Cyber Max

Ok so you have been on a few softball or soccer teams where there is one good kid who plays much better then all the rest. Most of the games he/she carries the team and it is expected that he/she will raise to any occasion if needed. How do you deal with this as a coach? What is the reason for the team? To win right? That should be simple then. Play the good kid all the time. Wrong and here is why.

We will take a not so big step from youth sports to military training. What do they have in common? Just about everything. Lets take a look at it more closely. They both have individuals of different abilities when they start. They have one goal. Many ways to achieve it. Rules to play (or fight as it were) within. They have to hang together to be effective. And they have to like one another.

There are two aspects to a team. First its physical aspect. How fast it is. How strong and so on. Then we have the mental aspect. How well it can think. React. Keep it together. Deal with stress. You can train the first all you want but without the second you will have no chance at all to succeed. Why is this? Because we are only as good as we think we are. Allow me to illustrate with a story about children and flees. In South America children would put flees into a jar and place the lid back on. Once the flee started to jump it would bump into the lid of the jar. After only a few minutes the flee would stop jumping as high and just jump low enough to avoid the lid. At this point the flee was let out of the jar, but would never again jump higher then the lit had allowed. We are no different, we too react to limitations. We will not keep running into a locked door or try to walk on water. We learn very quickly from observation. it has long been thought that the military will break you down so they can build you up to be a robot that follows orders. That is a load of stuff for sure. Nobody is broken down ever. A broken soldier is worth nothing. A soldier who stops thinking he is better then the guy next to him, is. When you should a group of people they can do something they did not think they could, they bold through the positive experience. Don’t get me wrong, they bond through negative too, but that is for another article.

The power of positive. So let’s say we have to show some year olds how to be a better soccer team. Would it be better to tell them what they did wrong or to tell them what they did right? Yeah, you got it. Stick with the positive here. So in order to get them on the right track, break down the task at hand and feed them a part at a time. In the example we are trying to show them how to pass the ball more effectively. What is involved in this? Well we have the ability to understand where to shoot the ball in the first place. To the open stop or right to the player. That would depend on some guide lines so take the simpler, pass the player. Next we have the act of kicking the ball straight and hard enough. Then we have the act of receiving the ball without it bouncing off our foot and away from us.

Don’t line up the group and ask them to pass one another. Why? Because you will have some kids who will ave played at home and can already do it and some that cannot. All you do is divide the team into the “can” and “cannot” groups. Fear that state, fear it with your life. Instead what you do is say, “We are going to play a new game”. Make up some game that is allowing the players to perform the action you want to practice, but without the negative of “why do I have to, I already know how to shoot”. This is not the time for individuals, this is the time for team. Now have all the kids do the game, make it simple enough so that they all can do it, but at the same time hard enough so that it actually helps them. Once you ave mastered this, move on to some other exercise that build upon the first. Again, keeping a keep eye out for making the whole team arrive at the goal together. All or none. Must be together.

What you will have in the end of this is a team that thinks well of each other. Where gifted player had respect for the not so gifted player because they both can do what is required. The team also needs to learn that they only get to the end by arriving together. If you have any reservations about this, just remember that if it is good enough for the special forces around the world, it is good enough for you. They train as a team, they live as a team and they win as a team.

Now go and build your team.

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Directions:

The three ball cascade is the easiest juggling pattern in existence. It is a starting point for everything else that jugglers do. Learning to juggle this pattern is also good for cross-training as it greatly improves hand-eye co-ordination, concentration, and many other aspects of your physical and mental self. You’ve come to this page already, so don’t stop now. Let’s learn to juggle!

Step One: Pick up one ball and stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Start throwing the ball from hand to hand, aiming for an imaginary point just over the opposite shoulder of the hand you are throwing from. Don’t follow the ball with your eyes, instead look at this point and throw the ball into your vision. It is unnecessary to look at the ball when it is in your hands. Besides, when you are juggling three balls you will be using this time to look at the next ball as it reaches this desired point. When you are catching the ball cushion it by bringing down your hand at the same time the ball hits it. Continue this motion by scooping your hand into a throwing motion. Throw the ball to that imaginary point.

Step Two: Pick up a second ball. Throw the first ball just like you learned in the previous step. This time, just as the first ball has reached its peak and is beginning to fall, throw the second ball. Once again, throw it like you learned in step one. Now, catch the first ball and then catch the second. Think about what you have done and how you can correct any errors then try again. DO NOT pass the second ball from hand to hand (like this), make sure that you are THROWING the ball and make sure that the second throw is the same height as the first. Step two is called the exchange.

Step Three: It is now time to juggle all three balls. Hold two balls in one hand and one ball in the other. Throw first ball (the hand with two balls throws first) and then second ball (this is in the hand with one ball) just like in step two. However, this time instead of catching both balls and stopping, throw the third ball just as the second ball has reached its peak and is beginning to fall. Catch the 2nd and 3rd ball (you should have already caught the first ball by now. You have just gone once through the three ball cascade. After you are comfortable doing what I just described, try doing four throws, then five, and so on until you can basically juggle this pattern for as long as you want. Oh, and one last thing. Many people throw father forward than they should when they are first learning to juggle. If this is the case for you, simply practice against a wall.

Quinn Spicker is the webmaster of http://www.Circus-Street.com, an online community for circus artists and their fans…

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Nate McMillan after years and years with the Sonics franchise finally left for the Blazers gig. Bob Weiss, a Dick Cheney look-alike, won the favor of Ray Allen and receieved the head coach spot. Other than him, the Sonics lost solid defender Antonio Daniels to the Wizards and Center Jerome James to New York. Other than that it’s the same team.

The Sonics identity is starting to mirror that of Sacramento and Dallas: great offense with little defense. Offensively it’s an odd starting five. No offense at all comes from Center and Power Forward [more on that later]. Rashard Lewis and Ray Allen are offensive stars that can create their own points whenever they want. Luke Ridnour can hit a three when he has to; normally he does a good job dishing it to everyone else. The Sonics score 100.6 PPG and put themselves in a situation to win every night.

Like Sacramento and Dallas, they play defense bad enough to allow the other team to stay in it as well. Allowing a League-high 104.8 PPG, they play a stand around defense that Nate McMillan would never accept. One reason why they allow teams to manhandle them is they have serious rebounding problems. Ranking a modest 30th in the NBA in rebounding, they gather only 37.7 boards a game.

Weiss has tried numerous players to cover the Center position. Since it’s rebounding they need, Danny Fortson would be a logical choice. However he’s been injured and hasn’t been able to fill in. Johan Petro, Nick Collison, Vitaly Potapenko, Reggie Evans and Vladimir Radmanovic have all started at Center/Power Forward, and none of them have broken away from the pack.

After staring out 2-7, the Seattle Sonics have closed to the .500 mark. Minnesota could quickly drop out of it and give the Sonics the division. But they need to do several things. First they need to trade for a Center with potential; a team should never have to start Vitaly Potapenko. Then they need to find a backup PG, that or start playing Rick Brunson. Last year they started of 9-1 on route to the division win. They have the wins down, but the losses are coming a lot quicker. Unless they start to play defense, they aren’t a postseason contender.

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