Daily Drills

No practice? No game? Work on your game for at least 30 minutes.
200-shot drill takes 25 minutes as long as you move quickly rather than walking after your missed shots. (Nobody walks on a basketball court during a game anyway. Do everything at GAME SPEED.)
• Layups: 10x right hand, 10x left hand (full speed!)
• Jab step pull-up bank shots (near the block): 10x right wing, 10x left wing
• Jab step pull-up jumpers on the elbow: 10x right wing, 10x left wing
• Jab step drive floaters below the free-throw line: 10x right wing, 10x left wing. Note: Not runners. Floaters mean you keep two feet on the ground, one-handed teardrop, re: Tony Parker on YouTube.
• Jab step drive to baseline, spin move, bank shot: 10x right wing, 10x left wing
• Repeat the jab step drills, except with PUMP FAKES INSTEAD of jabs.
Do all this and that's 200 shots.
Now we move on to 3-pointers. If you have no one to pass you the ball, pass it to yourself by spinning the ball in front of you. Be quick with your release, but do not rush. A rushed 3-pointer means 1) a lesser percentage of accuracy and, 2) your shot will be blocked instead of reading the defender and faking.
• Left corner: 10x
• Left wing: 10x
• Top of key: 10x
• Right wing: 10x
• Right corner: 10x
Repeat one more round (minimum), more if you want it enough.
Other basic shots to work on: reverse layups, pull-up 3-pointers, pump-fake 3-pointers with side-step move.
Now your total is 300 shots.
Finish with a minimum of 50 free throws. Keep track with sets of 10 so you can remember how many you made.
If you still have time and energy, ballhandling drills, everything with your eyes up.
At home: 100 pushups - sets of 10 during TV commercials. 100 crunches - sets of 20 or 25. Or more.
The possibilities are endless. It's all up to you.

Tuesday funday

Good workout today, all fundamentals on offense. Jab steps, triple threat, bank shots, pull-up jumpers, floaters. Ballhandling drills w/ shooting, then halfcourt sets (man offense). Got to fine-tune a lot of stuff today and Jayden, our youngest guy at 11, is picking up things quickly.

Good work, Thunder! 

Lineup: Jayden Ramos, Colin Micah Ramos, Ryan Higashionna, Jared Elwin. 

Next: Wednesday, 5:30 pm - H1 Thunder vs. Sharks-Black (PAA 13U), Kilauea gym. Stretching/warmups 4:30 pm.
WE LUBB THIS GAAAME!!

3 ballers from Ewa. 1 baller from Makiki.

4 Thunder strong. 

Monday funday

Gray clouds and light showers kept most of the guys away today. But it never poured. In fact, the clouds stayed put over Manoa Valley and never arrived at Makiki Park. It was muggy, mostly dry and Javan and Ryan went to work. We did shooting, ballhandling, on-ball defensive drills, UCLA cuts, fullcourt layups and more for 60 minutes straight. 

Good work by two of our most distant Thunder! I was supposed to pick up Felcris Jay Corpuz Ahadain, but I crashed out in the afternoon and was too late to get him to practice. Sorry, Felcris.
Lineup: Ryan Higashionna (Ewa), Javan Montiho (Pearl City). 

Next: Tuesday, 10:00 am - Optional hill run.
Tuesday, 5:00 pm - Practice at Makiki Park.
WE LUB THIS GAME!!

Monday optional practice

After 14 games in 7 days, today's just a shooting workout. Optional. Raydyn, Chase, Ryan, Micah and Chazz are here. We'll start doing some organized drills in a few minutes. Light breeze this afternoon. Life is good. 

Things get busy again starting tomorrow. 7 games in 5 days. WE LUB THIS GAME!

Friday funday

Shout out to Javan Montiho for a solid Friday workout. It was sunny, hot, not much breeze. Javan got in about 150 to 200 shots from all over the court. Jab-step drills. Pull-up jumpers. Floaters. Lefties. Ballhandling work. Fullcourt layups. Closed out with 50 free-throw attempts (60%). It was 75 minutes of solid effort. That's what it takes to step up to the next level, day by day. 
WE LUB THIS GAME!!

Thursday funday

Thursday is usually a light turnout day for practice, but the guys who show up get the maximum reward. Today, Kapaa Nishimura and Ryan Higashionna made it to Makiki Park and got in a ton of work, at least 250+ shots each. I put them through a lot of drills, closed with catch-and-shoot work on all our 3-point offense plays, non-stop. Shooting endurance is what I call it. Job well done, gentlemen.

Next:
> Saturday, 11:10 am, Thunder 13U vs. Laie, Kilauea gym (CAL). Warmups 10:10 am, outside court.
> Saturday, 2:30 pm, Thunder 13U vs. Kailua, Palolo gym (PAA). Warmups 1:30 pm, outside court.
> Sunday, 11:10 am, Thunder 17U vs. Rising Stars or Kailua, Kilauea gym (CAL). Warmups 10:10 am, outside court.

WE LUB THIS GAME!

Sunday Funday

Pau work. Shooting practice at McCully today was fun. Coach Roy & family camping, I was busy in the morning, so it was a limited group today: Javan and Kaiser. We got 1+ hour of work done. These guys don't mess around. Hard workers, no fooling around. WE LUB THIS GAME!

Wednesday work ethic

Good workout today with Tanielu, Chris, Jackson. Jackson is one of their friends from Kalakaua Middle School. Earlier, Ronny and Dennis played some pickup ball with them. Ronny plays some solid defense, quick and boxes out. Dennis can rebound and shoot the 3, and also goes to his left hand on the drive really well. Would be nice if they joined the Thunder, but we'll see.

Next workout is Saturday 10 am at Kalakaua since I work Thursday and Friday. If you guys want to work out on Thur/Fri, give Coach Roy and Kyle a call. That would be excellent. Sunday is definite, 11 am at McCully gym, 3 pm at Makiki Park. I LUB THIS GAME!

Climbing higher on Monday

Building blocks today. The 17U/16U did plenty to help teach our 13U/14U/15U along with the offenses, press, pressbreaker. I really like how the 15U/13U started to attack and score against the older boys in the last few minutes of our scrimmage. Mahalos to our dads and uncles for helping out with the second scrimmage. Great to see our "old" twins, Kerl and Karl, helping out with their dad, Roy.

Only the second practice for 13U and there is great potential. We still need more of the 13U and 15U at practice with games in the coming week. I just like what we have. A lot!

We had our first "early" shooting workout today. John, Felix, Alleck and a new addition, Shawn (sp) got about 100-150 shots in before regular practice.

Practice tomorrow (Tuesday), Wednesday and Thursday: Shooting drills 3 p.m., regular practice 4:30 p.m. Then the 16U plays on Friday, 8:15 pm for the Aiea League championship. Woohooo!!

I lub this game.

Saturday shred session

Got solid work done in 2 hours this afternoon at Makiki. Another windy day, so we didn't get any 3-point drilling in like usual. But we did a lot of 1-on-1 ballhandling/on-ball defense, 1-on-1 footwork, combo dribble moves from the wing and top. Good work by Mick, Jerry, Felix and Brent. It's a beautiful thing to see the guys who put in the extra work gaining great results. I lub this game!

Next workout: Sunday, 3 pm, Makiki Park. Hoping the 13U and 15U show up in big numbers. We have only 1 week until CAL League and Maryknoll JV League start. Kalani Summer League (17U) also starts in about a week.

Monday in the books

(NOTE: Just got the e-mail. 15U plays Sunday, 1 pm, Palama gym. The last game for 15U in NJB All-Net.)

Good shooting workout today, Thunder. Mick, Alleck, Isaiah (ankle), Brent, Yong, Wilson, Felix. 2 hours non-stop. It's good to be back on the court. Home.

3-point (30-second) drill results
One round
Mick 19/52
Alleck 17/53
Brent 6/48
Yong 9/53
Wilson 13/55
Felix 10/56

The breakdown: right corner, right wing, top, left wing, left corner
Mick 6/11, 4/10, 3/10, 2/11, 4/10 = 19/52
Alleck 3/12, 3/11, 2/10, 4/10, 5/10 = 17/53
Brent 1/10, 2/9, 0/9, 0/10, 3/10 = 6/48
Yong 5/11, 3/11, 0/10, 0/11, 1/10 = 9/53
Wilson 2/10, 2/11, 2/11, 4/12, 3/11 = 13/55
Felix 2/10, 0/13, 2/10, 3/12, 3/11 = 10/56

Mick was fairly consistent. Alleck got better at the end. Brent needs to keep his release point lower to get better arc. Yong tired at the end. Wilson has corrected his release in just two weeks. Felix just needs more reps.

Before the 3-point drill, we got plenty of pull-up jump shot work done. Everybody got in about 100 shots or so today.

Back at it tomorrow, guys. Reps. No substitute for reps. I lub this game!