Things you learned from experience during a game

Use fake steps in defense to lure you're opponent. Alot of shooters that look to finish at the rim try to exploit your vulnerable side if you go for a steal. My defensive strategy is to lure them by giving a quick step towards the left side but making sure I can immediately return to the right side. What this does is trick you're opponent into thinking you're going for a steal, they'll try and drive at the opposite side you're leaning but if you only faked the steal you'll have enough time to trap them. This adds pressure, gives the opportunity for a steal without sacrificing your defensive stance and forces a pass.

[QUOTE=bobbyflay]I see what you mean now. It's just frustrating when I want to improve myself, but I can't unless I exhaust myself which decreases my performance in game and in school.

We did a lot better than we expected. Our freshmen team are filled with people that are mostly 5'5. The other team was mostly 5'9, so I thought we would get owned hardcore. It was a pretty slow start with us losing by 10-15 points until a guy who was a coach's son started playing(he's part of the reason why I want to get better lol. He's like a perfect basketball specimen. He could play all positions at high school level). I only played about 5 minutes though from having a team of 35 players.. I didn't do anything magical with stats. However, I played great defense. I only took one shot during the game and that was a jumper which rolled around in the rim 2 times before it just went out(I was thinking NOOO but I rushed back to defense).The best guy got about 12 minutes lol. I shall strive to become good at this level. I found new respect for college players/pro players. I can't imagine what it's like for other leagues with 6'0 freshmen :O[/QUOTE]

Yeah it's important that one uses the off season to really improve because throughout the course of a season the lack of time and energy makes it hard to make significant strides in one's game.

As for your game... it's probably detrimental that you're going into the game thinking "oh shit, we're going to get run out of the gym". They got 4 inches on you. That's nothing. And you still shouldn't be nervous even if they had an entire foot on you. Never play scared, because you're hurting yourself before you even get started. It should be in your head to scare your opponent and destroy him. Dominate and rip them apart.

And why does your team have 35 players?

Cosign on college and pro players. I always looked up to pro players but now that I've actually seen college players play, they are not kidding. There is such a huge difference from the average high school player to the average college player. But part of that stems from the fact that the college players are the top high school players.

[QUOTE=carpevicis]Yeah it's important that one uses the off season to really improve because throughout the course of a season the lack of time and energy makes it hard to make significant strides in one's game.

As for your game... it's probably detrimental that you're going into the game thinking "oh shit, we're going to get run out of the gym". They got 4 inches on you. That's nothing. And you still shouldn't be nervous even if they had an entire foot on you. Never play scared, because you're hurting yourself before you even get started. It should be in your head to scare your opponent and destroy him. Dominate and rip them apart.

And why does your team have 35 players?

Cosign on college and pro players. I always looked up to pro players but now that I've actually seen college players play, they are not kidding. There is such a huge difference from the average high school player to the average college player. But part of that stems from the fact that the college players are the top high school players.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, my next game is tomorrow, so I'll definitely remember to spread some positive energy. Like our coach said, it was an eye opener. We went up against an "average" team and pretty soon we might have to vs a "college level" basketball team(when we win a few games this week or next week we have to vs them). They were ranked #2 in the nation last year. Bull**** thing is that we only worked on skills for like 2 weeks and worked out like a total of 8-10 days only.

No cuts for my team even though we actually play with like 10 people in a game.. Our program is like only a quarter of basketball and the rest is life and extra stuff. I can already see the fatigue in some of the players' eyes from not wanting to go out of their comfort zone. I was expecting them to quit before the season, but now it's too late. I'll have to encourage them to keep on playing.

Yeah, it's pretty crazy that the top of the college players are the nba players.

I'm starting to get how complicated basketball really is. Like before when I see a player analyzing a game, I'm thinking, "oh that makes sense" without grasping its true purpose. Now it's like a string of thoughts somehow linked to each other. This isn't that bad though. After I absorb a bunch of info and just utilize it for the better or bad, I love it even more.

[QUOTE=bobbyflay]Yeah, my next game is tomorrow, so I'll definitely remember to spread some positive energy. Like our coach said, it was an eye opener. We went up against an "average" team and pretty soon we might have to vs a "college level" basketball team(when we win a few games this week or next week we have to vs them). They were ranked #2 in the nation last year. Bull**** thing is that we only worked on skills for like 2 weeks and worked out like a total of 8-10 days only.

No cuts for my team even though we actually play with like 10 people in a game.. Our program is like only a quarter of basketball and the rest is life and extra stuff. I can already see the fatigue in some of the players' eyes from not wanting to go out of their comfort zone. I was expecting them to quit before the season, but now it's too late. I'll have to encourage them to keep on playing.

Yeah, it's pretty crazy that the top of the college players are the nba players.

I'm starting to get how complicated basketball really is. Like before when I see a player analyzing a game, I'm thinking, "oh that makes sense" without grasping its true purpose. Now it's like a string of thoughts somehow linked to each other. This isn't that bad though. After I absorb a bunch of info and just utilize it for the better or bad, I love it even more.[/QUOTE]

What team are you going to be playing? And yeah, take leadership NOW and spread the energy. Your teammates will look up to you and your coach should respect that you are rounding up the team and getting them ready. Don't worry about the past. What kind of training you did and didn't do doesn't matter anymore, so don't dwell on it. Focus on winning the game.

Don't let your mentality be "oh if we lose by 10 then we did good". That's not winning. You should be in the mindset that anything besides a win is unacceptable. And even against the best team in the country. Just because they were dominating other teams doesn't mean they should kill your team. Play smart and use teamwork, even though you probably already heard this a hundred times.

I feel you on players not completely set on basketball. It is what it is though, it's high school and these are kids who want to enjoy everything else in life. Don't let that deter you though, because once you get to college you'll realize that the players there don't mess around.

[QUOTE=carpevicis]What team are you going to be playing? And yeah, take leadership NOW and spread the energy. Your teammates will look up to you and your coach should respect that you are rounding up the team and getting them ready. Don't worry about the past. What kind of training you did and didn't do doesn't matter anymore, so don't dwell on it. Focus on winning the game.

Don't let your mentality be "oh if we lose by 10 then we did good". That's not winning. You should be in the mindset that anything besides a win is unacceptable. And even against the best team in the country. Just because they were dominating other teams doesn't mean they should kill your team. Play smart and use teamwork, even though you probably already heard this a hundred times.

I feel you on players not completely set on basketball. It is what it is though, it's high school and these are kids who want to enjoy everything else in life. Don't let that deter you though, because once you get to college you'll realize that the players there don't mess around.[/QUOTE]

My team played a mediocre team today. We ended up winning by about 7 points from making mistakes though. I didn't get any minutes, but I was happy that the coach chose to give me one of the seats for the people playing. Only about 8 people played throughout the game.

Yeah, I told everyone that we were going to kill and destroy them. It made them a bit more happy and they started spreading that we would destroy the opposing team too. Going up against the number 2 team in the nation will be hard, but it will be a great challenge to see how my team's level is at.

I have a feeling some of them will quit in a month or too. I'm getting pretty tired myself and I want to improve my skills(can't though because it's season). One of my goals is to score 20 points in at least one game(homage to Manny lol). Dam too tired, will update on wednesday for the game.

oh dam I thought I updated already lol. We ended up losing by 20 points.. They were just better than our team physically.. Their jogging matched our sprinting, so that's pretty crazy. We tried to be optimistic, but we couldn't for long lol.

I'm really thinking of just starting my skill training now. At this rate, I'll probably get like 1 minute to 2 minutes a game if I play on the A team(there's going to be two teams because of so many people). I could play on the B team and get like two quarters, but it just doesn't seem right. The thing is that I don't have much time in my schedule anymore(see what you mean carpevis). I have like one opportunity a day of free time and that is mostly writing essays(I tried not using it yesterday and playing, so I had to stay up to 1 am. 3 days of sleeping 4 hours made me REALLY slow in athletic and student capabilities. I'll try to sleep at least 7 hours tonight).

I still have the dream though. I just need some advice on whether to train really hardcore in my skills when I have the time or not or should I train with my team who I'll actually barely play with.

I discovered overtraining the hard way.. lol. I thought I could be cocky and do what 17 year olds couldn't do, but like always, the facts were right. I'll have to make my training only once a week and actually half it, but I'll do a full body workout. Basketball is just freaking tiring, and my overtraining is making me lose performance. I can't even shoot the right arc anymore. I also have to work on finding a consistent groove. Like in practice today, I was shooting 30% in the beginning. All of a sudden, I started having a burst of energy and started shooting 80%. I even made like 20 free throws and 20 3 pointers in a row right after another. It's kind of strange, because when I'm not in a groove, it's like everything I'm doing is wrong; my shooting form, the way I dribble, the way i see things, and a lot more. When I'm in a groove it's like I'm doing everything right. Oh well, time to vs the 2nd best team in the state(turned out it was state. they're like rank thirty something in the nation).

[QUOTE=bobbyflay]I discovered overtraining the hard way.. lol. I thought I could be cocky and do what 17 year olds couldn't do, but like always, the facts were right. I'll have to make my training only once a week and actually half it, but I'll do a full body workout. Basketball is just freaking tiring, and my overtraining is making me lose performance. I can't even shoot the right arc anymore. I also have to work on finding a consistent groove. Like in practice today, I was shooting 30% in the beginning. All of a sudden, I started having a burst of energy and started shooting 80%. I even made like 20 free throws and 20 3 pointers in a row right after another. It's kind of strange, because when I'm not in a groove, it's like everything I'm doing is wrong; my shooting form, the way I dribble, the way i see things, and a lot more. When I'm in a groove it's like I'm doing everything right. Oh well, time to vs the 2nd best team in the state(turned out it was state. they're like rank thirty something in the nation).[/QUOTE]

Overtraining's no joke... you end up wasting time and losing progress. Ideally you should be working hard 6 days of the week with 1 rest day. I myself don't really follow this concept because my workouts are more relaxed with more shooting and footwork. You said you were in Cali, right? I believe SoCal is loaded with excellent basketball teams.

And how are you 17 and still a freshman?

[QUOTE=carpevicis]Overtraining's no joke... you end up wasting time and losing progress. Ideally you should be working hard 6 days of the week with 1 rest day. I myself don't really follow this concept because my workouts are more relaxed with more shooting and footwork. You said you were in Cali, right? I believe SoCal is loaded with excellent basketball teams.

And how are you 17 and still a freshman?[/QUOTE]

I'm 14 years old. I think I somehow arranged my words wrong or something. I read on some forums about the 16-17 year olds being unable to do the workouts yet I still continued for only a full week and a half and I end up losing half of my endurance and strength and mental abilities.

Well, we somehow won against the team. It turned out that we were vsing their 2nd team, but it's alright. A win is a win against one of the better teams out there. I'm going to make myself "special" now in front of the basketball team and my coach. I've been sitting around doing nothing for too long.

dam, I didn't realize that I didn't post in this forum for over a week. Hours turn into days fast. I decided to quit my program at my school. 13 hours on a non school day and 7-9 hours on a school day? No thanks for me. If I wouldn't quit, it would be 16 hours for 2 weeks straight during my winter break (well except for maybe 4-6 days out of the 16 I supposed). I get what people meant by the high school politics now... I guess I shouldn't have hoped that my school would be common like that. I'm going to fufill my goals of dunking on a 10'0 by next summer standing still and running and being skilled enough so that I can say to myself, "I can play basketball". I guess I'll update with how I train and what worked for me. I couldn't make the decision of staying on the basketball team with my heart/mind/soul, so I had to leave...

Random Quote: "Don't follow your dream-lead them" -Unknown

[QUOTE=bobbyflay]dam, I didn't realize that I didn't post in this forum for over a week. Hours turn into days fast. I decided to quit my program at my school. 13 hours on a non school day and 7-9 hours on a school day? No thanks for me. If I wouldn't quit, it would be 16 hours for 2 weeks straight during my winter break (well except for maybe 4-6 days out of the 16 I supposed). I get what people meant by the high school politics now... I guess I shouldn't have hoped that my school would be common like that. I'm going to fufill my goals of dunking on a 10'0 by next summer standing still and running and being skilled enough so that I can say to myself, "I can play basketball". I guess I'll update with how I train and what worked for me. I couldn't make the decision of staying on the basketball team with my heart/mind/soul, so I had to leave...

Random Quote: "Don't follow your dream-lead them" -Unknown[/QUOTE]

Haha same for me. There wasn't alot going on so I just read some of the posts.

I feel you on leaving your high school team. Alot of times kids just stay on the team and start complaining about this and that, but never actually do anything about it. Hopefully you can spend much more time into getting better yourself.

Are you trying to play in college? After getting cut this year from JV, I'm not going to try and play for my school again. The coach pretty much told me that there was little chance I'd play on varsity, so I'm now I'm focused on getting to college. The JV team wouldn't have been a good fit for me anyways, the kids got no respect, they screw around whenever the coach addresses them, they just chill all the time and a couple of them are already injured.

Maybe I sound immature, but I really want to see how the team does this year. How about you? Was the situation alright but you just didn't have the time? Or was there an issue of playing time and favoritism (cause you said politics). Well either way, best of luck in your training.

[QUOTE=carpevicis]Haha same for me. There wasn't alot going on so I just read some of the posts.

I feel you on leaving your high school team. Alot of times kids just stay on the team and start complaining about this and that, but never actually do anything about it. Hopefully you can spend much more time into getting better yourself.

Are you trying to play in college? After getting cut this year from JV, I'm not going to try and play for my school again. The coach pretty much told me that there was little chance I'd play on varsity, so I'm now I'm focused on getting to college. The JV team wouldn't have been a good fit for me anyways, the kids got no respect, they screw around whenever the coach addresses them, they just chill all the time and a couple of them are already injured.

Maybe I sound immature, but I really want to see how the team does this year. How about you? Was the situation alright but you just didn't have the time? Or was there an issue of playing time and favoritism (cause you said politics). Well either way, best of luck in your training.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that was the case of one of my friends who ended up staying there for 2 years and only getting a little better. He ended up wasting money on the program and not getting only a little better. He got to learn the system a bit more though.

Yeah, my goal is to also get to play college ball. I know for sure they're serious there. The bad thing is that the program at my school focuses on "being a better person" instead of actually playing and winning in basketball games. They just make players spend time there and the coaches think they're disciplining them. The players end up just acting serious around the coaches then become clowns when they're gone. It just made me sick. To me, even the coaches aren't disciplined except the head coach(played division II basketball and is really good at coaching).

Yeah, I want to see how the team does because I'm just somewhat curious. It's like a combination of all those things you mentioned. The coaches favored the star players and let them get away with stuff. Things happened in the shadows and s*** like that. It was way too time consuming. Like some numbers are: 1-2 hours of practice and 7-14 hours of staying and watching or cleaning up.

Well I realized that I still want to play college basketball. A lot of people who quit the basketball team are really skilled and talented but aren't really truly dedicated to the game. I don't want to be like them, so I'm going to take my training to the next level. Over the next couple of days, I'll try to sort out my training schedule, then I'll stick with it. I might change my mind to rejoin the basketball program next year if they clean up their act or something lol. Most likely, I'll join another summer league at another school.

[QUOTE=bobbyflay]Yeah, that was the case of one of my friends who ended up staying there for 2 years and only getting a little better. He ended up wasting money on the program and not getting only a little better. He got to learn the system a bit more though.

Yeah, my goal is to also get to play college ball. I know for sure they're serious there. The bad thing is that the program at my school focuses on "being a better person" instead of actually playing and winning in basketball games. They just make players spend time there and the coaches think they're disciplining them. The players end up just acting serious around the coaches then become clowns when they're gone. It just made me sick. To me, even the coaches aren't disciplined except the head coach(played division II basketball and is really good at coaching).

Yeah, I want to see how the team does because I'm just somewhat curious. It's like a combination of all those things you mentioned. The coaches favored the star players and let them get away with stuff. Things happened in the shadows and s*** like that. It was way too time consuming. Like some numbers are: 1-2 hours of practice and 7-14 hours of staying and watching or cleaning up.

Well I realized that I still want to play college basketball. A lot of people who quit the basketball team are really skilled and talented but aren't really truly dedicated to the game. I don't want to be like them, so I'm going to take my training to the next level. Over the next couple of days, I'll try to sort out my training schedule, then I'll stick with it. I might change my mind to rejoin the basketball program next year if they clean up their act or something lol. Most likely, I'll join another summer league at another school.[/QUOTE]

I know exactly what you're talking about, I feel the same way. One of the biggest reasons why I want to play in college is that I want to play and practice with players who really care about basketball, not people who just like to play it for fun or because it's cool. In high school, almost everyone doesn't care, but once you get to college, everyone cares, because if you don't care, you won't be there.

It's doubtful that things will change over a year. Ever since I started trying out for my school teams in 8th grade, it's been the same thing. I get cut and other kids who didn't care got to play. I hate spending time around kids who don't care because I do and our interests become different. I have no problem with kids not devoting their time to basketball, but I'd rather maximize my improvements so I can play with people who do.

On another note, I still have a long way to go.

if you are a pg and playing with your dudes, pass first is the way to go.

if you are a pg and playing with randoms, shoot first is the only way to go.

I haven't been able to practice last week, because of winter and stuff. I FINALLY finished the plans for the next year and I'm going to enact them starting today. I just spent somedays working on my footwork and stuff. I plan to base my game on jab steps/pump fakes/pivots/reverse pivots/stutter steps/crossovers/spin moves/between the legs/behind the back. When I look at it it's just a regular type of game I guess lol. Mostly will be focusing on jab step-drive or pull up jumper/stutter step-exploding drive/fast break layup or dunk hopefully/fast break pull up 3/ and maybe more.