Episode 13: Started My Own Basketball Team

In this episode of Defy the Odds Basketball: The Podcast, we go over how I started my own basketball team. We go through the journey of starting a team and what it looked like. The main goal of this episode is to go over what we did to separate our program from others and why programs need to do the same to maximize their program and their players' growth.

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Transcript

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Welcome back to another episode of Defy the Odds Basketball Podcast. I'm your host, Wyatt Guerin, and in today's episode, we are going to be going through how I started my very own rep basketball team, and I'm going to be taking you guys kind of through that journey of how I did it, how it started, and what I do a bit differently differently than maybe some regular programs do, and going over some key ideas that I think programs should incorporate into theirs to really maximize their own program. Now, before we do get into today's episode, I do want to apologize. Stuff got crazy just with starting up the training program for the summer and starting up the team, obviously. But hopefully we're back, get onto a consistent schedule here, and I can deliver more episodes to you all. The other thing before we get into this episode, if you do enjoy the podcast, please make sure to like, subscribe, follow, share, do whatever you can. Really, it does truly help, and I'm super grateful for it. And if there's anything you guys want me to go over in the future, just make sure to drop a comment and I will make sure to go over that. So with that being said, let's get straight into today's episode. So, like I said, we're gonna be talking about how I started my own rep basketball team this summer. Um, so a bit of background. I am a 20-year-old basketball trainer from Owen Sound, Ontario. I started basketball training three years ago. Um, so this is my third year of doing basketball training. And the last couple years, I just again I focused on the basketball training. That was really my passion. It still is, obviously. But this year I wanted to start a rep basketball team. Um, our area doesn't have much basketball. We do have OBA teams, so that is our like rep basketball throughout the school year, but we never didn't have any opportunities in the summer. So my goal, my vision with this was to create a program that focused on developing our athletes and helping them play against high-level competition and getting exposure. So that's kind of the backstory of like the why. Um this all kind of started in this has been I was sorry, this has been like uh a vision for a while now. Um then I decided to bring it into fruition this year. So it started, it started almost a year ago. Like I started I at the end of August, we our summer training ended, and I I immediately started advertising about this team. I'm like, yeah, it's happening. Here's the details. Um, since I was in university like three hours away, it was super like I couldn't really do anything during the school year. Um, so I had to run tryouts during Christmas break. So I ran tryouts, we had enough guys to make a team, which was perfect. We had tryouts, made the team, and I immediately started started to um align our values with the players and parents. So right after tryouts, had a parent, had a meeting with the parents and the athletes, going over what expectations, going over kind of the code of conduct for the team, um and just general stuff that um for parents and athletes to give them a better understanding of what the season was gonna look like and what the team was gonna look like. This also helped create a clear, like I guess you could say, boundary. Like parents knew what they like, if they had a problem, something they knew what to bring up with me. Like I stated at the very first meeting, I'm like, this is how your kids are gonna earn playing time. So if you if they you know, if your kid starts complaining, you you you can refer back to this meeting on what they need to do to you know earn more playing time. And at the end of the day, I want to be talking to the kids, right? Like I don't want to be having the conversations through the parents. If like the I'm coaching this team is U16, we want to be having conversations from coach to player, right? If they're not gonna be at practice, you hear it from the player. That's kind of how it started for me at that age. It became a lot more about the responsibility um at that age. Um, so again, I'm just kind of taking you guys through the journey um here. So after that, we had nothing until um like May. So we had nothing up until until May. I got us registered for our league and a tournament, got jerseys ordered, all of that, like a lot of stuff behind the scenes, right? Now, like even though I was coaching, I was also doing all the other stuff, right? Signing up for the leagues, ordering the jerseys, contacting the team, right, running the website, running the social media, just literally everything you can think of, I was doing behind the scenes as well. Um, so once May came around, we started train um practices once a week because I still had rep basketball and like their like the rep basketball season during the school year. So we started up our uh just one night night a week just to get some just to get the ball rolling, kind of start introducing some concepts and ideas, and then our first game, like set of games came uh like first weekend of June almost. So we had like six practices before then, and we were like right into it. First weekend of basketball, we went one and two. So we lost our first game by seven, won our second game by like thirty, and then lost our third game by three. So we went one and two to start the season. So we we thought we were gonna be it was gonna be a long, you know, hard like we we were gonna have to fight this season. Um we had a couple more practices, and then over the next three sorry, five weekends, we had probably three weekends of basketball in there, and we played a total of six more games, and we went six and oh to finish the season and won all of our games by at least ten plus, I think mostly by twenty plus. Um, so that finished we finished our season with a seven and two record, and then we went into playoffs, which was single elimination, and unfortunately, we did lose in the first game to the team that went on to win it all. But there was so much going on in the season, just like learning experience um for myself, for the players development-wise, like by the end of the season, our group of guys really came together and played as a team, and this is a group of guys that have never really played together. Some guys maybe from high school, maybe some guys from the same rep team, but then we're like mixing them all together, and they're it's like completely new. We still have our tournament in August, though, so we still have some of our season left. So that's kind of the journey that our team was on this season. Um, I want to kind of talk about what now, like what separated our program and kind of what I how I approach it a bit differently. And I think and how I think a lot of programs should start and sorry, why they should start taking some of these and incorporating into their own program to really maximize their program. Um, so again, the first one I talked about right at the start, I aligned values and goals with our parents and players, right? I uh big part of the team is creating a culture, right? Where it's a culture of you know hard work, hustle, determination, um, competition, just like pure, like just grinding out. Like, like I told my guys so many times, like we want to be just a team of just hustlers, like we just want to be out there controlling the controllables, is uh what I always tell them, right? You can't decide if a shot goes in or not, but you guys can determine how hard you're working, you know, the hustle, the intensity, your body language, your attitude, all those controllables. And that's what I was big on, right? Taking charges, diving for the loose balls, making those small winning plays. And this again, the culture of we're behind each other, right? We're like a team, we're like a family, like our our pregame huddle. We always start with family on three, right? But by aligning those values and goals with the players and parents right at the start, right at the beginning, helps create a good foundation for that culture. Like I said, um now parents know what they can expect, and now they're not just coming at me being like, oh, you know, we you know, player A is wanting worried about playing time. No, I have like the players come and talk to me, and we have a very facilitated conversation, very adult conversation about anything, any concerns. I've also I also we also had like um like a meeting right before the season, too, just to also recap this and like go over some more stuff before the season started. So, again, just kind of facilitating this throughout the season. Another big part of our identity is that we take development, it we see development as more important than winning, right? It's like a short-term investment versus a long-term investment. In this case, the short-term investment is winning, you know, every single game and winning the playoffs by 30, and the short-term investments by maybe not having the greatest season, but we're developing. Now, I know we did have a pretty good season, but again, our our focus is always on development. When you look at AAU basketball in the States, they take a very heavy approach on games, games, games, rarely practicing, maybe once or twice a week. Half the guys don't show up, they bring in new guys for every tournament, and they their goal is just to win. Right? Now that's that's fine, I guess, if you're like a top 50 guy in the state, and you don't like you know, you already have offers rolling in or whatever, but to get the players to that point, it's really about the practice, the preparation, and then the games are like a supplement, I feel like so. How we do it, um, we had again like nine games in our regular season, split up maybe over four weekends, and then a weekend of playoffs, and then we have one tournament. So I wouldn't even make maybe now I mean half of the summer we're playing games, like half. If you take the all the weekends in the summer and take now, I mean half of those weekends we're probably playing basketball, like games. Our practice schedule, so we practice two nights a week, like our team practice, where we're working on our stuff, working on our concepts, our actions, our defense, our offense, all that. And then all the athletes have two other nights a week where they train with us in our like our skills training, right? So they're working on their dribbling, their passing, their finishing, their shooting, every like their individual game. So this is a creating just the perfect formula for developing athletes long term. When it comes to short term, like I talked about the like winning now, you are all that's doing is boosting your own ego. Because now you're like, oh yeah, you know, my team just did all this. When in the long when when we should be really looking at in the long term, right? I'm looking more, I have a bunch of kids on my team that want to play at the next level, like post-secondary college, university. That's my goal. I obviously we want to win, the whole team wants to win, and that's still a goal, but we still have all these other things in place, like our training schedule and our practice schedule, that's helping them develop in the long term, right? And helping them reach their ultimate goals as a coach, as a trainer, that's what I see, not the short-term success, right? Now it feels good the short-term success success, but it feels a lot better helping these players become better people, better players, and helping them chase their dreams, right? And on a real note, as a coach or trainer for anybody listening, helping players get to that level is gonna look a lot better for you than looking back on your AAU record from four years ago, right? Um, so a couple other things like we focused on part of our identity, um, and even kind of part of like the player development side, was we really focused on team over self, right? So they get their fair share of individual development during like our training sessions. Excuse me, but they also in our team practices in our in our um offense, we really take an approach on you know, you win and you lose win or lose as a team, right? It's never about one person on the team. We play as a team, we will we'll win as a team, right? And so that kind of comes into how we play. So we we have a really we really prioritize ball movement and passing and quick decisions rather than just iso ball. And I always tell my guys that doesn't mean you can't attack off a off the dribble. That just means you can't. All I mean by no is a ball is coming down, sizing them up, and trying to get in your bag, right? I always tell them let the game come to use, don't force it, right? Get easy buckets, let that psychological momentum go, like flow, and then you will start getting those tougher buckets where you're getting into your bag, right? That's how players get into the flow, and if that's the case, they have the green light. If we have someone on the team that's gain hot, right, then they have the green light to go and score. But we always prioritize on at the start, right? Is you know, gain our paint touches, right? Quick decisions, don't let one person guard two get in and out of the paint, right? A lot of these conceptual ideas that make our offense so good. And so, yeah, again, talking about that, and I think this is a another big area where um other other teams can improve, is is stop teaching these athletes how to be robots. A lot of the a lot of the teams I play basketball on, we had set plays. So you go from A to B to C, and if it doesn't work, then you you just run it again, right? I teach these guys a conceptual offense, um, so that's a lot more like decision making, right? Like a lot more free flowing, less scripted offense. We literally had two, three triggers slash actions um that we would run this year. Obviously, we might add a bit more in the coming years, but that's all we needed, right? Our goal is if there's nothing in transition, that's when we slow it down, run an action to start the advantage. Once we gain an advantage on the defense, right, we use our quick decisions, right? You know, attacking off the dribble, and uh quick decisions. I mean, when you catch, you're like 0.5 in 0.5 seconds, you're either shooting, passing, or driving, right? And we're creating chaos in the defense. And our goal is to maintain this advantage and then capitalize on it with a high quality shot. So a catch and shoot three or a layup, right? So we're teaching them efficient, effective basketball, right? We're teaching them how to be better decision makers and be versatile. This is gonna help them in so many different ways. Like again, we talked about how the end goal is to help them get to their their end goal, right? So if it's college basketball, then that's that's the goal, and this kind of stuff is gonna help them because it's great if you can go through a a play that you know go A B C, but what happens if you know there's something thrown at you that you weren't ready for because you didn't practice that in off in in in practice by teaching them basketball like this, again, they're able to adapt, they're able to overcome things, and that's gonna translate to higher level basketball. So, the other thing I kind of want to get into is the my coaching style. Okay, I think this was big. Um got a lot of praise from like some of the parents just about how how happy they were with the team this year, um, and just like the the experience and just like just everything, right? And just how well their kids played on the team. And I think that comes down to again, they were given the opportunity because they weren't treated like robots where they had to go through the motion, it was just it was like free-flowing, and they and I had trust in them that they were gonna make the right decision and the right read. And that I think goes a long way, and that's why they feel more comfortable out there and that they perform better. And I always told them I will never sub you out for missing a shot, right? It would be crazy for a coach, even though this happens all the time, to get mad at a player for missing a wide open three. It is not their fault if they wanted to make the three, they would have, right? This is again comes back to the controllables versus non-controllables. Making a shot is not a controllable. You can do everything in your power to make a shot, but sometimes they just do not fall, right? So again, what I get mad at for and what I sub for is lack of effort, lack of intensity, right? Defense, like if you're not playing defense, you don't play, right? On offense, like like as long as you're not like being a ball hog or you know, over-dribbling or something, then you then you'll play, right? If you can't control your emotions, then you don't play. But it come for me, it comes down to a lot of again, these controllables versus non-controllables. So the other one is I always and I I notice this against teams that we play. The coach on the other sideline is screaming. Um and I again I have parents mentioned like how you know I'm just kind of like calm, collected. I'm not really doing like I'm not, I doesn't look like I'm doing anything on the sideline. Because as a coach, there's not much you can do when the game is happening, and I think coaches get that mistaken. Everything comes from preparation in practice, that's where you coach, and even that you shouldn't be coaching like the it should be like a maybe 20 to 80 ratio, like 20% of the time I'm talking, 80% of the time they're doing the drills or games or whatever, right? Like our practices, they they learn through the game. I might stop it and give them some feedback or talk to set the drill up, but they're learning through the game. Everything we do is live with decisions, advantages, creating advan, and they learn through the game, and that's that's how it translates so good. But this is where the preparation comes from. And when we get to a game, I I don't yell because there's no point. Players already have so much to focus on in the game that you yelling is just adding external noise that for them to process. So now you're distracting them from the game. And by you yelling, it just shows that you have a lack of faith in your players. I don't yell because one, it's not gonna help, and two, I trust my players to make the right decisions, the right reads, right? And if I do talk to my players, it's at during a whistle, right? It's during a timeout, during a free throw. I'm talking to players on the bench, but I'm never yelling at them from across the court. And if it is, it's like a like a quick, like cue, like a hustle, rebound, right? Like these one-liners, two, maybe two liner, like that they can just hear and be like, okay, okay, right. And especially when you're playing in like an AAU setting where there's so many courts and so much going on, players are gonna have a tough time hearing you, right? So once they get out there, coaches need to realize it's not really up to the coaches, it's up to the players, and you have to help them prepare for that, and you have to trust them and let them know that you believe in them. And I think we did a pretty good job of that, and I think that's why we saw a lot of success. And so again, a couple other coaching things, and this comes more to a like practice, and maybe even outside the games, is is is one is stop being a dictator, right? I had a lot of coaches that thought because they're the coach, they were above everyone else. Right? Now there is some authority, right? Like I My coaching style, I approach it very I I am a younger coach, so I you know it's a I it's easier for me to um relate to them and talk to them about stuff, but I think all coaches should develop um relationships with their players that go on be like go beyond even basketball. Like Greg Popovich was a great example of this. Um I read a book, I think it's the culture code, and they talk about Greg Popovich and how he created culture in his practice and in the Spurs um uh franchise. And it just shows because now you got players, you you don't see a lot of players leave the Spurs by choice, and then you got them staying to work in the front office when they retire. Now you got Tim Duncan like taking care of Greg Popovic after like his stroke. That just goes to show the the connection Popovich had with his players. Now there still has to be some sort of respect, right? I always tell my players, like, you know, if I'm talking, you don't talk, because that's also what I expect with other people. Like, like if one of our players is talking about his thoughts on the game and somebody interrupts him, it it's the same thing. I expect when somebody when a player is talking, we all listen and we're not talking over them, right? So again, but again, I think that relationship you guys need you really need to foster a relationship with these players, right? They they walk into the the gym, I'm dapping them up, I'm saying hi, you know, asking what they thought about the game. Like I'm just talking to them, right? And we're able to have conversations about really anything. Um, and that kind of goes into my next point, and that's just keeping basketball fun, right? When you're a dictator and again, you make them run because they didn't make the right pass or something. No, basketball should be fun at the end of the day. Don't be the one that ruins it and makes them switch sports or quit basketball, right? And again, another big one here is don't just don't run players for no reason. I that's one of my biggest pet peeves is running players because they made a mistake or something. The only time I run players is if they're again, it comes down to the controllables, if they're being disrespectful to me or another player, or um like again, they're talking over me or someone or another player. Maybe if they're again like misbehaving, like if we're trying to practice and they're just and nobody's like locked in, I might take go through one suicide because then they're like, okay, let's you know, let's get let's get work into here, right? The only other times we run are as a not a like a punishment, but like if we are playing four on four, I'll be like, okay, losing team runs a suicide. Because that just does a great job of creating an incentive. Because now everyone's gonna be like, well, I don't want to run, and they're gonna they're gonna play harder, right? So I think that's the best time to use it. Don't just run them for the sake of running them, and it's not the best form of cardio. If you want to get players better or um more in shape, roll the ball out and just play five on five full court, get them moving, right? This way they're gonna and you maybe set a fast shot clock, so it's just a lot of transition or something. This way they're getting reps up while working on their cardio, and it's actually more um demanding because they're also making there's mental fatigue too, because they're making decisions, the competitiveness too, all that goes into just more um cardio that's gonna be more effective, and it's also just gonna help them prepare for the games more often. So, with that being said, that's kind of all I had on this point. But I again I think there's a lot here that can be taken and applied to other programs to really maximize it, right? And it's again, I think the main ones are creating that culture, right, where players feel welcome, where the coaches are, you know, not such a like a dictator. There's still obviously that respect, but you know, you're like friends with them, like you can talk to them, they can come to you for advice, um, mentorship. You know, they there's a problem going on outside of basketball. They you should be someone they feel safe talking to about all that, right? Um, and you're gonna get a lot more buy-in, right? You're gonna get just they're gonna feel it more safe, comfortable, and they're gonna perform better and enjoy their time more. And that's another that's probably one of the biggest goals of this, all this. Um, I think again, the other stuff is aligning the values and goals, you know, the development over the winning, the team over the self, um the the additional practices, right? Again, the development, development, development, and then the coaching style, right? Like how I talked about the yelling, the game mad, less talking on the sidelines. I think all of that goes into creating a but better team experience and a better player experience, better parent experience, just a better experience for everybody involved, and I think you will see the benefits of it as well. So that's all I have to say on that. Um, it's this is honestly being one of the best experiences of my life, like running this team, and I wouldn't trade it for anything, like it's truly been just amazing, and I can't wait to keep learning and improving myself. But I really wanted to get on here, share my experience with you guys so far. Like my experience, like this is my first year coaching, a team. So I wanted to share that with you kind of my takeaways and what I think as a basketball community we need to be doing better to really help our athletes develop, improve, and enjoy the sport even more. I hope you enjoyed today's episode of Defy the Odds Basketball the podcast. If you did, please make sure to leave a like, follow, subscribe, share, do whatever you can, as it does greatly help out, and I do really appreciate it. And like always, if you have anything that you want me to go over in the future, please just drop a comment and I'll make sure to go over it. I'll see you all in the next episode.