Turkey Trot

The Winter Team and several family members ran in the 19th Annual 2013 Framingham Turkey Classic Road Race. This was the first 5K run for any of the girls.

Here are our results:

 

PLACE	NAME	AGE	TIME	PACE
187	DAVID SPARLING	dad	24:39.80	7:57
331	CHRISTOPHER PEARCE	dad	26:50.50	8:39
452	TYLER SPARLING	16	28:54.90	9:19
454	ALISHA SPARLING	22	28:55.20	9:19
636	MCKENZIE SPARLING	17	32:03.70	10:20
697	TAYJA SALLIE	11	33:33.00	10:48
NONE	Hannah Carroll	12	33:35:00	10:50
704	CHLOE PEARCE	11	33:39.50	10:50
837	PAIGE SPARLING	14	37:40.40	12:08
857	JOHN KIRWAN	dad	38:32.90	12:25
897	NILIJAH ROSE	12	41:03.90	13:14
904	PRISCILLA MEDINA	mom	41:37.40	13:24
905	BRITTANY KIRWAN	12	41:42.80	13:26
911	TINA SPARLING	mom	41:58.70	13:31
913	BROOKE SPARLING	12	41:58.90	13:31
915	JAZLYNN LEUNG	11	42:07.40	13:34
916	KATIE ELLSWORTH	12	42:07.70	13:34
NONE	Celine Al Nammari	11	42:07.90	13:34
956	HANNAH PEARCE	11	45:16.20	14:35
957	ELIZABETH LEHNERTZ	mom	45:19.20	14:36
Walkers	CECILIA LEUNG	mom
Walkers	THERESA ELLSWORTH	mom

Our First Win of the Season

"Children with high levels of hopefulness have experience with adversity. They have been given the opportunity to struggle and in doing that they learn how to believe in themselves."  - Brene Brown

I like that phrase – the opportunity to struggle -- much more than "fail."

Children who have learned to deal with adversity and have had the ‘opportunity to struggle’ learn a whole host of skills that help them become successful in their academics, their personal lives, their future careers and their relationships with others.  They learn that, when faced with a challenge, they have the skills to persevere, problem-solve, find patience, learn dedication, and ultimately overcome and succeed.

To help set the tone for this season, our team mantra, stolen from USA soccer, is "Respect everyone, fear no one."

Yesterday's scrimmage was good for us.  We faced the top town travel team in our age group in our state. We faced them without fear. The score was 28 to 90. And yet we played on with joy.

As a coach I try to practice patience and allow time and space for players to keep trying, struggling, practicing and eventually mastering the skills. Parenting my own child, I often struggle to find the same patience.

Yet I know that it’s in this struggle that kids learn that, with practice and dedication, they can master something that was initially difficult, such as inbounding the basketball against the press.

One of the reasons that I use a player-lead motion offense is that it gives the players choices. Sure, it will look ugly and chaotic for the next two years or so. It gives our athletes a chance to problem solve. Their self-confidence grows because THEY figure out what to do.

Some times it worked last night. The shifts that ran the motion offense got a lot of shots up. The shifts that ran it without excessive dribbling got quality shots up. Not many found the bottom of basket as we made 14 out of 76 attempts (19%).

I think that the value of players learning to work through hardship is greater than the value of trying to tweak every little thing for the players. They are learning to play instead of learning set plays.

Our girls are learning to adapt, persevere and ultimately prevail on the court which I hope carries over to the other parts of their lives. The win at all costs attitude is what is ruining sports for children. I don't think that I am wired for it. Since my job security is not tied to my win loss record, I will never need to go there.

We have a team where some of the kids have very high goals for themselves while other kids are merely playing for fun (while their parents have high goals for them.) This is "normal." This is one of the reasons coaching a youth sports team is in many ways more challenging than coaching a high school team.

Learning to play, work and compete together in this situation is one of the great lessons sports can teach. I have to help all players understand that everyone has talents they can contribute to our team effort. For me, this effort applies to all areas of the game, from skills to sportsmanship to being a great teammate.

Motivating pre-teen girls to spend their time in becoming better basketball players is a tough task.

Because most of our team is playing up a grade or two and we will struggle, I will be looking for fun things to do as a team away from the court. The girls came up with a great list to get us started. We will add to the list and play through it. I will create social time outside of the gym for the team to come together.

Always keep in mind and help your child keep in mind that games are won and lost in practice; during the preparation. Everyone wants to win. And everyone plays as hard as they can come game-time. But only a few are willing to PREPARE TO WIN. That means the off-season as well as in-season practice.

There’s a big difference between losing and simply not-winning. Last night we did not win according to the score board. But we did not lose either. Every kid improved as the game went on. That is all I expect.

Legendary Hall of Fame football coach Bill Parcells once said, ‘In order to win, you have to figure out what makes you lose.’

During our scrimmage we did not win on the score board because:

1. We could not hit the ocean with a basketball.

2. Our defense has holes in it large enough to drive a tractor trailer through.

3. We could not inbound the ball against the press.

4. The lowest percentage shooters on the team took the majority of the shots.

And yet we are ahead of our development schedule. Of the 14 who played, only one did not attempt a shot. Our team percentage is up 2 points from this summer. One player made 50 percent of her shots. One made 40 percent. Two made 33 percent. Eight players scored. No one gave up.

At this age it is not winning that matters — it’s competing and as cliché’ as it sounds — trying your best. My job is to get the players out of their comfort zone, to push past levels of fear in order for them to understand what their best is.

Once we master the fundamentals - my time frame is 2 or 3 years from now - we will set ourselves up for the best possible chance to win in almost any situation.

This will be an interesting season. Thank you for joining me for the ride.

Winter Practice Plans

Winter 2013

Week 1 

Tuesday, November 5
Baseline Testing: Top of Key 3s, Foul Shots, Elbow Jumpers, Sit Ups in a minute, Push Ups in a minute, Burpees in a minute and dribbling down a back.
Teach a Group warm up
On the line: Dribbling Down and Backs, hesitation dribble, Change of speed, whirl, between legs, behind back
4 on 4 scrimmage make it take it, no dribble, change and switch
Shooting Group jumpers using Hoover form.
Fake Sandwich lines from each wing
Close outs to give and go layups
Shell defense


Thursday, November 7
Baseline Testing: Top of Key 3s, Foul Shots, Elbow Jumpers, Sit Ups in a minute, Push Ups in a minute, Burpees in a minute and dribbling down a back.
Form shooting at arrival
2 Dribbling shuffle runs
Foul shots
On the line dribbling
Scrimmage
Two ball dribbling on the move
Two ball passing from two ball dribbling stationary pounds
Self Shooting - Shoot to self
Line Shooting - Shoot to teammate down a line
Star passing to elbow jumper
2 continuous Cell phone suicides
Group jumpers: 3 at a time jumpers
Wing to elbow catch and shoot

Week 2

Next week
On the line
~1. Reverse (back up) dribble
~2. Step through with a both high low sweeps (Footwork)
~3. Lay up leap (Footwork) holding ball over head

Chicken dribble drill
~A. Crossover dribble with speed right hand / left hand
~B. whirl right hand / left hand
~C. Hesitation with a step-back cross over right hand / left hand

Under the basket
~1. Quick feet up back up back spin lay up
~2. close out, slide, back pedal, slide
~3. Star passing to a layup (Three basic passes – chest, bounce and overhead
~~◦Step to meet the pass and shorten the pass
~~◦Show a target)

Paired drills
~1. Two ball dribble passing
~2. Leaning two ball dribble
~3. Step thru rips high and low
~4. 10 second pivots and drive
~5. 10 second dribble and drive
~6. Leaning crab dribble

Offense building
~1. give and go with close outs
~2. Crab hand off
~3. Fake hand off pass to roller

Circle Trapping
Pass, cut, pick
Set Plays
◦Inbound "Stack"
◦Inbound Press Break "Flat-line"

WINTER UPDATE

Hi Parents,

1. TRAVEL practice starts TOMORROW at 7 PM to 8:30 pm at  St.
Stephens. We will go Tuesday and Thursday this week and next at St.
Stephen's. Those dates are Nov 5, 7, 12, and 14. Uniform payments are
due at the first practice. Checks are to be made out to Framingham Jr.
Flyers Basketball. Payment to the YMCA is due before the first
practice at the YMCA.

2. Have your daughters bring an empty binder and a pencil to their
first practice. I was told that most of last year's team can not find
their play books so we will start over. They'll need to bring their
binder to every practice. Email me if you daughter still has her play
book so I don't over print.

3. After two weeks  (this and next) at St Stephens, we become nomads
for two weeks since the Y will not have a place for us to practice
until the week after Thanksgiving. Our week 3 practice will be
Wednesday Nov 20 at 6 pm at Ashland Middle School with the Ashland 7th
grade team. We will have one other practice or scrimmage that week at
a time and place to be determined. We WILL NOT practice during
Thanksgiving week. With the race and two tournaments, we have enough
going on.

4. We will play in two pre season tournaments on the bookend weekends
to Turkey Day. We will play in two games on Sunday, Nov 24 at Mass
Premier in Foxboro. We will play a total of 3 games in the Natick
tournament during the weekend after Thanksgiving. Those games could be
Friday, Saturday or Sunday and will be over two days. We will play in
the tournaments as DESTROYERS not FLYERS since the entry fees are
coming out of the FADS funds.

5. The race Thanksgiving Day morning is full. If you did not get your
daughter registered, no worries. They can run with the unofficially.
Building team unity is the goal. I will have Destroyer tshirts for
every travel team member and practice player to wear on race day.

6. Our YMCA practice times and days are yet to be determined. I do
know that they are trying to get us into Walsh on Mon, Wednesday or
Thursday or Friday at YMCA. We will be given two practice times a
week.

7. I ask that during the winter basketball season that BASKETBALL come
before every other sport. The rest of the year it is okay to put the
Destroyers on the back burner as long as your player is doing a little
basketball year round. From mid November to mid March attendance at
two basketball practices a week is expected. One a week is required.
The required practice will be where new concepts will be introduced
and or challenges from the previous game will be ironed out. It will
be the most important practice of the week and will be clearly flagged
on TeamSnap. It is the practice that I would like every member of the
team to attend so that everyone is prepared for that week's game. That
is also the practice to which I will peg your daughter's playing time
for that week.

8. Make sure that your daughter information is entered in to TeamSnap.
Please use TeamSnap to mark your child's availability for games and
practices.

9. Figuring playing time: *Players who miss the mandatory practice
before a game will play but not equally. They will be worked into the
game in such a way and in such times that they will not disrupt the
progress of the players who were at that practice to learn that week's
new concepts. They may play only 5 or 6 minutes in that weeks game. I
will do as equal as I can playing time for each regular season game
for the girls who attend practices.

With 13 girls each player will play about 12 minutes per regular
season game. I will also change the groups from game to game so every
player gets a chance to play with each other, gets to start some games
and everyone also gets a chance to close out some games.

When our team is entered in a tournament where we need to win a
specific game in order to advance and keep playing, I will rotate
players fairly equally in the first three quarters. Everyone who met
the practice requirements for that week will play a minimum of 8
minutes split over the first 3 quarters, most likely in 4 minute
shifts.

I will play our current best players in the fourth quarter in the
"life or death" games. The demarcation line for "current best" for me
is when preparation, talent and athleticism meets an indomitable work
ethic demonstrated by showing up for and working hard in most of the
offered basketball activities in the week leading up to the
tournament.