Black Club Newsletter 9/3/24

Welcome Back Black Club Families

We hope everyone had a great summer and it’s been great seeing our Black Club athletes and families back in SportsHouse! We’re excited for another season filled with development and camaraderie. With a large group of returners and a talented group of new Team Esface athletes, we’re excited to see our teams continue to level up!

Our first two weeks are framed as “Preseason Training Camp” as we’ve taken some initial tests to see where each individual is at in their shooting and conditioning. We also use this data to help us make decisions as we determine the Black 1 and Black 2 teams for the upcoming season. You might also see us tracking the in-game statistics during scrimmage time as we record both basic box score stats (point, rebounds, assists) as well as hustle stats (deflections, loose balls, charges) for our coaches to review.

In our shooting drills, we track two separate metrics with our 72 and Star shooting. In our 72 drill, athletes shoot two shots from seven different spots and see how many they can make out of 14. Our Star drill tests an athlete’s ability to shoot on the move, as the shooter will take 10 shots from 5 spots while running spot to spot. You can check out the Star Drill here. 3rd-5th grade shoot from the mid-range (~15 feet) while 6th-8th grade shoot three-pointers. The goal is to shoot 50% or higher in these drills, with 75-80% being an elite score.

Next we test an athlete’s ability to move laterally with our lane slides drill. This requires an athlete to touch each lane line in 30 seconds while sliding their feet and staying in a defensive stance. Finally, we test our athlete’s cardio and endurance with our 17 drill. All this requires is an athlete to run sideline-to-sideline 17 times. Fairly simple to execute, but always easier said than done!

It’s been great collecting all this data and we hope to see our athletes improve throughout the season!

Successful Second Season of Summer Squads!

This was our second season running our Black Club Summer Squad program and it was great to see our Black Club families stay active during the summer! Our six-week program featured five local tournaments across four teams. We were able to end our season on a high note with our 4th/5th Grade and 6th/7th Grade teams finishing the summer with tournament championships! Thank you to all of the athletes and families who participated and we’ll see you back for another season next summer!

College Prep makes History

It was a historic summer for our College Prep program as our 17U team took part in the most successful season in Peninsula history! In our first full-time season on the Adidas Gold circuit, the 17U squad was just one of three undefeated teams on the West Coast to finish an undefeated 8-0. This allowed them to qualify for the prestigious 3SSB tournament in South Carolina, making them the first-ever Peninsula based program to qualify for any of the major three shoe circuit events (Adidas, Nike, Under Armour).

Not only did the 17U team qualify for the event, they made major noise with a 4-2 showing and 5th place finish in the 24 Team Classic. This included wins over programs with NBA sponsors such as Team Derrick Rose, Team Marjon Beauchamp, and Team Sizzle (Jalen Suggs). They were able to play in front of the likes of Dan Hurley (UConn) and John Calipari (Arkansas) and countless other college coaches. They ended the season with a 24-3 overall record and we’re excited to see our Class of 2025 finish their high school careers this upcoming season! It was also a blast to see lifelong Team Esface athletes Alex Naber, Andrew McDowell, and Angelo Ghattas finish their Esface careers on the big stage. Feel free to watch the six-part documentary from the trip below!

Additional Training Opportunities

Black Club Vitamins

Our Black Club Vitamins program is designed to help supplement practices with additional skill work and shooting taught by our Black Club coaches. With practices filled with tactical instruction and team breakdowns, these sessions allow our coaches to focus specifically on extra skills that can benefit our athletes on gameday. These one-hour sessions are exclusive to Black Club athletes and offered at a discounted rate of $55 per session. There’s no long-term commitment and you can register week-to-week depending on your availability. We’re currently offering sessions on Tuesdays from 4-5pm or Fridays from 6-7pm, both at SportsHouse. You can view a sneak peak of the program here.

Black Club Open Gym

Following our Black Club Vitamins sessions on Fridays, we also hold open gym for our athletes. This allows them to put their skills to the test with some scrimmage time against their peers across grades in the academy. These open gyms are FREE for anyone who attends Black Club Vitamins or $15 for anyone looking to just attend open gym. Open gym takes place on Fridays at SportsHouse from 7-8pm, immediately following Black Club Vitamins.

Transformation

If you’re looking for a more personalized coaching experience in a 1-on-1 or small group environment, we highly recommend our Transformation program. This four-week program allows athletes to train once or twice a week depending on your schedule. We offer three different packages to best fit your athlete’s needs and you will be contacted by our staff after completing the interest form. You can learn more about the program here.

Alumni Spotlight: Alex Naber

It was a proud moment to send off lifelong Team Esface athlete Alex Naber to the collegiate level this summer! Alex Naber started with Team Esface back in third grade while participating in our Neo Prep program and has been part of our Black Club and College Prep program ever since. This past high school season, Alex finished his senior year at Serra High School as a Second Team All-WCAL selection and led the Padres to a CCS Open Division appearance. During the summer, he concluded his Team Esface career while competing with our College Prep 17U team that reached the 3SSB stage in South Carolina. He’ll be starting his career as a redshirt freshman at Sonoma State this Fall and we’re looking forward to following the next chapter of his career!

Basketball 101: Increase Parent’s Hoop Understanding

We all know how important confidence is in an athlete’s game and development, but how can it be built?

Often times we have parents ask how to improve their player’s confidence as they might be lacking in that area. The first question we always ask is: Are they working on their game outside of practice?

Too often we mistake a “lack of confidence” for what is actually a “heightened sense of self-awareness.” If an athlete isn’t consistently working on their game to grow their skills, then it would be far more alarming if they were confident during games. How can an athlete walk into a game with full confidence if they haven’t practiced the shots and moves they’ll be using on gameday?

We often like to say that players do not “rise to the occasion” but rather “fall to their preparation.” To make big shots in big moments, athletes will revert back to how hard they’ve trained throughout their career. If an athlete can’t consistently make 7/10 free throws on their own, would we expect them to make an important free throw in a big moment?

While we always work on our skills during practice, there’s also lots of other situations, plays, and drills to be covered during practice. Even by playing just twice a week, it will limit an athlete’s growth when there’s still another five days to work on your game.

We encourage everyone to watch the clip below with their athlete as Damian Lillard answers the question, “How do you get your jump shot that deadly?” He believes it comes from the reps, which ultimately builds his confidence as a shooter. Be sure to share this clip with your athlete!

Coming Up…

This weekend kicks off “Week 1A” in the Golden Gate League as they’ve split the first week into two separate weekends. It looks like about half of our teams will kick off the season this weekend while half will be next weekend although we’re still seeking some clarity. Be sure to check TeamSnap for your schedule and please mark your availability on TeamSnap so we know our roster for the weekend. You can find more information on the Golden Gate League here,

We’ll participate in the Golden Gate League regular season every Saturday until the playoffs during the 10/5-10/6 playoff weekend. Let’s go compete and make a strong first impression!