Championship day was exciting for campers and full of basketball! Players started their morning of with 10 stations, where they review what they had been taught all week long. After stations, players competed in their semi-finals games of their 5 on 5 leagues. After the semi-finals games, Championship activities began! Players competed in their Living By Number Championships. Below is a list of the drills that players competed in and the champions in each division:

John Wooden once stated that, "Success is a peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your very best." Knowing that you are successful is not in hearing what your parents tell you, seeing what the score board says or even listening to the players on your team. Success is you knowing that you did the best that you could possibly have done. That is when you are truly successful. If you win a game by twenty points you are not automatically successful, because maybe you could have won by thirty. However, if you get an eighty on a test you could still be successful because that is the best that you could possibly have done. You tried your hardest, and that is what counts. That is what we encourage here at Nike/Elite Hoops Basketball Camps, for every player to come out here and make a success out of themselves. 

On day 3 of NIKE Girls Basketball Camp at Blessed Trinity High School, coaches emphasized the importance of practicing with pressure! Players typically don't practice or train at the same speed and under the same pressure as they are expected to play games under. Consequently many players, do not do as well during games as they do when practicing. To help players with this aspect of their game, coaches introduced a couple of pressure layup and shooting drills.

"Be quick, but don't hurry" Coming into day three of Nike/ Elite Hoops Basketball Camp here at GAC coaches emphasize the importance of hustle. Letting players know that important decisions during the game should be made efficiently but not clumsily. Hustle is important during the game, practice and especially here at camp. The quicker the players are the quicker things can get started. Players showed off their speed abilities today and proved that they can stay true to our quote of the day as we had a number of top scorers in our Living By Numbers drills today. Campers Jordan, Michael, Trey, Christian, and Matt got the high scores for Xbox which is one of our top speed drills. By placing four cones in the shape of a square, players side step and sprint in a specific order from each cone to the next, and therefore sharpening their speed and agility.

On day 2 at NIKE/Elite Hoops Girls Basketball Camp at Blessed Trinity High School, coaches emphasized the importance of working hard to develop ballhandling skills. With the Living by Numbers drills today, players were given 5 drills to work on in the off-season to improve hand speed and hand quickness. The 5 drills were Figure 8 without a dribble, Figure 8 with a dribble, Flip Flop, Front Back Bounce, and Front Back Catch.

Every single player at camp competed in our Living by Numbers ballhandling drills in hopes of beating our camp records for each drill. The one player who was up to the challenge was, Ellen Schlich! Out of 5 ballhandling drills, Ellen now owns 3 camp records! She set the new record for Flip Flop, Front Back Bounce, and Front Back Catch. All coaches would like to congratulate her on her great work!

Check out the video of Ellen Schlich setting the new Front Back Catch Record! It's pretty impressive!

After a great start to our NIKE/Elite Hoops Boys Basketball Camp at GAC yesterday the players arrived on day two eager and ready to play. Coaches emphasized our quote of the day which states that "failing to prepare is preparing to fail," letting players know that they need to keep on trying even when the week gets tough. If they keep on putting their full effort out on the court, and come prepared to do so everyday then they will continue to get better and better each day.

In the Shooting Station, lead by Coach Taylor Metzger players were taught form shooting and hand placement with the basketball. At our camps, we teach players that the easiest way to improve your shot is to follow these two simple steps: When you follow through make sure your elbow is above your eye and secondly, make sure your hand "is in the cookie jar." Many times Coaches tell players to rebound their own shot. At the Nike/Elite Hoops basketball camps we think that that is the wrong advice to give to players because by telling them to rebound their own shot you are telling the player that they are going to miss. We teach each player to shoot with proper form and to allow their teammates to rebound any miss. This Station progresses throughout the week and players will work on shooting off the catch, and shooting off the dribble.

Day 1 of the NIKE Girls Basketball Camp at Blessed Trinity High School saw campers working hard to improve on individual skills in their morning stations. Stations included skills from perimeter moves to team defense. One fundamental skill coaches emphasized more than others was rebounding. Specifically, the idea that "when the ball goes up, hands go up."

Championship day was exciting for campers and full of basketball! Players started their morning of with 10 stations, where they review what they had been taught all week long. After stations, players competed in their 5 on 5 games, which was followed by an intense 3 on 3 session. After 3 on 3, Championship activities began! Players competed in their Living By Number Championships. Below are a list of the drills that players competed in and the champions in each division:

On Day 3 at the NIKE/Elite Hoops Basketball Camp at Madison Academy, coaches emphasized using the skills that players were taught in stations in 5 on 5 and 3 on 3 games. One important skill that was taught in stations was the PICK AND ROLL. Players were taught the importance of moving without the basketball, whether it was setting up a defender before a pick or rolling to the basket after setting a screen. After working on this skill in stations, coaches encouraged players to move without the basketball and set screens to get teammates open! In the video below, some of our players demonstrate how the execute the pick and roll.

Motion Station: Pick and Roll

As day two winds down we have made great strides here at Miller Grove. With all of the campers coming in this morning excited and ready to play the station drills started out at full force. The coaches main focus today was ball handling as they work towards better "Living By Numbers" standings with their campers. Our own Justin Thornton broke the High School record for the figure 8 drill today and his teammates cheered him on.
After our lunch period we had a few words with Coach Anderson, who has worked many different NIKE Elite Hoops Camps in the past. Coach Anderson says that "seeing them excited about each other's victories is my favorite part of working with the campers, and I got to see that today."
Moving further into the second half of day two the campers had a chance to free shoot, which is Coach Anderson's favorite part of the camp day, "You get to see them in an unstructured environment that grows more and more structured as the camp week continues. You really get to see the difference your making in these kid's games." When asked what he most looks forward to come the end of the week, the inevitable
"CHAMPIONSHIP FRIDAY!" was the answer. "You never know what its going to bring," he said enthusiastically.
As day two winds down the campers grow more and more confident of their own skills, as well as their teammates. Everybody is looking forward to what'll happen next here at Miller Grove!