Well I have just returned from the U18 National Championships where I was an Assistant Coach to the U18 SA Metro Men. Other Centrals people in beautiful Gosford for the Championships were Daniel Carlin (Team Member U18 SA Metro Men) and Trudy Ireland (Assistant Coach U18 SA Country Women).

I thought I would put a brief rundown here on the championships. I would strongly encourage our coaches to consider getting involved in the Championships and would be happy to advise any interested coaches on the process and experience they are looking for in an Assistant Coach.

For the athlete, the preparation is gruelling. Trials start in October and around 65 hopefuls (mostly the best kids in the Div 1 district competitions) are whittled down to 10 team members plus 5 reserves by February.

Most are doing Yr 12 and would play District on Friday nights, State Training on Saturday mornings (2.5 hrs), District training (2 hrs) on Sunday mornings and State Training on Sunday afternoons (3.5 hrs including ice recovery in SASI recovery Centre). In the latter phases of the process we scrimmaged against ABL teams on Monday evenings, the athletes have a midweek club training, SASI training on Thursday nights and most would also be doing some kind of extra gym or skills work. Daniel Carlin for example was doing 3xsessions per week of weights at 6:30 AM. Its clear that for an athlete to compete at this level they must be highly motivated and have an excellent work ethic. Getting to know them, most are doing quite well in their schooling and are above average students.  The majority of these athletes are outstanding individuals on and off the floor.

The staff on the trip include the State Coaching Director, 2 Assistant Coaches, 1 Head Coach, Team Manager and Team Physio. All have their own roles to ensure the success of the team is maximised.

On the trip the athletes have their mobile phones taken from them and are only allowed laptops in rare circumstances where they may have homework. Their contact is limited with the outside world to ensure that they are absolutely focussed on their team and achieving success without parent influences and distractions and updates on stats and forums on the athlete/team performances etc.

A typical day of the trip for an Assistant Coach starts at 9 PM the day prior and finnishes at around 2 AM and during this time we are reviewing tape of the other team and making a cut of their offensive tendancies/plays, defensive tendancies/structure and individual player tendancies. The Coaching staff discuss (and often debate) their schedule for the following day, review that day's game and more importantly discuss how best to beat the team for the next day. We arise at around 7:30 AM for breakfast and to get ready for the following day. Generally we are ready to depart for training at 9 AM. We train for 1 hour and generally shoot, refine our game plan for the day's game and do walkthroughs of the opposition's offenses and the defensive rules for the opposition. We would arrive back to our hotel at 11 AM and have an hour of free time where I tended to go for a run around beautiful Terrigal. Team lunch would be at 12 PM followed by another couple of hours of free time. At 2:30 PM we would have a team meeting to review our goals for the coming game. All players have a player diary and record the team goals in their diary as directed by the coaching staff. We then review the tape for the coming game which continues to reinforce the strengths and weaknesses of the matchups for each player and shows the opposition's defensive structure. Players are quized on how we will guard each scenario based on the walkthroughs done earlier in the day. It never ceases to amaze how highly intelligent our athletes are. At 3:05 PM we would depart for our game which starts at 4 PM. We arrrive at the stadium at 3:20 PM and athletes begin their warmups with the physio before visiting the change rooms for our final chat. Then they are oncour to warmup, do the intros and play. By the time the athlete plays they know what plays the other team runs, how they will guard us and the strengths and weaknesses of their opposition. One Assistant Coach focusses on our Offense looking at our most effective plays, streaky players, mismatches to exploit or any defensive changes. The other coach looks at our defence and ensures the players are following the scout at all times.
After the game players are often allowed 15 minutes of "parent time" where they can catchup with their parents and family, and after that we head back to the hotel arriving at 5:45 PM. We then do a team meeting to review the game and score our goals for that game. The score is recorded in each player's diary. Recovery takes place and we used the pool (for stretching and movement) and ice treatment where each player spent 1 minute in a whellie bin filled with Ice and Water for 1 minute for 3 rotations. This finnishes at around 6:45 PM and the Assistant Coaches head back to the stadium to watch opposition games and tape the games.

Typically at the games are ITC coaches from across Australia, Australian Coaching staff, NBL and college scouts, a plethora of people scouting the games of teams they will compete against and also some very passionate parents, fans and locals.

Its an awesome week and each one I go on I learn so much and make great new friends with fellow coaches, team managers and the athletes themselves. Its an honour to work as part of such a highly motivated team, with athletes and coaches that are highly experienced, talented and many of whom will continue up on the basketball pathway and I have made some great friendships at National Championships.  I would say with only a few exceptions for the athletes and coaches that take part in the championships it is an experience that is very fondly remembered and I would encourage as many of our athletes to plan and set goals around striving to compete in Nationals, representing their state.

I could go on about things such as tendencies and trends of teams at this level, skillsets and work ethic of players that make it to a state team but I'll leave it there and encourage you all to send me any questions you may have.

Cheers,

Andrew Jantke