I’m happy to say that my team has rebounded from a 1-2 start. We have went 2-0 since.
I’ve made adjustments as a coach and my players have been wonderful at continuing to work and grow. 2nd half of the season begins January 3rd..
I will use the rest of December to relax and regroup. It has been a long and exhausting year hosting tournaments, camps and now coaching.
Getting back into coaching has been an adjustment for me. The evening practices has been the biggest adjustment. Plus the mental fatigue. I’ve been practicing since the last week of October and last week was our first week of games with 3. Our current record is 1-2.
We won our first game 24-9. Lost second and third games 15-14 and 30-19. I have to be honest. I needed all three of the games-wins and loses. The win showed me that my players can implement what we go over. And my loses showed me that my players can implement what we go over. LOL!!!
I did not know what to expect out of 6th graders. I did not know if teams would press, play zone or play man-to-man. Well the game we won- the team did not press and played zone. The games we lost the teams did press and played man-to-man.
Guess what I had been working on for the first month of practice?? Offense against a zone defense.. Guess what I’ve been working on for the past week and a half?? LOL!!!
On Saturday, November 13th, over thirty girls participated in the 3rd Annual Granny’s Girls Basketball Camp. Former University of Memphis Lady Tiger, Patosha Jeffery, started the camp in 2008 to honor her grandmother, Mattie Mae Woods, who passed from lung cancer on February 6, 2008. This year’s camp generated 399 individual bottles of Ensure nutrition shakes. The camp included speed and agility skill sessions directed by Rob Weatherly of Velocity Sports Performance and basketball fundamental skill sessions by Patosha Jeffery. Ridgeway Baptist Church provided their Christian Life Center for no charge to support the cause.
Picture Slide Show
You probably know me as the Girls Basketball Trainer. But now I’m also Coach Jeffery or Coach Po Po.
Recently I accepted the position to coach the 6th grade squad at Hutchison School. It is a private all girls college preparatory school in Memphis. For the past 2 weeks, I have been going through tryouts and the first week of practice. I have a great group of players to work with. They are so involved. They play soccer. They play volleyball. They participate in plays. Now its my job to turn them into basketball players.
I also have been preparing for my upcoming 3rd Annual Granny’s Girls Basketball Camp. It’s my free camp in honor of my grandmother. She died of lung cancer in 2008. The camp help raises Ensure to be donated to the American Cancer Society. The camp will be held on Saturday, November 13.
This past Saturday, I attended the University of Memphis’ M Club Hall of Fame Ceremony. A college teammate of mine was inducted this year. Click here for the pictures.
As you see I have been quite busy. It does not stop here because basketball season kicks off in Memphis this weekend with the Millington High School playday.
WOW!!! I can’t believe the season is here!!!
I attended the University of Memphis M Club Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony to support my college teammate, Keeta Matthews. Several of my teammates were also in attendance. My former college coach, Coach Joye Lee-McNelis (current Southern Mississippi Head Women’s Basketball coach), even took a 1 day (6 hours both ways) trip from Hattiesburg, MS to support Keeta . Here are some pictures from the ceremony held at the University of Memphis Holiday Inn.
Linda Street, former Mitchell standout and Memphis Lady Tiger icon. Linda’s jersey is retired in the Elma Roane Fieldhous and ME, Patosha Jeffery.
Former Lady Tigers, Shannie Garner, Kitty Allen, Coach Joye Lee-McNelis, Patosha Jeffery, Missy Burkes, Shanna Humphries, Dwelia Smith
The crew acting silly
My training session last Saturday was one of the most amazing ever as a trainer. I had 5 young ladies in attendance. 1 – 5th grader, 3 – 6th graders and 1 – 7th grader. All of the players have been with me since February except for 1. And I have to tell you, its like everything clicked this day.
The 5th grader started training while in the 4th. She has always been the youngest of the group. I normally only allow 5th graders and up into my training program but I made an exception for her because her skill level was so advanced. Being the baby of the group, she sometimes act like the baby of the group. Sometimes she requires a little extra motivation. Especially when it comes to working on left hand layups. But today, she was focused and had more of an attitude of “I know I can”.
One of the 6th graders, is sprouting up so quickly. She is really getting tall. When she first arrived at my training, she would cross her arms while attempting to shoot. Now she is not crossing her arms as much. It also seems the more she grows the stronger she gets. Because she already has 3 point shooting range. And her athleticism is becoming more apparent. On layups, instead of going straight in for the layup, she would move towards the paint at a bad angle. But now, she is learning how to stretch on out and go directly in.
The other 6th grader is extremely small and seemed to always struggle with shooting and strength. But today, she was knocking down free throw after free throw. And you could see her confidence growing.
The 7th grader did not have any experience in basketball. A complete newbie. She is a lefty. She struggled with ball handling, shooting, layups, coordination. But on this Saturday, she broke out first in the Around the World shooting. She was knocking down shot after shot. She’s becoming more comfortable with right hand layups and her ball handling has greatly improved.
I am so proud of all these young ladies because they did not quit. They could have easily stopped attending training months ago.
Here is the workout:
Stations: Players were at each station for 6-7 minutes each
Ball Handling – 2 Ball Ladders
Agility: Ladder Doubles
Shooting: PoPo25
Free throws:
Layups: Left and Right
Shooting: Around the World
Game: Knock Out
WOW!!!
I have been busy the past couple of weeks. Since early September, I have been preparing for a speaking engagement at the 3rd Annual Expanding Your Horizons Conference (EYH) held on Saturday, September 25th at the University of Memphis. It is a one-day conference in math and science for girls grades 6-9. They attend hands-on workshops in science, healthcare, engineering, computers; talk with women professionals about careers; and the parents attend workshops in educational preparation and student life.
It was a great experience. I spoke to 115 middle school girls and 23 parents about my experience in technology, the internet and, of course, my love of girls basketball. Can you imagine speaking to a group of over 100 people?? It was pretty cool.
Next up was my 2nd Annual Patosha Jeffery’s Pre-Season Show Off Camp. It was on Saturday, October 2 at Ridgeway Baptist Church in Memphis, TN. 61 players participated and displayed their skills to college coaches and recruiting/scouting media, learned about the importance of academic eligibility, and also learned several ways to market themselves to college coaches. The players were from Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. College coaches in attendance included Alcorn State, Christian Brothers University, Jackson State, Louisiana Tech, UT Martin, Troy University, North Alabama and Three Rivers Community College.
Boy was I exhausted… I did not host a mini-camp during this time..But I will be back in the gym this Saturday.. I plan to take the players through stations of shooting, ball handling, free throws and agility..Then continue with a series of shooting drills.. Maybe I will post some of the drills in my next diary entry.
Last week I also got 2 new DVDs to add to my library, All Access Practice with Geno Auriemma and Alan Stein’s Explosive Conditioning for Basketball Players. That makes a total of 8 new DVDs I’ve added to my library this year. Back in the Summer I got Sylvia Hatchell’s Drills for the Quick Break System, Five Star Basketball Pre-Game Multi-Position Workouts, Multiple Scoring Options for Your Post Players, Tom Crean: Post and Perimeter Fundamental Drills, Gary Williams: Mastering the Flex Offense and Andy Landers: Building a Tenacious Full Court Pressure Defense..
Enjoy the pictures from the EYH event.
I was back in the gym this past Saturday hosting a mini-camp. It felt good getting back in the gym and working with the players. We missed the past 2 weeks because of activities at the facility.
I started the training off with the following motivational quote.
“I advise you to say your dream is possible and then overcome all inconveniences, ignore all the hassles and take a running leap through the hoop, even if it is in flames.”
-Les Brown
I normally have a couple of the players tell me what it means to them, however, today I told them that I would email the quote to them and that I would like for them to email me what it means to them. I’m anxious to see what responses I get.
The theme of the training has been pre-season conditioning. I have this theme because we are getting close to the fall season so I have the young ladies do more full court drills.
I started them with four stations focusing on shooting, free throws, two ball ball handling and agility with sprints. They did some full court zig zag defensive slides. Then we focused on one-on-one defense and ball protection while someone is guarding you.
After that we worked on left and right hand layups, cross over into layups and pull up jumpers. We ended with knock out game with them shooting from the wing areas.
Unfortunately, I will not host another mini-camp over the next 3 weeks.
This Saturday the facility is closed. On September 25, I will be speaking a an EYH Conference at the University of Memphis. And on October 2, I will be hosting my annual Pre-Season Show Off Camp.
Hello Friends of the Internet Capital of Girls Basketball.
I’ve decided to start writing about my experiences as a girls basketball trainer. Hopefully through my writings, you will learn more about me, my love of basketball, new basketball drills, basketball tips and more.
Today I really don’t have much to write about. I’m actually a little disappointed. I did not get to train or host my mini-camp last Saturday because their was an activity at the facility I train at. Then this Monday, I received a phone call that I will not get to train this upcoming Saturday because their is another activity.
So instead of having the players go through 2 weeks of no activity, I decided to create a workout for them to do on their own.
Here’s the workout:
Ball Handling:
Wrap ball around waist 20x
Change directions and wrap another 20x
Wrap Ball around head 20x
Change directions and wrap another 20x
Wrap Ball around knees 20x
Change direction and wrap another 20x
Dribbling
Left hand dribbling at knee level 25x
Break – count to 10
Right hand dribbling at knee level 25x
Break – count to 10
Left hand dribbling at waist level 25x
Break – count to 10
Right hand dribbling at waistlevel 25x
Break – count to 10
Left hand dribbling at shoulder level 25x
Break – count to 10
Right hand dribbling at shoulder level 25x
Break – count to 10
Shooting (popo25):
Start inside the paint and with a bank shot. If you make the shot, take a step back. If not, attempt to make another shot in the same spot. Work your way out and around the basket until you make 25 shots.
Free throws:
Make 10
Layups:
Work on the techniques of left and right hand layups.
Use left hand on left side and Right hand on right side.
Also, I recently added a Pre-Season Workout to the GirlsBasketballResources.com site. The emphasis is on conditioning through ball handling, defense and shooting drills. Get more information here.
