As I mentioned in last week’s blog, we (Montrose Christian) are currently preparing to play in the 2^nd Annual ESPN RISE National High School Invitational.  We drew the 8^th seed and will play the tournament’s #1 seed, Montverde Academy (ranked 9^th in the nation by ESPN) at Coppin State (Baltimore) on ESPN U at 2:00pm on Thursday, April 1^st. 

Montverde Academy, coached by the brilliant Kevin Sutton, 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.

Our coaching staff decided to take an entirely different approach to our preparation for this tournament. We wanted to shake things up, start anew, and put this past season’s adversities behind us.

To initiate this “new beginning”, on our first day back we decided to have the team come over to my training facility for a team workout, instead of having a normal practice.  We felt this change of scenery and break from the norm would help get their competitive juices flowing and set the tone for the next couple of weeks. We were right! 

I put the team through an intense circuit training workout. I filmed the workout and have posted it as three separate videos on our YouTube channel.

Montrose Basketball Team Warm-up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-1azoC95MU

Montrose Basketball Team Circuit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDXmpfX4V6A 

Montrose Basketball Team Competition "> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irg4LNkn3T0     

You have to see these videos!  

Here is a description of the workout:

Team Warm-up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-1azoC95MU

We began with an active warm-up:

·         Movement series

o   Walk backwards with long strides, walk backwards staying low, “awkward” walk forward, stationary step behind lunge, and stationary crossover lunge.

·         Medicine ball series

o   Front pivots (rip the ball through high for 5 and low for 5) (10 pivots each foot)

o   One foot balance and reach (Reach to the front, left, right, back) (3 reaches each direction / each foot)

o   Triple threat first step (long jab / first step) (10 long steps each foot)

·         Tire pushes (with partner) (10 pushes with two feet, 10 pushes on one foot / each foot)

·         Rope hops (full rope with both feet and half the rope with each foot individually)

Team Circuit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDXmpfX4V6A 

We set up a metabolic conditioning circuit for the upper and lower body.  There were 10 stations.  Each player worked for 1:00 and then rested for 1:00 (when they switched stations).

1.    High step up with 75 lb. sandbag (med ball substitute)

2.    Tire flips and pogo jumps (two different size tires: 300-400 lb and a 500-600 lb)

3.    Medicine ball defensive slide and throw (12 lb ball)

4.    Vertimax rim touches / dunks (heavy cord, level one)

5.    Rope climb with elevated feet (2” diameter rope)

6.    Kettlebell Turkish get-ups (15 lb and 25 lb Kettlebells)

7.    Band high pulls / low pulls (heavy resistance cord)

8.    High bar jump pull-ups (one bar set at 10’ and one set at 9’ 6”)

9.    Band push-ups (medium resistance band)

10. Sled pulls (150 lbs)

Team Competition http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irg4LNkn3T0

Once the circuit was complete we did three competitive drills where the players accumulated points (overall winner was awarded a prize).  WARNING: two of these drills our players hadn’t done since elementary school! But they loved it!

·         Freeze tag: we made a 25’ x 25’ box and played tag with 4 players (1 person was “it”).  They had 10 seconds to tag all three players.  They got one point for each person they tagged.  Each group took 40 seconds (all 4 people were “it”).  We went through it twice. 

·         Card catch: I had a standard deck of playing cards and would throw them in the air and the players tried to catch them before they hit the ground.  This is very, very difficult as the cards flutter around unpredictably. It is an awesome drill for hand/eye coordination and lateral movement.  They got one point for each catch (I threw 10 cards per player).  Once all 10 ten cards had been thrown, they had to sprint/slide and touch each card as fast as possible.

·         Tug of war: I divided the team into two, 5-man groups and let them play good old fashioned tug of war.  We did the best two out of three.  The winning team each got 2 points.  Even though it was mid-March, we were lucky enough to have a beautiful 65 degree day… hence the reason we finished outdoors.

I think injecting a workout like this into your off-season program once a month is ideal.

If you need additional help or guidance with your off-season program, I am currently finalizing a comprehensive, detailed 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 be available the first week of April at http://Shop.StrongerTeam.com.

Also, as a reminder I am launching a YouTube series called “Can He Dunk?,” where I will document a rigorous training program for a select group of high school players… and see if I can get them to dunk after 10 weeks of training! Make sure you subscribe to www.YouTube.com/StrongerTeamDotCom so you don’t miss any of the action.

On a personal note, my beautiful wife gave birth to our twin boys (Jack and Luke) earlier this week.  Granted I am biased, but they are both pretty handsome.  Several scouting services already have them ranked in the Top 5 of the Class of 2028!  All kidding aside, I am so very thankful for these new additions and am so excited for this new chapter in my life.  I look forward to the joy (and challenge) of being a parent!

If you would like to receive FREE monthly “coaching nuggets” please make sure you join our email list at www.StrongerTeam.com.  You can sign up directly under the menu bar on the left side of the homepage.  These “coaching nuggets” are handouts, notes, and stories I have accumulated from some brilliant basketball minds.

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

www.StrongerTeam.com

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 2^nd 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 5^th 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 8^th seed and will play the tournament’s #1 seed, Montverde Academy (ranked 9^th in the nation by ESPN) at Coppin State (Baltimore) on ESPN U at 2:00pm on Thursday, April 1^st.  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 weeks and post video highlights from their workouts as well as 3 weekly dunk attempts (to monitor their progress).  HoopsKing, Ganon Baker Basketball, Hoop Connection, Athletic Training Innovations (ATI) 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

www.StrongerTeam.com

The Montrose season is finally over.  We lost our final home game (senior night) by one point. 

The final 14 seconds of the game epitomized our entire season.  The game was tied and we needed to inbound the ball at mid-court.  We called a 30 second time-out and drew up our final play, which called for our best player to get the ball on the wing and look to score with 3 seconds left, and have the other four players crash the boards for a last second put-back.  Instead, two players went to the wrong spots, the play got scrambled, and we made a lazy pass that got intercepted with about 6 seconds left.  The other team ran the break and drove in for a lay-up, which we blocked, but their point guard scooped it up and shot it as time expired.  Whistle blew… we fouled the shooter!  He calmly sank the first free throw and then turned and blew a kiss to the crowd.  Game over. And that pretty much sums up our season.

It was our first loss at home in 8 years and the first time in 34 years Coach Vetter has lost on senior night.  We sure had a lot of “firsts” this season; unfortunately, none of them were positive! This season was disappointing and overwhelmingly frustrating for the players and the staff.  But in all honesty, I am OK with that.  I am mature enough to know, in coaching as well as life, you have to take the good with the bad.  It can’t be all smiles. 

Regardless of the issues we have had this season; I really and truly care about the kids in our program and am so thankful to have had the opportunity to work with them.  They are a great group of young men. Other than a few very minor exceptions, our kids played their hearts out all year long.  They didn’t play particularly well this season; but they always played hard.  We demand a major commitment from the players in our program, so I always have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for those who are left standing in our locker room after the final game.

The odd part is, technically our season may not be over. We are still waiting to hear if we will be invited to the 2nd Annual ESPN/Rise National High School Invitational, which will take place the first weekend in April and will be televised on the ESPN networks. Honestly, I would be shocked if we got an invite, because we have not had the type of season to deserve it.  But I also know the selection process is not that cut and dry and a lot of other factors come into play. Therefore, I am completely at peace in letting fate decide.  If we don’t get invited, I will be relieved this season is actually over.  If we do, then I will be thankful for the opportunity and do everything in my power to help our team prepare. I was told the 8-team field will be announced later this week or early next week.

Hopefully most of you know, my main goal and number one priority is to help as many basketball players and coaches as I can.  I am very thankful for the myriad of people who have helped me along the way and I am always looking to give back to the coaching fraternity.  I want to contribute to a game that has had such an impact on my life. That is why I put so much time and effort into this blog; as a means of using my experiences and expertise to help others. 

In addition to my blog, here are 5 ways I plan to help coaches and players this off-season. The first 3 are absolutely FREE.  The last 2 are offered for a very affordable price (don’t forget, this is how I make my living!).

1)    Over the past month I have sent out two rounds of “coaching nuggets.” These have been stories, notes, poems, and tidbits I have picked up over the past few years from some brilliant basketball minds. I have been overwhelmed at how positive the response has been.  If you would like to receive FREE “coaching nuggets” like these each month, all you need to do is sign up for my email list. You can sign up under the left menu bar on my homepage, www.StrongerTeam.com.  This will allow me to automatically send additional “coaching nuggets” out once a month, as opposed to having you request them and then me personally responding. I still have another dozen new “coaching nuggets” I haven’t sent out and plan to send out two or three a month in an automated email beginning in April.  So please sign up!

2)    Another resource I hope you find helpful is my YouTube channel, www.YouTube.com/StrongerTeamDotCom.  I have posted a ton of content over the past 6 months and will continue to do so this off-season. I just posted a video of a Maryland Basketball Off-Season Workout which features former Montrose players Adrian Bowie and the 2010 ACC Player of the Year, Greivis Vasquez.  This video shows how intense off-season workouts should be, as well as how strength and power translates to the court.  This video exemplifies exactly why basketball players need to strength train! As far as future videos, I will post the warm-ups and workouts from the McDonalds All-American game, Jordan Brand All-American Classic, and the Nike Skills Academies.  I am also launching a series called “Can He Dunk” where I will select a handful of high school age players to participate.  They will be kids who are close, but can’t currently dunk.  I will document their training for 12 weeks. I will post video highlights from their workouts as well as 3 weekly dunk attempts (to monitor their progress).  You w on’t want to miss this!

3)    I recently shot a few hundred video clips of basketball specific strength & conditioning exercises and drills, including those for warm-up, dynamic flexibility, agility, footwork, plyos, and strength. While I have not finalized where I am going to post these, I will post “100 Exercises in 100 Days.” As the name implies, I will post one new video a day for 100 straight days (I am aiming to begin on April 1^st). This will create an extensive video library for those of you in need of some innovative exercises and drills to spark up your off-season workouts.

4)    I have received hundreds of email requests for my help in putting together off-season workouts.  With that said, I am currently finalizing a 12 Week Off-Season Basketball Strength & Conditioning Program. I plan to have this available for sale in early April. 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.

5)    I am also in the process of finalizing an online Basketball Strength & Conditioning Coach Certification. My goal is to create an online certification to give a basketball coach (primarily youth, high school, and/or AAU) a solid foundation of proper basketball specific strength & conditioning expertise.  I am NOT looking to duplicate all of the training certifications currently available, so there won’t be much in the way of physiology or biomechanics. Instead, I will focus on the nuts and bolts of what a coach really needs to know.  It will address proper warm-up, dynamic flexibility, pre-hab (injury prevention), quickness/agility, reaction, strength, power, and basketball conditioning.  Once someone completes the certification, they will have sufficient knowledge to develop and supervise a year round training program.  The certification materials, course, and exam will all be available online, with an estimated cost of $199.00. I am hoping to have this ready by the end of the summer. When available, you will be able to register at http://Shop.StrongerTeam.com.

I apologize if this blog seems “commercial,” but I wanted to clearly define the ways I plan to be of service this off-season.  Next week I will give my full thoughts on specifically how to make this off-season as productive as possible.  I will address the ever present pros and cons of AAU, will offer some thoughts on evaluating and testing, and on setting player development priorities.  But most importantly, I will hammer home why your off-season program is the foundation in building a championship program.

After all, the best players (and teams) are in the best shape!

Next week’s blog will probably be my last blog of the month.  My beautiful wife and I are expecting TWIN boys in the next week or so!  We are elated for this new chapter in our life and are ready for the joys and challenges of parenting.

But don’t worry, it will only be a short hiatus.  The blog will be back in full force in April!        

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

www.StrongerTeam.com

www.Twitter.com/AlanStein

For those of you keeping score at home, here is a quick Montrose update:

After weeks of adversity, an emotional team meeting, and then the subsequent best practice we have had all year… our team played pretty well last weekend, as we won the 54^th Annual Sleepy Thompson Invitational Championship in Alexandria, VA.  We beat Fork Union Military Academy, St. Albans, and Episcopal.  We still aren’t playing as well as we are capable, but we did take a giant step forward and are very thankful for the wins.  We finally got back to playing hard, playing smart, and playing together.

Our final game of the season, which will be senior night for our two seniors, will be this Tuesday.  Then we have to sit tight to see if we will be invited to the 2^nd Annual ESPN/Rise National High School Invitational, which will take place the first weekend in April and will be televised on the ESPN networks. Four of the top 15 teams in the country are expected to participate in the 8-team field: #4 St. Benedicts (NJ), #9 Montverde Academy (FL), #10 Findlay Prep (NV), and #12 Oak Hill (VA). If we are fortunate enough to be invited, it will give us one final chance to rectify this turbulent season, end on a high note, and prove we are one of the nation’s top programs!

This is the third and final segment of “Traits and Habits of Successful Basketball Coaches.”

If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend you go back and read the last two posts before reading this one.

In the first segment of this series, I offered to send out several powerful “coaching nuggets” to anyone who emailed me.  The response was overwhelming and I received a ton of positive feedback.  Several of you actually sent me a few of your own “coaching nuggets.”  I saved those, as well as added a few more from my own archives, and have compiled a second batch of “More Coaching Nuggets.”  If you are interested, simply email me at Alan@StrongerTeam.com and I will happily send them to you.

As a reminder, this series is the edited transcript from a phone interview I did this past December with my friend Andy Louder from Hoop Skills Academy (www.HoopSkills.com).  

Andy Louder:  What do you think is an appropriate way for a coach to handle a loss?

Alan Stein: There are 3 things you need to do after a loss in regards to your team: know why you lost, look at how you lost, and handle the emotions of disappointment.  How you handle each of these issues depends on what level you’re dealing with. If you coach a U-12 AAU team… or a high school JV team… you should handle the loss differently than if you are a college coach because of the age and maturity of your players.  First of all, you need to establish why you lost.  Did you lose because of a lack of effort? Or lack of execution? Or was the other team simply better? It is very important to give your team an honest evaluation so they can learn from it.  Next, especially when dealing with junior high and high school age players, you need to evaluate how your players handled the loss.  Did they lose with class and good sportsmanship? Or did they act like jerks? Did they “lose together?” Or did they start pointing fingers and blaming each other? Did they hold themselves accountable or did they make excuses?  Lastly, you need to do some damage control if things get emotional (especially towards the end of the season and in the playoffs). Being upset, even shedding some tears, is not necessarily a bad thing. It means your players care and that they’ve invested a lot of time, effort, and love into your program. When they don’t win, there should be disappointment! But you have to teach them how to learn from it and quickly move past it. You can’t dwell on a loss. Your players need to learn how to use it as motivation, for either the next game, or for the off-season.

Andy Louder: So would you say it’s important to balance the disappointment with optimism to make sure you don’t ruin their self-esteem?

Alan Stein: Absolutely! You don’t want a loss or a couple of consecutive losses to destroy their confidence. That is why honesty is so important. If they played hard and played well and still lost, they need to know that.  If they didn’t play hard or didn’t execute, and actually deserved to lose, they need to know that as well. Give it to them straight.  Even if it stings, they will respect you for it and appreciate it over time.  Another thing to consider, that I learned from Coach Rick Pitino, is you can be much more critical of your team after a win, rather than after a loss.  When you win, your team’s collective confidence is sky high and your players are more apt to accept and internalize constructive criticism. You should be much more careful after a loss because their confidence is lower and they will begin to second guess themselves. That is why giving your team a verbal blasting after a bad game is not always the answer (although sometimes it is). After a loss, unless they absolutely deserve to be reamed out for a very poor effort, you have to choose your words carefully.  Many times it is best to sleep on it and wait until the next practice to address your concerns because they will be in a better emotional state. And you will be too!

Andy Louder: What is the difference between your pre-game speech and half-time talk?

Alan Stein: Regarding preparation, we really believe in being a 24-hour program. Very little new information is given to our team right before a game, almost everything we do, is done ahead of time. We believe preparation for every game starts the night before with eating a good dinner, getting a good night’s sleep, visualizing success, and waking up and having a decent breakfast. At our level, we scout every team we play, either on film or in person so that we’ve got a really good idea of their personnel and tendencies. We give this report to our players the day before each game. We review it again right before the game, but at that point, if they don’t know it… they never will! Also, we try to motivate our players constantly.  We don’t usually get into the big rah-rah pre-game speeches. We review the scouting report (and establish who is guarding who), go over our “keys to the game,” say a quick prayer, and then go out and play! Our half-time talk is basically an evaluation session; we let them know what things they’re doing well and what things they’re not. Obviously to be successful in anything you need to do more of what’s working and less of what’s not, and half-time is the perfect time to deliberate. Half-time is also a great time to get the players’ feedback.  They see things differently on the court than we see them from the sideline. Half-time should be about making corrections (minor or major).

Alright, that’s the end of “Traits and Habits of Successful Basketball Coaches Part III” and the conclusion of this series. I hope you found it helpful.

Next week I will post a must-read blog about the off-season and will include my thoughts on AAU, setting priorities, evaluating weaknesses, as well as will give an update on my two up-coming YouTube promotions (“Can He Dunk?” and “100 Exercises in 100 Days”).

I will also give insight into my soon-to-be released downloadable 12 Week Off-Season Basketball Strength & Conditioning Program. I plan to have this available for sale in early April. 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.  It will be sold at http://Shop.StrongerTeam.com.

As I mentioned earlier in the blog, I have put together a follow-up collection called “More Coaching Nuggets.”  Just email me at Alan@StrongerTeam.com and I will gladly send.  If you missed the first batch, you can still email me for those as well (please specify in your email exactly what you want!).

Please check out (and subscribe to) www.YouTube.com/StrongerTeamDotCom.  My friend and colleague, Paul Ricci, does an outstanding job as the strength & conditioning coach for the University of Maryland’s men’s basketball team.  He has been kind enough to share several outstanding videos with me. I just posted Maryland Basketball Post-Game Workout which features former Montrose players Adrian Bowie and Greivis Vasquez.  Even though the workout is optional, nearly every player has “bought in” and gets in a quick full body lift immediately following all home games.  Great stuff!

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

www.StrongerTeam.com

www.Twitter.com/AlanStein