Phase 2 - Day 7

Well Day 7 is in the books. Man time is flying here. We have one day left before Asia.

Today was an early day with a 7:15 wakeup and 8am breakfast. Standard scrambled eggs and cereal.

Practice was at 9:30 this morning and it wasn't that bad. The intensity went up and down a bit but it was good for the most part. Our strength coach showed up after practice for a workout which was quite neat. I filmed all of the pieces to take back home with me. Of course training camp wouldn't be training camp without a visit from our friends at the CCES or Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport. As usual, one of our players got selected for drug testing so off she went. I don't think I have been at a training camp where the players weren't tested.

After the workout was done we headed over to lunch which was a nice fish with potatoes. Very tasty.

After lunch we headed up the street to the usual spot, Starbucks. We had a good meeting and planned the evening practice. Lots of good things get discussed here but it is getting a bit monotonous with Starbucks all the time. Their coffee sucks which is why I get some different drinks at times. Their prices also SUCK. Tim's is better in my opinion.

After the meeting I returned here to try and get some rest but that didn't happen. I had some DVD's to copy and I finished up the China video.

So back to practice for 6pm. It was light with a lot of shooting and some work on our execution. Supper followed with teriyaki salmon, rice and a really tasty spinach pastry thing that was kind of like greek spanakopita. We headed back to the dorm for a quick meeting regarding our travel. What we have heard is that the airline to china is not good at all. Lots of bad reviews. China is paying for it so we can't complain. We get what we get and need to make the best of it. The reviews though say the food stinks, they don't feed you often, the seats are small with no legroom and there are no TV's on the flight. Guess that means take some snacks and charge up the laptop.

It is always an adventure when we travel so we have to make the best of it.

Tonight, instead of starbucks for a meeting the coaches chose Dairy Queen. A good choice. Once we finished there we came back and I took Tom and Allison through the edit I made for Japan. Tomorrow I will show the team and then take them through it on the court to help them prepare. This is what my main job is so I will make sure it is ready to roll.

Tomorrow we have 2 practices. One at 11 and one at 6. The first one will be hard and the second one a little easier. After that it is the last minute prep for the trip. I will give a full update tomorrow.

One of the last nights in this hotbox of a dorm room on a shitty bed. Woohoo. My back has been killing me on this bed. So now I will head off to bed. It is after 11AM so I will see if I can sneak in an extra hour of sleep

Until tomorrow

Phase 2 - Day 6

Well day 6 is in the books. A day off and parts of it were just boring.

I slept til about 8 this morning. A big sleep in. Woohoo. Got showered and took the rental vehicle down the road to get off campus. Grabbed a quick bite to eat and then drove down to Costco. I am a fan of Costco. I went basically to get a load of granola bars, trail mix and beef jerky as you never know what the food will be like in Japan and China. Even found a nice pair of pants for $20. Can't beat that.

Headed to walmart after that to get a few travel items and some snack size baggies so I could divide up the trail mix for travel. It was good to get off campus for a few hours. Rolled back here around 11 and cleaned up my room and tidied up our video for Japan. I also completed the scouting report.

Today was hot and since there is no air conditioning in the rooms I went to the lounge with my computer and notepad. It got even hotter and it is very warm in here now. I was hoping to maybe get off campus again in the afternoon but it didn't happen. All 3 vehicles were gone off campus so i was stuck here on my own for the whole afternoon. It was pretty boring after I had the video done. I was also getting hungry around 5pm as I hadn't eaten since breakfast. There isn't much around the area of the campus and on campus there is not much. It was almost 6pm when Allison arrived back so her and I went to a neat little Italian place and had a nice meal and a good chat. She is very knowledgeable and loves to share. I had a great chicken pesto dish. YUMMY. To add to it, I had a phenomenal Peanut Butter Chocolate Gelatto for dessert. Did I mention it was PHENOMENAL.

We headed back to campus as we were awaiting the arrival of our other assistant coach, Lisa from Saskatchewan. When we got in, Mike was back from his day in Vancouver and he brought 6 new coaching DVD's for me to watch and copy. BEST PART OF MY DAY. I have already begun looking at them. Awesome so far.

Lisa arrived a short time later so the coaches and our manager went for a relaxing coaches meeting at Starbucks. They are making a killing off of us this year. It was good to chat and we discussed a lot of things within the entire program. Good to be involved in these chats.

So now it is back to residence. No video for me tonight. I am actually gonna just open up my netflix account and watch a movie or TV show. Try to change things up a bit.

I do have a few more details on my trip toshare. I will provide much better details when I get them. I am hoping to be able to blog from Japan and CHina but sometimes the internet access is sketchy and I was not able to access some sites while in China last time. Hopefully no problems but we'll see.

So here goes.

We leave Abbotsford at 9AM on Monday. We arrive in Vancouver at 10:30AM for a 1:30 PM flight. Gotta be there so early for international flights. We fly out at 1:30 pm on August 1st and arrive in Shanghai at 4:35pm on August 2. With a time change I believe that is about a 13-14 hour flight. When we land in Shanghai we wait until 6:15 pm and fly to Fukuoka, Japan. We land at 8:50pm. Then we hop on a bus for 2 and a half hours. I have no frickin idea of how long that is for travelling but I know it is long. That is our first stop in Nagasaki. We are there for a few days and head to Omura and then after one night we travel back to Fukuoka. We spend 2 nights there.

On the 8th we fly to Shanghai again for our Chinese leg of the trip. We are just getting details on this so I will send a complete schedule when I get one.

I do know that we play Japan on Aug. 4th, 6th and 7th. We play China on August 10th, 12th and 14th.

Here is the killer. On the last day we have a flight that we have heard is about 1 or 1.5 hours long to Shanghai. We then connect to Vancouver. We leave Shanghai at 1:30pm on the 15th and arrive in Vancouver at 9:10AM on the same day. Back in Time. Then I connect to home.

So if I do the math. 1 hour + 14 hours to Van. + 5 hours to Toronto + 2.5 hours to sydney means I am on a plane for roughly 22.5 hours not mentioning any layovers. Can't wait for that one.

Anyway I will update it more as I get a better schedule. So now I am off to watch some TV. We have a 9:30 AM practice followed by film, a meeting and another practice at 5:30pm. Work to be done. Below is an official team pic.

Front (Left to Right) Janelle Bekkering (Taber, AB), Alisha Tatham (Brampton, ON), Theresa Gabriele (Mission, BC), Kim Smith (Mission, BC), Courtnay Pilypaitis (Ottawa, ON), Lizanne Murphy (Montreal, Que), Shona Thorburn (Hamilton, ON)

Back rown - Mike MacNeill, ME :), Chelsea Aubry (Kitchener, ON), Tamara Tatham (Brampton, ON), Leanne Evans (Port Moody, BC), Krista Phillips (Saskatoon, SK), Miranda Ayim (London , ON), Kalisha Keane (Ajax, ON), Trainer Marcel Charland, Allison MacNeill

Phase 2 - Day 5

Well Day 5 has come and gone. It is flying by fast.

Morning started off with an 8AM breakfast of blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs then we had practice at 9:30. Might have been our best practice yet. The defensive intensity was up and our offense looked very good. I introduced a transition drill that really helped our defense and upped the intensity in practice but the players said they felt it in their legs. Liked the drill and it was competitive but hard. The girls really battled today and they felt good afterward. The team had the rest of the day off and tomorrow as well. Some have dispersed with BC girls to their homes. Some will head out around here tomorrow and I am not so sure yet what I will do tomorrow.

After practice the girls did a weightlifting session and I came back to take care of some emails. We met for lunch at 1 pm which was a nice caesar salad and a phenomenal quiche with bacon, mushrooms and caramelized onions on top.

After lunch the 3 coaches went out with our guest coach Tom for a meeting. It was a good discussion as we chatted about the efficiency of our offense and what tweaks need to be made in the coming days before we head to Asia.

As soon as I returned I scrambled over to the gym to meet with Roger our team sport psychologist. We were discussing things yesterday and he arranged for another hour today. I am so grateful for his help and for giving me his time. He is an incredible guy who is deeply interested in helping people. Today we discussed the use of questions with athletes which is something I had asked about. We also got into perceived pressure and how to deal with it. We also discussed team building and he helped me with some ways to get our athletes more in tune with their own "plan" which was a big topic I asked him to help me with. A fantastic guy and a fantastic session. I took many notes afterward. Loved it. Can you tell?

Right after that session I came back here for a little while to catch up on a few things then Allison and I went out for supper. We had a nice meal and some great conversation. Tremendous opportunity to be 1 on 1 with the national team head coach and pick her brain. Interesting part of the meal was the free dessert. We decided to have dessert and I ordered a sampler they were promoting. A few shot glasses filled with different things. I took the first one and took a bite while chatting. I looked down at the next bite and part of the bottom and side were missing. The glass was cracked and there were bits of glass in the bottom of the dessert. The piece of the glass had fallen out on the tray underneath. Luckily I didn't bite into any glass. They were nice enough to give it to me for free. After dinnerwe ducked over to a grocery store for a few things. When we got home I checked some email and here I am now typing this.

Tomorrow is off so I may sleep a little then headout to get some supplies for the Asia trip. Saturday and Sunday is filled with 2 practices each day and meetings so it will be busy. As always I have more video to tidy up so I will get that done tonight and tomorrow as well.

I'll check back tomorrow

Below is a pic of the team when we went to Kim Smith's house for supper the other night

Phase 2 - Day 4

Well Day 4 is in the books.

Breakfast at 8AM followed by a 9:30 practice. Practice was good this morning in parts with varying intensity and focus but for the most part it was solid. WE are making progress on our defense and the offense is slowly coming along.

We had a nice lunch of beef and veggies. I spoke with our sport psychologist and set up a time to chat with him this evening. I could listen to him speak all day. We headed back after lunch to rest for about 45 min and then we headed to chat at Starbucks. A Vanilla bean frappacino was in order. To make it even better, I found 5 bucks when walking across the parking lot so free drink for me. We came home and then had practice about an hour after that.

The second practice was mostly a shooting practice and we refined some things on offense. Not much intensity but we expected that. We then headed off to supper at 7:30 before we had our session with Roger at 8:30. Supper was lemon roasted potatoes, pesto pasta salad and venetian Tilapia. Best supper we have had yet.

After Supper Roger and I stayed behind to chat. I wanted to ask about a number of things. We chatted about building a connection with athletes and I also asked about the use of questions in communication. We went all over the map here and ran out of time. We had to get over for our team session with Roger.

He led a phenomenal session about dealing with fears and uncertainties. He also discussed our ultimate goal and strategized how to get there. A whole lot of fantastic stuff. Like I said, I could listen to him for a long time so we are going to set up another time in the next few days to sit down and chat.

We have one practice tomorrow and then we are off until Saturday. We get up tomorrow at 8AM for breakfast and then practice at 9:30. We will be back for 2 practice on saturday, 2 on Sunday and then we leave on Monday

SO not a ton to write about tonight. I am tired and gonna crash to get some rest.

Until tomorrow

Phase 2 - Day 3

Well here we are, almost another day in the books. A little video to finish before bed time but sleep needs to come soon.

Started the day with pain. These residence beds killed my back last night so each step was shitty until I got it loosened up which took half the day. Breakfast was a same old breakfast of boiled eggs, yogurt and french toast. Fun times....woohoo. Then we headed off to our practice for the day. Our defensive positioning and intensity is getting better but our offense bogged down a bit today. We need to get back to the proper spacing and to do things with more precision. Always stuff to work on for tomorrow. WE also battled the injury bug a bit. We were down a few bodies to start with a lost a few more during practice. Nothing too serious but enough to keep them out of practice for today. The energy wasn't the best as the numbers dropped but we tried to keep them going.

After practice the girls went to the weight room and I returned here to do some work. It was good to see Tom Elwood back here today and he is now rooming with me. Tom is a high school coach out here who has run the same offense as we do for many years. He has it down to a science and it is nice to hear his thoughts. He is a very good basketball mind so talking about anything is always worth it to pick up a few tidbits. We headed over a little early to lunch and chatted while we waited for the team. Lunch was an eggplant dish, potatoes and broiled salmon. Pretty good. Roger, our team sport psychologist, was back around lunch time today and it is always good to chat with him. Actually I do a lot of listening. I find him fascinating.

After lunch we scrambled back to get ready for pictures. It was team and individual picture day. It was kind of funny as the girls couldn't be serious for long and the fits of laughing busted out everywhere. The process took a little longer than expected.

I took a quick drive to walmart after the pictures to pick up some back pain medication. Popped two of them and my back loosened up so i began to feel better. We met at 4:40 to drive out to the town of Mission where Kim Smith's parents hosted us for supper. Great people and an amazing spread of tasty food. We headed back around 7:30 and made it back to campus for 8pm. OF course what followed next was a coaches meeting at Starbucks where Tom shared his thoughts on our practice and we chatted about what we were going to do in the coming days. We arrived back here a little after 10. IT was a great chat.

So tomorrow we have one practice in the morning and another in the evening. A full day. Gotta go and get some rest.

Until tomorrow

Phase 2 - Day 2

Well Day 2 is in the books...almost. Still have some film to tidy up before bed.

I zonked out pretty hard last night and apparently they pounded on the door and rang the phone but I never got up. One of the assistant coaches ended up getting a key to get into my room around 11:30. I had forgotten to hand in my visa forms for the China leg of the trip. I was too tired and forgot. So I got them for him and then crashed again. I slept HARD until 7:15AM when the alarm went off.

We headed over to breakfast which was boiled eggs and cereal. Not quite a tim's bagel and coffee. We had a quick team meeting afterwards and then went to practice. During our meeting, Allison took the team through a visualization exercise which was very powerful and moving. A nice way to kick off the camp.

Our first practice was a good energy, high intensity practice. Good competition and dusted off some rust. Looked OK for 6 weeks off.

We broke for lunch which was much better than breakfast. The team doctor, Doug Richards, was out for the first day with us from Toronto. I met him before I was fascinated to listen to him talk. Today was no different. He is a brilliant man and has some interesting info and stories. He talked about his time with the Raptors which was interesting. At the end of lunch he gave us Dr. Doug's 3 rules for international travel.

1. Don't get hit (statistically most fatalities of canadians travelling to other countries is because of getting hit by bad drivers)

2. Don't get bit (be careful of the bugs and other animals)

3. Don't eat shit (eat stuff that you can peel or has been boiled or you will shit...a lot)

After lunch we headed to Starbucks for a coaches meeting. When we came back I headed to the grocery store to get some water and a few snacks for the week. Our second practice was at 5:30 and it was pretty BLAH. Not great energy but we did get a lot of shots up.

We ended practice and headed over to supper which was good. Roast beef, potatoes, rice. Good stuff.

After dinner we had a quick coaches meeting and then a film session. At the end of the session I showed them some different film. It was a setup for the jokers of the group, Megan and Janelle. I showed a few clips of last year and set up by talking about how slow we were at running our offense. About 3-4 clips in the screen changed and it became a video of Janelle and Megan AKA Muffins and Pearl. That is their rap names and they have been doing videos for a few years. This one featured everyone's name and it was HILARIOUS.

So now I sit here contemplating the day and what lies ahead. I picked up some great new drills today and a nice zone set or two. Lots of good things here. It is always like basketball school when I am here. I can't help but think about the coming year though. Hopefully by the time I get back we will be done recruiting and ready for the year. When I return I am taking most of the rest of the time off until training camp to rest and recharge.

Still awake????? OK, let's read on.

I looked at some notes from the book I just read and I came across an interesting point. The author stated, "Sometimes we have to see what we don't want , to know what we do want."

I couldn't agree more with this. I remember starting at CBU with the shittiest team in Canada. I wanted to be a winner right away but it didn't happen. Going 1-22 was not a waste though. It seemed like shit at the time but it made me see what I didn't want and has driven me to get to what I do want for our program but it is not all scoreboard results.

I jump ahead to this year. We had another strong season. 16-4 and 1st in the AUS. Winning with a team that wasn't supposed to. A run to nationals and a few baskets away from the national final while coming home with the bronze. Many say "Woohoo what a great job". I say bullshit. While it may have been one of my best years from a technical standpoint of getting a team ready to play, I failed miserably in building a cohesive unit. The year was not fun or rewarding in terms of what really matters. Yes winning is nice but not when it comes with a price. By the end of the year it was dread and a feeling of "let's get this over with". When the final buzzer went off in Windsor and we won the bronze, I was happy. Happy for some part of winning but mostly happy because I could try to put this failure behind me.

So I read this book and another section jumps out at me.

"Every crisis offers an opportunity to grow stronger and wiser; to reach deep within and discover a better you that will create a better outcome. So while this is your crisis, what matters most is what you do with it."

I have chosen not to dwell on the season. It was what it was. We had some bad chemistry and a relatively shitty experience. So what do I do with it? I come back motivated to build a team, challenge it to get better every day both on and off the court. I will not let anyone disrupt the chemistry on our bus this year. We should have the talent to make a deep run but not if we are a disruptive group of individuals. I have pushed myself to re-examine my methods and refresh myself with new ideas on how to build our group of young ladies into a powerful team.

The evaluation of self is never final so I will continue throughout the rest of the summer and the year to see what I can learn. I owe it to our 5th year players to make it the best year I can. I cannot and will not let them down. They have put so much time and effort into making us great and they have believed in me as their leader. Now I have to prove to them that I can take our bus on that glorious ride to our final destination. Definitely an interesting challenge.

So now the day wraps up as always. More film. People say "you are so lucky, you get to travel and see the world". I love it and will never complain but it is not what some might think. My days are filled with meetings, practices and sitting in front of a computer or video screen. IT can be tiring and it is not a holiday. But hey, I could be sitting in an office doing the same shit every day but that little round ball keeps it interesting.

Until tomorrow

Phase 2 - Day one

Well here I am back at it again from the beautiful Fraser Valley town of Abbotsford.

Phase 2 started today as my clock went off at 4 AM (Midnight out here). Got to the airport by 5AM and jumped on the plane. They tried to bump me off but I told them I had a close connection in Toronto. I really didn't. More like a 4.5 hour wait. Flight was uneventful and landed in Toronto slightly late at 8AM.

WEll the old saying "Karma is a bitch" got me this time. Telling Air Canada I had a close connection was a bad idea. I had to get my bags in Toronto, get to Terminal 3 and check in with Westjet. Everything going well, having a nice lunch when they announce my flight has been cancelled. So now instead of heading out at 12:45 or 1:15 or whatever it was, I am rerouted through Edmonton instead of Calgary at 3:45. So I meet up with Chelsea from our team as she got on the same flight. As we wait to board I go to Starbucks. Funny thing I see. The girl waiting on me is drinking a Tim Horton's Iced Coffee. I chuckled out loud.

So off to the plane we go. Relatively uneventful as well except for the fact that I fall asleep for about 20 minutes and wake up with my head on the shoulder of an Asian man next to me. Guess I am warming up for opportunities when we travel. Land in Edmonton to a little over an hour wait. Hold on...Karma again as the flight is delayed. We end up getting out late and getting into abbotsford at about 8pm. Now it is 9pm and I have been up for 21 hours. Kind of tired.

We head out to breakfast tomorrow at 8AM followed by an 8:30 meeting and then a 9:30 practice. Another training session later in the day. This will be a hectic week of practices and meetings as we get ready to leave on the 1st.

Japan and China await. I have been to China but am still excited to see three different cities and I am really excited about Japan. People say it is very nice. I am eagerly awaiting the sights, sounds, smells and tastes. I described China the last time as a bombardment of the senses and I feel it will be the same again.

I finished reading a really good book on the plane that really makes you think about things. One particular section talked about the blessings we have in life. Often we bury our heads in our stresses and get drained because of them. I have been blessed by a number of things in my life and basketball has been one of them. Yes, she is a hateful bitch on a number of days but most other days she is a loyal companion. I have said to a few people that the game has been really good to me. It pays me well and I have a nice truck to drive around in all because of a round, orange ball. THe most important things it gives me though are the emotional connections. Working with the players, the big wins, the tough losses, developing friendships and traveling to places that move you in different ways. It is tough to think about on some days but the game has been fantastic to me. I am not sure where I would have been without her.

So now I must get off to sleep. I am tired. I will be posting every day throughout the phase as long as internet access is good. I will discuss the regular things such as the practices and games, the food and the way the day unfolds but I will also try and give more this time. We will see how it goes.

Until tomorrow

Coach