This weekend is our age class provincials. As we've worked up to this since the end of high school season it is always interesting to see what transpires. The 4-6 add on to the end of a close to 20 week high school season always shows you a lot about what sort of kids you've got and what their preparation and mind set is/was.
Some things I've noticed and some things I'll have to accept this weekend.
1) I got what I asked for. The most committed kids in the age class from both our high school varsity and jv teams have come out to train and practice with us. This means that everyone who is there wants to get better and is at some level working to make that happen. Sometimes 14-15 year old girls don't know how to work as hard as they can, or believe they are working hard when they aren't but they all show up and give what they feel is their best effort. What I have to accept is that this means from a pool of 21 possible kids. We've got 9. The 8 age appropriate girls from the varsity team were joined by only 1 JV player as the rest decided it wasn't for them, was too hard for them or they needed a break. No hard feelings if we aren't deep enough to play the way we want or aren't sharp early because of I lack of 5 vs 5 competitive drills in practice, then it is our own doing. We wanted committed hard working kids that wanted to be here. TUrns our you get what you ask for.
2) We have been training all our kids to make reads and play inside a concept based framework with reads and options. It allows us more time to work on skills and small sided competitive drills and games to train those skills. It also allows me to feel like going into this weekend we've a greater depth of skilled kids than everyone else. Our 6-9 are as skilled and knowledgeable as our starters so we should be relatively interchageable without a great loss. What I have to accept is that as part of a process without identified scorers/shooters etc and a less structured offense, we will occaisionally experience paralysis on offense other people won't have. When everyone knows who is supposed to shoot it and what your next action always is on offense even less skilled players can confidently execute. For us trying to mesh our reads with confidence issues in 14-15 year old females and my desire for them to work it out on the floor in situations means: I have to accept that regardless of our superior fire power we will still have stretches where we take bad shots or make bad decisions because kids learning and experimenting make mistakes.
3) I have to accept that we have defensive issues. Between the amount of time we spend on footwork and skills on offense. I know that our defensive attention to detail has not been as high, but long term once we have every understanding and exceuting offense will become a matter a training and reps while defense can then work on reads as well. Short term we are soft. I want us playing in your face pressure, rotational team defense. Every instinct they've gotten from mini and middle school experience says back off and contain to keep in front. I want them talking and sprinting taking chances on charges and free balls. They are comfortable sliding and letting players catch and shoot. I want players forced to attack non dominant, they just don't want to get beat. Its not that they don't want to do what I ask, its in the moment their fear and experience tells them one thing that is in opposition to what I am asking. THey just don't have the competitive reps over time yet to make that happen. I have to accept that we aren't as talented defensively as I would have hoped but that hopefully playing with energy and as a team at game time will be enough.
4) We may lose to teams who spent more time on tactics then we did. We haven't played since high school season ended and have spent time training footwork and movement skills on offense. We are ready to pass and cut, talk, twist and screen, dribble drive and shoot it. We are also ready to contest, work the ball and run at it with multiple defenders. I have to accept that we may not handle the first 2-3 zone we see with discipline or we may turn the ball over a ton if someone has a well prepped half court or full court zone trap. I don't want this to be a chess game. I want skilled kids to make decisions so that in the long term (most of these athletes I'll have for another 3-4 years) we have kids who can make plays not run plays. Short term there is a reason tactics work.
I'm still confident. We've got kids who can score at this level. We've got interchangeable pieces. We've been doing things the right way. I continue to believe there is no such thing as overacheiving you get exactly what you earn. No short cuts, no easy ways out. We'll bring it and see what happens.
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