Black Team Summer Game 1 June 25, 2014 vs Arlington 5

First Game Jitters

If you already know your vactaion schedule please forward it to me so that I can plan ahead to make sure that we have enough players. Last night I had 3 players from the Silver Team fill in to make sure that we had enough subs.

Basketball games are fun. No matter our age, we enjoy testing our skills against others. Even the youngest basketball players want to see how they compare to other players or teams their age. Learning to compete to the best of our ability at whatever we pursue and how to win and lose with grace and dignity are important life lessons. But to maximize player’s enjoyment of the game and to provide players with the best opportunity to improve, attending practice is a must. Attending practice is more important, in my opinion, even than attending games.

Every week that we do NOT have a Tuesday game, we will have a Tuesday practice from 7 to 9 at St Stephens.

Games do not offer an atmosphere that is conducive to teaching. A lot of excitement, energy, tension, interference, and distractions surround games, making it extremely difficult to communicate any type of teachings or lessons to a player. We have not had even one practice with the entire team present and with summer vacations cranking up, we will not. Please make every effort to get your girls to practice this summer. Starters will be picked from the players who attend the practice before the game.

Great players are skilled as a result of PRACTICE. There isn’t a magic trick or formula, just good ‘ole hard work. Encourage your girls to get outside working on their dribbling and shooting everyday. The girls on the Sliver team are REQUIRED to make 10,000 baskets - on their own time - over the course of the summer. That is MAKES not attempts. Destroyers do not count misses.

I do not expect the Black Team to win a game this summer on the score board. Last summer we were pleasantly surprised by winning a couple. Our wins will be measured on effort and improvement.

The team that we played last night is one of the top 5th grade (raising to 6th grade) teams in the state. All the teams that we play will be top middle school teams (both town travel and AAU teams) who have played together longer than that 4 weeks that we have. (And keep in mind that is 4 weeks without a single practice with every player present.)

Please tell your child after every game: "I love to watch you play."

Robin

Silver Team Summer Game 1 Report Card June 25, 2014 vs. Bay State Flash 5

 

Shots Taken

Shots Made

%

3s Taken

3s Made

%

FT Taken

FT Made

%

Rebound

Drives

Defensive Grade

Jazlynn

2

0

0%

x

x

x

x

x

x

2

1

B

Celine

9

3

33%

x

x

x

4

3

75%

1

7

B

Zaria

3

1

33%

x

x

x

x

x

x

1

2

C

Chloe

2

1

50%

x

x

x

x

x

x

3

1

B

Jomi

5

0

0%

x

x

x

x

x

x

4

2

B

Hannah

DNP*

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

DNP

Katie

3

0

0%

x

x

x

x

x

x

1

0

B

Nilijah

DNP

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

DNP

Sofia B

4

0

0%

x

x

x

x

x

x

0

2

B

Tayja

DNP

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

DNP

Sophia F

3

1

33%

x

x

x

x

x

x

1

2

B+

Brooke

4

0

0%

x

x

x

4

0

0%

4

7

B

Selina

5

4

80%

x

x

x

2

2

100%

3

5

B+

Gianna

DNP

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

DNP

Vienna

11

7

64%

x

x

x

3

2

67%

7

10

C

Paige

4

1

25%

x

x

x

1

0

0%

2

4

B

TEAM

55

18

34%

x

x

x

14

7

50%

27

43

B

Shots Taken

Shots Made

%

3s Taken

3s Made

%

FT Taken

FT Made

%

Rebound

Drives

Defensive Grade

*DNP = Did Not Play

Our goal is as a team this summer is to make 70% of our foul shots, 40% of our shots taken and 25% of our 3 point shots.

Everyone should have 2 rebounds per game and take at least 4 shots per game - of which 2 should be a drive.

There are 5 reasons why our players are not yet "scorers."

1.) We don't dribble well enough to get separation from our defender or to attack the basket.

We can only dribble with one hand.

We don’t know how to protect the ball in a crowd which leads to turnovers.

To combat this we work on dribbling and driving to the basket every practice. I was happy to see that all but one player drove to the basket last game. Not many of the drives were fruitful. Hunting the paint, however, is becoming the norm.

2.) We have poor shooting mechanics and poor shot selection.

To combat this we work on shooting form every practice. Everyone is getting better. I will worry about shot selection once every one is exceeding our goal of every player taking at least 4 shot attempts per game (including two drives.)

3.) We don't know how to set a screen or how to move without the ball to get open to receive the ball to score.

To combat this I am just starting to stress screening in practice. We play small side games  2 on 2 or 3 on 3 every practice to help teach movement and 1 on 1 to stress attacking in a straight line.

4.) The players don't understand how to read the defense. The small side games help with that as well.

5.) We lack the confidence to take a shot.

We think pass first not shot first.

We are afraid to attack the basket.

Since practice builds confidence, I believe that seeing make after make go in as they work the 10,000 Make Summer Challenge will help.

Our History

This is where the Destroyers started. 

In this game on Dec 16 2012, I had 8 players, only 4 who had ever played organized basketball prior to our first game. 

One player missed this game which was typical our first season. I had a few games where only 6 players showed up however 7 was most common. Playing with such a short bench meant that everyone played big minutes.

This was the first quarter of our 3rd game of our first season, Winter 2012-2013.

We beat Dover Sherborn 35 to 23.

Our Summer Improvement Plan

Our summer improvement plan involves several key areas.

First, we will focus on critical fundamentals on which to build our skill development. Skills are acquired through intentional focus and repetition. Summer will be about shooting, ball handling and defensive skills.

• A serious player will work on these about 2-5 hours per day depending on ability, age and specific goals. You will not get better only working on basketball when you are with the team twice a week.

Our second focus will be on the development of Basketball IQ, specifically understanding the game and learning how to react to what is in front of you. We will play lots of one-on-one and three-on-three to provide everyone more touches with the ball. Five-on-five is one of the slowest ways to build skills because of the simple mathematical reality that players get less time with the ball. We will not do much 5-on-5 it during summer sessions.

Third, we will do specific physical training to build strength, quickness and vertical jumping.

• Bring your jumprope to every session.

Fourth, we will develop individual plans to work on confidence and mental toughness. Mental toughness is a crucial separator between good and great athletes.

• There will be reading assignments and written homework.

If you are not working on your basketball skills this summer, you are hurting your team and eliminating the opportunity to get extra minutes in Travel season games. While I require everyone to learn every job, we can not ignore that height is an important criteria for basketball players. Statistics show that the combination of height and ball-handling skill accurately predicts a player’s ability to play at higher levels over 90% of the time. When you add shooting skill the predictive level increases to over 95%. Since you can not control how tall you are (or will end up), you MUST work on your ball handling and your shooting. YOU are in control of your effort.

Whether players and parents like to hear it or not, height IS a factor. Players that are tall AND skilled are extremely valuable. Players that are shorter have to possess a higher level of skill (particularly ball-handling and shooting) to be on the court in high school and college. Players and parents need to recognize that if a player lacks height, then practice needs to be increased on skill work, and if a player does possess some height, that height is not sufficient on its own to guarantee playing at the next level where as great ball handing coupled with excellent shooting will.

I believe that it is important to measure early for skill and to do it often and objectively. Measurement brings accountability, and accountability drives rapid improvement. It is my goal to instill a culture of constant measurement and improvement and use objective testing to see who has the desire to work hard. Skill development is an important first step. I will track things in practice (hustle plays, + – stats in scrimmages, athleticism factors, etc) and continue to track stats and adjust goals in our games.

Summer is the time to develop new habits including mental toughness. This year we will work on climbing the mental toughness ELM tree - Effort, Learning and Mistakes.

• Always give 100% Effort (regardless of the outcome on the scoreboard).

• Constantly strive to Learn and improve. This involves you comparing your own performance to only your own performance (i.e., are you better than you were two weeks ago?).

• Mistakes are an inevitable part of the basketball and are needed to help you learn. Mistakes often result from pushing the envelope, taking chances, stretching limits, growing and learning.

If you are giving 100% and trying new things (as you strive to improve), mistakes are bound to occur, and you must learn to quickly bounce back from your mistakes.

When you make a mistake brush it off. Move on to next play! Let it go. No sweat. Flush it. Focus forward. NEXT play. Shake it off. Bounce back from setbacks.

Create a Self-Control Routine. 

It helps to have -- and actually practice or rehearse -- a self-control routine. Here is an example:

• take a deep breath
• remind yourself of the discipline required NOT to react
• engage in self-talk ("I need to be a role model. I can rise above this!")
• turn away from the action
• count to 20 (or 50!)
• try to return to enjoying the game and cheering on your teammates
  

What are your goals for playing Basketball? You have 100 points. Divide them between the goals listed below.

_________ Become a good athlete

_________ Learn to play the sport

_________ Learn teamwork

_________ Win

_________ Gain increased self-confidence

_________ Learn to deal with defeat

_________ Physical fitness

_________ Learn “life lessons”

_________ Have fun

_________ Make friends

_________ Earn a college scholarships

_________ Other (specify: ____________________________)

_________ Other (specify: ____________________________)

_________ Other (specify: ____________________________)

Share your goals with a parent, a teammate and your coach. Then put this sheet in your playbook.

You can download a PDF of this homework here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10279874/summer2014.pdf 

8 Secrets to Success

Richard St John list's the 8 secrets to success.

    Passion
    Hard Work
    Get Good
    Focus
    Push Yourself
    Serve Others Value
    Ideas
    Persist

Notice that passion is listed first. Being passionate about something is the first step in being successful.  If you’re passionate about something, it’s a lot easier to work hard, get good, focus, push yourself, serve others value, come up with ideas, and persist through the hard stuff.

Spring 2014 Season Stats

Our goal is as a team this summer is to make 70% of our foul shots, 40% of our shots taken and 25% of our 3 point shots. Everyone should also average 2 rebounds per game and take an average of 4 shoots per game. 

SPG = shots taken per game average
RPG = rebounds per game average
PPG = points  per game average



 

	Games Played	Shots Taken	Shots Made	%	SPG	3s Taken	3s Made	%	FT Taken	FT Made	%	Rebound	RPG	Points	PPG
Jazlynn	4	4	1	25%	1	1	0	0%	x	x	x	5	1.25	2	0.5
Celine	5	57	16	28%	11.4	7	1	14%	5	2	40%	19	3.8	37	7.4
Zaria	5	7	1	14%	.2	x	x	x	2	1	50%	8	1.6	3	0.6
Chloe	4	9	1	11%	2.25	x	x	x	x	x	x	14	3.5	2	0.5
Jomi	4	5	1	20%	1.25	x	x	x	x	x	x	4	1	2	0.5
Hannah	6	17	4	24%	2.8	x	x	x	x	x	x	13	2.2	8	1.3
Katie	5	12	1	8%	2.4	x	x	x	4	0	0%	14	2.8	2	0.4
Nilijah	4	8	0	0%	2	x	x	x	2	0	0%	4	1	0	0
Sofia B	6	4	0	0%	.7	x	x	x	x	x	x	6	1	0	0
Tayja	5	79	40	51%	15.8	9	1	11%	25	11	44%	40	8	94	18.8
Brooke	6	31	4	13%	5.2	x	x	x	10	1	10%	11	1.8	9	1.5
Selina	5	3	0	0%	.6	x	x	x	x	x	x	7	1.4	0	0
Gianna	6	44	9	20%	7.3	12	3	25%	29	15	52%	10	1.7	42	7
Vienna	5	20	5	25%	4	x	x	x	3	0	0%	22	4.4	10	2
Paige	5	6	0	0%	1.2	2	0	0%	x	x	x	12	2.4	0	0
TEAM	6	306	83	27%	51	31	5	16%	80	30	38%	189	31.5	211	35.2
	Games Played	Shots Taken	Shots Made	%	SPG	3s Taken	3s Made	%	FT Taken	FT Made	%	Rebound	RPG	Points	SPG