Sweat Academy Year #2

Year #2 of Sweat Academy

Yes this has taken me some time to do but at least I got to it. 

This Training Season has been a very educational one for me that's for sure!  The most "slam in the face" part of my education was working with female high level basketball players for the first time in my 20 year career.  At first, I needed some advice and the Saint Thomas Head Coach of the women's team (which has two players on the training team) accommodated me with much of it.  Then I hit the journals and articles on working with female athletes.  Because of that work, I truly believe that I made significant strides in my coaching for skill development not only for our female clients, but also for our males. Here's the biggest thing I learned:

1- When working on skill training, focus low volume and high intensity.

So this came from advice given to me that when it comes to coaching females, you need to allow them to have some "social downtime".  I personally hate downtime during practice but skills training is not your regular basketball practice.  That combined with an article I read on female golfers, gave me what I needed in order to allow myself to grow more patient with the necessity of downtime.  In golf, when players hit their shot, the level of concentration is extremely high for about 30 seconds.  Then they walk to their ball which will take anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes (if you are like me looking for the ball in the woods).  That 30 seconds becomes the focus of golf coaches.  I have found great improvement in my players when the focus has been maximum effort for a short period of time and in between sets, allow the players to "unplug".

2- Must have a safe training environment

This does not mean making sure that the equipment being used is safe and the floor being clean although it is part of it.  But mostly, this means that the girls need to feel like it is ok to look bad and make mistakes.  Especially when they are training with male players which was the case this past summer (but not going to be the case next summer- more on that to come).  Again, for me I have always been about the type of mistake being made.  One kind will result in a behavior of mine, and another will result in total freak-out.  If a player is trying to execute a skill or a play and physically can not get it done.  Those mistakes are fine.  Then I need to address that weakness on a physiological aspect.  If a player tries to execute a play against a superior athlete and can not,  that is also ok unless the player was instructed to do something else to beat that superior athlete.  Which leads me to the mistake that drives me nuts.  The "brain dead" mistake.  The lack of awareness mistake.  I can not allow my players to get away with not being focused for the task at hand.  BUT, when it comes to skill training, mental mistakes will happen ALL THE TIME.  Why?  Because we are trying to get our players to train outside their comfort zone.  To train outside your comfort zone, you need to have a high level of concentration because the comfort zone factor always looks to kick in.  When giving feedback to the players as they are trying to stay out of their comfort zone, the coaching staff needs to look for the comfort zone habits.  When that happens, the player is making a mental mistake and that is totally part of skill training (so I must chill out when addressing the mistake). 

This year, we went three times per week.  We combined girls with the guys and for the most part, I think everyone was ok with that.  However, when it came to Level 5 training (application of new skill in 5 on 5 live game play), I think this is where our clients were not overall happy and I do not blame them one bit.  To be honest, I did not like it as well because it did not allow the coaching staff to properly assess if the player was at Level 4 (break down live game play 3 on 3, 4 on 4) or Level 5.  If you have a male player making a play against a female player, the physical difference between the two athletes will come into play.  The difference is too great and I say that with no disrespect.  Because we have had more female clients than expected (and we predict that even more will join next summer), we are going to divide the two groups next summer- more on that to come.

My disappointment for the summer was not on the players at all.  It was on their respective programs.  With the exception of Fred Connors of Saint Thomas University, none of the coaches consistently touched base with us about the progress of their player.  We do an ok job of reaching out every-now-and-again but really, at the end of the day, we would love for them to be more interested in what is going on.  Yes we reach out and ask them what three areas would they like their player to improve.  Then we send them the plan we come up with and post occasional videos on Youtube but why aren't they initiating?  I do not get that.  If I were in their shoes and I knew they were getting high quality training on things I need them to get better on, I would be talking to that coaching team all the time.  At least once a week.  I really hope this improves for Year #3.  I will make a point of it when I do reach out in the initial stages.

Things we are looking to improve \ add next year:

1- We plan to put together a Juvenile team (U17) for Basketball New Brunswick Age Class Tier 1 tournament again this year.  This time though, we hope that the interest level will be higher than last year.  We are only taking Grade 12 players seeking an opportunity to practice with the best players of the area while getting one last good luck to potential CIS \CCAA coaches attending this tournament for scouting \ recruiting.

2- We plan to go 4 times per week.  Two on court sessions for the male and two for the female.  However, males can attend female sessions if they are to work on conditioning or agility training.  Females are also invited to come to male sessions in order to do the same.

3- We plan to purchase the Vertimax http://www.vertimax.com/ to help us train our clients.

4- We have already purchased the 94fifty basketballs to help in testing skill http://shop.94fifty.com/

5- We will be purchasing a vertical testing bar to help us get a more accurate measure of Power

6- We have added one coach to our roster- Ryan Johnston of UNB and may be adding another if he decides to stay in Moncton.

7- We plan to have an AAU team put together and travel to the states to play high level competition

8- We plan to host clinics for high school aged players looking to experience the Sweat Academy approach to training for basketball.

So that is a snapshot of Year #2.  We continue to grow in popularity and we want even bigger and better things for the future.  All of it is to build a culture of excellence and high level performance for our elite level athletes.  We want to build World Class athletes!!