REBOUNDING: GET UP AND MAKE YOUR TEAM BETTER

CROWELL’S BASKETBALL TIP

Rules for Defensive Rebounding

Assume every shot is missed and is your rebound.
Be the aggressor; initiate the contact with the offensive players. Keep them from getting up to the basket. Make the offensive players react to you.
Block out far enough from the basket that you have room to go and get the ball. This eliminates the offensive player from reaching over you for the ball. If you get stuck under the basket, spin out of this position.
Get your head on line with the ball and rebound with two hands.
Eliminate the second chance shot. If you can’t get the rebound, make sure your competitor doesn't get it either.




Rules for Offensive Rebounding

Assume every shot is a missed shot, and is your rebound.
Fight for position. Don't get blocked out. Make a move to get side-by-side position.
Give yourself an equal opportunity to rebound the ball.
Keep the ball alive when you don’t have a clear rebound.
Utilize your advantages. If your advantage is strength, get contact. If your ability is jumping, avoid contact.
Know when and where the shots come from in your offense.
Know the shooting tendencies of your teammates.
Get your head on the ball and rebound with two hands.

COACH T SHOUT OUT

Mental Toughness is Three-Dimensional

When was the last time you did something that you really had no desire to do, although you knew it was right or even perhaps the best thing for you? It could be anything from doing 50 sit-ups right before bed or getting up 30 minutes early to have personal devotions. In spite of being tired or simply apathetic, you pushed yourself to complete the task with joy. Doing so takes mental toughness! See what NBC Camps Girls Basketball Advisory Board member, Krista Heidinger, has to say about the subject. Krista is the assistant coach at the University of Lethbridge, located in Canada, and also serves as NBC Camp co-director there. She played basketball at Mount Royal College in Calgary where she was a conference All-Star. She finished her playing career at Lethbridge where she was team captain and MVP.

Mental Toughness by Krista Heidinger
A tremendous amount of time, physical effort and mental preparation are involved in preparing for games. Elite athletes spend hours training. They practice their shot form, footwork, and defense. They stretch, lift weights, and do agility training as well as dry-land training. They are involved with sports psychologists, nutritionists, athletic therapists, and medical doctors. They spend countless on-court sessions practicing the skills necessary to be successful in games, and they spend hours off the court preparing for practices through visualization, watching game tape, and reviewing offensive and defensive sets. So, what separates a successful elite athlete from all the rest? It isn't just about working hard, it's about working smart. It's about Mental Toughness. If you don't think that you are mentally tough, don't worry. I'll let you in on a little secret...anyone can be mentally tough! You need only have three things: 1) Determination; 2) Discipline; and 3) Desire.

Determination can take you a long way. A determined person refuses to quit. She believes in herself and in her capabilities. She chooses to do the difficult things first, like working on her weak hand lay-ups before switching back to her dominant hand or tackling algebra homework before checking Facebook or My Space. A person of determination makes a conscious decision about achieving a specific goal and single-mindedly pursues that goal.

Discipline plays a big part in how determined you are. Being intensely focused on something requires discipline to remain in that state. It requires time and energy, as wells as sacrifice. It means that you consistently do the "little things" well (proper footwork, correct shooting form, etc.). It means that you stay focused. It means that you accept correction from your coaches with a positive attitude, remembering that every piece of advice is bringing you one step closer to your ultimate goals. Discipline means that you show up mentally and physically prepared for practice or class. It means you have done your homework, whether that's scouting another player on game tape or reading the assigned chapter for English class. Discipline means you persist even when it's inconvenient for you to do so.

Desire is the simplest of the three because it is all about heart. Desire isn't about mastering a specific skill or getting on the honor roll. Desire cannot be taught, but it can be nurtured. It’s about longing for something with an intensity that results in nothing standing in your way. Desire is the combination of determination and discipline lived out daily in your willingness to do the most difficult things and those seemingly small details with dogged and even stubborn persistence. If you have dreams of being more than an average athlete, begin training your mind in addition to training your body. Make becoming more mentally tough your first priority.

Be determined and speak positively to and about yourself, be determined to work not only hard but smart, and be determined to really listen to the correction of your coaches. Be disciplined in your approach to practice, your game and your life. Work at perfecting the "little things" and not just the "big things" that others notice. Show up on time, do your homework, persist when the going gets tough. And most of all have fun. If you lose the passion you have for basketball or anything in life, no amount of determination or discipline will get you closer to your goals. You have to love what you do or doing it will become a chore. Mental toughness is within your grasp if you believe in yourself and aren't afraid of hard work. Begin this next year in a positive way by resolving to become more mentally tough!
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To be the best physically, spiritually and mentally, we have to live in 3-D mode. Mental toughness is more than just being determined or having desire. All three facets -determination, discipline and desire - must be intertwined purposefully. It's no coincidence that all these principles are addressed in the God's word. "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart," is a wonderful promise from Psalm 37:4. How would your life be if this verse was the foundation for all your desires? Read Proverbs 3:11-12 and Hebrews 12:1-12 for more Biblical insight on this subject. Remember to check out www.nbccamps.com for more "Girls Only" advice and drop any questions or personal shouts to me at tellisward@nbccamps.com.

Heart, Soul & Sport,

Coach T
Director of Women's Basketball
& Whitworth Site Director

5 WAYS TO SUCCEED THIS SEASON

We are creatures of habit and that fact alone can be a contributing factor to whether we fail or succeed.

Don't get in a rut this season. Fight the urge to fall into patterns of malaise and bad decision making.

Rise above this season by resisting the lethargy of going with the flow and instead cultivate habits that will lift you above the crowd.

Patterns of a Rut:

Playing at the same tempo

Pick up your internal tempo on defense. Hustle, dive on the court, do foot fire to keep your feet active, speak after every shot: “shot--block out.” Say this out loud so you don't just stand. Slow down before you go into your shot, don't rush the shot whether it's your jumper or lay up. Maintain a constant internal shooting rhythm. Know what this internal rhythm feels like. Make sure you have a free throw rhythm.

Sitting in the same spot on the bench

Be very careful not to get sucked into the pecking order, hierarchy a team can generate. Change it up all the time. Never get lulled into complacency (thinking you'll always start) or hopelessness (thinking you will never get off the bench). Sit near the coach, cheer and be mentally into the game, focus on one or two ways you can contribute to the team when you sub back in. Be what your team needs, don't just try and score points.

Running to the same side of the floor, driving with the same hand every time, making the same moves regardless of effectiveness.

Discipline yourself to create, not react. Don't go into autopilot and mindlessly run up and down the court. Set a screen, rebound after every shot, will your body to move and be intense.

Making the same ineffective or incomplete passes over and over because you don't make mental adjustments.

Become a student of the game. Don't telegraph your passes. Ask yourself why it’s not working and then adjust. Don't blame the ref or the coach, use your mind to figure out what is going wrong. If you are getting the ball stripped, come up with a game plan to fix it. Don't continue doing the same thing hoping for a different result. If nothing changes, nothing changes.

You are or your team is negatively predictable. For example, you start strong then end up getting blown out or you struggle at the start and have to fight your way back. You miss a few shots at the beginning and your shot is off, you hit at the beginning so then you have confidence.

Don't base your shooting on whether you miss the first shots or not. Be more mentally tough. Great shooters are going to miss, if you have good shooting skills, keep shooting. If your shooting skills are not honed, then pass the ball or drive to the bucket but please don't keep shooting when you haven't put the time in.

The more variety, variables and depth your team has to offer the more difficult to guard. Become proficient at the important skills: shooting accuracy, ball handling, effective passing, encouragement, controlling the tempo, dominating the boards, and maintaining the highest intensity and pressure. Be the team that dictates the conditions of the game rather than succumbs to them.

Good Habits to Cultivate
Pick one to work on and have someone hold you accountable
Goal Setting
Shooting and physical work-outs
Shooting rhythm
Focusing on the positives
Disciplined thinking
Mental toughness
Never quit attitude

Fazio's Corner-- Sports.... Take Your Pick

If your dream is to play at the college level, you should seriously consider focusing on just one sport. Pick the sport that will give you the best chance of playing in college and completely devote your time and effort to that one sport.

That thought never even crossed my mind growing up. In my head, the measure of a great athlete was someone who could do it all. By my senior year of high school, I was competing in football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball in the spring. I stayed real busy and I had a lot of fun, but one thing I didn't do was maximize my potential in any one of those sports. I made the teams, even started on some of them, but I never got as good as I would have liked. When the basketball season ended in late February, I grabbed my glove and bat and headed outdoors, I didn't shoot another jumper until eight months later. I don't regret my high school career, in fact I came away with tons of great memories, a lot of satisfaction, and even several awards and honors. But I didn't leave high school with a realistic chance of playing at the next level.

Nowadays, however, because of the nature of my job, I run into many kids who have dedicated themselves solely to basketball. The kids who are now head and shoulders above their peers are typically one-sport athletes. With things like AAU, club teams, select teams, personal trainers, and year-round development programs, there are enough opportunities for people to enhance their skills all year long.

This stirs up the debate: Should children choose just one sport to compete in or should they try to be well-rounded in athletics playing in as many sports as possible?

The answer is...it depends. It depends on what the athlete wants. If your goal and dream is to compete at the next level, if you want to be a college player or even a pro, then I say go for one sport. In rare cases, when athletes are freakishly talented, they may play several sports and then get to take their pick in college, but usually that's not the case. Use some discretion here, I'm not saying you absolutely cannot play two sports, you may be able to take a season off of your top choice or even continue to work on your top while still playing your second favorite. But generally speaking, there needs to be a year-round focus.

Maybe that's not your motivation. Perhaps all you've ever wanted is to simply have fun, stay in shape, and build friendships with those on your teams. By all means then, go out for every sport, take on the challenge of trying to be a three or four sport letterman. That's the avenue I followed, and it was great for me. Don't be disappointed though, when it's all said and done, if you are not at the level you need to be to play in college. Think about it, while you spent several months out of the year jumping from sport to sport, the other guys were fine-tuning their skills, training specifically to be the best they could be at that single sport.

Now, I'm hoping there is not a huge wave of people quitting their extra sports next season...I'll have coaches all over the Northwest coming after me. I'm just encouraging athletes to seriously consider their long term goals, determine what they are shooting for athletically, and then decide what is the best route is to get there.

And remember above all to make the most out of your high school sports career, you only get to do it once.