BREAKERS PreSeason Camp was AMAAAAAAZING!

The first annual Shoreline Breakers Boys Basketball Camp is in the books!

After a summer of strategy and planning, the coaches for the 14U & JV/Varsity level teams put together an intense 9-hour session of basketball gold! JV/V Head Coach Daniel Hartley, assistants myself (Jay Riggs) and Jacob Carpenter, and 14U Head Coach Bear Dendel and assistants Marc Baker (and me again Jay Riggs), put the boys through an intense regiment of education, mental training, physical conditioning, skills development, play design, and all out scrimmaging. The content was wide and the work was hard. The boys literally gave it 100%. 

I am so beyond pleased with this camp and the amount of training we were able to provide the players. Having players ages 13-18 in one setting, with 5 coaches, for 9 hours was so incredibly valuable, we definitely need to do this every year, maybe twice!

With the time constraints of our light practice schedule all year it is difficult to even get through fundamentals like passing, ball handling, and shooting, let alone the intricacies of intense conditioning and deep strategy of multiple plays. This camp allowed us to go deep into each of these and the evidence of its value was apparent by the end-of-day scrimmaging, where we could literally see obvious improvement in the areas we worked on all day. 

MORNING SESSION

We began the day at 9 AM with an introduction to the day, what to expect, and the importance of really pushing themselves to get the most out of the experience. We talked about the importance of doing everything you do with “excellence” (Proverbs/Corinthians/Colossians), and what that word "excellence" means. We then moved into an extra-long stretching/warm-up segment where we discussed not just the techniques of proper warm-ups but the science of things like leg swings moving blood flow to your calves and feet prior to calf or ankle stretches, and how upper body looseness will increase shooting accuracy from the first shot. 

Next, we moved into more intense warm-ups/conditioning including skips, high skips, 70% run, full run, and the brand new “Whistle Run” drill. (ask your players about this, it’s sure to be their new favorite, lol!!!) This part really challenged the boys and their stamina right from the beginning. It also worked on their direction shifting. We will be continuing this drill throughout the year to create the most explosive “first step” of any team on the court. We saw “same-day” improvement in this area, just from this conditioning. 

We then moved into Offensive Fundamentals like passing, ball handling, shooting, and scoring. This was a particularly powerful section as some of our exceptional players actively engaged in the teaching, and worked with all the other players. Bonds were built, adjustments were made, skills were improved, and team growth occurred. It was great to have top players that all the kids look up to teaching them hands-on and sharing their knowledge. You’ll see some of these moments captured in the photo album. 

LUNCH/DISCUSSION

We had an amazing lunch, and much-earned rest, followed by a period of mental training that we seldom have time for during the season. We were then able to dive into: the mental game, hitting reset, and again tapped into some of our highly experienced players for their own perspectives on fear, nervousness, and their mental focus when they miss a shot or get outplayed. We had a great segment on what love is and discussed ways to show love to your teammates, like training on your own to bring your best to the team, lifting up others when they are frustrated, hand slaps at the free-throw line, and even helping an opponent off the ground. We dove deeper into doing EVERYTHING you do with “excellence.” Using the narrative of the 20-30 year apprenticeship of a Levitical priest before they could serve in the temple as an example of excellence, we explored some ways our players can live in excellence, like being an excellent child of God and of their parents, being an excellent sibling, student, or even basketball player. Doing EVERYTHING with excellence. 

We ended this segment by discussing the difference between a good-loss and a bad-loss. The gist of that being: “A Good Loss” is one where you give 100% and simply get outplayed. In this case, you give kudos and respect to the other team. Verses “A Bad loss” is where you get frustrated, angry, out of control, and do NOT play 100% or give your all to your team or the game. We do not want any losses, but when we have them (and we all will sometimes), we want to make sure they are good losses.

AFTERNOON SESSION

After the lunch discussion period, we got back to work. We entered a learning session about Defensive Strategy. This was a great discussion led by Coach Hartley explaining everything from communication, help-on-ball, strong contact, force-into-help, protecting the paint, uncontested shots, and second-chance points. It was a particularly powerful part of the day as it did not just “tell” the players “what” to do, but rather really explained “WHY” we do it. I could see "light-bulbs" turn on in the player’s eyes as they were finally understanding the reason behind some of these things, making it much easier for them to intuitively add it to their on-court reflexes. 

This brought us to 2 PM. We then spent 4 intense hours on our Offense and plays, along with the many variations of these plays. This was absolute GOLD for the Breakers. Having the time to really dig into the nuances of these plays, and actually having EVERY SINGLE PLAYER be able to run through EVERY SINGLE POSITION, on both offense AND defense, in real-time during these plays (stopping as necessary to explain & teach) and experience the variations, was absolutely priceless, and its value to our upcoming season can not be overstated. 

END OF DAY

We ended the day with some hard scrimmaging. It was AMAZING to see the improvement in the items we trained on, in JUST ONE DAY! The seasoned players played even more disciplined, the mid-level players played up one or even two notches higher, and the entry-level players showed night and day improvement! Every player had something new to contribute and what I saw was EVERY PLAYER PLAYED WITH EXCELLENCE.

I speak for all the coaches when I say we are incredibly proud of these boys, they applied themselves with excellence Saturday, and we hope they had as much fun learning as we did teaching & coaching.

~ Jay Riggs (Asst Coach 14U/JV)

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE CAMP PHOTOS/VIDEOS