Montrose Christian | Mike Lee Basketball

Posts Tagged ‘montrose christian’

Off Season Training – Part II, by Alan Stein

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

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 week and post video highlights from their workouts as well as 3 weekly dunk attempts (to monitor their progress). HoopsKing, Ganon Baker Basketball, Hoop Connection, 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

Tags: Alan Stein's Thoughts, basketball specific strength and conditioning, basketball strength and conditioning, basketball training, montrose christian, Stronger Team
Posted in Alan Stein's Thoughts | No Comments »

Adversity, by Alan Stein

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

If you have read my last three blog posts (“Losing Sucks,” “Lesson Learned,” and “Want To”), you know the Montrose Christian boys basketball team has been experiencing some adversity lately.

It all started three weeks ago, when we luckily escaped with an overtime win against a team we should have pounded, because our players had a casual and arrogant attitude.

Then we traveled to Orlando and lost two games in a row at the Montverde Academy Invitational Tournament. We suffered our first lost because of a handful of critical errors… and the second lost because we laid down and played soft.

Upon our return from Florida, our leading scorer and a potential All-American, Terrence Ross, unexpectedly withdrew from school and transferred to a prep school in Arizona.

And towards the end of last week, the DC area was hammered with 20+ inches of snow. The Blizzard of 2010 Part II started last night as we were hit with additional 15+ inches.

We have not played a game since our second loss in Orlando on January 30^th. We have had four games cancelled since the snow began. The snow has been paralyzing. We have only had two practices since we got back from Florida and only one practice in the past 7 days. That was yesterday and we only had the 7 players who could make it to school. Our top two players both live in Fredericksburg, VA (about an hour and half away from school) and have been completely snowed in. Given the current weather conditions, we won’t be able to practice for the rest of this week. That means our players will have been off for almost two straight weeks!

Why is that a problem?

We are scheduled to play St. Anthony’s HS in Trenton, NJ at the Nike Prime Time Shoot-out this Saturday. St. Anthony’s has been one of the nation’s top HS programs for the past 30 years… winning over two dozen state titles, a handful of national titles, and produced numerous All-Americans and Division I players… several of which have played in the NBA. They are lead by Coach Bob Hurley, who in my opinion is one of the top 5 basketball coaches on the planet… and that includes college and NBA coaches. I have admired Coach Hurley from afar since I was in high school and have read The Miracle at St. Anthony twice. I got an opportunity to have dinner with him this past fall as our clinic speaking schedules intersected in Minnesota and Iowa. It was a real honor. He is a tremendous clinician and overwhelmingly passionate about the game of basketball. I have an immense respect for Coach Hurley, not just for everything he has accomplished, but because of the way he has accomplished it. He is pure class. He is not just a coach, he changes lives. He represents everything that is right with sports. He is one of a kind.

But I will have to put my admiration aside for a few hours on Saturday, because we have a game to play! If you know anything about Coach Hurley’s teams, they are always one of the toughest teams in the country. They play up tempo, smothering defense. They press, they trap, and they never, ever quit. They are relentless. When they smell fear in their opponent, they go in for the kill. Currently, they are our polar opposite. While we are facing some internal adversity, they are playing their best basketball and playing with a potent swagger. Last week they beat DeMatha HS by two. DeMatha was ranked in the top 5 in the country by ESPN at the time. St. Anthony’s has climbed up to 23^rd in the nation (ESPN) while we have plummeted to 45^th.

The odds are stacked against us to say the least. I am not saying that for pity or to make excuses, it is just a reality.

With all of that said, the million dollar question is… how will our team respond to our recent adversity?

My prediction?

Only one of two things will happen… there will be no grey area. Either we will come out with passion and pride and play like we have something to prove (which we most certainly do) and make it a competitive, intense game between two of the country’s premier programs…

Or…

We will trudge in with our tails between our legs… mentally fragile…full of excuses…and walk right into the lion’s den and get smacked by 30. If we come in like that, trust me, St. Anthony’s will embarrass us.

Albert Einstein once said, “In the middle of every adversity lies opportunity.”

I hope our guys understand that. Lord knows I will be doing everything in my power to get that point across. I will also make sure they understand that the more adversity they face in life, the more positive they have to be. A positive attitude and collective, sincere enthusiasm can conquer many things. I also want them to know that many times, adversity is a prerequisite to major accomplishments. Look at Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints. Drew, as well as the city of New Orleans, went through severe times of adversity in the last several years… and now they are the Super Bowl champs!

Our players need to take pride in overcoming difficulties. They need to view them as challenges and rise to the occasion. They need to look at Saturday’s game as an opportunity to “fix” everything we have been going through and to show the world what we are really made of. They need to look at it as a chance to put this season back on track.

And when I say “fix”, I am not at all concerned with the final score. My entire focus will be on how we play and how we respond to the adversity we have been facing. If we come out with passion, pride, and compete to the final buzzer… it will be one of my proudest moments since joining the program 7 years ago… regardless of whether or not we get the W. If we cower, and wallow in our own self pity, and get mutilated and humiliated… it will be the most disappointing moment I will have experienced with Montrose.

And for the record, please understand I keep all of this in its proper perspective. Basketball is my driving passion, and the Montrose players and staff are very, very important to me. But my overall happiness in life isn’t dictated by a scoreboard or a W-L column. Sure, I get poopy-pants when we lose. Of course food tastes better when we win. But I learned a long time ago not to pin my own happiness on the shoulders of 16, 17, and 18 year old boys. Life is too short for that. And while I love the game of basketball about as much as anyone can and I am an extremely competitive person by nature… it is just a game… and I recognize that. I am very well aware that the “adversity” I have been writing about pales in comparison to real adversity… natural disasters, death, unemployment, sickness, etc. I don’t have it twisted, I know where things stand.

But on that note, over the course of the past three weeks, I have received dozens and dozens of unsolicited emails from coaches and players who have offered kind words of support for our program and have shared similar experiences of the basketball adversity they have faced this season. For that, I am truly grateful. I appreciate each and every time someone reaches out… and I am eternally thankful to be in the basketball coaching fraternity.

Whether good or bad, next week I will report in with a full recap of our game with St. Anthony’s.

And as always, check out (and subscribe to) www.YouTube.com/StrongerTeamDotCom. Last week I posted a video of a Nike Skills Academy Warm-up. I will post the second part of that later this week.

If you would like the two songs I have been using in all of my recent videos, “Game Time” by S.K. and “Hoop Connection” by Chip Da Ripper; send me an email and I will gladly send them to you. They are great for pre-game warm-ups or to listen to on your iPod during an individual workout.

As always, 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

Tags: adversity, Alan Stein's Thoughts, basketball, montrose christian, Stronger Team
Posted in Alan Stein's Thoughts | No Comments »