I hope you are all enjoying your summer so far. It’s hard to believe that August is already here – but it is and with it comes our preparation for the Fall league for high school players. Our first practice (for high school players) will be on Wednesday, August 15th, weather permitting, at Lebanon Township Memorial Park from 6pm to 8 pm. On September 6th we’ll open up for all the players, grade 5 through 12, at Woodglen School.

A lot of things have changed since we first started back in 2010. At that time there were just a few girls interested in working in the off season. We only worked out in the fall prior to tryouts. On most nights we had one or two players working on individual skills. In 2010 the Lady Vikes won the tri-county championship (it was just Hunterdon Warren prior to 2010), beating Del Val after defeating state champion North Hunterdon in the semifinals. Thereafter the talent level dropped off significantly – and so did the commitment. There were a few dedicated players like Kelly Reilly and Courtney Ambielli who showed up regularly but there were not enough committed players to make a difference on the court.

In 2012, for the first time in 16 years, Voorhees recorded a losing season – followed by two more losing seasons. In response to this downturn a couple a parents asked us to consider organizing with the goal of re-building the program, focusing on fundamentals and team play. After three years running informally we formed One Voice Basketball Association, a non-profit organization, in 2015. We opened with an enrollment of about 25 players in the spring of 2012. Sean Reilly brought in 9 or 10 girls from a well-established High Bridge Rec. program. Those girls became the nucleus of the team that eventually won the State Sectional Championship, the Tri- County Championship and the Conference Championship in 2016. The Lady Vikes have gone to the sectional championship game for three consecutive years. With the graduation of Caitlin Reilly and Allie Best (arguably the best player to ever play at Voorhees) all the original players are gone with the exception of Hailey Conroy.

We’ve worked hard to establish a culture based on our program goals. We are different than some other programs. Our goals do not include preparing your player for college basketball. That’s a nice secondary outcome, if the player chooses to pursue it, but not one of our goals. We set out to re-establish the program by teaching fundamentals skills and team play. Our focus is on the high school experience. We don’t look past the high school experience and we strongly suggest that the players don’t either. It was a hard sell to the class of 2016 – there was a lot of talent in that group. Time will tell but I think it will be hard to match the experience they had over the past three years.

To be clear, no one is paid to run or assist in our program. We do it because the Voorhees girl’s basketball program has a unique history that should be sustained for girls in the years to come. We do it because we love the game of basketball. We do it because we know that sports, especially basketball, offer an opportunity to learn and apply strategies that have life-long benefits – committing to work hard for yourself and for others, working through frustrations and failure, learning to trust – people and processes, communication – all character building stuff. We do it because we want to give back to those who did it for us.

Things have changed a bit. In 2017 we enrolled 50 players for the spring sessions. Based on recent conversations I’ve had I feel that it’s time to re-state our approach and philosophy. The original group has moved on and the team’s recent success seems to have changed and elevated expectations. Each year we remind those interested in our program that we are not for everybody. We are for players who are serious about improving their game. We run spring and fall because we know it takes lots of repetitions and time to improve. Our approach is not just a reflection of our personal coaching styles but based on actual research in the science of performance, expertise, and team functioning that speaks to what it takes to truly excel in a chosen activity and what it takes to perform like an effective team (if you are interested some of the resources for this information are listed at the bottom of the note). That research tells us that anybody can excel at basketball. The notion of natural ability and that some people have it and some don’t is a myth. That myth underestimates the value of opportunity, motivation and effort. Another myth says that with effort alone you can accomplish anything - all you have to do is try. It takes more than effort. The effort must be focused.

Researchers have identified three ways to practice. Naïve practice is practicing without purpose or direction. You walk on the court and start heaving up shots from half court. Purposeful practice is: • Focused, with well defined goals. “I’m going to take 25 jump shots focusing on raising my elbow to my eye, and following through”.

• Working outside your comfort zone. If you never push yourself beyond your comfort zone you will never improve. It’s the coach’s job to raise the bar on what you think is possible (until you do this for yourself). The reason people don’t reach levels of excellence isn’t because they don’t have the ability but because they are comfortable living in a world of “good enough”. When you sign up with One Voice you are saying – “I want to be pushed to be better”. You are saying, “Help me identify the weaknesses in my game so I can work on them.” The limits to our potential are often self- imposed. We try a little or are too fearful to risk failing and conclude that we just are not capable of performing. To move towards your potential you have to continue to put one foot in front of the other and challenging those perceptions.

• Seeking feedback. To really excel you have to be mentally tough. You have to be able to identify where and how you are falling short. You cannot improve without feedback. It takes humility to admit that there is more to learn but if you pay attention you can learn something from every experience. You have to learn to see struggles and failures as a cue to work harder and smarter rather than an indication of our limits or lack of ability.

Deliberate practice is:

• Similar to purposeful practice but often requires the assistance of a highly trained coach.

• Addresses clearly defined, specific goals. Stretches you as a player and a person. Focuses on a specific weakness or something that you cannot yet do.

• Requires full concentration and maximum effort.

• Repetition with reflection, adjustments and feedback – more interested in what’s wrong than what’s right. Repeats the process until it’s flawless or until “conscious incompetence becomes unconscious competence.”

• Measuring improvement.

• Setting new “stretch” goals.

Deliberate practice is what set Erin Jones (as a shooter) and Allie Best (as a player) apart. They worked at One Voice. They played AAU. They worked with specialty coaches on specific skills. They knew there was more to learn. We believe in purposeful and deliberate practice. This is how we approach our sessions. That means players will be expected to put forth a focused effort. They will be asked to work outside their comfort zones. They will be given feedback. And they will improve. How much they improve is determined by the focus and intensity of their efforts. We address kids engaged in naïve practice. It takes time to build skills. It takes a positive mindset – one that says “I can do this”. It’s like building a ladder. You won’t get to the top without putting in one step at a time.

Please know that we are aware of the developmental needs of the younger players in our program. We adjust our expectations accordingly – with one exception. We assume that all the players, younger and older, are in our program because they want to get better. We know that interests are discovered and developed in the early years and that many of the younger players are just beginning to develop an interest in basketball. We know that encouragement and support, while important for all kids, is especially important for the younger players. Our expectations are modified to reflect this. The fun, in our program, comes from the thrill of getting better and the joy of performing at your best.

We have no interest in seeing your child fail – that doesn’t help the program. It’s inconsistent with our goals. We’ll be happy if we can help 25 kids learn to play competitively. That’s a problem for Coach Collins to figure out when the time comes – and a good problem to have from a program perspective. In the end it’s about your kid. If you don’t feel like your daughter can benefit from our program you should find a program that meets your needs. They deserve that. There are some very good programs out there. If our program is not for your daughter we can help you find one that is. We’d be glad to help. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Bob Peterman

Mastery -Robert Greene, Peak - Andres Ericsson, Grit - Angela Duckworth, Mindset - Carol Dweck ,The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg, The Road to Character - David Brooks, The Wisdom of Teams - Jon Katzenback, Drive, The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us - David Pink, Focus, The Hidden Driver of Excellence - Daniel Goleman