Everyone needs to embrace an attitude when they play basketball. For some people its their inner competitor, for others it is a persona, and for some it is the personality of their team or leaders. These individual and collective attitudes help to determine the make up of the team and contribute directly to results. Everyone competes hard at game time, you can see that in gym classes all over the world. The issue is you need to be able to bring the proper work ethic and attitude every time you train so you are prepared for game time.
This year I've decided to ask my seniors to adopt a persona in practice, off the court and at game time. For some of them it may be and extension of their basic personality but for others I'm sure it will be an exercise in trying adopt and embrace something larger then themselves.
I expect them to be our team's "SANDPAPER." What this means is no more complicated then looking at what sandpaper is and does then applying it to our team:
- Rough, gritty, tough. These are characteristics of any good piece of sandpaper. It also is exactly what we want our seniors to be and to bring to our team. In practice, in games, they need to be the ones setting the tone of playing with an edge of physicality, of being abrasive and intense (borderline hostile) to make sure we are at the right level all the time. They need to be the ones making sure "whatever it takes" is level and expectation every possession.
- Sand paper shapes with pressure, abrasion, and friction. Our seniors need to be making sure we are adopting the shapes, form and behaviors that we need on and off the court. They need to be the ones in people's ears, getting people out to train and lift, and getting on people that aren't doing what it takes. If someone isn't doing what it takes with their training, in the classroom or on the floor the seniors are the ones that need to make sure that a change is happening. We are only as strong as our weakest link and seniors need to be making sure that toughening, shaping and focusing their teammates is a 24-7 job.
- Sand paper is dependable, durable and you know exactly what you are going to get from it. Our senior leaders cannot be seen as weak or uncommitted. They need to be the first ones in, last ones out and the ones giving the most consistent effort, intensity and focus. They also can't be emotionally distant or labile; they need to be the rock that holds an even line through everything. They need to set the tone of efficiency and focus.
- Sand paper only works through force. Our seniors need to be the ones exerting the effort to help shape us. It is not just about them and their development it has to be about the making their teammates better, by actively doing whatever it takes to succeed at every moment. They need to exert active energy all the time in the name of meeting our goals. They cannot bystanders, mitigators or simply along for the ride they must be the driving force.
This is what it takes. It is what we need. You need to be our team's "SANDPAPER!:
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
The Best 5 Basketball Books , you may not know about.
Its summer and that means some extra time for reading. I'm sure like all basketball fans, my love of the game transcends other aspects of my life. In my case when it is time to read, I very well may read a book about basketball to get my mind off teaching and coaching basketball.
I'm not talking about coaching handbooks, or drill lists, or manuals (although I've got a shelf of those too). I'm talking about some good inspirational basketball thoughts and stories. So here is my current list of top 5 basketball books you may want to check out for the first time or even again in no particular order:
Values of the Game - Bill Bradley
A collection of thoughts and essays from former pro, princeton grad and US senator Bill Bradley on the values and lessons learned through basketball. Great thoughts, stories and memories from some of the greats of the game past and present while focusing on the character lessons players, coaches and any basketball fan should be embracing.
To Hate Like This is to Be Happy Forever [A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifting and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the DUKE-NORTH CAROLINA RIVALRY] - WILL BLYTHE
The title really says it all. An in depth, laugh at loud, "Oh my god! Really . . " and thought provoking look at college basketball's greatest rivalry. I sports writer from a die hard Tarheel family takes a year of to examine everything that makes this rivalry transcend school and region to be an internationally notorious one. He goes through a whole season watching games, meeting coaches, interviewing die hard fans and following every aspect of the rivalry possible, backdropped by his family's personal relationship in this saga.
Transition Game: How Hoosiers went Hip Hop - L. Jon Werthem
Basketball was born in Springfield Mass. Its home and heartbeat has always been the state of Indiana. This book examines how factors that are changing our world (gloablization, multiculturalism, etc) have done the same to the game of basketball in the state of Indiana. It is a warm walk down memory lane following the history of the state of Indiana, the state of the game, and the state of the world through interlaced stories of familiar basketball faces and legends up to contemporary day basketball in Indiana.
Eagle Blue: A Team, a Tribe, and a High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska - Micheal D'Orso
Coaches, players and fans all seem to think that no other place has quite the problems or has to deal with issues that their team has to overcome. Try being the coach in Fort Yukon. This book follows a year in with the basketball team in Fort Yukon, Alaska. Fort Yukon is a small native community above the arctic circle deep in the Alaskan wilderness. The only way to travel is snowmobile, getting to games means a plane trip which may or may not be cancelled by -50 degree weather, kids growing up with the struggles and pressures of trying to be regular teenagers in toady's world, members of their tribes culture/heritage and working to try to win a state championship. This book has everything you could ask from a story of a team for a season to bring some perspective to your own world of basketball.
Winning Sounds Like This: A season with the women's basketball team at Gallaudet University, the world's only university for the deaf. - Wayne Coffey
What most people love about sports (in particular basketball) has something to do with the pressure, overcoming adversity, seeing life lessons played out in a microcosm, and the thrills of the unexpected. Well imagine trying to win at a NCAA university in the capital city of the United States, and by the waty - your team is all hearing impaired. A wonderful story of a season with some of the most special athletes, coaches, playing high level basketball at arguably the most unique university and culture in the world. If you need to know what basketball, winning, and the power of sport really are - read this book!
(Honorable mention should go to The Last Amateurs. A story following a season in the the only Division 1 basketball conference that does not offer sports scholarships.)
I'm not talking about coaching handbooks, or drill lists, or manuals (although I've got a shelf of those too). I'm talking about some good inspirational basketball thoughts and stories. So here is my current list of top 5 basketball books you may want to check out for the first time or even again in no particular order:
Values of the Game - Bill Bradley
A collection of thoughts and essays from former pro, princeton grad and US senator Bill Bradley on the values and lessons learned through basketball. Great thoughts, stories and memories from some of the greats of the game past and present while focusing on the character lessons players, coaches and any basketball fan should be embracing.
To Hate Like This is to Be Happy Forever [A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifting and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the DUKE-NORTH CAROLINA RIVALRY] - WILL BLYTHE
The title really says it all. An in depth, laugh at loud, "Oh my god! Really . . " and thought provoking look at college basketball's greatest rivalry. I sports writer from a die hard Tarheel family takes a year of to examine everything that makes this rivalry transcend school and region to be an internationally notorious one. He goes through a whole season watching games, meeting coaches, interviewing die hard fans and following every aspect of the rivalry possible, backdropped by his family's personal relationship in this saga.
Transition Game: How Hoosiers went Hip Hop - L. Jon Werthem
Basketball was born in Springfield Mass. Its home and heartbeat has always been the state of Indiana. This book examines how factors that are changing our world (gloablization, multiculturalism, etc) have done the same to the game of basketball in the state of Indiana. It is a warm walk down memory lane following the history of the state of Indiana, the state of the game, and the state of the world through interlaced stories of familiar basketball faces and legends up to contemporary day basketball in Indiana.
Eagle Blue: A Team, a Tribe, and a High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska - Micheal D'Orso
Coaches, players and fans all seem to think that no other place has quite the problems or has to deal with issues that their team has to overcome. Try being the coach in Fort Yukon. This book follows a year in with the basketball team in Fort Yukon, Alaska. Fort Yukon is a small native community above the arctic circle deep in the Alaskan wilderness. The only way to travel is snowmobile, getting to games means a plane trip which may or may not be cancelled by -50 degree weather, kids growing up with the struggles and pressures of trying to be regular teenagers in toady's world, members of their tribes culture/heritage and working to try to win a state championship. This book has everything you could ask from a story of a team for a season to bring some perspective to your own world of basketball.
Winning Sounds Like This: A season with the women's basketball team at Gallaudet University, the world's only university for the deaf. - Wayne Coffey
What most people love about sports (in particular basketball) has something to do with the pressure, overcoming adversity, seeing life lessons played out in a microcosm, and the thrills of the unexpected. Well imagine trying to win at a NCAA university in the capital city of the United States, and by the waty - your team is all hearing impaired. A wonderful story of a season with some of the most special athletes, coaches, playing high level basketball at arguably the most unique university and culture in the world. If you need to know what basketball, winning, and the power of sport really are - read this book!
(Honorable mention should go to The Last Amateurs. A story following a season in the the only Division 1 basketball conference that does not offer sports scholarships.)
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