Day 7. Over. Finished. Expired. Time is flying by here at camp.
First thing about today is that it was Mother's Day. I hope the Mothers all over the world enjoyed it. You deserve more than a day in your honour. I called my mom to wish her a Happy Mother's day and to say I love you. She has been an inspiration to me EVERY day of my life but what she has taught me the past few years are lessons that you can't find in any book or seminar. It is the power of attitude and resiliency. The MVP of my life and she is why I write this blog every day. The rest of you just get to tag along for the ride. LOL
So on to Day 7.
We got a little bit of a sleep in for the girls but I got up at 7:45 to plan and get some things done. We had breakfast at 9 and then back to the dorm for 10:15. We had individual meetings with every player until around 11:30 and then I got to catch up on some planning. We headed off to lunch at 1pm and then back to the dorm for 2pm for guess what....yep..another meeting. This time it was from 2-3 pm with our physiologists. They explained the weight program to the girls and then Ed showed a video of one of his tricks. He competes in strong man contests so he has a video of him rolling up a frying pan. Yes, he grabs it and starts rolling it up like you would a piece of paper. Amazing!
The meeting ended at 3 and we had practice at 3:30 so it was off to the gym. We started practice with some breakdown drills and eventually built it up to a bunch of competitive stuff. We got a lot of full court work done and the girls and it was very good. We are starting to play better and understand that we can get better offensive efficiency if we move the ball and get it inside to our post players.
From a team perspective we have kind of been in limbo as some senior players may have been moved down and there was a chance we could get a late arrival. Today I confirmed, and announced to the girls, that this is our team. There will be no additions. We are on our way to Europe with the 12 that have battled hard and that is a good thing.
After this practice we came back for a quick coaches meeting to get on the same page with a few things and to get the plan set for tomorrow. We have 2 practices. One at 9AM and one at 4:30. We then have one on Tuesday and 2 on Wednesday before we depart for Europe. Not much time left and we are feeling the pinch now. Just not enough time to get everything done. However I think we have made strides and this is a development camp so it is very important that these players get exposed to lots of different things.
Later this evening I was able to take about 30-45 minutes for myself. It was a nice break. I have heard from people before how much fun it must be to go on "vacation" with these teams. If you look at tomorrow's schedule, we have breakfast at 7:30. Practice at 9 until 11:30. Lunch at 11:45. Coaches meeting at approximately 12:30 until about 1:30. 1:30 to 3:30 is practice planning for practice #2 and video analysis. 3:45 I will walk to the gym for a 4:30 practice. 430 to 7 is practice. 7:15 is supper and then we will have an 8:30 meeting for about 30 minutes. After this we will meet as coaches for about an hour so at around 10pm I get back to my room and plan for the next mornings practice.
So by the math in my head I will spend about 9.5 hours on court or in meetings. Not a big vacation!!!
However, traveling the world is nice.
I was thinking about this today and I am not sure if I have ever blogged this. On my walk to the gym I was thinking of the different places have been as a direct result of basketball. So here goes:
Canada: Every province but the territories
U.S. - 18 states - Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maryland, New York, D.C., Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Texas, Nevada, illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Jersey
Cuba, France, Serbia, Spain, Japan, China
Been a fun ride!!!!!
So before I depart I wanted to share one more thing. Jim Valvano was a famous coach who won a national championship at North Carolina State University back in the 80's. He had a huge personality and was loved by almost everyone in the coaching fraternity. His life was cut short by cancer but before he left this world he worked to inspire people. He has a famous speech from the ESPN Awards (watch it here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuoVM9nm42E) where he talked about not giving up. He also talked about 3 things you need to do to live a full life every day. He said that you have to laugh, spend some time in deep thought and have your emotions to tears. He said that this was a full day.
Today I laughed, I definitely spent some time in deep though and I had my emotions moved to tears.
If you go to the link below, you will see why. A dad returned home from Afghanistan. When he left, his son who has Cerebral Palsy couldn't walk. Watch the video and see what happens.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/marine-returning-home-greeted-6-old-son-learned-130055137.html
Try it tomorrow. Laugh, Spend some time in thought and have your emotions moved to tears. That would be a FULL DAY.
Until tomorrow
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