today was the first day of training camp. my day started at 7am, but it was difficult to sleep, as i knew we had a long day ahead of us. every slamball team now has 36 days to perfect their system and philosophy - to prepare their players for battle - to test the limits of their ability again and again in an attempt to push the sport into the next phase.we started out the day with a team meeting, the first time the mob sat down and discussed the upcoming season. we welcomed our new rookies and our veterans shared their experiences over the past season(s). all in all it was a great meeting, and on day one, the team already felt like a family. you can tell our rookies are anxious to get out on the court to test themselves. i really like the guys too. having worked with lamonica, sean and noah before, we drafted true character guys who have unlimited potential. there are a lot of guys in the league i'd still love to have on my roster, but being limited to only 8 players, i feel very lucky to have the guys i do.
after the meeting coach hill and i made our way to the court while the guys got taped and pre-practice treatment. we practiced with the maulers today in the first official slamball practice of the season. it began at 10:15am. after doing the "bouncer lay-up drill" (patented by hernando plannells) we immediately got into full contact break drills. it didn't take long to see which players were ready for contact and which were not.
i spent much of the practice working with our two new stoppers, jeff morgan and delmonte blackwell. having lost one of the best stoppers in the league (kevin cassidy) we need one or both of these guys to develop and to do so quickly. i can't tell you how quick the improvement was on their timing from the beginning of practice to the end.
after an hour of full court practice, we went to the halfcourt and did some slamzone passing drills. as expected, our passing is an early sign of concern as many of our guys have football backgrounds and aren;t used to the finesse of distributing the ball, especially on a number of different axis. we will continue to work on our passing and limiting turnovers as camp progresses this week.
after a 2 hour practice, we had lunch. post lunch was a 2 hour basketball skills session in which we ran the team through basketball drills that would translate to the slamball court. lots of ball handling, passing and defensive slide drills were incorporated. as always, the highlight was watching 3 football players trying to perform a 3 man weave. i believe it took us 20 minutes to perfect it. all in all the guys did a great job and were in good spirits as we broke.
coach hill and i then had an afternoon coaches meeting and film session to prep for film later in the night and grabbed dinner. after dinner i had an opportunity to watch some of the bouncers-rousties practice and it was impressive. so many players on both teams look dangerous and i can't believe how much parity there will be in the league this year. for the first time in slamball's short history, ANY one of the 8 teams could truly take home the hardware.
we ended the day with a team film session and broke down one of the mob - riders games from season 2. it was surreal to watch kevin (cassidy) and chris (robbins) play sitting in a room without them. we will miss their heart tremendously but pick up where they left off. and they'll always be part of the mob family. our passing during that game was suspect but our defense was incredible as we came storming back late to claim victory within the last 30 seconds. sean jackson showed his defensive prowess with two big hits on george byrd in the open floor. kevin cassidy had the game of his life with 25 stops after only 3 quarters. the new mob took in the film and after it was over, i could tell they were one step closer to understanding what it's like on the floor during the war that is slamball.
it all starts again tomorrow. so tune in for day two, and as always go to http://www.slamball.net/ for more info.
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