One of my favorite lines from the movie Christmas Vacation was when Cousin Eddie asked Clark W. Griswold if he was surprised by his unexpected visit, to which Clark replied, “Eddie, if I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet I wouldn’t be as surprised as I am right now.”
That is exactly how I felt when I got the news that we (Montrose Christian) got an invite to play in the 2nd Annual ESPN RISE National High School Invitational. A week ago I figured our bubble had burst after we suffered our first home loss in 8 years and an uncharacteristic 5th loss of the season. I honestly didn’t think we had a shot and I truly believed our season was over. But then a few schools declined invitations because of their opposition to playing on Good Friday… and next thing you know… we were in!
The folks at ESPN RISE do a tremendous job and everything they do is first class. Their goal, over time, is to create a legitimate high school national championship, a high school version of March Madness. And they are well on their way. I support their efforts 100%.
For background info and details on this year’s tournament, please visit http://tinyurl.com/ESPNNHSI.
As you will see, we drew the 8th seed and will play the tournament’s #1 seed, Montverde Academy (ranked 9th in the nation by ESPN) at Coppin State (Baltimore) on ESPN U at 2:00pm on Thursday, April 1st. For those of you who have been keeping up with my blog, you’ll remember that Montverde beat us in late January by 2 points… which in retrospect was the exact moment our season began to unravel (considering we lost our next two games). So we are excited to have the opportunity to play them again! National powers Oak Hill (VA), Findlay Prep (NV), Winter Park (FL), and Christ School (NC) are also playing, making this the nation’s top post-season high school tournament.
Now before any heckling begins, let me say that I am well aware we are not one of the top 8 teams in the country (this year). I know our performance this season didn’t warrant an invite. I will happily admit we got the nod over a few other schools based on our national reputation and program history. Regardless of the reasoning… we are in! So now it is time for our program to refocus, put all of our recent trials and tribulations behind us, and start fresh. We have been given a second chance and we need to do our best to make the most of it.
While obviously we want to win… our primary concern is getting our guys to play as well as they are capable of playing. They haven’t done that since the beginning of the season. So the next 15 days will be interesting to say the least. One of my favorite quotes comes to mind when thinking of how we will approach this:
“If you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you will keep getting what you’ve been getting. If you don’t like what you’ve been getting, then change what you’ve been doing.”
Seems pretty simple, huh? We need to shake things up the next two weeks and have an entirely different approach. We need to make things fun, make things competitive, but make sure our players enjoy and value this experience. We need to get back to the basics and leave the past behind us. We need to get back to playing hard, playing smart, and playing together.
To initiate this “new beginning”, we decided to have the team come over to my training facility for a team workout, instead of having a normal practice. We wanted to get their competitive juices flowing. So I put them through an intense circuit training workout… very similar to how we began our pre-season workouts in late August. I filmed the workout and will be posting it in three separate segments at www.YouTube.com/StrongerTeamDotCom:
Team Warm-up
Team Circuit
Team Competition
You have to see these videos!
I already posted the first segment (Team Warm-up) and will post the remaining two videos next Monday (3/22) and Friday (3/26). I will also post a blog on that Friday describing the workout in great detail in case you want to implement something similar with your program this off-season.
In addition, I will post periodic updates with insight to our preparation for the NHSI tournament at www.Twitter.com/AlanStein and will most certainly recap our entire experience in my first blog of April.
Even though we aren’t in our off-season just yet, I know many programs are. So let me get back on track and discuss some of my key off-season thoughts.
I am well aware that most basketball players don’t really have an off-season anymore, they simply go from the high school season to the AAU season to the summer camp circuit. This makes the approach to training even more important!
An off-season strength & conditioning program is the foundation of championship programs and elite level players. A solid strength & conditioning base gives you the potential to take your basketball skills to another level. You obviously aren’t going to be a very good player or team if you can’t shoot, pass, defend, rebound, or handle the ball. That is a given. But what if you can shoot, pass, defend, rebound, handle the ball… and you are quick, explosive, and in great shape?!
About a year ago I adopted the tag line, “the best players are in the best shape.” The same can be said for teams, “the best teams are in the best shape.” Think about it. Who are currently the two best players on the planet? Kobe and LeBron. Have you noticed what kind of shape they are in?! Do you think those guys work hard in the off-season? You better believe they do.
If you need help in planning your off-season, or you are interested in my thoughts on AAU, testing and evaluating, and the most common mistakes players/coaches make, I highly recommend you read the two-part series I wrote last year as my thoughts haven’t changed a lick:
http://blog.strongerteam.com/post/2009/03/16/Planning-Your-Off-Season3b-Part-I.aspx
http://blog.strongerteam.com/post/2009/04/03/Planning-Your-Off-Season3b-Part-II.aspx
If you need additional help or guidance with your off-season program, I am currently finalizing a 12 Week Off-Season Basketball Strength & Conditioning Program. This program will outline exactly what needs to be done this off-season – exercise by exercise, day by day, and week by week. It will include dozens of digital pictures and exercise descriptions, all of which utilize standard equipment (DBs, free weights, bodyweight, etc.) to make sure the program is easily adaptable to everyone’s respective situation. There will be a strength/power component as well as a quickness/agility component (each sold separately). The program will be available online as a downloadable PDF; so you will be able to save it to your computer as well as print copies. I am projecting the sales price to be around $39.99 for each component. Believe me; it will be worth every penny! It will be sold at http://Shop.StrongerTeam.com.
Also a reminder I am also launching a YouTube series called “Can He Dunk,” where I will select a handful of high school age players who are close, but can’t currently dunk. I will document their training for 12 week and post video highlights from their workouts as well as 3 weekly dunk attempts (to monitor their progress). HoopsKing, Ganon Baker Basketball, Hoop Connection, and SLAM Online have all partnered with me on this project. You won’t want to miss this! Make sure you subscribe to www.YouTube.com/StrongerTeamDotCom.
I know you will be glued to the TV for the next three weeks watching the NCAA tournament… but if you get a chance to switch channels in between games, I highly recommend you watch ESPN’s 30 for 30 “Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks” as well as HBO’s “Magic and Bird: A Courtship of Rivals.” Both were very well done and really brought back some amazing childhood memories for me (I am 34 years old). I recommend younger players watch both of these as well… so they can get an appreciation for the game’s recent history. I think some kids today think the NBA started with Kobe and LeBron!
And if you need a good book, I am reading an old classic by Steve Alford called, Playing for Knight (1989). It is fascinating. Coach Knight has always been one of my favorite coaches and I have so much respect for him. Say what you will, but the man is authentic! I am going to get a chance to finally meet him in person in April and May as we are both scheduled to speak at the same Nike Championship Basketball Clinics in Wisconsin and New York.
As mentioned before, I will post a blog next Friday (3/26) which will be a full description of the Montrose Team Workout I took our players through as well as provide links to all three videos.
On a personal note, our latest doctor’s appointment leads us to believe that my wife will be delivering our twin boys sometime next week…
If you need anything else, or if I can be of service in any way, don’t hesitate to email me at Alan@StrongerTeam.com. I will respond as quickly as possible.
Play hard. Have fun.
Alan Stein