Glue is an adhesive, and according to Webster’s Dictionary, the physics definition of adhesive is “a force that exists in the area of contact between unlike bodies and that acts to unite them.” OK, that is a little too scientific for me.  Let’s just say that glue holds stuff together!

Who is the glue on your team?  Who holds your team together? Who keeps the team focused when times are tough? Who does all of the little things to make your team successful; takes charges, dives for loose balls, hits crucial free throws, is a pest on defense, and sets solid screens?  Who doesn’t worry about how many points he scores or how much he plays but rather if the team wins and if he did everything within his role contribute? Every team needs a player like this, a player who will make all of the sacrifices necessary to be the glue that holds the team together.  Glue players are paramount during the playoffs.

I read an interesting article in the New York Times last week that parallels this thought.  The article was called “The No Stats All Star” and it focused on Shane Battier of the Houston Rockets.  While they didn’t use the same terminology per say, it is obvious that Shane Battier is the glue of that team.  Despite the fact that he doesn’t put up huge stats, actually his box score stats are mediocre at best, he is an invaluable member of that team and plays a major role in their success.  Bottom line; Shane is a proven winner. He has won at every level.  Although he was a decorated high school and college player, he never put up big numbers; his points and rebounding averages were nothing to write home about.  Yet he won three state titles in high school, tied the record for most wins in college (131) as well as won a college National Championship while at Duke. Although he is yet to win an NBA title, the Grizzlies improved from 23-59 his rookie year to 50-32 in his third season.  The year before he arrived in Houston the Rockets were 34-48 and his third year there went 55-27; including an impressive stretch of 22 wins in row. Coincidence? No way.

So how does he do it? He isn’t flashy, he is rarely on the Sports Center highlights, and the only big number in the stat column is minutes played.  So how does he have such a strong impact? How does he win so much?

It’s because he is a glue guy.  Shane is the epitome of a team player.  He is an impressive teammate in every sense of the word and he takes pride in doing the little things to help his team win. He is the guy every coach wants to have on his team and every player wants to play with.  And trust me; there is tremendous value in being a glue guy.  Shane makes $6 million a year.

At Montrose we place great value on winning.  In the pre-season, our guys play pick-up games for an hour or two after study hall, weights, and individual skill development.  You know the only stat we keep track of? WINS.  Every player gets awarded 1 point when their team wins.  So regardless of who is on the court, 5 guys will get 1 point after each victory.  Teams change every day… but we keep the same point system throughout the entire pre-season (10-12 weeks).  At the end of pre-season we tally it up and see who won the most games.  And true to form, our glue guys always end up at the top of that list! And they end up playing more during the season.  Remember, it is not always the 5 best players who play; it is the 5 players who play the best together!  So you may not be the most talented guy on your team, but if you can prove you are the glue, day in and day out, you will play.  And you will play even more during playoffs!

If you want your team to make a serious run at a conference or league or state championship; I suggest you either say a sincere thank you to your team’s glue guy; or you become one yourself.

If you would like to contact me about this blog, my training and/or camps and clinics, please email me at Alan@StrongerTeam.com.  I will respond as quickly as possible!

Train hard.  Train smart.

Alan Stein
www.StrongerTeam.com

What does finishing strong mean in the game of basketball? To me, finishing strong applies to three separate aspects of the game; finishing a lay-up or dunk, finishing the last two minutes of a game, and finishing the last two weeks of the season.  Finishing, in all three cases, has more to do with mental toughness than anything else, a subject I have covered at length in recent blog posts.

How many times, especially at the high school and college level, do you see a player make a remarkable move to get to the hoop and then miss the lay-up? Maybe they just casually throw it up there or they use the wrong hand or they don’t use the glass when they should or they contort their body to avoid having it blocked and just throw up a prayer. Regardless, they don’t finish the play.  Not finishing is on the top of every coach’s pet peeve list.  The best players in the game, at every level, finish plays! That is one of the things that make them great. One of the absolute best ways to get your team energized is with a strong finish and an old fashioned 3 point play.  At Montrose we stress finishing all of the time. We chart missed lay-ups in practice and players have to run sprints for each miss at the end of the practice.  We even, and I am not joking, record missed lay-ups during our pre-game warm-ups! Our motto is simple; every lay-up is important and you have to take pride in finishing plays. We have several finishing drills we use (sometimes utilize a heavy trainer ball or coaches use padded shields to provide contact) to condition our players to make plays around the basket.  We teach them to “go get contact” around the rim; not avoid it.  Missing shots is a part of basketball; but if you don’t finish around the basket because of one of the reasons mentioned above – you are coming out of the game.

What about finishing the game? Do you or your team finish the game with the same intensity, energy, and enthusiasm as you do in the beginning?  More times than not, if the game is close, both teams probably finish the game with tremendous effort because the outcome is on the line.  But what if it isn’t? What if it is a 15 point game with two minutes left?  If you are up 15, are you strong with the ball (expecting to get fouled) and making crisp passes? Do you shoot those free throws with the same focus as if the game was on the line? Do you still play defense?  Do you try to bump that score up to 20 or are you OK with letting it dwindle to 10?  And if you are down 15 with two minutes to go, do you give up and throw in the towel? Do you start to jack up ill advised shots? Do you try to get a few trash buckets to keep your own average up? Or do you play with pride and continue to execute your coach’s game plan?  Do you try to shrink the lead as much as possible or are you OK with being kicked while you are down?  If you are a player who doesn’t normally play very much and you are in at the end of the game, either up 15 or down 15, do you make the most of your opportunity? Do you try to use that time to earn more minutes in the future?  Or is it a joke to you? Are just out there grab-assing? This is my 6thyear at Montrose and we are fortunate enough to usually find ourselves on the “up 15” side of the coin more times than not. But this season we have not done an adequate job putting the nail in the coffin and finishing games with authority.  Granted we are winning (18-1; ranked 7th in the nation in USA Today), but we are not making the statements we could be making because we haven’t been playing out the last few minutes the way we should.  Errant passes and turnovers, missed free throws, and lack of defensive intensity have allowed several teams to make the final score look closer than it really was. Several times we could have turned up the volume and won by 20 or 25, instead we allowed them to skim it to 10 to 12.  A sports nutritionist I know recommended we try a quick energy boost during half-time to ensure there was no physiological let-down in the 2nd half.  So we started giving our players a tiny handful of gummy bears at the half (along with water) in hopes of helping us finish games with a little more gusto.

And given it is mid February, the home stretch for the regular season in both high school and college, it is so important you finish the season strong.  With a similar mindset to finishing a lay-up or finishing a game, it takes both mental and physical toughness to play with the same fire in February as you did in November. As I mentioned in my last blog, motivation at this time of year can be hard; for coaches and players.  You are constantly tired and your body is banged up. You have to persevere and find new ways to motivate yourself and your team. For most teams and players, a transition to playoffs, where you win or go home, can be the spark to ignite that flame. Come playoff time, everybody is 0-0, so it is a fresh start for everyone. Most of the high schools in the DC area are finishing up their regular seasons this week and moving towards conference and league playoffs.  This is an opportune time for players and coaches to evaluate things. How has your team played the last couple of weeks?  Are you fading off or ending the season with an exclamation point?  What goals, for yourself and for your team, did you set before the season? How have you done?  Do you still do the little things you did in the beginning of the year?  Do you come in early to get in extra shots? Do you stay after practice as well?  How are you practicing? Coach Kevin Eastman, the brilliant assistant coach for the World Champion Boston Celtics as well as Nike’s Lead Skills Academy Instructor mentioned a great philosophy (which I think he got from Jay Bilas from ESPN; another exceptional skills instructor) – “don’t try to get through the practice; get from the practice.” This mantra is especially true at the end of the season.  Most players (and many coaches), just want to make it through the practice and can’t wait for it to be over.  Why not use that practice as a way to get better?  If you have to be there anyway, why not get as much benefit as possible from it?

To help you and your team finish the season strong, and to get you in the right frame of mind, you need to take a few minutes every night before you go to bed and every morning when you first wake up and visualize. Visualize your pre-season workouts from early fall. Visualize how hard you worked and how excited you were for the season to start.  Visualize the goals you set back then.  Now is the time to see them through and make them a reality!

The good news is the light as at the end of the tunnel.  You are almost there.  You need to stay focused and push through. Please understand I am not suggesting or implying that basketball is a drag or you don’t love playing the game; I just know that the season becomes tougher as the weeks past and staying highly motivated and finishing the season strong can be difficult at times.

I will end with this. I hate losing. I am an extremely competitive person.  But I acknowledge losing is a part of life and certainly a part of basketball.  Think about it, every single game played, from junior high to the NBA, somebody loses. And for the most part, with the exception of the team that wins it all, every team’s season ends on a loss.  Look at the NCAA; only two teams out of almost 400 end their season on a win (NCAA and NIT champion). The NBA is no different.  And for the most part, high school ends with only a handful of state champions as well as a few private school league or conference champions.  That means, I know it is a tough pill to swallow, 99% of all teams end their season with an “L.”

Hopefully you are one of the rare few that end with a win.  Hopefully all of your hard work pays off and you win it all. If not, if you do end on a loss, make sure you do so graciously, and make sure you do so leaving every ounce of heart, soul, love, sweat and tears on the court. Don’t go down without giving it 100%. If you don’t, it won’t be the actual loss that sticks with you. It’s knowing you lost because you didn’t give it your best.  It will be losing because you didn’tfinish strong. Don’t let that happen to you! You don’t want to carry that feeling around the entire off season.

If you would like to contact me about this blog, my training and/or camps and clinics, please email me at Alan@StrongerTeam.com.  I will respond as quickly as possible!

Train hard.  Train smart.

Alan Stein
www.StrongerTeam.com

This time of year is always the most grueling for high school and college players and coaches, as most nights are a dog fight in conference play and most teams are battling tooth and nail for a playoff spot or an improved national ranking.  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.  While the end of the tunnel is near, it becomes harder and harder for both coaches and players to stay motivated for every practice, every team meeting, every film session, and even for every game.  Players bicker with each other, like brothers and sisters do, as they feel like they spend 24/7 with their teammates and even the most minor things get on people’s nerves.  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.
 
And no team or program is impervious to this.  At Montrose, we experienced this the past two weeks and it was getting progressively worse by the day.  Despite the fact we were continuing to win, we had not played very well our previous two games, and our players seemed to have lost their intensity, motivation, and work ethic.  Our guys just looked like they were going through motions with everything they did.  Even worse, they looked like they had lost the love.  This spoke volumes, because our kids love to play basketball.
 
This past Wednesday our guys were off from a formal practice but needed to get a lift in.  When I arrived I noticed our guys looked overwhelming tired, no one smiling, and everyone kind of just laid around the weight room ready to start. They looked like zombies. There wasn’t an ounce of energy or enthusiasm. This was rare, because we have a tremendous group of kids in our program, kids who are normally highly motivated, and kids who always give me 100%.  So I sat them all down and had a little impromptu team meeting. I asked them what the deal was.  “What’s the problem guys? You all look dead.  You look like you don’t’ care. How can you not care any more, we are having a great season?!”  After beating around the bush for a few minutes, they finally came clean. The general consensus, from our heralded freshman to our senior captains was loud and clear: we aren’t having any fun!
 
Despite the fact we play in front of huge crowds, we currently hold the Washington DC area’s #1 ranking in the Washington Post, we have remained in the top ten nationally in the USA Today and ESPN, we only have one minor blemish on our record (a double OT loss to Oak Hill in the championship in Hawaii), and we are still very much alive in the hunt for a national championship… our guys were down, mentally and physically drained, and not having any fun. You could see it on their faces and in their body language… they were telling the truth.
 
While I had pretty much drawn the same conclusion in my mind ahead of time, I sincerely appreciated their honesty.  So I garnered some feedback from them and then brainstormed some ways we could make things fun again.  I called Coach Vetter that night and we had a wonderful conversation.  Now, Coach Vetter has been coaching longer than I have been breathing, and he is one of the winningest and most decorated high school coaches in history. I have worked for him for 6 years, and in all honesty, I wasn’t expecting him to make any changes to the current routine or weekly schedule.  I was actually expecting him to recite the famous line from Hoosiers when Gene Hackman said “My practices are not designed for your enjoyment.” Boy was I wrong! He got the message loud and clear and responded brilliantly.
 
On Thursday when the guys drudgingly showed up to practice, to everyone’s pleasant surprise, we played indoor whiffle ball instead! Coach got out the automatic pitching machine, set the court up like a baseball field, and we played a full 9 innings of fast pitch whiffle ball.  The kids were shocked, but better yet, had an absolute blast! They were laughing, smiling, and finally enjoying themselves again. Despite having some very high level athletes on our team, watching kids who have never played baseball swing a bat and throw a ball was hysterical.  Do you know how big the strike zone was for our Nigerian sophomore, who is 7’1”, 310 lbs.?  The assistant coaches played too which made it even more fun, as the kids tried extra hard to get us out (I went 3 for 3 with 2 RBI’s… but who’s counting?). That was just what our guys needed.  Afterwards I took them in the weight room for a quick upper body lift, which they did with effort and enthusiasm, and then I talked with them afterwards.  I told them that fun things like this would continue to occasionally happen, if and only if, they took care of business at all future practices and games.  They smiled and nodded.
 
They responded very well and had one of the best practices of the year on Friday.  Then instead of a dreaded Saturday morning practice, Coach Vetter again stepped up to the plate (pun intended) and arranged for the entire team to go to the Georgetown vs.Cincinnati game instead!  Our guys were ecstatic and very appreciative.
 
I am confident this little boost of fun will help get our players (and coaches) over the hump and will help our guys get the love back. We will see Tuesday night when we play again.  My gut feeling is we are going get back to playing as well as we were in the beginning of the year.  I feel bad for our next opponent.
 
Now, I am not suggesting you turn the end of your season into a tea party, work still needs to be done and players and teams still need to strive to get better every day.  But… if you are sensing your players are miserable, have lost motivation, and aren’t having any fun… you can find ways to make things more enjoyable for everyone in the program and it will result in improved performance on the court.  Need some ideas? Instead of a normal practice, why not take your team bowling? How fun (and funny) would that be?! Instead of a film session, why not buy a few pizzas and watch Hoosiers or Blue Chips?  What about ending practice an hour early and having a H-O-R-S-E competition or a game of Knock-out?
 
If you are a player and you recognize you and your teammates aren’t having any fun, you have a few options too.  You can schedule a time to sit down with your coach, one on one and in private, and express the sentiments and suggestions mentioned in this blog… highlighting the fact you believe this will drastically help your team’s morale and thus performance on the court.  You can also take it upon yourself to organize some fun stuff with your teammates; maybe a team dinner at Chipotle to watch a Laker’s game or a Wii competition at someone’s house?
 
People, at every age and in any walk of life, are always more successful doing things they enjoy and have fun doing.  One of the reasons I have been able to attain a certain level of success in the strength & conditioning industry is because I have put a lot of time, effort, and thought into making my workouts as fun as possible. Granted, they are still brutally hard and intense and progressive, but I try to make them fun as well because I know if they are fun the players will give a better effort.  And if they give a better effort they will get better results.  Period.
 
The same is true for getting over the hump and finishing the season strong!
 
If you would like to contact me about this blog, my training and/or camps and clinics, please email me at Alan@StrongerTeam.com.  I will respond as quickly as possible!
 
Train hard.  Train smart.
 
Alan Stein
www.StrongerTeam.com

With the homestretch of the high school and college basketball seasons upon us, and with teams fighting hard for playoff spots and in the quest of a state championship, conference title, or NCAA birth, I wanted to address a very under rated aspect of performance and success; an aspect critical to finishing your season on a strong note.

Mental training is one of the most under rated aspects of becoming the best player you can be. And this holds true for any endeavor, but especially sports.  There is a huge umbrella of skills and traits that fall under mental training; the ability to focus and concentrate at the task at hand (like shooting a free throw), not getting flustered in pressure situations (your team is down 7 points with 1:32 on the clock), visualizing success when preparing for a game (picturing yourself playing well or making a great play), and being mentally tough enough to withstand extreme adversity (you lose your team’s best player to injury or you lose several games in a row).

The most accomplished athletes ever, the Michael Jordan’s, Tiger Wood’s, and Lance Armstrong’s of the world know this to be true; in order to reach the highest level of competency and success, your mental skills become as important (if not more so) as your physical skills.  A lot of players have the physical skills, but only the preeminent ones have the mental skills as well.  Your brain controlseverything you do, every thought and every movement, so obviouslyhow you think and what you think will drastically affect how you perform. So training your brain is just as significant as training your body.

There are four things that determine if a basketball player will be successful; physical ability, physical training, desire, and mental training.  No need to preach about the magnitude of the first three, everyone knows how integral these are and therefore most quality players spend hours upon hours for years working on them.  But how many players spend any time on the mental side?

Don’t think the mental part is a big deal?  Then how come everyonethought running a 4 minute mile was impossible.  For decades experts and top athletes all agreed; it couldn’t be done.  Then in 1954 Roger Bannister ran a 3:59.4.  He beat it by only .6 of a second. In the two years to follow, over 50 other runners broke the 4 minute mark!  It was all mental!

I read two excellent books that did a remarkable job on the topic of mental training. A good portion of this blog post consists of concepts and excerpts from them both:

Mind Gym by Gary Mack
No Limits by Michael Phelps

NOTE: I recently found out Mr. Mack passed away a year after his book was released, which I was so saddened to hear because his contributions to the field of mental training were unparalleld.  May he rest in peace.  Also, I am aware of Michael Phelps’ most recent blunder, which is a shame as it certainly tarnishes the public opinion of his judgment. I do respect the fact he owned up to his mistake, admitted he was wrong, sincerely apologized, and promised to not let it happen again.  Taking ownership for his mistake is not so common among athletes and famous people. Nevertheless, it doesn’t change the fact he is the most decorated Olympian ever and certainly knows quite a bit about visualization and mental toughness. I wish him nothing but the best as he prepares for the 2012 Olympics.

Concentration
A big portion of success is in basketball is learning how to focus on the task at hand and not let negative thoughts intrude.  For most players, when shooting by themselves, hitting a free throw is a fairly simple task, especially if it is practiced for thousands and thousands of repetitions.  My personal best, in practice, is hitting 112 straight. If hitting a free throw is such an easy task, then why is it so much harder to hit one when the game is tied, there are only 2 seconds on the clock, and the crowd is screaming?  It is harder because the player becomes self conscious, coach conscious, fan conscious and outcome conscious as opposed to being taskconscious. They allow negative thoughts to impede the simple task of hitting the free throw.  Your mind can only concentrate on thing at a time.  Most players make the mistake of trying to suppress what they don’t want to happen (“don’t miss, don’t miss, don’t miss…”) instead of focusing on what they do want to happen (“no problem, nothing but net…”).  It is also important to not get caught up in things you can’t control, like a referee’s bad call.  You can’t control he just called a blocking foul when everyone knows it was clearly a charge. You can’t waste the time or the energy or the negative thoughts on it; you have to move on. You have to focus and concentrate on what you can control.

Visualization
Visualization is powerful. In Mind Gym, Gary Mack references a study that was done with college basketball players to measure free throw accuracy and improvement.  Players were divided in to 3 separate groups.  The first group shot free throws for an hour, the second group sat in a dark room and visualized shooting free throws for an hour, and the last group shot free throws for 30 minutes and visualized for 30 minutes.  The last group, the group that practiced as well as visualized made the most improvement.  Being able to visualize being successful and doing great things is so potent.  I use a few simple imagery drills before big games with the Montrose team.  After we are warmed-up, stretched out andphysically ready to play… I gather them for 2 minutes before Coach comes in to give his pre-game speech and prayer.  For the first minute I have each of them close their eyes and visualize a time when they played incredible basketball; a time when every pass they made was crisp, every shot they took was money, and they handled the ball like it was on a string.  I tell them to relive that moment in their mind; it might have been when they were 12 years old at camp or it might have been during a summer league game last year.  I want them to use all of their senses to relive a time when they were “in the zone.”  Most of them don’t even realize they are sitting there smiling.  For the next minute I have them visualize themselves doing something great in the game that night.  I have them imagine they are having an out of body experience and are up in the stands watching themselves play.  I have them picture themselves doing something phenomenal; maybe hit a clutch 3 at the end of the half or maybe they come up with a crucial steal to seal the game or throw down a ridiculous alley-oop.  I have them picture what the crowd sounds like when they make that particular play and how their teammates respond. I have them think about how they will feel in the locker room after a huge win. I have them picture themselves so clearly they can feel it. This little exercise gets them in a positive and confident state of mind and ready to play.

Michael Phelps recognizes that visualization is one of the keys to his success.  He says he visualizes every race the night before and pictures exactly how he wants it to go.  He visualizes the start, each stroke, the walls, the turns, the finish, and the strategy of the race.  He pictures it in vivid detail; all the way down to how the water looks as he glides through it.  He does this to basically “program the race in his head.”  More times than not, the race ends up happening exactly as he pictured it. He also takes the time to visualize what he will do if things don’t go as planned; like if his goggles fill with water or his swim cap comes off.  He visualizes himself having the perseverance to still swim a perfect race.  Phelps truly exemplifies “we become what we think about most.”  He has pictured himself being an Olympic champion since he was a child.

Mental Toughness
Mental toughness and competitive toughness are acquired skills; not inherited traits.  Every basketball player out there can become more mentally tough. A good part of being mentally tough is, as Gary Mack puts it, to “be comfortable being uncomfortable.” You have to learn to embrace obstacles, difficulties, mistakes, and adversity.  You can’t expect anything to be easy.  Failure is not only a part of life, but a major part of sports.  If you never fail, you aren’t pushing hard enough or challenging yourself.  “The depths of your struggle will determine the height of your success.”

Gary Mack states there are 7 characteristics to mental toughness, all of which can be improved with instruction and practice: competitive, confident, control, committed, composure, courage, and consistency.  How do you grade yourself in each of these categories? What are some ways you can improve your mental weaknesses?

It takes mental toughness to give 100% all of the time.  There is an old saying, “if you only work hard on the days you feel like it, nothing will ever get done.”  Part of Michael Phelps success is attributed to the fact he performs the best he can no matter how he is feeling. He puts 100% effort in to every workout whether he feels like it or not.  Tired? No excuse.  Got a cold? No excuse? From age 11 to 16 Michael Phelps trained every single day, with the exception of only 3 days (missed one day for a snow storm and two days when he got his wisdom teeth pulled).  He trained on Christmas, on New Year’s, on his birthday and on the 4th of July.  And he was a kid! You think he felt like training every one of those days? Of course not! But he did it because he is mentally tough. And look how it paid off.

If you want to be the best player you can be and your team to be the best team they can be; make sure you don’t take mental training for granted. 

If you would like to contact me about this blog, my training and/or camps and clinics, please email me at Alan@StrongerTeam.com.  I will respond as quickly as possible!

Train hard.  Train smart.

Alan Stein