Losing sucks. I realize that is blunt, but I don’t know any other way to say it. It flat out sucks. But it is a part of basketball, a part of life, and I accept that.

"Without pain there is no pleasure. Without valleys there are no mountaintops. Without struggle there is no achievement."

We lost a heartbreaker by one point in our conference championship game. We had the ball with 2.7 seconds left, ran a great play and got a great shot - it just fell an inch short. The shot looked from where I was sitting… but it rimmed out as the buzzer sounded.

It’s crazy to think that an entire season can come down to being an inch short… but that’s the game of basketball.

First and foremost, I want to congratulate Paul VI High School. They played a tremendous game and hit big shots when they needed them. This win capped off a historic season for them. They should be very proud and they are deserving champions. We lost to them 3 times this season… by a total of 5 points (combined). Not much else to say, they had our number.

"If you don't invest very much, then defeat doesn't hurt and winning isn't exciting."

It was certainly a somber locker room after the game last night. Our players were dejected, disappointed, and visibly in tears. You know what? That is a good thing! That shows how much our kids care about winning, care about each other, and care about our program. Our players left everything they had on the floor last night and they have nothing to be ashamed of. They played their hearts out and just came up short against a very good opponent. I know that doesn’t lessen the hurt they are feeling now, but it is the absolute truth.

“Defeat is a greater test of character than winning.”

It’s easy to walk around with your head high when you win. It’s easy to puff out your chest when things are good. But the true test of a person’s character is how they handle themselves when things aren’t so good. Do they pout? Do they whine? Do they make excuses? As much as it sucked to lose, I couldn’t have been prouder of how our players carried themselves afterwards. Once they got their emotions out and wiped away the tears, they walked out of the locker room with their heads high. Some of our players had to be interviewed after the game. And they did so with class. Do you know how much maturity that takes? Our players have tremendous character to lose a game of that magnitude so graciously.

"Tough times don't last; tough people do."

While I am so proud of our entire team, I want to single out our senior captain James Robinson.

James Robinson is a remarkable young man in every sense of the word. I met James when he was in the 8^th grade. As a father, I hope my sons Luke & Jack grow up to be the quality person he is. That is the highest compliment I can pay.

James is a winner. He has played varsity for 4 years and has won 119 games, including 3 conference championships and 3 city titles. Had his shot last night gone in at the buzzer, he would have become the first player in DC area history to have won 4 straight. Even though his shot fell an inch short, there is no player on the planet I would rather take the last shot than James. He has made that shot a million times in practice – it just didn’t go in this time. Every great player, from MJ to Kobe has experienced the same thing.

James gave his heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears to DeMatha and has firmly solidified his legacy as one of the school’s all-time best.

The reason DeMatha basketball is so successful and the reason our kids handle themselves with such class is because of the leadership of our head coach Mike Jones. I am honored to work for him. I couldn't respect anyone any more than I respect him.

I can’t think of a harder situation for a coach to be in then to address our team last night after the game – but Coach Jones did so with dignity, sincerity, honesty, and respect. His authenticity and love for his players is beyond admirable. He is the real deal.

I hope DeMatha locks him into a lifetime contract so that Luke & Jack can have the privilege of playing for him.

A very proud Stag,

Alan Stein

www.Twitter.com/AlanStein

www.Facebook.com/StrongerTeam.com 

www.YouTube.com/StrongerTeamDotCom

Purpose [pur-puhs]

Noun:

1. the reason for which something exists, is done, made, used, etc.

2. an intended desire or result; end; aim; goal.

3. determination; resoluteness.

Verb (used with object)

4. to set as an aim, intention, or goal for oneself.

5. to intend; design.

The above is an abbreviated definition of the word purpose from Dictonary.com.

“The reason for which something is done.” Basic, but very powerful.

If you want to be successful, on or off the court, there must be a distinct purpose to everything you do. Everything.

If you don’t have purpose or don’t have purposeful preparation, then you are wasting time, effort, and in some cases money.

One of my favorite quotes is, “Don’t confuse being busy with being productive.” If you don’t have purpose, you aren’t being productive.

Why am I bringing this up now?

Our conference playoffs begin this weekend. We were fortunate enough to earn a bye in the first round. A win Saturday will put us in the semi-finals on Sunday. A win Sunday will put us in the championship on Monday. 

Winning the WCAC championship was our primary goal at the beginning of the season.

What was the purpose of our off-season strength & conditioning workouts?

To reduce the occurrence and severity of injury and to improve movement efficiency and skill potential for the pre-season.

What was the purpose of our pre-season training program?

To lay the foundation for practice and build team chemistry and unity.

What was the purpose of practice?

To improve performance in games and give our team the best chance to win.

What was the purpose of watching film?

To improve our basketball I.Q. (understanding of the game) as well as examine both individual and team strengths & weaknesses.

What was the purpose of the regular season?

To prepare for the playoffs and put us in a position to win the championship!

As you can see, everything we have done since the end of last season has been done with the purpose of winning a championship. Everything.

Purposeful thought and preparation went into to every workout, every practice, every film session, and every game plan… all with the goal of winning a championship!

Now we need to take the culmination of those experiences and play hard, smart, and together during our playoff run as we chase our goal.

When it comes time to evaluate your season and time for you to plan your off-season, make sure everything you do has a distinct and clear purpose.

The best way to tell if you have purpose is to see if you have progress.  Are the things you are doing providing the desired outcome? If so, then you are working with purpose. If not, you are just staying busy!

We take great pride in the fact that our team strength trains on a year round basis. Our in-season strength work is the foundation of our strength & conditioning program. We place tremendous value in our guys staying strong when it matters most – during the season!

A few weeks ago I decided to substitute one of our weekly strength workouts with a 20 minute Yoga workout (we follow the Yoga Hoops DVD by Kent Katich).

The purpose of implementing this weekly Yoga workout was to help our players feel better and move better as well as offer them a refreshing mental change of pace.

Here is an article that was featured in the Washington Post: http://TinyUrl.com/DeMathaYoga

Here is a quick video of our last Yoga workout: http://youtu.be/8JRW4aYl4oY

For those of you that are still playing, I wish you the best as you finish your season.

For those that have already finished, enjoy some well deserved rest and recovery time… and then start planning to make your off-season as purposeful as possible.

Train hard. Train smart. Train with purpose.

Alan Stein

www.StrongerTeam.com

www.Twitter.com/AlanStein

PS: We’ve made a ton of changes to the Stronger Team Facebook page (www.Facebook.com/StrongerTeam).  We will be giving away several Deuce Brand G2 watches (www.DeuceBrand.com) every week to the winners of our Funny Caption Contests and to our Fan of the Week.

PSS: I highly recommend the Yoga Hoops DVD by Kent Katich. You can purchase it at www.AllSportYoga.com

Several weeks ago I posted the first ever ‘guest blog post’ from my long time friend and Stronger Team colleague, Blair O’Donovan. It was called ‘The 5% Rule’ in case you missed it: http://blog.strongerteam.com/post/2011/11/08/The-525-Rule.aspx.  Blair was kind enough to contribute this week’s blog as well.   

As most of you know, I am the strength & conditioning coach at DeMatha Catholic High School. Blair serves in a similar capacity at our conference rival, Gonzaga High School.  Our two programs face off in a highly anticipated rematch tomorrow (Friday, February 10^th). 

The game is already sold out and will be nationally televised on ESPN2 – so set your DVRs! Blair won the first round of The Stronger Team Showdown when Gonzaga hit two FT’s with 1.6 seconds left to beat us by 2.  Our rivalry is the high school version of Duke and North Carolina… always intense! 

It will be an electric environment in Hyattsville on Friday night.

Put on the Pounds

By Blair O’Donovan (www.Twitter.com/BlairODonovan)

Gaining ‘positive weight’ (lean muscle tissue) is not easy for most basketball players given their taller frames and high metabolisms.  But it is doable! It requires a high level of focus, consistency, and effort.  Many high school age players are coming towards the end of their season now… and will then transition directly to AAU.  That means they are practicing or playing as much as 6 or 7 days per week, and in some cases, working out twice a day.  The result of this type of schedule, over the course of a year, makes it very difficult to put on the pounds. But it can be done!

I explain to our players at Gonzaga how important it is to focus on quality nutrition and to strength train consistently the entire year – both in an out of season. Consistency is crucial to gaining weight!

Players…

How many of you have been able to maintain or improve your strength gains during the season?

How many of you have been able to maintain or increase your bodyweight during the season? 

How many of you even know the answers to those 2 questions?!

I’d like to share an example of a Gonzaga freshman who has had the primary focus of getting stronger and gaining weight (muscle of course) during the season. 

Like many freshman, he was on the ‘light’ side when we started - he weighed in at 120 lbs soaking wet.  He had to hold a cinderblock to keep the seat down at the movies!

He is a very skilled player and has the goal of playing college basketball, so he knows how important it is to get his body bigger and stronger. Like all of our players, he practices or plays almost every day of the week.  In order to make significant gains with such a strenuous schedule, he had to be fully committed! And he was…

Here is an overview of our strategy:

The first thing we did was determine the total amount of calories he would need every day in order to put on the pounds and gain muscle.  I used the Harris-Benedict equation from Wikipedia to calculate:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris-Benedict_equation

We agreed that his #1 priority was to meet these caloric requirements every day.

Next, we set him up on a program called My Fitness Pal (www.MyFitnessPal.com). I highly recommend this program.  It helped us track calories and set specific goals.  The best part was that I, as his coach, could keep an eye on his caloric intake every day and hold him accountable.

He then went through a basic strength/movement assessment to evaluate his strengths and weaknesses.  From there, we set a weekly schedule to strengthen his strengths and improve his weaknesses.  Our focus was on building strength in the big compound movements of pressing, pulling, squatting (mostly single leg), deadlifting, and various core exercises.  We kept his workouts brief, intense, and purposeful. 

From a nutrition standpoint, I continued to stress the importance of quality food choices and having prepared snacks available all day long (especially between breakfast and lunch, after school, immediately after workouts & practices, and before bed).  I wanted the focus on sound nutritional habits for both health and performance reasons.

Did his commitment pay off? Was he able to put on the pounds and improve his strength?

YES!

I am proud to say he gained an impressive 13 lbs. over the course of 10 weeks!  Here is a brief look at his strength progress:

Pull-ups:

Started with 1 ½ reps (bodyweight)

10 weeks later he did 10 reps (bodyweight)

Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat (back foot on bench):

Started by holding a 30 lb DB for 6 reps

10 weeks later he held a 50 lb DB and wore a 25 lb weight vest for 5 reps

Elevated Foot Push-ups (feet on bench):

Started with 12 reps (bodyweight)

10 weeks later he wore a 25 lb weight vest for 15 reps

In addition to getting bigger, stronger, and more explosive, he now plays with more confidence. And he’s not done… he plans to continue to focus on gaining weight and improving his strength and power over the off-season.  

If you are looking to put on the pounds and get stronger, here are a few resources to help you:

Nutrition Guidelines for Basketball Players:

http://shop.strongerteam.com/p-14-nutrition-guidelines-for-basketball-players.aspx

12-Week Strength & Power Program:

http://shop.strongerteam.com/p-30-12-week-off-season-strength-and-power-program-for-basketball-players.aspx

Good luck the rest of the season! Feel free to email me at Blair@StrongerTeam.com if I can ever help you in any way.

With February upon us, this time of year can be grueling for players and coaches. At DeMatha, every night is a dog fight in conference play as teams are fighting for their playoff seed.  Players are in a constant state of fatigue and exhaustion, since most have been going non-stop since late August.  Nagging injuries, minor sickness, and the daily grind begin to add up.  These factors get magnified through adversity – whether on or off court.

While the end of the tunnel is near, it becomes harder to stay motivated for every practice, every team meeting, every film session, and even for every game. This time of year is known as the hump.  Average players, teams, and coaches will crumble and fall back down the hill, while the exceptional ones will continue to climb over the hump and chase the lofty goals they set during the pre-season.
 
No team or program is impervious to this hump.  

After winning our first 17 games of the season and being ranked in the top 5 in the country, we’ve hit a couple of speed bumps. We’ve lost 3 of our last 6 games, one of which was on national TV and the other two were each by 2 points in the final seconds of the game (both of which caused our opponents and their fans to rush the court and celebrate like they just won the Superbowl). In addition, we’ve had two members of our team recently transfer (although they left on amicable terms).

So what do we do to keep things fresh? What do we do to get over the hump?

We mix things up. We have fun.

This past Monday, instead of taking our team through our normal in-season strength workout, I decided to change things up and do a 20 minute Yoga session.  Yes, Yoga.

We followed the 20 minute routine on Kent Katich’s Yoga Hoops DVD (which I highly recommend): http://www.twitpic.com/8dq5mf

Our guys loved it!

Check out some pictures:

http://www.twitpic.com/8dq4j1

http://www.twitpic.com/8dq51s

This Yoga session was great for their bodies and great for their minds.  Per a team vote, we’ve decided do this Yoga workout every Monday for the rest of the season (and will continue with our normal strength workouts on Wednesdays).

Coach Jones took it a step further and made the brilliant move to cancel yesterday’s practice and take the team bowling instead!

His approach was awesome. He went into study hall and told the guys that there would be a change for practice. He then assigned four captains and told them to pick teams.  He didn’t tell them what they were picking teams for… but just to choose guys they would want on their team regardless of what the competition was.  This included having a student manager on each team.

Once the teams were selected, he told them we were going bowling! The players were excited to do something different… in all honesty… to not practice.

To ensure our afternoon of fun would remain competitive, Coach Jones offered a pair of the new Nike KD IV’s to the highest individual score as well as additional prizes for the highest team score. 

The guys had a great time.  It was a way to bond as a team and to have a little fun.

 
I am confident this will help get our players (and coaches) over the hump and reignite the spark of achieving our post season goal of winning our conference tournament championship and winning the DC City Title. 

 
I’m certainly not suggesting you turn the end of your season into a free for all, as practice and preparation still needs to be a focal point.  However, when looking at the big picture, I truly believe that team unity and having fun is just as important as X’s & O’s and running sprints.

As a coach, if you sense your players have lost motivation or aren’t having fun… you need to find ways to fix that. It will result in improved morale which always results in improved performance on the court.  

Instead of a normal practice, why not have a spontaneous game of whiffle ball?

Instead of a film session, why not buy a few pizzas and watch Hoosiers?  

What about ending practice an hour early and having a team H-O-R-S-E competition?

Use your imagination and find your inner child!
 
Human beings, at every age and in every walk of life, are always more successful doing things they enjoy. They are always more productive when they are having fun.  Your players are no different.

One of the reasons I’ve been able to attain a certain level of success in the strength & conditioning industry is because I put time, effort, and thought into making my workouts as fun as possible. I know that if the workouts are fun, the players will give a better effort.  If the players give a better effort, they will get better results. 

The same is true for basketball and for getting over the hump and finishing the season strong!

NOTE: I have written some exclusive content for Monday’s Coaching U Live Newsletter on developing a winner’s mentality and overcoming adversity during a game. 

You can sign up for their FREE newsletter at http://CoachingULive.com as well as follow them at www.Twitter.com/Coaching_U

They are a tremendous resource for coaches.

Lastly, here is the latest video in my Basketball Success Series on pre-game preparation: http://youtu.be/tq8wtoiWPIc

As always, please email me at Alan@StrongerTeam.com if I can ever be of service.

Train hard. Train smart. Have some fun along the way,

Alan Stein

www.StrongerTeam.com

PS: It looks as though Vertimax will be the headlining sponsor for The Stronger Team Huddle and that one luck participant will win a brand new Vertimax unit ($3,000 value)! 

The Huddle promises to be an extraordinary event. Check it out at http://Huddle.StrongerTeam.com.

Early bird registration ends February 15^th!