DWNT 2012 Day 8

Well there goes Day 8. Whizzed by.

Started with the standard 6:50 wakeup followed by breakfast then off to practice. We had a pretty good practice this morning. These girls pick up things quite quickly. We still won't have a lot of time to get everything in but we the girls have been exposed to new things and have developed. Practices have been very good but they get really good when we get into competitive stuff. I challenged them with some new things today and they responded. They compete hard (well almost all of them do. there is one that coasts a fair amount) and they love to play.

I was asked a question about the team so I will describe the process a little bit more. This is the development team for the future. A number of them are targeted for the senior team. We are playing 5 exhibition games however whenever you throw the ball up we get competitive. It is my job to make sure they get opportunities to develop. Practice has certainly provided that opportunity. The games will as well. However, do we go for wins only or development. That is the delicate balance that we must work with. I will certainly try to get everyone in the games but we will be trying to win as well. Part of the development is learning how to be part of the team when you are not starting or playing much. Most of these players are stars on their team and were highly recruited so this will be tough for them. This is where we will see if they have the right mindset to continue on as a member of the program. We are playing the senior women's team of Montenegro and Belgium. Our players are all in university. None are graduating. So I have players going into 4th year down to 1st year. Belgium I have no idea about but Montenegro almost made it to the Olympic qualifier. They should be good. We will definitely have our hands full.

So after practice in the A.M. we headed to lunch. Our new friend Shaun who is working with the catering described the chicken as a red curry chicken but said it wasn't spicy. Why do I trust people???? I might as well have eaten it on the toilet!!!! Nuff said about lunch.

We headed to our coaches meeting and discussed some things. As I said some phenomenal meetings. One of the hard things at the beginning is managing a staff of 2 head coaches who are trying to be assistants. One with a lot more experience than me and has been at the olympics. The other with back to back national championships. They bring a lot more credentials than me in a lot of ways. They have been an absolute pleasure to work with though. Fantastic. I have only had to step in and kind of be firm in the meetings once and that was today when a suggestion was made to make a change in the offense because the girls weren't getting a concept. I overruled it and said that we had to stick to it so they could learn how to play within a conceptual offense. There is not a ton of structure. Enough to get them through but they they still need to learn how to play. We hashed out some ideas and I went off to finish the plan.

The next practice was at 4:30 and I had it planned to end at 6pm or 6:15 at the latest. There was no contact and no running. We did a lot of drills to help our offense and then installed our zone offense. Very simple and they got it pretty quickly. Finished by 6:10 and then we headed to supper. It was a really good meal with nice pork tenderloin. Yum.

We had a meeting tonight at 8pm. I reviewed our offense on the white board so they could take notes and feel better. After that we talked about our team project and our personal dedications. I talked more about the connection we need at all levels of this experience. A connection to self, a connection to others in the group and a connection to their dreams. I have a BIG connection discussion to finish up before we leave. I think it will be a powerfully motivating session to get us set for the trip. To end our session I showed them a video that I made for last year's senior team. I wanted them to see what that level is like and I also wanted them to get a little pumped up for tomorrow. After the video ended we handed out our new Canada Basketball track suits. They are SWEET and the girls were pumped. With the video and suits the girls were able to forget some of the fatigue and pains that are starting to creep into our team as an intense camp slowly winds down.

So here I am now, the practice plan is finished for tomorrow although I will get up early and look at it for some possible changes. We practice tomorrow at 9:30 and then we have the rest of the day off. A chance to pick up last minute items for our travel. Stocking up on beef jerky, granola bars, trail mix, etc.  just because you never know how things will be.

So I am off to catch about an hour of ME time before bed.

Until tomorrow......