4 Sessions into Summer workouts

what have we learned

As the summer heat and humidity hits us our summer workouts have started. We wanted to summarize what we have learned so far and set expectations for the rest of the summer. We realize that numbers will fluctuate and that family vacations are important.

Here is what we have learned so far

1. we have entitled this summer ‘Reset Workouts’ - simple reason for this. We have witnessed a decline in the basics. Simple footwork is hard to teach, no player wants to think that they are not doing the fundamentals correctly, even worse no sophomore or senior wants to be taught footwork. As we take the summer to review footage of the season by season progress and compare it with everyone at the summer workouts - footwork stands out the most.

2. Fundamentals are more than footwork. We see inconsistency in basic layup methodology and shooting form. This is another candidate for a ‘reset’

3. We have been reading a lot and when I say a lot it has been a tremendously valuable experience. From the readings both scientific and biographical we add the following sub bullets to our knowledge;

   1. data and analytics can improve a team dramatically- here we are speaking of the use of analytics inn practice not just games

   2. last week’s philosophy of practice like you play is supplanted by todays philosophy play like you practice. For some the intricacies may slide right through but for us this is a monumental shift. This will take much more effort and the demands expectations on the athletes will be higher. We see little evidence that this is being applied.

   3. Another measure that is useful in life is if you have more screen time per day than practice time then you can not have high expectations for your practice and game play. More longitudinal studies will clarify this but the current technical data is suggesting clear patterns of distraction and inattention with a causality to screen time. (cell phone, gaming console, television, virtual reality headsets, etc)

   4. Small adjustments to individual practice time outside of scheduled time will have drastic impacts on athletes performance and health. Simple math of athletes individually spending 15 additional minutes in intense practice every day equates to SUBSTANTIAL improvements. 15 minutes!!!!. 15 minutes * 7 days = 105 minutes. with just 15 minutes of intense workout the athlete is getting almost an entire practice more than 98% of the players. For the 8 weeks of summer workouts you can see a complete turn around in a player.

   5. While we are enamoured with the idea of 15 minutes extra changing the profile of a player we also recognize that players have to own their improvements and invest much more than that.

4. We have enough data points at this juncture to develop group workout plans. We will be going players by skill and proficiency and delivering workout plans over the next 10 days.