This morning we gave the team a break from practice. They are banged up and have pushed hard so we decided to give them some time off. We did a core workout and a lot of stretching then we watched some video. I have been having practice filmed so I can break it down for the staff and players to watch.
The fun part of the day was finishing up the distribution of our gear. We received a large travel bag, a coaches bag and a backpack. 4 golf shirts, 4 t-shirts, a long sleeve dri-fit shirt, practice shirt,a hat, a hooded sweatshirt, 4 pairs of shorts , about 8-10 pairs of socks, a track suit, 1 pair of running shoes, 1 pair of cross trainers and a pair of flip flops. All from Nike so I am not sure what my boss will say when I go back to working at an adidas school. The gear is nice though!!!
A special treat for supper tonight as we dined on lemon dill salmon with a garlic mashed potato and fresh veggies. The food has been decent here so far I must say but I never expected salmon although last night it was BBQ ribs so not too bad.
We practiced at 5pm and went at it pretty hard. We were down to 21 bodies tonight as Kelsey Adrian, a perimeter player from Cal Berkeley, is nursing tendinitis while Melissa Dalembert (sister of Samuel) who plays at the University of South Florida is nursing an upper arm injury. Looks like a deep bruise right now but very swollen and limited in her range of movement. Hopefully these players won't be out for long.
The girls battled extremely hard and showed some really solid signs of improvement. Tomorrow night will be tough as that is when we break into 2 teams and possibly shatter the summertime dreams of a few who may think they are in the top 12. Hard to do but it must be done and for the most part things have really shaken down in the practices so most people won't be surprised. The group we will be taking to China will be a bit younger and less experienced than the Chinese team. Their team has been together for the past 4 years and has practiced almost year round while playing about 20 games a year. Earlier this year they defeated some great teams and they have a 6'7" player who will give us some trouble I am sure. The schedule also sees us travel around China to 3 different cities with one being a 2 hour flight away from Shanghai. The details are just filtering in so when I receive them I will pass them along. We play 3 games in 6 days with a lot of travel so it is not going to be fun. The experienced coaches are telling me that this trip will be one of the most hellish they have ever been on. I told them that from the perception they have given me, I am pretty much expecting Beelzebub to meet us at the airport!!!
Tomorrow we have 2 practices with one being more individualized in the morning. We will have the point guards come in by themselves, then the shooting guards and small forwards and then the power forwards and posts. We will do a core workout and stretch and then practice again in the evening.
The following day we break up and start practicing with our own groups. That will certainly be interesting as we try to build our team for China.
My biggest coaching observation of the day is how thankful these players are when they receive feedback. They want constant feedback but whenever you pull them aside and show them something they ALWAYS say thank you. I am not sure how many times over my 9 years at CBU that I have heard those words on a regular basis from the players. I assume that we all take each other for granted so I guess we need to work on building a better appreciation within the program. Both an appreciation of the players by the staff and vice versa. The one thing I would like to show all of our athletes at CBU is how thankful these players are. They received their Nike Gear and thanked all the staff, they clean up after themselves and thank all of the people around residence and the campus pub where we eat our meals. It irks me that we provide a pair of shoes or a track suit or a shirt for our athletes and often they comment about it and complain. This certainly doesn't stand for everyone in our women's basketball program but I think I have to do a better job of making sure we are respectful and thankful for everything we receive as varsity athletes. We get treated very very well by the university yet many deem that certain things are owed to them. Entitlement??? That's a crock of shit in my eyes. The goal in my eyes is to represent yourself and our university in a top notch manner, appreciate the experience and leave a better person than you were when you came in.
But that's enough of my rant for today. I have to break down some more film of the practice today and get ready for tomorrow.
The journey continues.
Coach
No comments:
Post a Comment