 really good player that leads the team. Playing this zone forces the team to pass the ball and most of the time, someone else will shoot the ball on each trip simply because of the way it is played.
Friday - Again, I started by reviewing the offense and decided to review the 1-3-1 zone a little bit. After this, the focus was full court press and out of bounds plays. The full court press that Trumbull High plays is not to force turnovers like most presses. Its design is to slow the tempo of the game down when the opponent wants to run the ball up the floor. The press that they play is a 3/4 court 2-2-1. The focus of this press is to deny the ball from the middle of the floor. If you let the ball get to the middle, the press is useless. You want to keep it along the sidelines and you do this by timing the slides and getting to the right spots on the floor. The kids seemed to understand this the most so I reported that back to Coach Manuel and suggested that they definitely practice that a lot more next year because they have the personel to execute this press.
Saturday - This was the last day of camp and was by far the most fun of all the days. The day consisted of many scrimmages and drills. The kids shot for teams and I made the rule. They played 8 minute quarters and each quarter, one of the kids was the coach and they had to use all of the defenses that were taught during the week. It had to be a different kid each time for each team. My plan was that by doing this, it would give the kids some leadership ability. They ended up playing 6 quarters before everyone on each team got a chance to coach. Then I chose one kid from each team to teach a 4 quarter game using the offense, defense and press that they learned. This was a great challenge and the kids really had fun with it. After the scrimmages were done, we had some individual challenges involving shooting, passing, dribbling, jumping, ect. After all of this, I thanked the kids for being part of this camp and told all of them that if they want individual work outs through the summer, feel more than free to call me.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Weekly Report
This week was a great challenge of my organization skills, and my ability to compensate with adversity. Early in the week, this kids told me that they had a game at night. Being a former player, I know how hard it is to play during the day and then play at night. Knowing this, I gave the kids the day off and rescheduled for later in the week. By doing this, I feel like the kids respected that decision and realized that I wanted them to succeed in their summer league. Having that kind of trust and understanding is very important and is the type of relationship I read about in my research for this project.
Breaking down the kids into guards and post players helped my organize my activities for the week. With these two weeks under my belt, I feel extremely comfortable going into this last week. I have more confidence than I started with and I feel like I am ready for anything that the kids ask me. It feels like I know how to relate to them and explain situations to them on a level that they understand. This, of course, comes with experiences with them and being with them almost everyday. This is showing me that experience is a vital part of running something like this.
One thing that surprised me this week was the post players in the weight room. I thought that they were going to show some type of improvement but they didn't. These kids are all big; 6'6" and 6'7". They could be really good if they just get in the weight room and continue to work on the moves that I showed them. I know that they have been practicing the moves because I do them with them everyday, it's just the time they put in on their own that has been a surprise to me. I would have thought that they would work harder in their spare time.
From this week, I feel like I have gained a lot more confidence in dealing with the kids and I feel like I have gained a stronger sense of what gets the kids working hard. For the big men, I know that running got through to them that they have to work hard because it showed in the scrimmage. The guards worked hard all week so I felt like rewarding them for that would be incentive enough to continue to work hard. Hopefully, this last week will be a great wrap up to what has been a great experience these last two weeks.
Breaking down the kids into guards and post players helped my organize my activities for the week. With these two weeks under my belt, I feel extremely comfortable going into this last week. I have more confidence than I started with and I feel like I am ready for anything that the kids ask me. It feels like I know how to relate to them and explain situations to them on a level that they understand. This, of course, comes with experiences with them and being with them almost everyday. This is showing me that experience is a vital part of running something like this.
One thing that surprised me this week was the post players in the weight room. I thought that they were going to show some type of improvement but they didn't. These kids are all big; 6'6" and 6'7". They could be really good if they just get in the weight room and continue to work on the moves that I showed them. I know that they have been practicing the moves because I do them with them everyday, it's just the time they put in on their own that has been a surprise to me. I would have thought that they would work harder in their spare time.
From this week, I feel like I have gained a lot more confidence in dealing with the kids and I feel like I have gained a stronger sense of what gets the kids working hard. For the big men, I know that running got through to them that they have to work hard because it showed in the scrimmage. The guards worked hard all week so I felt like rewarding them for that would be incentive enough to continue to work hard. Hopefully, this last week will be a great wrap up to what has been a great experience these last two weeks.
May 18th, 2008
Today was another controlled scrimmage utilizing all of what was learned this week. In this scrimmage, it was fun to watch the guards use moves that they practiced all week. Watching them put their moves into game situations was fun for me because I feel like I taught them something. It kind of felt like a part of me was out there doing the move with them. With the progress that the guards have made this week, I am confident that if they continue to practice the drills that I have showed them, that they will be varsity caliber players. Some of them already are, and they will become influential players on their team.
The big men seemed to have been sparked by the running yesterday. In the scrimmage, the performance of the big men definitely stuck out to me. They were playing the hardest and being the best leaders on the court. They were sprinting up and down and helping their teammates out. This was a sign for me that the running was a good way to get through to them about how I wanted them to work their hardest for these three weeks.
The players have without a doubt made leaps in their game and have shown a definite improvement in their leadership ability. Seeing this makes me proud and shows me that what I am doing is paying off.
The big men seemed to have been sparked by the running yesterday. In the scrimmage, the performance of the big men definitely stuck out to me. They were playing the hardest and being the best leaders on the court. They were sprinting up and down and helping their teammates out. This was a sign for me that the running was a good way to get through to them about how I wanted them to work their hardest for these three weeks.
The players have without a doubt made leaps in their game and have shown a definite improvement in their leadership ability. Seeing this makes me proud and shows me that what I am doing is paying off.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
May 17, 2008
Today I decided to take it easy on the guards. They had worked hard all week and have definitely proven that they were putting in a great effort. With them, we played shooting games, both individual and team. We had challenges and some good competitions between the players.
The big men, even though I loved the effort they put in at camp, showed me that they only put time in at camp, and not on their free time. It was evident that the guards have been lifting and the big men showed me otherwise. For this, I just had a day of conditioning. I explained to them that I was trying to help them by letting them know how important it is.
The big men, even though I loved the effort they put in at camp, showed me that they only put time in at camp, and not on their free time. It was evident that the guards have been lifting and the big men showed me otherwise. For this, I just had a day of conditioning. I explained to them that I was trying to help them by letting them know how important it is.
Friday, May 16, 2008
May 16th, 2008
Today was a good day to get in the weight room again and see if any player made improvements in the past week. It rained here so I let everyone know to meet in the Trumbull High weight room after school at 2:30. The guards showed up and surprisingly enough, most of the kids showed small improvements in the amount of weight they could lift and also the repetitions.
After an hour and a half with the guards, the big men came in and sadly to say, there were no improvements and even some kids went down. Seeing this was a little confusing because I was baffled by the fact that you could go down in weight in just one week. I wasn't sure whether they were just tired or they actually got that much weaker. With this, I have decided that tomorrow for the big men will be a day of just conditioning to try and get the point across of how important the weight room is to a player.
After an hour and a half with the guards, the big men came in and sadly to say, there were no improvements and even some kids went down. Seeing this was a little confusing because I was baffled by the fact that you could go down in weight in just one week. I wasn't sure whether they were just tired or they actually got that much weaker. With this, I have decided that tomorrow for the big men will be a day of just conditioning to try and get the point across of how important the weight room is to a player.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
May 15th, 2008
Today was by far the most productive and fun day of this entire senior project so far. There were about 11 kids in each group that showed up. I had originally planned on just doing half court drills with them today, but because of the numbers, I chose to switch things up and do all full court drills. I figured that this would give them a great workout and it would be fun as well. The players took the drills seriously but had smiles on their faces the whole time. The kids are really starting to become close and are having a good time. This is important for team chemistry and just a good way to have an extra friend. Basketball is much easier when everyone is getting along and having a good time.
I put an offer on the table for the guards that if anyone wanted to stay for the big man session it would be a great help and they would benefit from it. Some kids could not stay because of homework and ride situations but 4 kids did stay and it definitely helped the big men and the guards. The guards helped the big men with running up and down the floor and the big men helped the guards with post entry passes and re-positioning on the perimiter. Hopefully the kids will feed off of this energy and continue to compete.
I put an offer on the table for the guards that if anyone wanted to stay for the big man session it would be a great help and they would benefit from it. Some kids could not stay because of homework and ride situations but 4 kids did stay and it definitely helped the big men and the guards. The guards helped the big men with running up and down the floor and the big men helped the guards with post entry passes and re-positioning on the perimiter. Hopefully the kids will feed off of this energy and continue to compete.
May 14th, 2008
Yesterday the players had a Summer League game at 7:00 p.m. so I gave them the day off because the times would conflict and I didn't them to be tired for their game. I let them know that this day will be made up on Saturday and we will scrimmage on Sunday.
Today, the kids bounced back from the day a little sluggish. This is normal the day after a game because the body can only take so much. Today's focus for the guards was passing. There are 3 different kinds of passes to throw in different situations. Any pass in the lane should be a bounce pass. To drill this into their mind, we ran drills that put them in situations where they would get into the lane and be forced to ball fake and then throw a bounce pass. However, if the defense came up all the way and stopped them outside of the lane, they would throw a chest pass because all passes outside the lane should be chest passes. With all passes, it is always better to fake a pass the other way first so that it comes harder to read where you are passing to. To help the kids remember that, I shared with them a phrase that would help them to remember it. This phrase is "fake it to make it". This helped me so much because it always stuck in my head. Hopefully, it will have the same affect on these players. The last pass is an over the head pass which is done when you want to skip the ball from wing to wing or get it down the court.
The big men worked on boxing out and rebounding today. Big men who box their men out and attack the glass to get the rebound is going to be valuable even if they have no other skill. Boxing out is not stressed enough in today's game because people just want to out jump their opponent for the rebound. But, rebounding is all about positioning and desire for the ball. The drills we did worked on the proper box out form and then jumping to the ball rather than have it come to you. I was impressed with how much progress they made by the end of the session. They really took to the concept and I expect to see them grab a lot more rebounds and play stronger down low.
Today, the kids bounced back from the day a little sluggish. This is normal the day after a game because the body can only take so much. Today's focus for the guards was passing. There are 3 different kinds of passes to throw in different situations. Any pass in the lane should be a bounce pass. To drill this into their mind, we ran drills that put them in situations where they would get into the lane and be forced to ball fake and then throw a bounce pass. However, if the defense came up all the way and stopped them outside of the lane, they would throw a chest pass because all passes outside the lane should be chest passes. With all passes, it is always better to fake a pass the other way first so that it comes harder to read where you are passing to. To help the kids remember that, I shared with them a phrase that would help them to remember it. This phrase is "fake it to make it". This helped me so much because it always stuck in my head. Hopefully, it will have the same affect on these players. The last pass is an over the head pass which is done when you want to skip the ball from wing to wing or get it down the court.
The big men worked on boxing out and rebounding today. Big men who box their men out and attack the glass to get the rebound is going to be valuable even if they have no other skill. Boxing out is not stressed enough in today's game because people just want to out jump their opponent for the rebound. But, rebounding is all about positioning and desire for the ball. The drills we did worked on the proper box out form and then jumping to the ball rather than have it come to you. I was impressed with how much progress they made by the end of the session. They really took to the concept and I expect to see them grab a lot more rebounds and play stronger down low.
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