Thoughts for an Off-Season Diet Plan
Do you believe that athletes have special diet plans? The thing is that athletes only need more from their diet to meet the demands of their corresponding sports. Athletes maintain a healthy diet Just as the same as anybody else who are health conscious. No matter how mouthful their appetites are, it does not really matter if they eat that much. It is because they can easily burn all of those with their continuous activities on their respective sports. However, compared to most individuals, athletes are the most disciplined ones when it comes to their diet. They are mindful not to get excess fats. It may be very hard and heavy for them to move, jump, or run. That would be another burden for them and for the coaches as well.
Read MoreThings to consider when taking over a Basketball Program
As coaches there are big things you envision for the basketball program that you are headed to take over. Although the process is not easy and involves a lot of patience, understanding and cool, the positive events that unfold are always gratifying. Some of the best coaches have said that »Success lies in its simplicity; it is a process and not an event.« Although as coaches we might want a quick fix to every issue that crops up either with players or their games and attitudes, the key here lies in analyzing the situation at first and then organizing a strategy that works for you as well as your team. Being a coach is all about being a leader and the approach when taking over a program is the same as in business.
Read MoreCorporations, Business and Basketball
Basketball has many different playing levels and different styles of leagues all around. From the professional competitive leagues, to recreational leagues, and even youth, it all comes down to money in the end. You need money to travel, to afford equipment, and to do a wide array of other tasks that aren’t listed here. Most of the time the fund raising efforts depending on the level of play are handled by the team, or specific staff members that work for them team, but often one aspect that is left completely out of the loop are corporations and businesses that make donations.
Donations of any sort are an absolute essential part of any sports team. You require money to cover your costs, weather you are a professional team paying your players a salary, or a recreational team just looking to cover equipment and other costs. Without a certain amount of money coming into your team, you would quickly find yourself in a hole that could cause your team’s performance to drop, or even cause your team to not exist.
When you approach a business or corporation for money, it is ALWAYS best to have a proper plan laid out for how much money you need to take care of your costs, and show how you would spend any money’s that were given to you. Without the plan, and without a proper presentation, you will likely strike out in your attempts to gain funds. Many teams, charities, and other groups are looking to seize the funding that is out there for grabs, so if you come to the table unprepared, you will be setting yourself up for nothing but rejection and negative images. If it is your first time fundraising for a team, just think of what it is that would have you giving money to an organization if you were approached. Would you give money to someone who walked up simply with their hand held out, or would you give to the people that explained why they need the money, and how they plan on using the money.
With the current costs of operating a team at all levels of sport sky rocketing, you cannot rely on the old fundraising techniques. While you previously may have been able to rely solely on the donations from the private sector, you may now have to seek places willing to sponsor your team to provide you with the money.
While some people will shy away from trying to get corporate dollars, and don’t want to look like they are begging, businesses and corporations are frequently willing to sponsor teams and players of all skill levels and play levels. If you offer them some advertising in return for their investment you will even be able to form long term relationships that will go that extra step in ensuring that your team will be financially stable for years to come.
Not every team has to fund raise, some have owners or coaches that are able to afford the daily fees out of pocket, but for those that need to get outside sources of funding, don’t count businesses and corporations out of your equation, they can play a big role!
Photo credit: pittaya
Read MoreEssential Items in your Sports Bag
Your equipment bag is one of your most important tools for on and off the court. It contains any essentials that you need for your practice, along with anything you may need for situations that may arise throughout the practice.
Ensuring that your equipment bag is fully stocked is one thing that some players overlook and underestimate the importance of. While ensuring that your equipment bag has the essentials, you also have to ensure that is all it contains, and that valuables and other items are left behind if they aren’t necessary.
While most teams provide their team with water or refreshment of some sort, it is always in a player’s best interest to ensure that they have a bottle of water or Gatorade with them in the practice bag, on a just in case basis. This ensures that the player has their own source of refreshment and that is essential to the practice.
Another highly important item is the equipment itself. You should have your basketball sneakers in the bag, along with a practice jersey, pair of shorts, and any protective equipment that you may require. This could be eye, knee pads, elbow pads, etc.
You may also want to carry some base items like Tylenol. Some players get headaches or minor pains, and while some condemn the carrying of Tylenol, it seems a bit silly to let a headache or minor pain derail your practice or downgrade it’s quality. Being prepared in all aspects includes thinking of the things that you will rarely use, but are prepared for just in case. Just ensure that you adhere to the guidelines on any medications that you will potentially consume, and ensure that if it is prescription based or you have any prescriptions, that you review the use of Tylenol or other medicines with your family doctor before you take them.
Fresh change of clothes will also be a welcome addition to your equipment bag. No one wants to go home after practice, smelling like practice. It doesn’t have to be your Sunday finest, just a t-shirt, pair of jogging pants, socks, and shoes would suffice.
Some minor toiletries are also a good idea. Shampoo, deodorant, and a little body spray, are the minimums that you will need. While they seem like unimportant things that don’t really matter, in the end they will go a long way.
While some of these things may seem trivial and unnecessary, they go a long ways in ensuring that you have the most productive and pleasurable experience. These items are the bare essentials and while there are many other items that could be included, they would do nothing but clutter up your bag unnecessarily. In the end just ensuring that you have the above items will send a message to coach and team that you are ready, willing, and able to do your part in the practice. That will go far in showing the type of person, and player that you are!
[info_box]Picture credit: Mat Honan • Creative Commons Attribution[/info_box]
Read MoreCoach’s Equipment and Tools
While a coach’s role has changed over the years, so has the tools and ways his job is done. A coach used to have a ball, a chalk board, chalk, and some film. That was it. Now these days you have all of that, the internet, a considerably larger sized fan base, as well as the popular professional aspect. Coaches have to not only deal with their team, but they now have to deal with the public relations aspect far more often than they used to. There have been new methods and tools developed over the years to help coaches and teams deal with these newer changes and tasks that face them.
The internet and its many uses have made their way to the spotlight. While a lot of junk is available on the internet, and a lot of crap is spewed by those that pretend they know everything from the safety of being behind their monitor, there is a lot of positive material online. In the right spots, coaches will be able to network with other coaches and gain valuable advice and tips. Coaches may also to just bang heads together with other coaches and solve problems that would otherwise escape them and cause unnecessary frustrations. As mentioned above you must exercise extreme caution when going online to find any materials.
Another internet usage for coaches is the ability to keep in touch with their team, and provide them with potential new work out ideas or other activities that they could do around the house to not only stay in shape, but to improve their game. Often the value of the internet is horribly warped and misrepresented when in today’s age; it has become a unique and hard to beat tool in the everyday coaching life.
Aside from the informational uses that the internet provides coaches, it also allows them an avenue in which they can shop around to obtain gear for their team. This allows a coach to shop literally worldwide in a matter of seconds, getting the best prices that are possible for what the team needs. Before the internet days, coaches were restricted to wholesalers and local vendors. While some people would say it is destroying local business, it is just going to force them to become more competitive.
Coaches also have the choice of practicing outside at a great many locations now with the boom in popularity of basketball. Parks, Schools, and various other locations are installing full basketball courts, and they are constantly in use. This also can be used as a recruitment tool by coaches as they can have their team out on display and show people that may think of playing at some point what kind of things a basketball team does. The level of personal interaction that it provides was often not accessible before because basketball wasn’t as popular, and people would just walk on past. Now when folks are playing basketball outdoors, people stop and look, and even stay for a time and watch!
Coaches have a full complement of tools available to them now, it is up to them to find which ones best fit their team and the needs of it, and get the ball rolling!
Photo credit: SD Dirk
Read More
Recent Comments