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Don't cry... I'm only going to leave the Orble community. I guess that puts my blog up for grabs (like there would be any takers). Anyway, I'm not leaving the blogging world because I'm too important and have too many cool things to share for that to happen. Right?
I'm not sure how "legal" this is with orble, but I guess I'll leave it up until they tell me to take it down. My new blog is: Really Long Link so please, follow me there. Change your bookmarks 
Nearly every year coaching I get the same question.. the same one that every coach in the country gets. "What can I (my son/daughter) do to play more?" Immediately, I think of one thing.. "What did you (your child) do this summer?" It seems to me that some kids/parents believe their entitled to playing time, that playing time is a right. I, obviously, do not agree with this because once the season starts all the kids work hard. They all come to practice, so in that case playing time would have to be exactly equal since they are all there, all the time. Of course that never happens because no coaches thing that way. Kids play more because they're taller, bigger, stronger, faster, smarter or fit whatever role better. Parents and sometimes players don't seem to understand this concept.
While I think "What did you do this summer" I don't usually ask that... not right away, at least. I tell them their weaknesses whatever it might be, and then I ask.. "When are you going to improve those skills because if you think during practice you're going to have to work 10x as hard as the other kids to pass them during practices. You have to work outside of practice so either now.. or this summer." For some reason, that deflates kids.. and their parents! Unreal that telling a kid to work hard or to do extra is depressing to them.. especially if they "love the game" as they so often tell me in these situations.
That being said, many kids do put in extra time and effort during the season as well as before and after. These are the kids that realize individuals are made in the summer and champions are made in the season. Yet, other kids don't put that time in during the summer. They sleep in, play video games, travel, eat.. a lot, go to the pool, play only another sport or whatever other excuse they have.. oh.. and kids "shoot around," during the summer.
Now, I'm not saying you can't have fun in the summer; I'm saying the time you put in shows come tryouts and game time. It's directly proportional.. the less you work, the less you improve. The more you work, the more you improve. Schedule in time for ball handling, shooting, driving and finishing as well as foot work and foot speed. And yes, in ball handling, I'd lump in passing with both hands and all different pass types. Even 30 minutes a day, rotating through the skills would help you, but remember the more time equals the more improvement.
Some kids "shoot around" because they don't know how to work hard or how to set up an off-season workout, so they blend "shooting around" with getting better. Don't confuse the two of them. When I was a senior in high school I'd go to the gym almost every day for 2 hours. I have have been better as a freshman because when I went as a senior.. I jogged around. I talked and laughed while shooting; I took long breaks. A rainbow 3 after dribbling off my shin falling out of bounds counted as work for me. I was an idiot, I wasted my time and career that summer. You can't afford to make that same mistake.
So, what should you do if you don't know how to set up an off-season workout? Scan the internet, ask your coach, send me an email (caclough@uwalumni.com), go to camps, rent/buy DVD's. I'd start with your coach and then work from there because he knows your game the best and SHOULD be willing to help design an off-season workout for you. For my 7th graders I spend a lot of time after our season writing up "scouting reports" for the kids. I put numbers in there (PPG and FT% as well as our team PPG and Points Against) because they like that stuff, but I spend a lot of my time discussing their strengths and weaknesses. Then, after all that's said and done I put together workouts for them something like 3-5 that they can rotate through and just do 45 minutes a day. After having done it for 3 years.. I'm going to guess that not 1 of them has been completed 3-5 days over the course of a summer. NOT ONE. Yet, I continue to do it.. because as soon as one kid does it and tells others, it's dominoes.
The final point being: If you have to ask DURING the season what you can do to play more and aren't willing to put in EXTRA time before/after practice.. it's too late for you that year. Get a hold of your coach after your season is over and you've had time to rest and think, then get workouts from him to really improve your game. Don't just go through the motions, work to get better. Workout with a partner, a parent, a stereo and record your workouts. Post them on facebook, twitter whatever you need to do to hold yourself accountable. If you work out even 3-5 days a week for an hour a day and really get after it, you should see improvement. But that's just a baseline.. to be the best, you have to work harder than the rest.
It's playoff basketball season for the middle school programs that participate in IESA throughout Illinois. That, of course, means big games and pressure on middle school kids. Whether you agree or disagree is not why I'm writing (I think it's a graet thing, by the way), our school participates in the playoffs and we hosted a regional championship last night.
Going into the playoffs, we were 12-5, I think.. with a loss that should have been a win. The other losses were legit, this one we blew in the 4th quarter. We happened to play in the regional championship after having a bye, dismissing our first opponent by 30 and then getting into a game with a team that had pieces. A capable PG, a lights out shooter and a solid big.. plus, they played zone. We had struggled against zones during the year and never had to really guard 3 guys most of the time.
We started out in a 1-2-1-1 press to force a little tempo and see how they'd handle it. I was worried about us getting back into our man and locating shooters since they hit around 5 3's the previous game. Needless to say, that shouldn't have been a worry. We were in pockets all game long.. their scorer hit a bomb 3 with a hand in his face and another circus shot to get their 5 points... in the first half! We led 18-5 going into half. We moved the ball well, penetrated and found cutters when we needed to. I was surprised by the 18 and their 5.. I knew the 2nd half would be a battle.
They forced it to their big in the 2nd half and we couldn't throw a beachball into an ocean to start the 3rd. I wanted to stomp their throats, instead, they came roaring back. Early in the 4th the lead shrunk to 28-21, thanks to another monster 3 and crazy drive by their scorer. I called a TO, put a kid in that hadn't played all game.. he came in and hit a bucket. Lucky? Who knows, I guess I had a good feeling. We then clamped down and rode out the game for a 10 point win.
I learned a little bit about my team in the game. First, the kid I had defending their best player went to bed the night before with a 100 degree temp. He was on fumes, but shut him down. My PG has been bothered by a knee injury all year.. he played the best d of the season, hit a 3 and didn't come out until 14 seconds left in the game. Another kid with a bothersome knee injury played the top of my zone press (even though I told him to play the back), forced turnovers, crashed the boards, and got into the lane nearly at will against their zone. At the end of the game there were several lose balls, we'd have 3-4 jerseys there.. they'd have one. On several occasions, we had such great boxouts, the ball literally bounced 2x before we secured it. I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it.
Kids are kids. 7th graders are 7th graders. Pressure is pressure. These kids prepared themselves all year with morning practices and difficult games to be in this situation. I really saw them come together last night, player one through player 15. Guys standing and cheering, clapping, encouraging, yelling plays or other things from the bench. Say what you want about "too much, too early" but the kids were in it and came together... at least for one night.
I couldn't have been prouder of how they hustled, played, and came together. It was great to see and hopefully something that carries into next Wednesday when we have a chance to secure a trip to state.
As I mentioned earlier I've been busy.. but it hasn't been at the track or treadmill or wherever else I can run. You know.. some say that I've been a lot like Chuck Norris lately.. Missing in Action. (Great movie series for you Norris fans). I don't think I'm going to be able to make the return or the career reinvention that Mr. Norris did. I'm certainly no Texas Ranger nor do I expect a soda company to put me in a commercial.
A breakthrough recently happened for my running "career." I got a Garmin GPS watch AND Ultramarathon Man for Christmas. Double dipping like George Costanza, if you will. I'm also done with excuses after reading about Dean Karnazes. After reading that book, how can you have an excuse? Guy has a family, a job AND he runs through the night.. for fun! What a beast. My dog doesn't equal 2 kids, my jobs aren't that demanding and my marathon training certainly isn't anything like an ultra. So what excuse can I make? I already played the injury card after the Lewis and Clark Marathon disappointment, so I can't keep clinging to that.. so here I am.. out of excuses but with plenty of time
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So, I finally decided that I had time to get at this blog again. I had a real rough summer and fall, you know. Okay, the summer part was obviously a lie seeing how I caroused around the great state of Wisconsin again. A little Milwaukee area, a little Fox Valley, even a quick jaunt back to the 715 and Central Wisconsin. I did it all. I didn't have time to blog, c'mon. I did spend time on the computer, but that was playing a lot of Civ 5 against my brother in law, who does nothing else but work, play with his kids and plan trips to Vegas. If life were that simple, I'd be a Civ 5 God also. Or was it Civ 4? See, I don't remember the name of the game even!
Then, when fall finally rolled around I had to get back to the real world. In fact, I'm going to call this the unreal world because it was that bad. I started student teaching, then working at Gander Mountain AND coaching basketball. Now, you find time to do all of that and remain in some sort of shape and sanity. It was brutal, my day would start at 7:25ish at my student teaching site where I was until 2:50. Then I'd race to basketball practice and some nights AFTER that I'd leave practice early to get to Gander Mountain until 9:30ish. So, for those of you keeping track at home that is 14 hours on the go. Oh, and if I had time I'd stop at home and walk my puppy in the middle of all of that. Needless to say, I was excited when December rolled around and my student teaching gig was finishing. Liked the school, loved my cooperating teacher, hated that I didn't get paid to do it.. in fact, I paid to be there. That hurt
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According to the last time I posted it's been 54 days since I wrote my Green Bay Marathon part 2 blog. That was me entering mile 22, so why the delay you ask? Easy, to show you how I felt those last 4 miles in the Green Bay Marathon. 54 days waiting to read a blog is kinda sorta like running the last 4 miles of a marathon in the amount of time it took me. It was sickening, really.
I remember feeling good through mile 21; I don't remember what city it was then, but I looked up at a bank clock to see what time it was and mentally telling myself that I had to finish in X minutes to make it to Boston qualifying time. At the time, I thought that was a distinct possibility; I started to lengthen out my stride just a little bit. I wanted to pick up the pace for 2 miles and then go as hard as I could the last 2 hoping that adrenaline would carry me to the finish
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There I stand, at the starting line, trying to squeeze my way through the mass of bodies.. in particular the ones that you can just tell by looking at them they should be in the back but feel the need to clog up the front. (Does it annoy anybody else that at race start you need to go frogger to get through the first mile or two?) After bouncing around in the mob like a ping pong ball the gun finally went off and a murmur went through the crowd.. kinda like a new rumor at a high school prom. I started to inch my way forward to the starting line and went to push start on my watch when I got to the first mat.. except, naturally, I forgot my watch.
The first few miles were relatively uneventful, except, I was dodging traffic, running on the grass, doing a highwire act along the curb and trying not to get my feet tangled in the giant foot web. I saw my brother and mom at the first corner, I was hoping the finish line... but it wasn't meant to be. They claim that at that first corner, about .25 miles into the run, if that, a guy walked to the edge of the course, bent over, and panted like he was gassed. I'll bet he looked like this guy. Anyway, I lurched forward, trying to maintain a decent pace; I didn't want to start out too fast, so I hunt near the 7:30 pacer for the marathon. One half marathon, previously, my first 2 or 3 miles were right around 6:15 pace.. shockingly, I wasn't able to keep that for 13.1. Marathon day, I decided to keep it easy. I ended up needed a quick restroom break.. at mile 2! The earliest of my career, but it was okay because there was no line to deal with. I hopped in and out and got back on track.. where I happened to run into a high school friend who was enjoying the day pacing his brother for the heck of it. I tucked in with them and talked for the next few miles about life and running, an enjoyable conversation, but one that I'd rather have over an adult beverage than a run, I suppose. Regardless, I hung around them until mile 5 when I hit at a 7:28 pace after the first 5. In that time, I also passed my personal cheering section and my little puppy who was rather excited to see me.. at least, I pretend she was
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I ran the marathon already.. the Green Bay Marathon is complete. That's no secret since the run (it's a run for me, most certainly not a race.. unless you can drop down mile after mile in the 5:30 or less range you are running.. not racing) was on Sunday. I am still alive because I am typing this today; you can tell it's me because my password is rated "really strong" by the system that tells you if your password is that good. So, you know somebody didn't hack into this to pretend to be me and relay all of this information.
I wasn't very nervous for the marathon during the packet pick up because I was really focused on locking into a great pair of shoes and some compression socks. I really wanted the cool ones that are blister protection too and are like gloves for the toes, so each toe goes into a slot. Instead, I found that they didn't have the socks anywhere at the expo and the only pair of shoes that I liked weren't in my size. Frustrating because I thought the expo could have been a bit better. I ended up coming away empty handed.. which was good for my credit card, but bad for my self esteem and selfish part of my brain. I did, however, try to get my money's worth at the pasta bar and I kind of felt like John Candy and "the ol' 96er." I worked my way up through 2 solid plates of penne pasta with marinara sauce and some pretty good salad with feta cheese. The breadsticks weren't doused in butter like you'd see at your local Fazoli's, so I was able to have about 4 of those without risking a potential heart attack later that night. After turning down a chocolate milk laced with high fructose corn syrup I had a few cups of good ol' American water
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In case you haven't noticed, and judging by the blog attendance here you haven't.. (That's a line modified and stolen from Major League II) I'm just a few days away from pulling up the anchor and running 26.2 miles on Sunday. My sister and I just had a little banter about what to eat on Sunday morning, and I think I'm going to have to stick with what I've done for most of my big runs: THE SMOOTHIE.
To me, the smoothie is one of the most underrated drinks and breakfast parts of all time. You can drink it, you can eat it, and it's full of whatever deliciousness you want in it. Mine? I like all sorts of things: bananas, bid=8" target="_blank">blueberries, strawberries, organic yogurt, apple juice, flax seeds and peanut butter has been my favorite lately. I usually like to add a little extra PB in there so I can be sure to taste it. That's my favorite part of the smoothie, the peanut butter.. I just add the extra stuff in for health and to make it easier to drink. If I could make a peanut butter smoothie with only peanut butter.. I'd have to consider it. I love peanut butter so much that, in fact, last night I had some pretzels with peanut butter as a late snack.. and to top that snack off with another snack I had my super all time favorite snack: PEANUT BUTTER SPOON!
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Throughout my training and going into the marathon this week I've always thought of things that inspire me. I don't listen to music when I run and I rarely run with others... I think there is a certain mental toughness and mental block this forces me to break through. If you can do 20 miles with no crowd, no companion, and no upbeat music then I should be able to do 26.2 miles with hundreds around me, random people cheering me on, and music throughout the course. At least, that's my theory.
So, that means that I have to find things to think about while I'm out for an hour or more especially. And by things to think about I mean more than, "Where is my next water bottle?" "How long have I been out here?" "I think my legs hurt." I need things that are going to get me to that next level, that next speed or the finish without falling over
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Comment by Anonymous
on Individual Basketball Workouts
Roll the Dice.. YAHTZEE!
I'm switching blog sites, you can follow me at Really Long Link from now on.
Thanks for the comment