Lets start by defining some terms frequently used in youth basketball today.

Recreational Ball (I use the word recreational instead of rec because it gives it more accurate description of what it is)

This is slightly higher level than school PE. 2 team practices a week. Games on the weekend. (sounds similar to something else we see?)

Objectives: Teach the game to the kids. Teach kids to love the game. Teach the basics.

Outcome: Because there is a trophy at the end and it is run by adults. – Whatever it takes to win. Zone, 1 man show on offense, stacked teams.

 AAU Ball/travel ball

The most misunderstood concept in the game today. It was originally meant for the best 16-17 year olds in an area to play against the best from another area. It was meant for coaches to see you play with the best against the best. Hence travel ball.Travel ball itself implies you cannot find competition in your area and must travel to find competition.  It was NOT meant for 6th graders much less 2nd graders.

This concept also implies that if you are on a travel ball club..you must be one of the best. Otherwise why would you be on an AAU team. So parents are willing to pay a lot of money for the privilege to say “my son plays travel”. As long as that is the case, club directors will make sure you are on a team. They will create a team full of these paying players. We have seen them play. Not pretty.

 Academy

Not many out there..as a matter of fact I don’t know of any real academies. Academies require a long term plan. It requires a culture with the long game in mind and not the end of the weekend in mind. Think of the progression of Love the game->Learn to Train->Train to Train->Learn to compete->Train to compete->Learn to win->Compete to win.

Name one club that follows this model.

 The Environment

Given these three models which best describes what we see in the OC every weekend? I would say it is a combination of Recreational Ball and AAU Ball.  It is recreational ball on steroids. Run like recreational ball.. *2 practices, games on weekend.. but adults can select what tournaments to play in, what division, what age..etc. if most are willing to stack teams as board members in recreational ball what do you think most will do given the opportunity to select their roster, div, age on a given weekend.

 We played in a tournament on the weekend of March 16-17..just a regular weekend. There were at least 4 tournaments that weekend with an average of 80 teams. That is 320 teams. Do you think there are 320 quality teams in so cal? Average roster size of 7 players ..2240 players..do you think there are that many good players? Average of 3 games per team that is 960 games. 2 refs per game..1920 good refs?..now I realize 99% of refs do more than 1 game. Many do 15 per weekend. So 128 refs doing 15 games in 2 days? CRAZY!!!!! That is the matrix defined.

These are just facts. Excuse the commentary. So, the next time we play against stacked teams, tired or terrible refs, bad score keepers, etc. Just remember the environment we are playing in. Awareness, really puts things into perspective. Purpose is what gives you clarity and peace in the matrix.  If your purpose is to win every weekend, you will be subject to the rules of the matrix and like many will be chewed up and split like many by the matrix. You will start playing by the rules of the matrix. Start playing down or holding back your kids, all in the race to nowhere. Because the end is on Sunday and the cycle repeats every week.

If your purpose is growth and development then you can use the matrix instead of the other way around. Your purpose is what will keep you grounded. To survive the matrix you must have awareness of the environment you are walking into and remember the purpose of why you are walking into it. Purpose and awareness must constantly be your focus because the matrix is strong! 

So where does that leave IBA? Well we want to be an academy. An academy that teaches mastery and uses basketball as the muse. See, the path to mastery is constant. The muse might change but the path is constant. Discipline, purposeful work, study, engagement, commitment and consistency.  Why are more people not doing it? Because it is hard.  Name the best academies in the world ..most if not all are boarding schools. The very best academies are actually military affiliated. Why? Because they close off the students from the matrix. They are able to control the narrative. Students will follow but not when they don’t know who to follow..when there are conflicting voices. The less mature they are the more they are prone to swing with the different winds.

If we are clear in where the mission lies..then we can let it dictate and clarify the hows and the whats.

We cant have the students 7 days a week physically but technology allows us to maintain the relationship by other means.

It allows us to have more control of the narrative by encouraging what we want repeated.

How does this apply to our plans:

• The way we train
  • Principle driven (fun being a focal point)
  • Systems on systems
    • Become creatures of habit
      • pre/post routines
      • Lessons taught in progression- Built on top of each other
      • Teach as though you have years to develop because you do. Most will overestimate what they can accomplish in year but under estimate what they can accomplish in a 5 years.
    • Encourage and celebrate consistently
      • Determination means doing what you have to do even when you don’t feel like it. Sometimes instead of getting on a player for having a bad workout, celebrate it is his 10^th workout in row.
    • Encourage and celebrate WTF (willing to fail)

• The way we play
  • Skill driven. Give the players the tools and a style of play that allows them to use and explore them
  • Games – Used as feed back on the lessons. Exploration of the skills are encouraged, even if it leads to learning opportunities (failure)

Offensive system we run need to reflect this. Pre and post game talks need to reflect this.

The biggest trick the matrix pulled over on us is that we have to live by their rules. I stopped playing the cards that I was dealt the day I realized I owned the fucking deck!

Show the players the path they will need to take towards mastery.

Show them the tools they will need in their bag for their journey (not many basketball tools by the way. I can get a lot further with a little basketball and a lot of discipline than I can with a little discipline and a lot of basketball).