Impact Tourney Reflection

All 3 teams did a fantastic job playing against Impact Academy, especially the BC1 & BC2 teams who played against older boys. This was a good test for our boys considering all the Impact players train twice a day and lift weights once a day EVERYDAY. Playing against this sort of competition really gave our boys an idea of what its like to play on a high level where EVERY possession counts. This level of competition also brought to light some of our boys lack of aggression on both ends of the court. It is important for them to understand to compete in the States you have to be ULTRA AGGRESSIVE on offense and defense and be able to play like this consistently. The boys have to be confident in their abilities and be able to perform under intense circumstances.

One other thing I observed during this time was a lot of negative body language. In this realm of basketball, this is unacceptable and will be detrimental to advancement to higher levels. The first questions ALL the college coaches and scouts asked was, "What sort of kid is he?" and "How does he play within a team?" In most cases, you can just watch a player on the court and get the answers to these questions. If a player yells or swears or slumps his shoulders or makes a offensive body motions because he missed a shot or if he didn't get the ball when he thought he was open or when he turns the ball over or commits a foul, this will give you a good idea what sort of player you are dealing with. These actions are observed so closely because they are like "cancer". Once one person starts, it spreads through the team like cancer and eventually the team will implode. In this level of basketball no coach will tolerate this sort of behaviour.