Southern California High School Basketball

Advice to Parents of Athletes and Basketball Players

2013-04-23T22:17:00.002-07:00

I ran these as tweets a while back and got a great response so I decided to list them all here on the blog. Enjoy!

Parental Tip #1: Your child's performance or lack of it on the court is not a reflection on you, but his character is.

Parent Tip #2: Remember that the name on the front of the jersey is just as important as the one on the back.

Parental Tip #3: Unless you named your child "Shoot-it" or "And-one" please refrain from screaming it ever time they shoot.

Parental Tip #4: Remember, a child needs their parent more than they need another coach.

Parental Tip #5: Remember, Children aren't time machines to relive your glory days, relive them in your mind and let them have their own.

Parental Tip #6: Remember, your children are hindered by too much coaching in the same way they are hindered by too little parenting. A LOT!

Parental tip #7: If you yelled pass as much as you yelled shoot to your kids, scoring would go up 50 percent.

Parental tip #8: Despite what the sporting goods guy says, arm sleeves are not magic cures for injuries or your child inability to shoot.

Parental Tip #9: Every time your child is called for a foul does not make it a bad call.

Parental Tip #10: The level of your child's success should never alter your level of love.

Parental Tip #11: Remember sports for your child is a game, not a business, love'em and let them have fun.

Parental Tip #12: Trophies collect dust, stats are forgotten, wins fade into the past, but their fun lasts forever. Let them have fun.

Parental Tip #13: Remember your expectations for your child in sports is often times diff than yours, listen to them, you might be amazed.

Parental Tip #14: Self worth, your child's as well as your own is not tied to performance or outcomes on the field of competition.

Parental Tip #15: After a game your first question to your child should always be, "did you have fun?" Let them know that having fun is good.

Parental Tip #16: Keep Perspective. Remember this is your young athlete’s opportunity to play and grow not yours.

Parental Tip #17: Young athletes need to recognize the value of character in competitions, and it starts with your example.

Parental Tip #18: The view from the floor is always different than the view from the stands.

Parental Tip #19: In the end, a teams record matters little if your child didn't enjoy the experience.

Never finished #20......

Footwork

2013-03-28T23:08:00.003-07:00

After watching most of March Madness to date, I have to talk about footwork and how abysmal it has been. I am not sure what is the root cause of this is, but I think enforcement is the way to fix it.

So I was watching Gonzaga play in the first round, a game they really struggled in (not to mention the next game too), but during that game I saw the official make four traveling calls on the Zags. I must say I was impressed with that number, as I don't think in my recent memory I had seen that call made that many times in a D1 game, much less a tournament game. However, as impressive as that was, they missed about six more on the Zags and at least five on Southern.

The footwork was terrible, and not in just one way. Most of the calls where made on a baseline side attack that didn't use a crossover step. The ones that were always missed were the travels on the catch and shoot where the steps into the shot occurred after the catch. Along with that, the spin move travel is almost never called, and the biggest part missed is the pivot foot of the spin.

It is obvious that footwork is not something that is being work on by players or coaches, and maybe they should have their footwork established before they get to the college level, and that is fine, but it needs to be fixed.

So where could be a good start? I say in enforcement. If officials started to call every travel, really cracked down on this, what would be the result? Yes, turnover would go up. Yes, games would slow down. But I think that would be short lived. Why you say? Well coaches and players want to win. When you are turning over the ball over 15 times a game on traveling calls you aren't going to win, and you aren't going to get on the floor as a player. Because of this, I think coaches and players will adapt, and do so quickly.

Enforcement might be the fastest way to fix it, unfortunately too many players won't work on it if it isn't enforced.

TEDxUSC

2011-04-13T14:08:00.001-07:00

So I attended my second TEDx event at USC and yet again came away astounded by the inspiring efforts of people from around the world who through collaboration are empowering humanity to transcend the boundaries that often separate one person from another. The underline feeling of every TED I have attended has been hope. In the sometimes dreary darkness of our world that often times clouds our focus we have these small beacons of hope, while many, can be difficult to find. TED events continually aggregate these lights in the cloud to the brilliance of star, imbuing us with an inspirational force compelling us to action.

If you have not attended a TEDx event, I implore you to open your heart and mind to possibilities that often times lie beyond our imagination and embrace a world that needs change and that you can be that change.

Below I have aggregate my tweets during the course of the TEDxUSC conference, all 93 typos and all are a stream of conscienceness brought on by the inspiring words and actions of the presenters. So ideas are theirs, some are summaries, and some are just avenues that my mind was compelled to chase.

1. There are heroes in the world beyond the comics, they ARE REAL. #TEDxUSC

2. The fight starts when you leave the phone booth as Clark Kent, we are the heroes. #TEDxUSC

3. It is not heroic to take a bullet when you know you are bullet proof, but when you are not. #TEDxUSC

4. Instant choir in ethnomusicology, awesome #TEDxUSC

5. Ideas to action, the world needs more of that. #TEDxUSC

6. Collaborative music, funk style, rock it #TEDxUSC http://yfrog.com/h44fuypj

7. Hope and innovation for the next 4 billion and their reality. #TEDxUSC http://yfrog.com/h7tctyfj

8. The poor are producing the beat DIY innovation around as they don't have the advantage of tech, results are astounding #TEDxUSC

9. What have we learned from the next 4 billion and their innovation? Hope. Hope is the key to all innovation. #TEDxUSC

10. Hope allows for innovation, the process seeing the hidden in the visible. #TEDxUSC

11. Everyone should engage in healthy delusion, the spur on innovation that is fueled by conversation between minds. #TEDxUSC

12. The solutions of the next 4 billion are an asset to be cherishes not squandered. #TEDxUSC

13. Music is action made loud, it is a form of social action. #TEDxUSC

14. Josh Kuhn on music and politics. #TEdxUSc http://yfrog.com/hs3bfnuj

15. Listen to what is happening at the edges of the world, you will be surprised at what you find. #TEDxUSC

16. Borders normally function as walls of silence, yet now our borders speak to us in sound, the music of separation. #TEDxUSC

17. All borders speak to us about the lives and struggles of those that cross them or are kept out. #TEDxUSC

18. Sonidera, the message of migration, a transnational message of identity, a coexistence of a border of inclusion not separation. #TEDxUSC

19. Crossfade of homeland that makes the absence present. A space beyond what we see. http://yfrog.com/gyilmqmj

20. Food forward, an outstanding program. #TEDxUSC

21. California farmer workers are 1.1 million strong and feed half the nation! WOW. #TEDxUSC

22. The people who provide the most food for the most people often times can't feed themselves. #TEDxUSC

23. Millions of lbs of food is wasted on the trees of neighbors who never harvest the product. Yet people starve. #TEDxUSC

24. Food Forward has harvested 1.4 million servings for the poor in two years from the backyards of the public. #TEDxUSC

25. If you have fruit trees that go unused, Food forward will harvest it, give it to the poor and you get a tax break.

26. Compassion merged with action will always produce change. #TEDxUSC

27. Director of SETI on stage now.#TEDxUSC

28. We live on fragile island of life with infinite possibilities around us. #TEDxUSC

29. Kepler satlilite has a camera with 9 million megapixels! #TEDxUSC

30. Now if Kepler can find a planet in the goldilocks zone, we will he cooking! #TEDxUSC

31. Are we alone in this universe? If we are it is a huge ware of space!!!! Haha #TEDxUSC

32. What if w aren't alone in this universe? Would it change your perspective? #TEDxUSC

33. 50 years of SETI has been like exploring a single glass of the universe.

34. If you have spare computing power, think about donating your processor time to SETI. #TEDxUSC

35. Crowd sourcing science is on the cusp of expanding the realm and understanding of the universe by large orders of magnitude. #TEDxUSC

36. A small isle of life splintered into smaller islands brings conflict, hopefully we will realize we are still on the same island. #TEDxUSC

37. he lens in which we allow people to cast the vision of the world can lead to powerful revelations. #TEDxUSC

38. We all live in a world inside of a world, maybe we should open that world before we lose ourselves. #TEDxUSC

39. The Jews don't carry the burden of the holocaust, we all do, as we do with all genocide. #TEDxUSC

40. We can all be physical reminders of goodness manifest if we wish. #TEDxUSC

41. Genocide is not a blight on one people but a blight on all people. #TEDxUSC

42. We are the affecters of social conscience, do wait to react but instead act.

43. Prevention of genocide is the prevention of extreme exclusion. #TEDxUSC

44. If we listen to other peoples stories and hear in their pain your own pain and your own voice an social conscience will emerge. #TEDxUSC

45. As long as we search for that which is lost we will always find something of ourselves. #TEDxUSC

46. we are all role models we are all journalists. Our eyes chronicle the world and our exp tells it's story. Maybe it is time to share #TEDxUSC

47. WE ARE ALL EDUCATORS, as we all have something of value to share, our knowledge is power, share that knowledge. #TEDxUSC

48. Amazing video shot only on an iPhone 4. #TEDxUSC

49. Check out the majek app for iPhone4 to use tour own mobile movie studio w/distribution! Amazing. #TEDxUSC

50. Dale Dougherty of maker faire. This guy is amazing! #TEDxUSC

51. To play is the essence of making and creating, allow kids to play and you preserve the spirit of innovation in out youth. #TEDxUSC

52. Play is not on a form of innovation but a form of discovery. We need more of both! #TEDxUSC

53. Play allows for the growth of a passion for creation, innovation, and discovery, #TEDxUSC

54. What do you want to make? Ask a child this question, then let them! #TEDxUSC

55. Art as sound #TEDxUSC http://yfrog.com/hsue8hpj

56. essence of man can be found in his capacity or create, too bad schools squander this ruthlessly. #TEDxUSC Return our schools to creativity.

57. Heading towards our break at TED, will still tweet here and there. #TEDxUSC

58. The seeds of creation are in the mind of a young child, it is as we move through school that they are marginalized to oblivion. #TEDxUSC

59. Awaiting the music mayhem of THe Sleeper #TEDxUSC

60. Founder of TEDx Lara Stein, applaud her, amazing stuff.

61. TEDx the echo of knowledge is resonating, please bend your ear. #TEDxUSC

62. It is amazing what we can accomplish when we have all hands on deck. #TEDxUSC

63. Twitter, the neural net of social change.

64. Synthetic bio, such an amazing topic. #TEDxUSC

65. Open source synergic biology is a must to preserve transparency. #TEDxUSC

66. Internet allows ideas to transcend borders, cultural, and the grips of the powerful by giving the powerless tools of freedom. #TEDxUSC

67. Censorship is just another way to isolate and divide. #TEDxUSC

68. Freedom is being bottle necked by those who control the backbone of information highways. #TEDxUSC

69. The Internet is flawed when the few treat it like a toll road. #TEDxUSC

70. Tweeted so much burned through an iPod battery will be switching to my phone soon. #TEDxUSC

71. Ad-hoc wireless mesh network! Awesome!!!! #TEDxUSC

72. Wow mondonet.org could be revolutionary for the Internet. #TEDxUSC

73. Twitter And Facebook revolutions are nothing without the youth who had hope and desire for change. #TEDxUSC

74. Beyond the boarders of tyranny lies this... http://yfrog.com/h0ihsvej

75. A true definition of freedom. #TEDxUSC http://yfrog.com/h2vi3rcj

76. Fear destroys tolerance. We must remove fear as. Motivation. Cultivate empathy. #TEDxUSC

77. The first follower is the one who transforms the first lone nut into a leader. #TEDxUSC

78. Want to be a leader, when you find that lone nut doing something great, don't be afraid to show others how to follow. #TEDxUSC

79. Government should leverage the expertise to fill in the gaps of budget with their inginuity. #TEDxUSC

80. World premier here at #TEDxUSC, united musicians from around the world. Awesome.

81. Collaboration is the one activity that allows humanity to transcend all the boundaries the separate us as people and makes us human #TEDxUSC

82. The true measure of a movement is what it gives back to the people. #TEDxUSC

83. Playingforchange.com, making the world better through music. #TEDxUSC

84. There are no FDA approved treatments for photoreceptor problem. #TEDxUSC

85. Maybe it is time to start thinking about great groups and not great men. #TEDxUSC

86. Extend classroom learning to the home will pay enormous dividends both intellectually and socially. #TEDxUSC

87. When did we remove fun from learning and why? #TEDxUSC

88. Check out myhomelearning.com, awesome. #TEDxUSC

89. Crowdfunding, I am excited about this! #TEDxUSC

90. Profounder a place where your community can invest. Awesome. #TEDxUSC

91. The power of what we can do together is limitless. #TEDxUSC

92. Circus and rock and roll! #TEDxUSC http://yfrog.com/h8zalowfj

93. Best #TEDxUSC to date! Outstanding

Decreasing Injury and Improving our Athletes (The Dynamic Workout)

2010-03-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

We all want our kids to be injured less and on top of that make them better athletes. Yet in wanting this we often times worry about finding the time to implement every thing. The nice thing about a dynamic warm up, we can use it to warm up the body, improve basketball skills, and make our players better athletes.

Dynamic warm ups are no longer the future, they are the present. Gone are the days of stretching cold muscles or jumping right into strenuous activity. But what is a GOOD dynamic warmup? It can be anything you really want it to be as long that focuses on the movements of your sport, hits the major joint complexes, and using basketball skills. I usually try to do basketball activities that focus on the hamstrings, quadriceps, calves/Achilles and hip flexors, elbows, and shoulders. All of these things can be done using a ball, or be done doing a basketball movement. I will post some of my ideas on specific things we do in our dynamic workout later.

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But let us first talk about the benefits of a dynamic warm up. I broke them up into areas of the body (now these aren’t my findings but an aggregate of things I have picked up from various trainers over the years).

Muscular Benefit:

Increased speed of contraction and relaxation of warmed muscles.
Reduced muscle stiffness.
Greater economy of movement because of lowered viscous resistance within warmed muscles and joints.
Consistent dynamic warm-up for about 6 weeks could result in reduced stride contact time by about 0.01 seconds (if focusing on running mechanics). This is a significant improvement: for example, about one second in a 200 m race or over a minute in a 10K race.
Joint mobility is improved to a greater extent compared to static stretching.
The movements are specific to actual basketball. The movements reinforce and teach the good form movements that improve movement performance. Hence running form/technique can be worked on and improved during the warm-up. (for example crossover mechanics)
By substituting dynamic movements for static stretching the muscle micro tears can be avoided. (micro tears occur during static stretching, if done prior to workout you reduce the stability of the muscle and joint complexes

Nervous System

The activities can include fast movement plyometrics (jumping, hopping, bounding) which result in forces of 5 to 10 times body weight through the whole body and central nervous system. These exercises will improve reaction time, strength, explosive power, and stride length; also running economy can be improved by 4 to 6 percent. (done towards the end of the warm-up)
A dynamic warm-up involving plyometrics also activates the neural pathways of the central nervous system in movements mimicking running movements. The plyometric exercises will help to retain the neural pathways (muscle memory). This is particularly important to older athletes who tend to lose neural pathways and associated fast twitch fibers due to lack of fast resistive movements in training.
Fine-tunes the neuromuscular control systems (the spindle fiber sensory mechanisms are constantly changing, and in need of recalibration - the prescribed warm-up does this to perfection, whereas static stretching temporarily makes them worse).
Fine-tunes the balance systems (poor balance means that the energy is expended in correcting the "speed wobbles". Helpful to include core activities as well.
Wakes up the brain ready for rapid neural firing (enables very precise and very rapid muscle contractions.

Cardiovascular/Energy system

Facilitated oxygen utilization by warmed muscles because hemoglobin releases oxygen more readily at higher muscle temperatures.
Increased blood flow through active tissues as local vascular beds dilate, increasing metabolism and muscle temperatures.
The cardiovascular system is worked on at the same time as the muscles and joints.
Switches the aerobic energy system to maximum output (without a warm-up, oxygen burning will not optimize until 4 to 6 minutes into the play/practice, your second wind).

Hormonal

Gets the adrenalin and natural pain killer hormones (endorphines) flowing.

Respiratory – very important considering the prevalence of Asthma these days

Minimizes the risk of exercise induced asthma (EIA). At about 7 minutes into a fast run the airways constrict. You know when this happens because the breath becomes wheezy. This happens to some extent in everybody, not just asthmatics. A full warm-up reduces this tendency. (If you are asthmatic, breathe through the nose during the warm-up, and for the first few minutes of the race or workout).

Now these are the benefits physiologically for the athlete, and we can see how they would make them better athletes. When you do this in conjunction with basketball specific movements you can get the benefits of skill work too. Not only can you get a great deal of things done, you can get it done in 10 minutes, and with a multitude of focus points you can vary the warm-up greatly day today and still get great improvement. If we are interested in maximizing our time and our product, this is a great way to go.

Basic Dynamic Warmup activities

2010-03-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

So let me first start by saying there is no magic in the different movements you use to warm-up and train athletes. The magic is in how you look at the concept of warming up and that you are progressing in both speed and intensity especially with sport specific movements. It is all about how you prepare the body for the intensities that come with competition and practice.

To touch on the science again, a warm-up dynamic exercise is believed to create optimal conditions for power and enhances the neuromuscular function. This is called PAP, or postactivation potentiation. Right now most biomechanics researchers believe postactivation potentiation has its greatest effect on fast-twitch fibers, so it should have the greatest effect on jumping and sprinting activities, as well as changes in direction.

So here are some basic general warm up ideas that you can do, in no particular order

Quarter-speed jog/Back pedal- the idea is to first get the blood flowing to the major muscle groups, we make sure that the arms remain at 90 degrees and they alternate with the legs. (sometimes we skip this and foam roll, which I might touch on later)
Heel walk/Toe walk – sometimes referred to as the duck walk. Player point their toes upwards towards the kneecap. This should activate the anterior tibialis. Walking on the toes to activate the calf muscles.
Ankle flips – Slightly awkward run where they land on toes that are extended, snap them towards the knee during the stride then land back on toes.
Skip forward/Skip Backward – This is done to activate all the major joints of the lower body, including the abs.
Forward Lunge/Backward Lunge – in the forward lunge the athlete should ensure the knee does not extend beyond the toes and the knee of the back leg should be inches above the floor, we also have athletes do a twist with the shoulders opposite the forward leg, arms extended to activate the lower back.
Half-speed defensive slides – the athlete should attempt to stay low and slow to warm-up the groin area, ensure the legs are apart and do not bob up and down, we can progress by adding resistance between the feet of the athletes.
Half-speed jog/Back pedal – the athlete should attempt to reach slightly back with the legs when doing the back pedal.
Carioca – the athlete starts perpendicular to the sideline. If the athlete begins with their right foot – the right foot crosses over in front of the body and then the next step with the right foot goes behind the body. This is an important movement in changing from a defensive slide to a run for a cut off of the offensive man.
Ice Skaters – Just like it sounds, from one foot to the other moving up the floor, 1 second pause on each leg to work the small stabilizer muscles of the knee and ankle.
High knees/Butt kicks – the athlete runs across the floor bringing the knees up and the heels to the butt as quickly as possible and then on the way back the athlete points the knees down and brings the heels to the butt as quickly as possible.
Frankenstein walks – this is a run to increase the dynamic flexibility of the hamstring muscles; the athlete extends the arms straight in front and kick a straight leg up to meet the hands. They must make sure the leg comes down slowly and under control.
Straight leg bound – the athlete pushes hard off the ball of the foot and extends straight legs forward moving quickly across the floor.
Frankenstein runs – running to half court with the arms raised out in front, dropping them at half court into a sprint. This is speed training warmup.
One leg line hops- hoping on one leg in a line forward and backwards, you can do small hops, far hops, and hops for distance.
Jumping rope – Great to work on increasing blood flow and many joints activated.

Most of these can be done in a full or half court setting. These are the general warm up activities that can be done. For the most part they do mirror some of the movements of the game. When we do our warm ups this takes no more than 8 minutes and usually leads us right into more intense skill work.

High schools sports injuries…impacts and prevention

2010-03-26T19:25:00.001-07:00

I catch the ball on the wing, instinctively understanding that my defender is recovering slowly to my high side…ripping through I attack the basket…the post defender steps up but I deftly crossover to the middle of the floor…. a quick jump stop… then explode upwards gracefully laying the ball into the hoop…. as I float downward in the euphoria of spectacular play my heart sinks…in slow motion I feel my ankle buckle and roll outwards as I land on another players foot… crumpled to the floor I think……. not again….

How many of us who have played the game can relate to this? Injury. I know I can. My senior year of high school basketball ended at the beginning of league play with a fracture fibula after returning to play too early (Could have been prevented with a does of maturity on my part and oversight by the coaches). We made the Semifinals yet again that year, only to lose to the eventual state champion at the buzzer, and I sat, cast on leg, downhearted. Having been there, knowing what it feels like to have that injury, I work hard at trying to help my athletes avoid injury through appropriate training, but I will touch on that later.

Now, we all know injuries happen. Rarely have I gone a season where I didn’t have at least one player suffer some injury practice or competition. The American Journal of Sports Medicine stated that 15 percent of all High School injuries are severe, with 30 percent of those being knee injuries and 15 percent being ankle injuries. With 2 million high school sports injuries a year, we are looking at 250,000 severe injuries a year. Yes I understand these statistics do include Football, which does have the highest incident of injury (severe), but this is still an enormous amount of injury. The Journal also stated that “On the whole, 43% of severe injuries meant a loss of more than 21 days, and almost 57% of the injuries resulted in medical disqualification for the rest of the season.” OUCH! So we are looking at roughly 132000 student athletes a year having season ending injuries.

So what can we do? How can we help our athletes prevent injury and remain on the floor longer? Well if you couldn’t guess, I have some suggestions on that topic. First and foremost, we must continue to improve how we train our athletes in terms of core strength, joint stability, and flexibility. If we can address these needs of our athletes, we can provide many benefits not only in terms of performance but also in the realm of injury prevent. Before the thought creeps into your mind…”How can I fit that in too with everything else I have to teach these kids”, you can actually work on these things and basketball specific skills/content at the same time. Look for my next blog posting where I will give some great strategies for helping to improve athletic performance, reduce injury, and teach the game at the same time.

Questionable call...

2009-12-12T13:27:00.000-08:00

So here is the situation, it was recently posted on the message board socalhoops.

"13 seconds left... team with the ball is down by one and has a three on one break. The coaches of the team on defense are yelling for a timeout. The ref closest to them blows his whistle and everyone stops, he immediately says he is sorry and gives the team that just had a three on one break with the possibility of taking the lead the ball at half court. Did the refs handle that situation correctly or should the team trying to call timeout without the ball or a stoppage of play get a tech? "

There were a lot of people who were upset at how the official handled it, that in terms of the fictitious "advantage/disadvantage" idea, that somehow this gave the defense and advantage, thus the defense should be penalized.

Having not been present for this occurrence there are some thing that would need to be taken into consideration.

First, was it an inadvertent whistle? If the referee made the mistake, and another team gained an advantage, that doesn't mean he needs to penalized the advantaged team becasue of his mistake. Just because it might have stopped a possible score (just because there is a fast break with numbers, especially in girls basketball, doesn't mean it is an automatic bucket), doesn't mean anyone needs to be specifically penalized. So, if it was in fact a mistake, then fine, he handled it correctly.

Second, if the defensive coach was purposely trying to subvert the game through tricking the referee, "gaming the system", know it would stop play, then they should be penalized. However, this is almost impossible to prove. If it was provable it would be considered unsportsmanlike conduct and require a Technical foul on the defensive team. It would come down to referee interpretation of the situation and be completely his call. He is placed in a difficult situation, especially at the end of the game, in a moment that might be deciding. Reason why I would never want to be a ref.

Third, one not brought up. Sadly there are coaches out there who really don't know the rules. You may think I am crazy, but I have seen coaches blatantly argue points with referees that were wrong. I used to think that they were doing that just to be argumentative, now I think at times, there are coaches who don't actually understand the game. He might not have a clue about the rule.

Lastly, and I admit I have done this, in the heat of the moment, you are so excited you start blurting things out. I can admit I have called a timeout on defense. Just in the excitement of the moment, not thinking. It wasn't malicious or any ill intent, it was just a mistake, and mistakes happen.

Traverseing the Teenage Hoop Scene... Chapter 2 Finding the right school

2009-06-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

Now that you have taken the time to sincerely and objectively evaluate your child (hopefully) it is time to start thinking about the right high school. So lets quantify what the "right" high school means.

I am not going to sit behind the keyboard and make the decision for you as what the "right" high school is. That is up for you to decide upon based on the needs of your child and thier desires. (PLEASE GIVE THEM A VOICE ON THE DECISION!!) So I hope to provide some tips that will help you and your child make the best decision for them.

Normally high school basketball season is different from the middle school season. I know for instance the Parochial League (PAL) starts after Christmas (I believe), thus this gives you and your child time to visit your local high schools. (Yes, start with the local high school in your enrollment area, you might want to narrow things down first with statistics for the schools).

First lets talk about the most important part of choosing a high school, academics. Yes, academics are important. If we look at the numbers of Div I scholarships given out, as well as the numbers of kids who don't qualify academically, it behooves every parent and child who wishes to play in college to choose a school with the following pieces.

Things you can and should ask/do.

1. Call the schools of interest and ask if they an information packet about their school, something that lists classes, staff degrees, all the basic stats. (You can often times find them at places like Great Schools on the internet)

2. Ask the school if you and your child can come and do a tour. This is important, 4 years is a long time, you wouldn't buy a house unseen, why choose a school unseen.

3. During your tour, inspect the school. Is there lots of graffiti? Do they have metal detectors on campus? Are teachers dressed appropriately (for instance are they in jeans or in slacks or business dress)? Faculty dress code can be a good indication of seriousness of the faculty (not always, but most of the time). Is the school gated? Do they have someone checking everyone who enters? (This important for safety, if you can walk on to campus and no one stops you, that is a red flag) Are the desks in good condition? Are the bathrooms well taken care of? Is the school generally free of trash? Are the classrooms in good shape? Is student work posted? Are the rooms the appropriate size for the numbers of students? (For instance having 40 kids in a Chemistry class meant for 30 students is an extreme safety hazard considering the chemicals in use, I bring this up because I teach science.)

4. This is one that isn't contained in any of the statistics, but I think is of extreme importance. What is the ratio of academic counselors to students? Do they have a college counselor? Do they have academic counselors with degrees in pupil services (Look for the PPS credential)? Does your child meet with a counselor every year to help plan the next year? You can ask the office all these questions, and they should tell you, if they are reluctant, go straight to the principal or call the district office. Too many kids are getting bad counseling in high school and not having the right courses at the graduation time that makes them ineligible with the NCAA Clearing House to play college sports or with colleges(the class requirements recently changed). If they aren't getting academic counseling, choose another school. It is too important.

5. What are the class sizes? Do teachers have too many students in a class? This impacts their ability to provide effective attention to students who might need it

6. What types of electives do they have? Is their a wide variety of choices or are they very limited in selection? Do they have honors and AP courses? What is their pass rates (regardless of whether your child is AP material)? Do they have a grade requirement for AP courses to weed out kids "they" think should not be taking AP courses? This is a big "no no" according to the College Board, there should be no grade requirement. The statistics prove that kids who engage in AP courses regardless of their score do better in college than those that don't take AP courses, and that there has been no correlation between AP test score and college success. Is there a International Baccalaureate program? Do they have tutoring programs available? Both teacher and peer programs? Are there a variety of clubs?

These are some of the few things that you should look at for every school under consideration on the academic side. This is not the definitive list, but is a good start, if you think of something I should add, please let me know.

Now lets talk about the athletic things you need to look at. I will talk about this from only a basketball view, but some of this can apply to other sports.

1. Look at the last five years of team success, are there more down years than up? Are they in a tough league? Do many of their teams make the playoffs? What division are they in for basketball? You can find all this information at Maxpreps.

2. Ask to talk with the AD, DO NOT GO TO THE COACH. The coach cannot talk with you until your child is enrolled. This is to prevent undue influence by the coaching staff; making you promises, bad mouthing other teams, etc... Ask the AD about coaching turnover. How many years the head coach has been there? Also, one that I think is important, what is the assistant coach and lower level coach turnover. Many people forget that the success of a program is provided by stability and coaching at all levels, and a head coach is only as good as the coaches helping him. If your child is multi-sport (an I think they should be, they are only in high school once) what support do they give kids? Do they have coaches telling kids not to play other sports? Most AD's will say they encourages it (multi-sport athletes), make sure your child is there to hear it, and knows that if a coach does in fact tell them they won't start or some other condition if they played another sport they can come to the AD. One way to find out is to ask how many of thier basketball kids play other sports? (this isn't as big of a problem on the girls side, but many basketball, football, and baseball coaches on the boys side tell kids to not play other sports. Mostly this is because they are more focuses on their own wins and not what might be best for the kid.) I DO NOT BELIEVE ANY COACH HAS ANY RIGHT TO TELL YOUR CHILD WHAT SPORTS THEY CAN OR CANNOT PLAY. This is the childs decision along with the parents. If a coach wants to say something, they should come talk to you, not talk to the child about it. Coaches often times misuse the respect players give them to influence kids to their own benefit. (not all of them). What are the fees invovled? (Many high schools charge an athetics fee). Is their a Basketball booster club or just a general sports booster club? Do they have both? Is there a summer league? Does the coach have a club team? Is there a spring league? Fall league?

3. GO SEE GAMES!! Not just one. (If possible try to see the freshman team and coach, along with varsity) First look at how the coach interacts with his players. Is she/he supportive? Do they yell alot? Do they swear at the players? (I don't believe any coach should swear at a player). Do they spend more time yelling at the ref than coaching their team? Do they instruct the kids on the bench? Is every player talked to by a coach when they come out of the game? Do they get technicals? Are the players demonstrating sportsmanship? Are the assistant coaches talking to the players on the bench? Are the bench players into the game? Administratively was the game atmosphere well run? What is the condition of the gym and the floor?

4. Look at the players in the game, again you must take a step back from your own child, evaluate what you see on the floor in the same way you did your own child. ALERT!!! THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH KIDS BEING BETTER THAN YOURS, IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR VALUE OR WORTH AS A PARENT OR THERE WORTH AS A PERSON!! All too often parents connect the play of their child to their worth as a parent. They are not in any way connected. If you child is good, great, if they aren't, fine. Niether indicates you are a good or bad parent. Also try not to focus your attention on the starters, you will probably have more benefit looking at the ability of the players coming off the bench, what can they do, then compare them to the "real" ability of your child. If you want to you can go so far as to pull the rosters of the teams off Maxpreps to see the grade level of the team.

5. Notice I said nothing about looking at the score or who won the game. This is not an appropriate indicator of the experience your child will have playing in that program.

6. Does the team travel for tournaments during the year? While this is a great experience, realize that this cost often falls on the parent. Can you afford it? (If you can't, it is only a perk, not a fundamental aspect that will insure the fun of your child, so don't do it if you can't afford it). Do they run their own tournament?

Now that you have seen and learned all you can about your schools of interest (both local and private; if you can afford it). A side note, just because a school is private does mean the academics are better than public schools. Schools like Troy and Torrey Pines high schools have tremendous academics (pretty darn good sports programs). The most important thing of this whole process is to have included your child in all this, and then ask them "WHAT DO THEY WANT?" It is their school, they must be happy, not just you. It is my opinion that the only reason you should ever override your child decision is for academics. If they choose a school with decent academics, and it is the one that makes them happy, then let them (there is something to be said about going to school with friends). If they turn out not to like it, they have learned something, and that is the whole goal in raising kids, helping them to learn (Mistakes are not the end of the world, they are always the beginning of a new world). Make sure you make your child feel like they have a voice, and give them your opinion and then allow them to choose (make sure you tell them that you might override their choice on academics, but that you respect their wishes), this is the reason why you should have included them in the research.

Things to remember......

First, California Ed codes states that open enrollment is available. This means that regardless of your enrollment area you live in you can attend any public or private high school anywhere you want. However, in that, you must file with your home district an interdistrict transfer paperwork to attend outside your district (public ony). Very few times are these declined, however, the new school must have room to take you, they must take local kids first. Also, if you wish to attend a school in your district that may not be your local (closest school), some districts might make you provide a reason other than athletics to gain entrance if there a large enrollment (or impaction). For instance, if your local school doesn't offer AP Chemistry and your child is an honor track kid, you can petition to attend another school in your district that has it, it will ALWAYS be granted (I have never heard of a district saying no, it would be a breach of the ED code).

Second, remember, under current Southern Section rules, you get one free, no restriction transfer after the freshman year to another school, anywhere, and not lose a year of eligiblity on varsity. After that you must change enrollment area, REGARDLESS, of where your child is tranfering too.

Hopefully this will help in making the decision WITH your child that is best for him or her. Next chapter... creating an open hoops dialogue with your child, the true key to thier success (I do not consider a college scholarship, CIF championships, or even a winning team success).

Guide to traversing the teenage hoops scene...Part 1

2009-05-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

I get tons of questions in the mailbag about "How do I choose a high school?", "Should I play club ball?", "what should I do if my child is good but the coach doesn't see it?", etc etc. So I thought, hmm, maybe I could put together a little guide on how to traverse this thing we call hoops. These are just my ideas on how to get by, how to look at things, ways to approach problems, and how to encourage and help a player. This is not a definitive guide, nor will it make your kid better, directly. However, a little insight into the realm is important, especially if your child has not yet made it to high school.

Lets first start with the phase I will call Pre-high school (7th grade).

So your son or daughter has been playing Jr. high ball at either their school, club, or both and is entering their 8th grade year. It is now time to start thinking about high school basketball. Now, regardless of their success on the Jr. High circuit, there is a huge chasm between what is done and expect there and what is required in high school, so lets get that straight now. Good in Jr. High does not always translate to good in High School.

Okay, first, you need to try to evaluate your own child's ability. I know, I know, your kid is the best, but I want you to step back a minute from the stat book. Stat books don't tell the whole story, if your child always played weak competition an average kid can look like a super star statistically. At the high school level, the overall ability of teams is far stronger.

So here are somethings you should look for, objectively as possible.

1. Can they dribble the length of the court with either hand?
a. If you have a girl, can she can dribble the length of the floor at full speed alternating dribbling hands with her head up? (undefended)
b. If you have a boy, can he dribble up the floor with either hand under control while being defended?

2. Can they defend the ball?
a. boy or girl, can they stay with an offensive player in a half court set for more than 3 dribble off an attack on the basket. Mostly this means does it take more than 3 dribble to beat them a majority of the time?

3. What do they do when they catch the ball?
a. Girl, does she catch the ball and turn and face the basket? Does she stay low when holding the ball? (If she puts the ball above her head at the first sign of pressure, either before or after the dribble, she needs a lot of work). Ball over the head on a high school team means lots of time on the bench for an average team.
b. Boy, does he catch and turn and face the basket? Is he in a triple threat a majority of the time? Do he have a jab step?

4. Can they pass the ball?
a. Girl, are her passes too late? Always tipped? Does she make an over head bounce pass? Does she make ball fakes before passing? Do she step forward when making a chest pass?
b. Boy, can he pass with his off hand while being defended? Does he ball fake? Can he pass with either hand off the dribble?

5. Footwork?
a. Girl, does she get traveling called on her a lot? (I know refs are terrible and your kid never travels, come down to the real world, if your daughter has more than one traveling call a game, she has bad footwork). Does she jump off the right foot when going in for a layup, or the wrong foot? Can she pivot on either foot when it is the pivot foot? Forward and back? When she starts running from a start does she negative step?
b. Boy, Does he have a jab step? Can he frog hop off the dribble to change direction? Does he have a crossover attack step? Doe he only ever pivot one way? Does he negative step when he starts running? Does he have a spin move?

6. Intangibles
a. Girl or boy, on defense off the ball are they in the right helpside? In a stance most of the time? Do they take a step towards their offensive player to box out before turning to the ball? Do they lose track of their man or the ball on defense? Do they dive on the floor for a loose ball? Do they cheer their teammates on while on the bench? Do they pout when taken out of the game? Do they give excuses, yell at their teammates, DO ANY UNSPORTSMANLIKE ACTIONS on the floor (REGARDLESS OF WHETHER ANOTHER PLAYER DID ONE FIRST). Do they get technical fouls a lot? Do they praise their teammates on the floor when they do something well (thanking a passer for the assist).

7. Stats you should pay attention too (and probably not keeping).
a. Turnovers, if your child is turning the ball over more than 5 times a game, they will struggle in high school. Even if they are playing the entire game, or handle the ball more than others.
b. What is their field goal percentage from inside the arc? If they score 20 points a game but shoot 10 for 30, they will struggle in high school.
c. Free throw line. If they aren't shooting on average above 65-70 percent from the line that isn't good.
d. Blocked shots. Not how many they have, but how many times they got blocked in a game. If you are looking at 2 or more a game, that isn't good.
e. Fouls. If you child fouls out more than 10 percent of the time they play (1 in every 10 games), that is not a good thing.

So this is the first place you should start. Try to be objective, I know everyone loves their kid, but being real with their ability will pay off in the long run. It won't set you or them up for a bad experience when they get to high school.

Now that you know where you child stands you can move into phase 2.....Visiting high schools (coming soon).

Do it yourself guide to college athletics recruiting

2009-05-27T19:51:00.000-07:00

I have been asked a great many times this past month about how to get recruited to play in college, and in the midst of going to all sorts of club tournaments this past month and school ending my time has been short.

However I do want to address this question and I thought about writing my own, but I don't think I could write one better than a very good friend of mine. So I figured I would post it here, without his permission (But I know he won't mind), however you can go check out his site at http://coachlokhoops.homestead.com/. Site is a little jumbled but there are some great gems there from a superb coach.

So here it is....

DO IT YOURSELF GUIDE TO COLLEGE ATHLETICS RECRUITING

You are entering an extremely exciting time of life as you finish high school and look forward to college. Also, having the possibility of playing college sports is a rare privilege. College sports are a competitive business. Everybody wants to win, and many people depend on it for their career. There is a limited number of scholarships, and the coach needs to be wise about how he invests them. He is looking for athletes who fit his system and improve the caliber of the team! As a result, coaches take recruiting very seriously. To earn a scholarship you need to be serious too! Take the initiative, get educated, be prepared, use every resource available to you. There are hundreds of student/athletes just like you who are pursuing one of those precious scholarships. You need to separate yourself from the pack through your character, academics (grades and test scores), athletic ability/performance, and presentation. Being mindful of all of that, here is a guide to how to put yourself in the best position possible; to maximize your given potential! The following outlines the Recruiting Process from the Student/Athlete's perspective:

1. EARN GOOD GRADES AND TEST SCORES. It's not a myth. The first questions recruiters ask are "What is his GPA, and what is his test score (SAT or ACT, possibly SAT II)."Check web-sites and College Directories for requirements per school. Some leniency is occasionally allowed for athletes. For NCAA Division I and II the NCAA Clearinghouse determines your college athletic academic eligibility. It is best to register with the Clearinghouse by the end of your Junior year. Go get a form from your High School Counselor. NAIA schools individually determine your athletic academic eligibility using their national guidelines.

2. PLAY AND EXCEL AT HIGH SCHOOL AND CLUB BASKETBALL. The college coaches will do a majority of their scouting at summer camps, showcases and high school and club tournaments (especially in July) where they can see numerous players play in one location, at one time. They usually use the Camp and Club season to do initial evaluations, and then use the high school season to do some final evaluation and tracking. But be sure to enjoy your high school experience, and sell-out for the schools' team! Some student/athletes over-emphasize the recruiting process and end up under-achieving because of the excessive pressure they put on themselves to impress recruiters, an over-emphasis upon statistics, or saving themselves for college. Work hard, hustle, and play your game to help your team! Be coachable! The second question recruiters usually ask is, "is he/she coachable?" The first place recruiters will go for more information on you is to your high school and club coaches. Recruiters are looking for leaders/impact players. Be a leader and positive influence on your team!

3. DISPLAY A GOOD ATTITUDE. When coaches go to game, they don't only watch you to see if you make any great plays. They also watch to see how you interact with your coach, teammates, opponents, and the officials. Always hustle on and off the court, and NEVER display any negative emotion. Even when you are on the bench, a coach may be watching. Sit by the coach and pay attention, cheer for your teammates, and hustle to the table to check back in, and then communicate with the player coming off the floor. Always remember that someone may be watching and evaluating you.

4. BRAINSTORM a list of colleges you are interested in that offer the degree that you might like to work towards. Meet with your Counselor and Coach to discuss your academic and athletic potential, and be realistic with yourself! Try to trim your list to 4-6 colleges by the start of your senior year. Make a list of schools on three levels:
1) Ideal colleges
2) Realistic colleges
3) Back-up colleges

Get educated on the variety of levels of college athletics. Colleges determine which level they are going to compete at, not by their size or enrollment but by how much they are going to financially invest into athletics. Be careful to choose the best level for your needs, abilities, and desires. Strive for your goals, but be realistic. Here's a brief, generalized description of the various levels:
NCAA Division 1: Offer the most scholarships, all full
NCAA Division II: Offer 50-67% of the scholarships Dl offers per sport.
NCAA Division III: NO athletic scholarships. Will help with grants and financial aid based on need and achievement.
NAIA: Offer full and partial scholarships, and will help with grants and financial aid.
Level of competition ranges between NCAA D II and D III.

All levels have walk-ons on their roster = non-scholarship players who earn a spot on the team (either pre-arranged or earned at try-outs), pay their own expenses, but is treated as a regular player in every other way (this includes using eligibility). Also, most programs will have a Red-Shirt program. This means the athlete practices with the team, but doesn't participate in any games. After the year the athlete will still have four years of Athletic Eligibility remaining.

5. GO TO COLLEGE GAMES AND PRACTICES. Go and learn from the best. Become a student of the game. Don't compare yourself to high school players. A large percentage of them won't play college ball. See what level you have to take your game to. Watch the best players' work ethic and technique. Most college teams will allow you to attend their practices by appointment (ask your coach to call). Colleges will allow you to attend games for free, usually with a guest or two. Ask your coach to call to get you on the Guest List. Check out all levels .

6. SEND A PACKET Introduce yourself to the coaches at the schools on your list. Take the initiative. If you are interested in a school don't wait for them to "discover" you. Contact them (or have your coach do so), and let them know you are sending information, then they are more likely to review it. Have several packets on hand and send them to whomever you contact, or they may request them. Packet should include a cover letter, resume, unofficial transcript, letters of recommendation, video, high school and club schedule, and roster.

Cover Letter
Business Format: Letter Head. Be Concise.
Single space - Double space between paragraphs
Font: 12 pt. Times New Roman or Courier or New Century Schoolbook .
Four brief paragraphs:
I. Thank the coach for his interest in you (or his time if you are initiating contact). Remember that you are hoping for a scholarship that is valuable to him. It is worth a lot of money, the success of his program, and possibly his job, and is dependent upon his wise investment of this limited resource (the scholarship, aid, or roster spot).

II. Tell the coach why you are interested in his college and athletic program. One thing that can set you apart from the crowd is your interest in his school, and your initiative.

III. Tell the coach how you would benefit their program. Remember that the coach is looking for the best student/athletes with the best character who will specifically fit into her program. Include relevant team and individual honors, awards, and statistics here.

IV. Thank the coach again for his time. Remember that humility, "Thank you," and "Please" are attributes and terms which are rarely used these days.

Resume: Information can include as much of the following as you'd like
Personal Information-Name, Graduating Class, Date of Birth, Location of Birth, Address, Phone, Fax, Social Security Number, Name of Mother, Mother's Occupation, Mother's Work Phone Number, Name of Father, Father's Occupation, Father's Work Phone, Brothers & Sisters Names and Birthdates. If anybody in your family has a history in sports as a player or coach, include the details.

Academic Information-Current School, School Address, School Phone Number, Principal's Name, Guidance Counselor's Name, Coach's Name, Coach's Work Phone Number, Coach's Home Phone Number, List GPA, List PSAT, List SAT, List ACT, List Rank In Class, List Academic Interests, List Academic Awards and if applicable, List Any Previous Schools.
Athletic Information-Position, Height Without Shoes, Fingertip Arm Span, Weight, Shoe Size, Annual Statistics (Win/Loss Record, 3FGM, 3FGA, FGM, FGA, FTM, FTA, AST, OREB, TREB, BS, STL, PTS, PPG. Feature statistics Against Ranked Teams, Honors/Highlights

Video Outline:
This is a crucial part of the Recruiting process, especially for the lower division colleges who don't have the staff and budget to recruit like the Dl schools. Make sure the video is clear, doesn't have distracting audio (such as cameraman yelling at the referees, or making negative comments) , and the view includes all 10 players (not zoomed in on one player). As long as the following format is followed, the quality of the tape is not as crucial as some think. Obviously coaches need to be able to identify numbers on the tape, so dark and far away is not good. But an expensive, professional quality tape with special effects, music, and graphics is nice but certainly not necessary. The following is an outline for an ideal video. Only # 3 is mandatory.

I. Brief personal introduction: Dress casual/nice and introduce yourself on camera. State your name, position, school and coach, club team and coach, and any other information you want, such as some pertinent academic and athletic statistics, what number you are and what the following games might be. Be out-going, well-spoken, and friendly.

II. Individual highlights. Less than a minute at the beginning of the tape. Coaches do not want to see just highlights, but rather continuous action of you playing.

III. Game video. When sending a videotape to colleges you want to highlight your positive attributes. Believe it or not, some coaches also view parts of a tape when you are not in the game to evaluate your "body language" on the bench in hopes that it can help them assess your attitude. Include at least three (3) or four (4) continuous halves. Pick your best halves that display a variety of things that you do (shooting, passing, defense, rebounding, etc) These should be your best performances with a good start. If you don't do much for the first eight minutes or so the coach is likely to stop watching. Remember, he has dozens of other tapes to watch. Optional: Maybe finish with another thirty seconds of highlights containing a voice over regarding you collegiate goals.

7. SCOUTING SERVICES are an option and some can be useful. Some college coaches use them, others throw the hundreds of flyers that they receive into the circular file. Services may cost upwards of $500 and some can be thousands of dollars. You can choose to use a scouting service, or bypass the service and contact colleges on your own with the help of your parents, coaches, and counselors.

8. KEEP AN UPDATED LIST OF HONORS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS. Have an updated resume available and update it regularly. This includes academic, athletic, civic, team, extracurricular honors, awards, and activities.

9. CREATE YOUR OWN WEB PAGE. Many internet providers, blogs, and email services will allow you to set up a small web page. These can normally be completed in under thirty minutes by someone with little, or no, computer saavy . Use this to set up an online resume and promote yourself to several colleges. Provide an information center for them to check on your progress. Include contact information, height, weight, statistics, GPA, SAT, schedule, photos, etc. This is a good place to post or link some video, referring to the guidelines above. You can include a link to the page in emails to colleges or print the page for a ready-made resume.

10. APPLY TO THE COLLEGE Once you have the college choices narrowed to a reasonable number, many of them will want you to apply for admission. Make sure to meet these deadlines (many of which are in Jan/Feb of your senior year-some even earlier). You may qualify you for application fee waivers at several colleges. You must apply for a fee waiver through your school counselor. Many schools also will waive the application fee if you use that schools online application service. This step is crucial otherwise you may cut your options significantly.

11. APPLY FOR THE FAFSA. Applications will be available in your school counseling office in December. This single application determines your eligibility for government grants (In California they are the CAL GRANT & PELL GRANT) and loans. The CAL GRANT A award provides over $3,400 to UC's, $1,500 to CSU's, and up to $9,700 at independent colleges. The Pell ranges from $400 to $3,125. You may also qualify for FSEOG grants, Work-Study, subsidized and non-subsidized student loans. The first day you can submit the FAFSA is January 2. Deadline is March 1.(dollar figures are approximate)

12. YOU KNOW YOU ARE A SERIOUS RECRUIT When the college coach offers you a visit you are a serious recruit. Coaches begin the recruiting process by sending out tons of letters. Most colleges will begin the recruiting process by sending you a questionnaire. Don't throw it away. You never know how the recruiting process is going to end and that school that you have never heard of may end up being the best situation for you. Each coach on the staff then may make phone calls to dozens of players. Until then, the coach is constantly checking what recruits are interested. When they narrow their list down to their top prospects they start offering "Official Recruiting Visits." In NCAA Divisions I and II these are limited, so the coaches only use them on their top recruits and they cannot offer those until your junior year and only after they have one or more of your qualifying test scores (PSAT, SAT, etc). An NCAA Division I and II Official Visit includes paid for transportation and expenses while visiting. NAIA and NCAA Division III schools usually do not pay for transportation, but pay for expenses during the visit. The NCAA only allows recruits to take a maximum of five Division I and II "Official Visits." NAIA and Division III don't limit the number of official visits. A recruit can make an unlimited number of "Unofficial Visits." This is defined as the recruit paying for all of his own expenses. Make an appointment with the coach before you visit. The college is under some restrictions on how often they can call you, but you can all them anytime.

Clinician for the summer

2009-05-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

Recently I was asked to do a 4 session shooting clinic for a camp this summer. Now, normally, this wouldn't be a big deal. I have done tons of camps and clinics, both my own and for others, but this one is special. Why you might ask? Because in my opinion, it is one of the best camps in the country (also one of the longest running west of the Mississippi), so I take it as a big honor in being asked.

The camp I am referring to is Snow Valley Basketball Camp which takes place at Westmont College for a few weeks at the end of the summer. This camp is not however affiliated with the college.

I believe that this is one of the best teaching camps in the country because of the coaches who teach there. I go every year because I love the environment, the passion re-energize me for the coming season even though the summer can be grueling with the numbers of clinics, camps, practices, and games that take place. Before heading to Snow Valley I am physically tired, yet after Snow Valley I am completely energized. Now this isn't a camp about exposure or playing in front of big names, this isn't a camp about the top 100 kids in the country, this is a true down and dirty, blue collar, work your butt off and get better camp.

That is why this is such an honor to be asked to be a clinician, it is a place that I love so much, and that has taught me a great deal about the game. To know that guys like Mike Dunlap, Jeff and Stan Van Gundy, Rick Majerus, Dan Hays, Don Meyer, and tons of other big name guys have all been clinicians, and now my name gets added to that list? It just blows me away. These are guys who are pioneers, are guys who have done great things in the game, and now me. This might mean more to be than when we won a CIF championship.

This made my entire month!

Parents banned from Soccer sideline.

2009-04-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

I found an interesting article about a club soccer league giving parents of one team a 100 yard suspension for two games. Parents were required to stay 100 yards from the field of play for the duration of two game. This penalty seemed to have stemmed from the previous season where parents broke the code of conduct rules for actions towards officials of the game.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/20/AR2009042003542.html

This is a hopeful event, and I hope that it occurs to a greater extent. What do we teach kids if they see parents who can't control their emotions on the sidelines? Does this lead kids by action in the direction we wish them to go? In ten years of coaching you wouldn't believe the things I have seen, and even before coaching, back when I was a player there were unbelievable things done by parents. I remember when a full bottle of soda came flying out of the stands and missed the head of a player on my team by inches. This was thrown by a parent of an opposing team, then all hell broke loose. Wasn't a pretty scene.

I do believe that kids should not be penalized by their parents action. So while some coaches have advocated the removal of kids from their team because parents cannot control themselves. I disagree with that stance, but I do try to take a firm stance on the actions of parents. Too bad, at the high school level, you have very little leverage and very little support from administrators that would rather cave in to parent complaints than take a firm stance and do what schools are supposed to do; teach.

In the past I have emptied gyms and had kids play without the parents, had police escort parents out, even banned parents from game attendance. Fortunately I have had no serious complaints or been in a place where an administration hasn't support that action. This however, is the exception, not the norm.

I have in the past and in the future have parents sign contracts about their behavior on the sidelines, while I have my own form and my own penalties, a good place to start for coaches who wish to create such a program is the PCA, or Positive Coaching alliance. They have some templates and other tools for coaches to use to create sportsmanship pledges, the link is PCA.

While everyone has free will, we can at least do out part to create the best possible environment for our players.

The Inner game of Tennis and Basketball?

2009-04-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

Back when I was in college I had professor, Dr. Kahn, he taught a Kinesiology/PE class. He knew that at the time I was coaching and very interested in the enhancing individual performance in sport on a physical level. He had asked me a question, how do you increase performance on a mental level and what part does that play in the game? At the time I had no answer, I hadn't really thought about "mentality" as a big influence in performance. He then gave me a book, and said I should read it and that it might provide me with a different perspective on performance.
That book was Tim Gallwey's book The Inner Game of Tennis.

Now being the skeptical "believe it when I see it" type of guy at the time, as well as a basketball coach, I almost dismissed it, believing naively that a book on Tennis was meaningless for a basketball coach. Fortunately, Dr. Kahn was a professor who I greatly respected, and decided if he thought is was important enough for me to read it I should, so I did. I can readily admit, it did change how I viewed the game.

Today it is one of my favorite books on individual struggles to overcome our own self doubt, the "I" verses the "Me" game that we all play. It profoundly effected how I approached the idea of teaching the game of basketball.

While I haven't pick the book up in over a year, a recent article over at tennis.com triggered it in my mind. Pete Carroll, Head football coach at USC, was interviewed by tennis.com where he talks about what a profound impact the book had on his teaching of the game of football. So I have to admit it makes me feel pretty good that a successful coach like Carroll has found as much inspiration as I have. So much that he has absorbed all the ideas into his teaching.

The Inner Game of Tennis provides a great equation; Performance (P) is equal to potential (p) minus interference (i), P = p-i (being a physics teacher I like equations). So, by this equation, there are then two ways to improve performance, increase ones potential by maximizing your external skills or reduce the amount of interference. When Gallwey takes about interference, he is referring to those obstacles that we set up in our mind from things like self doubt, fear, etc.

It should be recognized that when we play sports we engage in two games, an external game with external obstacles (these obstacles are provided by the game and the opponent and aren't controllable) and the inner game with inner obstacles (which are provided by ourselves).

I completely and 100 percent recommend this book to any coach or athlete looking to really maximize their ability. It is an easy read and makes superb points that can be easily implemented in your game when you take time recognize the inner obstacles we give ourselves.

Give Tennis a chance and read it, I fully believe it should be a mandatory read for coaches and athletes.

Basketball...over coached... under taught

2009-04-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

My title is a direct quote from the great Bobby Knight, "Basketball is the most OVER COACHED, but UNDER TAUGHT game in the world." I don't remember where he made this quote but I couldn't agree more. While I have only been coaching for 10 years, it seems like this has been becoming progressively worse in recent times.

I watched a club team the other night, average team, however, they ran 9 different OB's, had 6 different defensive sets, and the coach probably called out as many as 12 different offensive plays. In all of that, I didn't see them do a whole lot of anything. In the midst of all this, his team had traveled, by my count, 13 times in the game, and I think I missed a few. The got four 5 second calls on the OB's they ran, and most of the time the girls on the floor didn't know where they were supposed to be during any of the calls. This would just make the coach mad, he would yell, then try to call something different. It truly depressed me to watch a group of girls, freshman and sophomores, have this be their experience.

What were they getting out of this team? If this was a team set up for the girls just to play and have fun, it is a failure, because none of those girls were having fun, not one smile. If this team was set up to make them better players, it too fails in this, because they learned nothing other than the idea that they can't be successful in the game.

The entire experience was pointless for those kids, and it made me sad. This was a coach, who seemed to be coaching for the wrong reason, it was about him, and not about them. That was the only explanation I could find for running that many sets with a group of girls who really needed skill work. I mean, come on, you run a sideline alley oop play for freshman and sohpmore girls?
Really? It astounded me.

Yet the more I think about it, this is the experience our girls are getting.

How do we change it? We don't let our girls play for these types of teams, we find teams that emphasize skills over schemes. Search for teams that focus on getting better not getting wins.

Girls are not second class athletes, and because they have been treated so, they get over coached. They are treated like they can't do it on their own and need to be told everything every step of the way, and that is a false assumption, most often perpetrated by male coaches. Girls are just as capable of playing the game, maybe not as quick, strong, or fast, but they are equally capable of everything in the game if given the chance. They just need to be given the chance.

There needs to be a revolution in women's sports, where they stand up and demand equal training and equal coaching in their sport. Parents need to start it with their youth coaches, high school coaches need to step forward and educate themselves on how to make girls better, college coaches need to give a little more time to work with younger coaches on the importance of skills. We need to set girls free....

Teaching Situational play....

2009-04-19T14:22:00.000-07:00

I have always been from the old school view that we should be prepared for everything, no matter what situation we find ourselves in on the court, we've been there in practice. No surprises. This is the reason why I always do situational drills, something that gives players a situation that we may find ourselves in during the season and a chance to learn what to do.

This is, in my opinion, even more important for girls than guys. Why you ask? Well how many girls go and play pickup? How many places are there where girls can play pick up? The only time girts ever play game is in organization, so sometimes they lose the ability to freelance, the ability to instinctively act. They have become mechanical because they haven't ever experienced the freedom of play that boys have. This is one of the major reason why I find teaching a read and react offense to girls as being much more difficult than boys, they haven't played enough ''free ball" time to learn to react on their own. (That is a discussion for another time).

So here is what I have done, I have used what is called a situational tournament, usually run during the summer, and usually in combination a JV team. We rarely have enough kids for a full tournament, but we try. Sometimes we have 4 teams sometime we have 2. It lasts all summer. I'll post the framework below, but once a week we conduct what is labeled as a set. Team that wins at the end usually gets bragging rights, sometimes we make it worth a meal on me, sometimes we don't.

So here are the rules:

1. The first team to win (2 out of 3) or (3 out of 5) games per set wins that set.
2. Winners advance, losers are eliminated (rarely do we have enough teams)
3. No zones or zone presses (full or half court) are allowed. (I have changed that if we run a lot of zone with a specific team)
4. Second and fourth quarter players play games 1 and 3.
5. First and third quarter players play games 2 and 4.
6. The coach can play anybody in game 5.
7. Each team has ONE timeout left.
8. Both teams are in the bonus (all common fouls are one-and-one).
9. Overtime is sudden death (the first point scored wins).

So we run 4 different sets of 5 games. Often times we can run this tournament once a month as each set takes about 20 minutes to complete during the summer. We feel this is good preparation for situational play and since we play summer games more than once these things come up. If you have the staff, make your assistants run a team so you can observe your players decision making, if you don't run a team your self. I like having assistants run the teams because it helps them to learn too. After the second month, we remove coaches, players do the sets coachless, thus they have to commuincate, make their own calls, be aware of everything. I think this has been pretty effective in our players never being surprised at the end of the game. This is also a good thing if you have ever been tossed from a game (I have not).

Here are the 4 sets.

SET 1

1. White down 3 with ball at half court, 1:30 left.
2. Black down 2 with ball under their bucket, 40 seconds left.
3. White down 5. Black’s ball at half court, 1:06 left.
4. Black down 4. White’s ball in backcourt-side, 55 seconds left.
5. Tie jump ball, 1 minute left.

SET 2

1. Black down 1 with the ball under their basket, 18 seconds left.
2. White down 2 with ball at half court, 40 seconds left.
3. Black down 3. White’s ball backcourt side, 45 seconds left.
4. White down 1 with ball at half court, 22 seconds left.
5. Tie jump ball, 30 seconds left.

SET 3

1. White down 4 with ball at half court, 35 seconds left.
2. Black down 5 with ball under their basket, 45 seconds left.
3. Tie jump ball, 25 seconds left.

SET 4

1. White down 2 with ball at half court, 28 seconds left.
2. Black down 3 with ball under their basket, 15 seconds left.
3. White down 1, Black’s ball backcourt side, 11 seconds left.
4. Black down 1 with ball at half court, 8 seconds left.
5. Tie jump ball, 20 seconds left.

The players have always gotten very competative in this format and work very hard, which is exciting for myself as a coach to see.

Now this is not an exhaustive list of situations you may face in a game, but it is a good start, we sometimes add and subtract different situations, but we do give the players this information ahead of time and keep them informed.

Hopefully this helps you with practicing situational play. Now I did leave out that this is the practice of situational play, not the instruction of what to do. Hopefully you have put in certain rules or concepts on what to do in certain sitautions.

What I like is if I am not coaching I can stop play and teach out of this, that seems to be very effective as well.

Weight workout programs....

2009-04-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

Over time I have received many requests for a specific weight program that can be implemented for players, club programs or high school teams. Since there have been such a great volume of requests I wanted to post a little bit about weight programs.

There are many ways to weight train with hundreds of different philosophies about how to do it. My biggest piece of advice is to develop not one weight program for an entire team, but to customize many programs for each player. We must come to understand that each of our players is not a robot and have their own individual strengths and weakness, thus should require a weight program that focuses on improving upon those weaknesses. However, I do understand the desire for a canned weight program (one size fits all). When faced with the daunting task of individualizing a program for 40 athletes or even educating oneself on all the thousands of different lifts or approaches, we can get lost. So I wanted to give a few starting points out for coaches at different levels.

Below are some resources starting with what I do (philosophically), particular canned programs that demonstrate the breadth of what is available, and some places to go to education oneself on how to construct a program or understand how to weight train (obviously the best but most time consuming point to start).

What I do:

I have begun to move away from heavy lifting in a weight room setting as my sole place to build muscle. Because we do a large amount of speed, agility, and quickness training both pre and post season we have included a strength component to it. This would mean we have included weight vests, medicine balls, and vipers (bungee cords) and a few other objects to provide resistance in different directions within basketball specific SAQ drills. This allows us to strengthen muscles directly in the motions specific to the game, which I believe is always very important, as many lifts don't exactly match perfectly basketball specific movements. This does at times focus mostly on the core muscles and the lower extremities. While I don't want to say the upper body isn't important, because it is, but the game is won by the players who can stay low the longest and have the leg strength to keep going in the 4th or overtime. On top of that, since the entire game is based on the idea of losing and regaining stability, core is extremely important. It doesn't mean I don't do some basic lifts with my programs, it just means I don't believe it to be the magic bullet or more important than specific movements within the sport and endurance in those movements. There does however require a functional strength required of all muscle groups, so standard weight lifting isn't thrown under the bus.

This is a little about my philosophy, if you are looking for something more specific than that, please let me know and I will put that up too.

Canned programs

I don't normally endorse programs so don't take these as the sole way to do it, just samples of what is out there, you can see from what I do that it is different than these.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster has a pretty good program for athletes of all kinds. I specifically like the changing weights and different stressors in the program. Pretty advanced program.

The Complete Basketball Strength and Speed Program is decent, but there are many other places on the web that provide much of what he has here for free. Just takes a little searching.

Basic Program here is a very basic canned program to get you started.

Education:

Here are some sites where coaches and players can begin to educate themselves about weight training.

About.com: This is a pretty good overview of how to construct a basic weight program.

Weight Training: A little more advanced with some pretty good supporting links, good place to get more scientific views of a type of weight training.

CSCS Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. As far as I am concerned the Holy Grail of education in appropriate weight training. The educational materials in my opinion are a great investment. Side note, you can find the textbook used on Amazon for cheaper.

Hopefully this is helpful, I will provide a part two for coaches who have more specific questions.

Practice planning

2009-04-09T10:10:00.000-07:00

I have written briefly in the past that practice is the place you can help build a competitive team. So I had a question that asked, how to write a good practice plan, so here I wanted to give my thoughts on that. Now you should remember, I am not a professional coach, and there isn't just one way to run a successful practice.

My rules for a practice plan are as follows.

1. The plan must be completed and post the day before that practice in the team room. (I know coaches are busy and I understand how hard it is to get it done, especially after a game, but it gives the players understanding of what they are doing).
2. Practice must always start and end on time, if you plan states 2 hours, it should never go over. This demonstrates respect for your team.
3. Every portion of the plan should have a defined time limit.
4. Always allow time for "controlled" full squad action. What I mean by control is have limits or specific rules enforced for game situations.
5. Practice is NOT team lecture time. If you need to do it, do it after games or set aside time after practice.
6. Build in 5 to 6 team lead huddles throughout.

My practice plans have three major phases.

I usually start with a summary dialogue about practice and what the focus is. Reiterate our credo or motto for that team. This is usually 2 to 3 minutes.

Next for me comes Preparation Phase. I think it is unfortunate that too many coaches don't do this. I have been to a ton of practices, both club and high school, and warm-ups are non-existent. If coaches are supposed to be teaching athletics then part of that is an obligation to teach players how to maintain maximum performance. I like to be hopeful and believe that coaches don't do warm up because they just don't know how to make it relevant and not that they just don't care about the safety and performance of their athletes.

My starting warm ups are always dynamic. Which means players are engaged in movements that increase blood flow to muscle groups and work on joint activation. They can even include stabilization of joints if need be (specifically) ankles and core work. I always try to make these movements mirror basketball specific needs. For instance, hopping, skipping, jumping rope, slides, etc. It isn't lines or jogging the court. Use warm-up to enhance neuromuscular memory with basketball specific moves.

After a dynamic warm up you can stretch, however I prefer to stretch at the end. There is some debate on whether you should stretch a fatigued muscles or not. Coaches should attempt to education themselves about the difference between active flexibility and passive flexibility, SSC (stretch shortening cycles) etc to decide on what they feel is best. I don't think there has been a huge concensous yet. I feel it is counter productive to get them moving and active just to slow it down and then have to restart them again.

After dynamic warm ups I feel those motions fit well into SAQ skills session. SAQ stands for speed, agility, quickness and it not just plyometrics like many people erroneously think (I know this evokes depth jumps off of boxes). I prefer SAQ be done in conjunction with basketball skills, combine the motions of basketball, things like footwork, attack steps, slides, sometimes with equipment, and a ball. Shooting out of a speed ladder as an example. I have heard many coaches state they don't have a chance to work both SAQ and skills, I say why not both at the same time? All it takes is a little creativity.

Station work is good here, 5 stations with 4 minutes of high intensity in small groups provides superb practice. That way you get 30 mins of warmup and skills and still have 1.5 hours of practice left and have covered a large amount of ground.

Next comes the meat of practice, some call it the body, the activity phase, I consider this the Conceptual Phase. Here is where we teach the offensive and defensive concepts (now just because we are now teaching deeper concepts of the game doesn't mean skill emphasis is gone). It is my opinion that you don't introduce more than 2 new concepts for each major portion of basketball (offense and defense). I know some will say "But I have so much I need to get in", I argue that depth of understanding is more important than breadth (major report released by educators recently stating that depth in science makes more successful college students than large amounts of coverage). We do a 10 minute concept recap to start of what we did at practice the previous day (this isn't talking). We have 3 drills pulled from last practice that connect to what we are doing today, or as a staff and a team, we felt needed extra attention. This helps scaffold the building of our team concept (a classroom strategy). The next 50 minutes are sometimes broken up as offense and defense, somtimes we go all 50 on Offense or all 50 on Defense. But we never introduce more than 4 new concepts in total. Either way we use a connective station approach to teach successive skills in a part whole fashion.

The last 30 minutes of practice I call the Situational Phase. This is were we play "controlled" games. What I mean by controlled is that we introduce rules that place emphasis on the particular concepts we introduced in practice (these games always have a competative goal, and usually one side is given a disadvantage). For instance, if we really want to score off back door cuts we can institute that as a rule, or say emphasize triple threat by making not getting into triple threat on the catch (outside of a catch and shoot situation) a turnover. As time moves on and players start to use concepts more often we can put point/turnovers on specific movements we wish to emphasize. For instance, offensive rebounds count as one point, a lay up off a back door is 5 points instead of two, assisted baskets are 3 points, etc. This sometimes pushes kids to do the little things in games, like stopping middle penetration, taking charges, and boxing out. If they do it enough in practice they will do it automatically in a game.

Now this is just a general practice plan, and I don't always set it up like this. I usually have a on and off season format. I also have pre-game practice format that differs from the regular format. These are things I have developed because they work for me, as a coach and you begin to reflect on your team, these things start to solidfy in your mind as the best way to do things.

Hope this helps start you in the right direction.

Angry parents having coaches fired.

2009-04-08T15:08:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a pretty good article on reasons why a coach shouldn't be fired. However, the best part is about Athletic Directors interviewing players, attending practices and games, and understanding the level of ability on the floor before making a firing. Instead the criteria for firing is win/loss record and how many parent complaints there are. Obviously not the appropriate criteria for a firing. On top of that I don't need any fingers to count the number of times an administrator has been to a practice of a team I coached even after I have invited them.

Farmington Daily Times (New Mexico)

April 6, 2009 Monday

SECTION: SPORTS

HEADLINE: Record-based firing wrong for high school sports

BYLINE: By Christopher Smith The Daily Times

Piedra Vista recently fired longtime basketball coach Rick Hoerner, prompting several debates.

Nobody likes to see a good guy get shafted, and Hoerner is a class act by all accounts.

Beyond that is a circular argument about the value of winning in high school sports.

Did Hoerner lose too many ballgames or did he fall victim to Angry Parent Syndrome? How does an athletic director balance demanding success with rewarding character?

High school coaches are as likely to lose their job due to Angry Parent's shenanigans as they are for actual performance.

Angry Parent lurks in bleachers and internet forums everywhere, more ubiquitous than bad weather. Perhaps he or she didn't get along with Coach in high school. Perhaps their little Billy or Jackie didn't get enough playing time. Whatever the reason, Angry Parent attacks Coaches' job.

Championships are the only known antidote for this outbreak. Common symptoms include rants at the local Safeway and incessant postings disparaging said coach.

Angry Parent's crazed accusations never correlate or correspond with logic. The two haven't been introduced. Angry Parent is best friends with Perception, and harbors an unconscious understanding that perception is reality. Create enough of a rift and the diatribe becomes commonplace.

Angry Parent sat adjacent to Hoerner's firing, but I think PV negotiated that pitfall.

PV athletic director Tom Shields could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Dodging the temptation to conspire with Angry Parent is the first element of the tangled mess involved in evaluating high school coaches. How much should winning matter? How much should a coaches' role as an educator matter? Their role as a pristine example of human decency?

It's a conundrum unlike any other.

Professional sports? Professional sports? The NFL is a multibillion dollar industry, and missing the playoffs can cost a team tens of millions in revenue. Entrenched legends such as Mike Shannahan are disposable.

College sports? Most institutions can justify ousting a coach in football or basketball the economics mimic the professional ranks more each year. Successful athletics raise a university's profile and strengthen the connection with alumni, boosting the quality and quantity of financial giving. College coaches must avoid a certain category of losing even at academically-centered schools.

High school sports? Gross. Let's handle the simple part first: Detrimentally influencing a student-athlete's grades or character is legitimate cause for dismissal. Winning at this level isn't tantamount to gold and shouldn't sacrifice those pillars.

The best high school coaches combine winning and character development, drawing a wide circle in the sand and telling their athletes to remain inside. Ideally, high school coaches apply the same hardnosed standards to their athletes in sports and life.

Their job isn't to win. It's to evoke maximum effort from their athletes. If expertise in a particular sport is the key that unlocks the house, fulfilling the team's potential pays the bills.

Wins and losses are the daylily garden in the front yard or the dead patch of grass swarmed with weeds. The weeds may solicit a visit from the neighborhood yard police, but who cares what they say anyway? High school coaches rarely are fired when their available talent works harder than their rivals', whether that translates to winning one game or four championships.

Sports teach our children that they can expend more energy and commit their minds and bodies more wholly to a task than they thought possible. That will grant them a degree of success in most any of life's arenas, regardless of talent.

A coach that can't encourage his athletes to chase after their limits can be justifiably fired.

The most difficult part of the process, then, is evaluating effort. How do you know if the team has done all it can or if another coach could've coaxed more? In Hoerner's case, many of the players were multi-sport athletes, so how can you judge their commitment to basketball?

He wanted his players to represent Piedra Vista well. One of the best at staying calm after a tough loss, his face and tone of voice couldn't hide his disappointment. Hoerner wanted to win, too, and I daresay his standard for the team superseded the school's.

The team didn't play well this season. Another close loss in a meaningful game at Shiprock was a blow. A loss to Kirtland Central in the district quarterfinals was devastating. The Broncos didn't win a district game during the regular season.

This area seems quick to clamor for culpability. The complaints of parents, and I've heard some, should not be a basis for firing. There's not always someone to blame. Sometimes another team has a better group of athletes. That doesn't mean a team isn't maxing out its potential. This year's Shiprock and Kirtland Central girls basketball teams come to mind.

The question isn't whether Rick Hoerner won or lost, it's whether his team could've worked harder or smarter. From the looks of the all-district team, he should've won more this season, but I wasn't around the team enough to know. The number of people that hold opinions on Hoerner's firing is far greater than the number that were entrenched enough to make an informed evaluation.

The litmus test comes from the administration's knowledge of Hoerner's team. Did they attend practices or games? Did they interview the athletes? Did they make an accurate evaluation of potential? These are questions I'd like answered.

If the answer is yes, then I can't quibble with Hoerner's firing. If the answer is no, Hoerner isn't the only person who didn't do his job.

The continued legislation of CIF

2009-04-07T11:04:00.000-07:00

Okay I have spent some time looking at the current proposed legislation by Audra Strickland, so lets break down each bill

AB 1154: This bill would require the California Interscholastic Federation,
whenever it imposes a sanction on an interscholastic team of a member
school, to post online the name of the school, the team that has been
sanctioned, the violation that has occasioned the sanction, and a
description of the sanction itself.

Okay so what is the point of this legislation? What is the benefit to the scholastic or athletic community. I am trying to understand why this is needed. I understand transparency issues, however, at the rate of staff and player turnover at schools how does this highlight anything? What issue is it solving? Is it designed to stigmatize schools? Coaches? Players? Administrators? Parents? What point would it make or problem would it solve to state, Blah Blah High School will forfeit X amount of games due to ineligible player because of improper paperwork filling. Dop this not indirectly violate FRPA laws now that athletics are consider co-curricular in eh state of California? It always makes the newspaper, does this really have to be published again? There are too many privacy issues involved pertaining to kids to make this type of thing official public. Especially when so many kids get used by those without outside interests.

AB 352: An act to amend Section 33353 of the Education Code, relating to
public records. The California Public Records Act requires state and local agencies
to make their records available for public inspection and to make copies
available upon request and payment of a fee unless they are exempt
from disclosure.

Any legislation that would increase the workload, of what is obviously an over worked and under staffed group is a bad deal. There are so many other important issues relating to athletics than this. How about the representation of shoe sponsorships on teams, recruiters on campus, exploitation of student athletes, steroid usage, sportsmanship by players, parents, and coaches, etc. But heaven forbid we actually have someone take time to want to fix the real issues surrounding athletics. Plus we already have the Brown Act.

AB 1039: This bill would authorize the appeal of a final decision of the CIF to
suspend or terminate a pupil from participation in a sport for a violation
of its codes and regulations to the county board of education, which
would be the final arbiter in the matter. By requiring the county board
of education to hear an appeal of a CIF final decision, the bill would
impose a state-mandated local program.

The NCAA has refused to stand for this type of legislation and CIF shouldn't either. Years ago a congressman tried a similar bill, to allow an NCAA athlete who has been suspended from competition while being investigated for infractions of the rules to appeal and receive removal of the suspension until the investigation has been completed. This was promptly defeated and rightly so. CIF has the right to exercise due diligence in enforcing the guidelines as set forth by the member organizations (because we should remember the member organizations designed the rules) if that enforcement power is now circumvented, enforcement of the rules becomes a moot point. CIF would be stripped of any power it might have to enforce the rules and on top of this the bill makes no mention of what specific steps are taken or what would be involved.

AB 81: This bill would require the California Interscholastic Federation to
amend its constitution and bylaws to require that, no later than January
15, 2010 transfer of a pupil in foster care pursuant to a court
order or the transfer of a pupil in foster care pursuant to the determination of
a social worker that changes are needed in that pupil’s home setting
are valid changes of residence for the purposes of eligibility
for interscholastic athletic activities.

I see nothing wrong with this legislation and the creation of an environment that treats students on equal grounds.

However, I still have a enormous problem with our state legislature spending their time on such paltry issues like these. Is this why she was elected? To continue to push for legislative control over CIF? We all know she has had a chip on her shoulder about CIF and their rules, but come on. The economy is in shambles, unemployment is higher than we have seen in recent times, school budgets are strapped and she is pushing four legislative pieces on CIF.

I am not saying that CIF is perfect or not in need of change. What I am saying is do we really need it done by legislation? Do we need laws created? Do people understand how hard is to to change legislation when the environment that was legislated for changes? For instance, this is the reason we have laws like the fact that the entire Encyclopedia Britannica is banned in Texas because it contains a formula for making beer at home. This was done during prohibition, it is still on the books and has not repealed nor will it be. Or things like you may not cross the state lines of Minnisota with a Duck on your head.

My suggestion to Audra is how about you make our schools safer, our books better, our teachers more qualified, and help dismantle the current system of pointless state testing. Then you would be doing something worthwhile.

Legislating CIF

2009-04-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

A reader has brought to my attention that Audra Strickland, and author of a failed bill to legislate unlimited transfers for high schools students allowing them to play sports has produce more legislation focused on CIF.

Bills AB 1154, AB 1154, AB 352, AB 1039

I haven't finished reviewing these bills yet but I will post my thoughts later today or tomorrow along with the text of the bill or a link to the text so you can decide for yourself.

Getting a team to play hard....

2009-04-01T13:07:00.001-07:00

I guess this topic is on peoples mind as club basketball has started up, as I received three e-mails from three different people on the same day asking about how they can get their teams too play harder. Well my friends, you are not alone. I think this is a question that is always on the mind of every coach, how can I get more out of my team.

It is my belief that players that practice hard have been taught to be competitors. Many coaches refer to this as mental toughness. Players who are mentally tough never back down, they try their hardest to the best of their ability, and that is all we can ask of our players. (Notice, I said hardest to the best of their ability, not perfection on every possession, that sets your players up for unrealistic goals.)

Mental toughness, in my opinion, starts in practice and how you structure it. A practice should emphasize adversity, competition, togetherness, concentration, enthusiasm, intensity, and pressure. So I will break each of these concepts down.

Adversity: This means a stacked deck. Set your drills up to have goals that push your player to new heights but are still achievable. It should have a goal that makes players come out of there comfort zone. Or create advantage/disadvantage situations, like in a scrimmage they are down points, one team cannot foul, shorter shot clock, 4 defensive rebounds to get off the floor, everyone must touch the ball etc..

Competition: Everything should have a winner and a loser. If you set a goal or a bar, some will reach it some will not. Create situations where players have to compete against each other, or even compete against themselves. Dog eat dog one on one drill, which is 2 dribbles to the hoop from the three point line. This is one of my favorites. Goal is to score or prevent score, takes a player out of his/her comfort zone because they have to be efficient with the dribble and make solid moves, defender has to stretch themselves to guard a strong move.

Togetherness: Have 6-7 huddles during practice lead by a team captain, let them talk about effort level, what they saw during the last phase, what the players saw, and what needs to be improved. This helps them to be accountable to their teammates. Have them emphasize what happened and what is coming next.

Concentration: The best way to enforce concentration is to include verbal aspects to your practice, this helps keep focus. Things like after a made basket always thank your passer, say the name of the player you are passing the ball too, call out let. Or things like free throws/shooting with distractions. Ask your players questions throughout practice on the things you are doing and why they are doing them. Most importantly drills should have some amount of chaos involved that require focus in order to have success.

Enthusiasm: Be an enthusiastic coach, have some energy during practice. Too many coaches think this is yelling and it is not. Enthusiasm can be manifest in many ways, hi fives, moving yourself, showing a little hustle. Being excited when players do things right. Also, encourage your team captain to be enthusiastic.

Intensity: This is not the same as enthusiasm. Intensity is the belief that the things you do are important. Meaning your drills and activities in practice are meaningful and have purpose. That there is a tone of seriousness when going about skills work, making cuts, practicing form shooting, etc. Drills should be built to be strenuous and focus on game speed. Have assistant coaches focus on the details to prevent "slippage" the acceptance of minor mistakes as being okay. That is one of the biggest things that brings down intensity is the details don't matter, things emphasized in one portion of practice no longer become relevant in another.

Pressure: One way to build pressure is to put things on the line, shooting free throws to reduce running time, put a starting spots for the next game on the line, extra scrimmage time, etc. Put time limits on drills along with the goals that need to be accomplished. This gives a sense of urgency to the things you do.

Run a practice with very little down time, which means you need to have a practice plan done ahead of time. Preferably done the day before so players know a general idea of what they are doing and the get a sense of the vision and the goals. Make them apart of the team through awareness. Move from area to area quickly, when it is time for a drink get a drink and get back, when guys aren't in a drill they can be doing other things if there attention isn't required for the drill someone else is doing. For instance footwork ladders while waiting for free throws or sub into a scrimmage.

These are just a few of my ideas that I think help will getting a team to play harder. There are many more things that we as coaches can do to improve the play of our players. But one thing I know for sure it all starts with how you run your practice.

Jump shot in the lane vs. Runner in the lane.

2009-03-30T14:38:00.001-07:00

I have to admit, I am slightly old fashioned and a huge advocate of fundamental smart movement. I am also a huge advocate for playing the game under control. So I will admit that while both of these shots can be effective, I prefer one over the other. Interestingly enough, the one I prefer is the most difficult to do, because it requires the greatest amount of athleticism.

If you haven't guess, I prefer the jump stop in the lane over the running jumper. Why? The biggest reason has to be the invitation for an offensive foul. That movement forward on or after the release of the ball produces a large amount of offensive fouls. Some will disagree, but in the light of the fact that a pull up jumper will never give you an offensive foul, a running jumper, in comparison, produces a large amount of offensive fouls.

I have to admit, I hate offensive fouls. Of all the mistakes in a game these can make the most difference. You get an offensive foul you lose possession and get a personal foul. Double Whammy. Since basketball is a game of possession, giving the ball away is not a good thing, and since players can only play when they are on the floor, fouls can have a great impact.

So why do players shoot the runner in the lane if it can have those consequences? Mostly, because it is easier. The control and ability required to come from that aggressive of a movement towards the basket, often with a player on your hip, to a complete stop, might be one of the most difficult things to do in the game. It takes a great deal of core strength to control ones motion, something that many high school kids don't have. Heck even a large number of college kids can't do it.

Another reason why so many kids can use the running jumper in a game is the fact that kids would rather try to block the shot then take a charge. Hence, no need to jump stop and shoot, the defender is going to be in the air fouling you, not on the ground accepting your foul. I however also teach taking charges, and against a shot that has become so prevalent, it can be extremely effective. A few years ago an player on an opposing team picked up 3 offensive fouls in the first quarter with a running jumper in the lane.

So coaches, you want to make it hard for the other team? Teach your kids to take charges. The other team has two options, the most difficult task of the pull up jumper that they haven't been taught or a running jumper for an offensive foul. Willingness to take charges in the lane will make your team defensive that much better. If a kid who drives the middle a lot starts to pick up offensive fouls because he can't stop and pop, you have completely neutralized his game.

Just something to think about.

Returned.....and answering questions....

2009-03-27T14:55:00.000-07:00

I wish to apologize for my extended absence but unfortunately we have a family illness that has taken a great deal of my time, so while I can't leave my job, I had to cut down on other things. Hopefully I will have some more time to write now. It might not be every day, but at least every other day is the goal.

I have received a few e-mail questions so I wanted to respond to a few.

A reader asked me what all the Divisions mean, 1-5 including the A and AA designation.

To answer, over time they have meant different things since CIF has played with how they organize the sections. Divisions are an organization of teams along a common thread to allow for a reduced play-off, greater parity, and more champions. (or so I am told)

In the beginning, schools were arranged into divisions by their school attendance numbers otherwise known as the CBEDs. The largest population schools were grouped together. Due to the sheer volume of teams in the Southern Section (larger than some entire states) these divisions were then split into an A and AA sections. Small and large schools withing a set number for that division.

For instance (these are fictitious numbers) Say Division 1 was to contain schools with CBEDS between 3000 to 4000 students. In the southern section that might include 100 teams so since there were so many schools in that range they split the division into A and AA, where AA was between 3000-and 3500, and A was 3500-4000.

The idea behind splitting schools by attendence was and is still directly related to what you could consider the talent pool. The larger the school the greater chance of them having highly skilled athletes. Thus, splitting schools by attendance was decided to be the soundest way to provide parity. Like schools competing with like schools. This then made many of the lower divisions private school only, with the top divisions being almost exclusively public.

Recently teams had been moved up or down divisions based up the league's performance over 5 years in the playoffs. The idea being the more successful leagues should move up divisions (to what would be considered more competativeness) and less successful leagues moved down. However that didn't work, as bad leagues got moved up due to highly superior teams, this produced a large number of blowouts in the state tourny.

Now teams are moved up or down a half division based upon success, still under the idea that the high divisions are better or more competative that lower divisions.

This also spurs lots of debate about recruiting, parity, competativeness, and the idea that there is no perfect solution. Not everyone will be happy, but in my opinion the current way seems the most logical.

Hopefuly that answers what the divisions mean.

Other questions....

What high school coach will get my kid to college?

I say don't let the coach determine whether your child plays basketball in college. Be proactive, if you sit an wait for someone else to do it you are going to miss out. Market your own child to colleges, call them, send out video, stats, attend thier camps, etc. The burden of playing college falls mostly on the work the player puts in both IN and OUT of practice as well as what you do to help them.

How do I evaluate my kids ability?

This is always a hard one for parents. We all think the world of our kids, and want (and sometimes expect) perfection. But we must be realistic and understand that our kids aren't and won't be perfect. So I think instead of evaluating them, or thinking they are perfect, you focus on helping them improve their ability (regardles of where they are at). I think kids will get more out of working on their current level than being classified into one.

The best thing you can do is accept their success, support their success, and help them improve when they ask.

Big night tonight!!!

2009-02-27T16:48:00.000-08:00

Tonight might be the biggest night of excitement surrounding Southern Section hoops in some time, we have some fantastic teams facing off in the semi finals.

Mater Dei vs. Etiwanda @ AB Miller High school at 7:30 pm
Should be a great match up, Mater Dei will face one of the more athletic teams that have seen in the playoffs to date. While Mater Dei seems to have more polish in terms of skill, don't count out Etiwanda's desire and their athletic abilty. Should be a stellar match up between two outstanding teams. IE vs OC.

Dominguez vs. MLK @ Rancho Verde HS at 7:30 pm
Andother stellar match up in Div IAA, two extremely athletic teams will face off in what will be a run and gun up and down game. Look for Leonard to try to lead his team to the finals.

If you live in the IE, you have a tough choice, between to great match ups!!!

Other games of note tonight....

Glendora vs. Leuzinger @ Damien HS 7:30 pm.... Coach Lu Duc has yet again taken his team to the Semi's, it is hard to not believe that he and his staff do a superb job year in and year out. This year Leuzinger is especially athletic and will look to get it up the floor, should be an interesting match up.

Eisenhower vs. Damien @ Glendora High School 7:30 pm. This year the Damien coach has come under fire from his parents or doing a less than stellar job coaching thier kids. However they seem to be very quiet these days now that they are playing in a semi-final game. Maybe they had some merit, maybe not, but a semi final game for a team that supposidly had a horrible coach is hard to believe.

Harvard Westlake vs. Sonora @ Calabasas HS at 7:30 pm Mike Murphy faces yet another tough Semi Final game. Sonora has a huge monkey on their back, having numerous Semi and quarter final appearances over the last 15 years, with no shots at the big one. Will this be that day they get there? Sonora is a solid team, lead with tremendous energy and defense, Harvard Westlake a storied program with a great deal of experience will host them. Should be an excellent game to watch out in Ventura tonight.

Fun night for basketball....enjoy the thrilss

Boys CIF Quarter Finals Scores

2009-02-25T07:08:00.000-08:00

DIVISION I-AA
Quarterfinals, Tuesday
Mater Dei 72, Rancho Verde 65
Etiwanda 94, Lynwood 72
Dominguez 52, Long Beach Poly 49
King 82, Redlands 62

DIVISION I-A
Quarterfinals, Tuesday
Chino Hills 55, Capistrano Valley 46
Ventura 64, Paloma Valley 48
Santa Monica 68, Perris 66 (OT)
Tesoro 75, West Valley 61

DIVISION II-AA
Quarterfinals, Tuesday
Thousand Oaks 62, Edison 45
Marina 71, Huntington Beach 70
Glendora 68, West Ranch 51
Leuzinger 88, Valencia 66

DIVISION II-A
Quarterfinals, Tuesday
Eisenhower 77, Loara 69
Damien 66, Mayfair 64
Loyola 88, Simi Valley 74
La Mirada 68, Ayala 48

DIVISION III-AA
Quarterfinals, Tuesday
Anaheim Canyon 70, Hart 47
Nogales 50, Palm Springs 47
Santa Margarita 64, North Torrance 63
Arroyo Grande 49, St. John Bosco 44

DIVISION III-A
Quarterfinals, Tuesday
Gahr 63, Diamond Ranch 62
Golden Valley 75, Foothill 72
Harvard-Westlake 63, Bonita 49
Sonora 49, Apple Valley 47

DIVISION IV-AA
Quarterfinals, Tuesday
Bishop Montgomery 58, Atascadero 53
Inglewood 77, Northview 47
Ocean View 70, San Luis Obispo 56
Gardena Serra 60, Compton Centennial 50

DIVISION IV-A
Quarterfinals, Tuesday
Chaminade 71, Orange Lutheran 70
Oaks Christian 66, La Salle 52
Crespi 59, Santa Clara 58
Price 65, Cathedral 57

DIVISION V-AA
Quarterfinals, Tuesday
Pacific Hills 71, Cantwell-Sacred Heart 46
Woodcrest Christian 72, St. Monica 69
Santa Ana Calvary Chapel 58, Verbum Dei 50
Morningside 76, Downey Calvary Chapel 67

DIVISION V-A
Quarterfinals, Tuesday
Windward 63, Sierra Canyon 39
Buckley 60, Aquinas 49
CAMS 71, Brethren Christian 62
La Verne Lutheran 75, Faith Baptist 41

DIVISION VI-AA
Quarterfinals, Tuesday
Bermuda Dunes Desert Christian 63, Rio Hondo Prep 51
Hesperia Christian 60, Laguna Blanca 46
Pacifica Christian 64, Capistrano Valley Christian 36
Tarbut V'Torah 66, Eastside Christian 45

DIVISION VI-A
Quarterfinals, Tuesday
Besant Hill 65, Marywood-Palm Valley 26
Padre Pio 53, Lee Vining 37
Antelope Valley Christian 69, Immanuel Christian 39
Hope Centre 66, Vistamar 59