The calm before .......

“The girls don’t seem to panic anymore at the end of games “- parent

“Your team played well and didn’t panic at all during game. They just executed and never seemed to have a sense of urgency to their play. Now that can be a good thing and a bad thing “– observing college coach

“the girls don’t seem to be overly enthusiastic during warmups. They even walk it in when it is time to come to the bench. “– parent

The above are a couple comments that have been made to me about how the team carries itself. Quite frankly I am okay with it and very happy with how they go about their business. It only bothers me when we have a slow start to games or quarters. Fortunately, I have a go to plan ready for if they are not playing with full energy. I just have to say “don’t make me call a timeout!”. You see a few years ago we started one game and the girls went the wrong way for no other reason than complete lack of focus. I then proceeded to call a timeout. During that timeout the team was forced to run sprints for the length of the timeout and since then we have not had that problem again.

When I first started coaching I used to get the team all hyped up and energized before the game started. I like many others felt that having your heart pumping hard was the key to being hard. Well as I have grown and learned that the mental aspect is just as or even more important than the physical game I have placed more emphasis on getting the mind ready to play. I must acknowledge the great Phil Jackson and his book “Eleven Rings” for having a tremendous impact on my style. Phil believes that having the proper mindset is crucial to play the game of basketball and it is for that reason that I have been leaning towards the mental development of my teams.

One other key factor is the fact that I am not a big fan of set plays or robotic basketball where B must follow A Then C comes next. I work my team to develop a system where they can take advantage of opportunities as they arise and if G is open then take it. Some call it reading the defense but more importantly it is about reading the game. Some games our beast will be taking over the game down low and other nights our guards may be on fire. I want to be able to use all tools available and this allows everyone to be a contributor on a regular basis. This is evident when I look at the numbers and see that in most games we do not have one main score but multiple scorers and contributors. I have even seen games where almost 80% of players have had at least one shot on net and one game I think we had 100% participation in shot attempts. To me that is balance!

So will I try to pump up the team before games, NO. Will I challenge their minds, YES! Will I continue to be an emotional crazy man on the sidelines, OF COURSE! 

Still Striving

Mid-Season Report  

      

We are formally at the midway point of our season in terms of games played. Three tournaments done and three tournaments to go. Fortunately the next three tournaments are the most crucial in determination of the success of our season. The next one coming up is at Brock University , then we have the very competitive Blessed Sacrament tournament which is a super warm-up and preview of what we can expect t for the years final tournament. The year concludes with the provincial championship where everything we have done throughout the season comes to fruition. The mid-season ranking came out yesterday and we are ranked where I suspected. Number three in the province is something to be very proud. We have beaten the number two team but they also beat the number one team so I am happy where we are ranked. 

We are still the hunters seeking the number one spot and it is safe to say that beating the top team will be our focus after March break. Prior to that we will be getting back to work on the fundamentals again. One thing that makes our team successful and dangerous is our ability to have both an inside and outside game but our downfall has been being able to incorporate both aspects into the same game. With our two main inside players recovery from injuries, sprained ankle and concussion, the decision to put the emphasis on shooting and our perimeter game is an easy one.

Our tournament last weekend was very successful in terms of what was achieved off the court. The team learned that they can compete with teams in an age group higher, team bonding was evident and they had an opportunity to meet and talk with a coach from the college level. On-court we played very well for two games coming out with a win and close loss but we fell apart in third game and played probably our second worse game of season. The one redeeming factor of the third game was that we lost by such a big margin that we did not have to play later in evening and got to spend more time together as a team. During the weekend we did see some great things, including the ability of the girls to beat a strong press which I attribute to their intense practices against the girls that I brought out to challenge them. Also we did see more girls step up their level of play and attack the basket a lot more. We are slowly becoming less reliant on having only one or two players be the sole determinants of our offense.

As a coach I remain very pleased and excited for we have accomplished to date and wait in anticipation for what the remainder of the season holds for us.