Twitter Pet Peeves

Here are my top 5 + 1 more twitter pet peeves for the first part of 2013.

1. Tweeting how hard you're "grinding" as a player. If you play in high school, college, or professionally...that's what you're supposed to do.

2. Hash tags : you don't need a hash tag on every tweet. If you have one specific for your team, that's cool. But hash tagging #sunnyday or #greatday or things of that nature are ridiculous. They don't need to be hash tagged.

3. Quotes : if you are going to put a quote on twitter - give the person who said it some credit.

4. If you have a conversation with someone on your staff for more than a couple back and forth tweets, go to text messaging.

5. Spell names of schools and people's names correctly. Use periods. Especially if you are a coach. Appear educated.

+ 1 more

As a college coach I don't care if you win or lose your AAU games. I want guys who win December through March as well. Take more pride and tweet about your high school team as much as you do about AAU.

Wi-Fi in Pro Stadiums

This is a recent article from ESPN.com about the New England Patriots, who are the latest team in the NFL to spend millions of dollars to make Wi-Fi available to every fan in attendance.  The upgrade will meet the demands of so many fans who want to check on other NFL scores, other sporting events, and most importantly, fantasy football. 

 

The reason this is needed is because when you have 80,000 people in a small area and people are tweeting, adding updates and pictures to Facebook, texting, and browsing the internet, the speeds slow way down because of the demand on the towers.  This new Wi-Fi will help with connection speeds, etc.

 

The Patriots aren't the first Boston area pro franchise to upgrade because of Technology.  Last spring the Boston Celtics amped up their arena with cell towers/boosters to allow fans to do all of the above mentioned things during the 2012 NBA Playoffs.

 

 

Courtesy of Mike Rodak

 

The New England Patriots announced Monday that the team will offer free Wi-Fi to all its fans beginning at this weekend's home opener.

Gillette Stadium joins the ranks of the few stadiums that are Wi-Fi enabled, which include MetLife Stadium (Jets/Giants), the Georgia Dome (Falcons), Lucas Oil Stadium (Colts), Raymond James Stadium (Buccaneers), Mercedes-Benz Superdome (Saints), Bank of America Stadium (Panthers) and Sun Life Stadium (Dolphins).

Although the league sells 96 percent of the tickets it has available, the NFL is losing ground because of fans who feel they are out of the loop on other games and fantasy stats while sitting in the stands cheering for their teams.

In 1998, 54 percent of fans said they would rather be at an NFL game than watching it at home, according to an ESPN Sports Poll. Last year, only 29 percent of fans said they would rather be at the game, the worst drop of any major sport tracked over that time period.

Providing fans access to the information they seek is one of the keys to improving the in-game experience. When the league started to brainstorm about how to quickly attack its weaknesses, one item in particular rose to the top.

"We focused on Wi-Fi," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said at the league meetings in May. "We believe it's important to bring technology into the stadiums. We've made the point repeatedly that the experience at home is outstanding, and we have to compete with that in some fashion, making sure we create the same type of environment in our stadiums."

While it might be seen as an investment in the future, installing Wi-Fi in stadiums is not cheap. Setting up hundreds of access points and paying for the service could cost more than $6 million, which is one reason why the league has been searching hard for a technology partner that could help defray some of the costs in the name of the partnership.

For the past three years, the Patriots have offered free Wi-Fi to fans in its suites so they can go online or watch NFL RedZone. This season, the Wi-Fi will be available to all fans. So why would a team that has sold out every game since 1994 do this?

"The Krafts are always asking, 'How can we make the game-day experience better?'" said Fred Kirsch, the Patriots' vice president of content. "This will enhance the experience of being in our stadium, and it could help us down the road for the days when we might not be sold out."

Enterasys Networks, which worked with the Patriots, took about a month to install hundreds of access points around the stadium that will enable up to 40 percent of fans to simultaneously use Wi-Fi. That number likely won't be hit in the near future. At the Super Bowl in Indianapolis in February, a peak of 12 percent of the crowd was using Lucas Oil Stadium's Wi-Fi at the same time, and only 19 percent used it at all.

Eric Grubman, the league's executive vice president of business operations, said the NFL will be monitoring teams with in-stadium Wi-Fi this year and cull together the best practices to share with others.

"This is being done for the millions of season-ticket holders who make the NFL part of their lives," Grubman said. "In the next five to 10 years, not only will fans be able to be connected at the game like they are at home, I'm confident the experience is going to be even better. We'll see the stadium designs and layouts change to adapt and the game production might change, meaning fewer stops."

Of the 14 games played in Week 1, five teams -- the Buccaneers, Vikings, Browns, Chiefs and Cardinals -- failed to sell at least 95 percent of their tickets.

Olympics Social Download

Tonight as I sat and watched the Olympics they had a segment called "Social Download" and it was some astounding numbers dealing with social media.

Usain Bolt, who repeated as 100 M champion, and his teammates from Jamaica (Yohan Blake and Asafa Powell) have enough Facebook fans to fill the Olympic Stadium 94 times.  Capacity at Olympic Stadium in London is 80,000.

Michael Phelps was the most talked about person on Facebook in week 1 of the 2012 Olympics.  More mentions for the 18 time gold medalist than the President, Mitt Romney, and Justin Bieber.

Gabby Douglas winning the all around gold in gymnastics has been the most tweeted about event in primetime thus far in the Olympics.  Interesting side note you probably saw on Facebook, rearrange the letters in her last name and what do you get?  Douglas = USA GOLD.

I'm sure you've seen Usain Bolt in this pose

A farmer has created a Usain Bolt corn maze:

And our gold medal winning U.S.A. women's gymnastics team getting their Usain Bolt on:











Social Media and the Olympics

Social Media has changed things somewhat in regards to knowing and not knowing the results in the Olympics.  With the games going on in London, it is nearly impossible to get on the internet, Facebook, Twitter, etc without seeing the results that don't air until later that evening on NBC.  There have been some complaints early on about NBC and the tape delaying of events.  My thoughts are this: people are either at work during the days, or not going to get up at 3 AM to watch these events live.  If they were only aired live people would use DVR.  Isn't DVR essentially tape delay?  NBC just now forces us to see the commercials for companies that are paying serious money to have their company or product advertised during the Olympics on prime time.  NBC is a broadcasting company who payed over a billion dollars to have the rights to air the Olympics.  They are not a sports only network.  Some may argue that knowing some of the results ahead of time will make more people watch to see exactly how the U.S.A. Men's gymnastics team fell apart in the team competition, or they'll make sure they watch to see Phelps win his record number of medals, etc. 

Social media has also given fans the ability to follow their favorite athletes and see the games from a different perspective.  Without social media, I have no idea what it looks like walking in to the Olympic Stadium for the opening ceremonies, but thanks to LeBron James and his Instagram photos, I get to see it.

Access like this has really given fans a completely different perspective and allowed us fans to see things we otherwise never would have seen (at least from these angles)

On the negative side, the IOC prohibits athletes from recognizing companies/sponsors via social media if they are not an official sponsor of the Olympics themselves.  This has upset some athletes who feel they owe it to the companies who sponsor and endorse them.  The athletes have the platform (social media) and don't believe they should be restricted from doing this.  I would side with the athlete on this one.

There have also been two athletes to my knowledge who have been sent home by their countries for using Twitter in the wrong way.  Both athletes made racist remarks about other countries.  This leads me in to a brief statement and debatable topic among coaches.  How much do you limit your athletes use of social media?  My personal belief is that social media is a great tool for gathering information, if you have the fan base you can connect with them, and it can be a great teaching tool.  The negatives are there will be people who go to far and say too much.  They believe because they have the right to free speech (at least in our country) and the platform to express themselves, they should be allowed to say anything they want.  This is wrong.  When you are part of a group, team, company and are representing something or someone other than yourself, you have to take caution and there can be penalties for crossing the line.  I will get in to this more with some happenings at various college athletic programs across the country.

All in all I think social media is a great thing, and I've enjoyed that part it is playing in these Olympic games.

Ronnie Fields

Documentary trailor on a guy named Ronnie Fields out of Farragut Academy in Chicago.  Was a year behind Kevin Garnett, had a 51 inch vertical, set all kinds of records, and was one of the greatest dunkers you may have never heard of.  I had a chance to see him play a couple times in the CBA.  May even still have the autographed Rockford Lightning pennant somewhere.  There are still two huge murals on the wall of his high school.  KG and Ronnie. 

Things To Improve On

The following is an ESPN article written before the July 2012 recruiting period.  The following list of areas players can improve on is not limited to high school players.  College players need to improve on these areas as well.  "Do your work early" is a phrase we like to use and that goes right along with shot preparation.  Attacking the defense first without dribbling is something I firmly believe in.  It makes me think back a few years to some of the very successful Villanova teams.  They do a great job of teaching the jab series.  All 5 guys they have on the court are threats to score because they work so hard on the jab series and in turn, giving guys the confidence they need to believe no matter where they catch the ball, they can beat their man.  I spent some time with Ed Pinckney who played at Villanova and was an assistant there as well.  Ed is now an assistant with the Chicago Bulls.  Rebounding out of your area is something so few guys will do.  Like it says, the truly great rebounders are the ones that go get the ball when it doesn't just fall in their lap.

Biggest things HS players need to improve on

July, 3, 2012

 

By Reggie Rankin | ESPN.com

 

Being a former college coach, I understand potential/upside but players have to be productive as well. The more productive you are, the more options you will have.

I had a conversation with Boston Celtics assistant coach Kevin Eastman recently and if high school players can improve these areas of their games they will increase their overall production, which will also make them more attractive players to college coaches:

Shot preparation
So many high school players are not ready to shoot when they are open and receive the ball. Players need to be flexed with their hands and feet ready on the catch. Also, when coming off a screen, players are too upright. A general rule is to be as low as the screener's shoulder, show your hands to the passer and have your footwork organized (for example have your inside foot closest to the rim).

Attack the defense first without dribbling
Players need to add a series of jab steps, pivots and shot fakes before they dribble. Not only will this move the defender, but it will allow them to save their live dribble for attacking instead of figuring out their attack once they start dribbling, which is a complete waste.

Feed the low post
There is nothing that frustrates a low-post scorer more than a perimeter player who can't deliver him the ball when he is open. Perimeter players must understand they have to get a great passing angle and when the pass is being pressured, they must look to fake, be strong with ball, step through contact and deliver the ball to the post player on target.

Keep the ball high
When post players make a scoring move or rebound they must do a better job of not bringing the ball down and allow a smaller perimeter player to make a play. They need to be strong, keep the ball high and complete the play.

Scoring moves
Players need a go-to move and counter move from both low blocks and the high post. Post players need to develop four moves and work to extend their range to the high post and then build from there. Jump hooks, drop steps, up-and-unders, turn shots, face-and-shoot moves, face-and-attack moves -- have an answer for every defensive scheme.

Rebound out of their area
Many bigs are good area rebounders when the ball comes within reach. However, for a player to be considered a great rebounder he must be willing to maneuver through traffic, understand the angles on missed shots and run down every missed shot.

Players should keep these notes in mind to help them stand out during a pivotal July evaluation period.

Grad School

I have recently started my Masters Degree in the Human Development Program at Saint Mary's University.  One of the main things that attracted me to this program was the ability to design some of my own courses.  My main focus is Social Media and Technology and how they are used primarily, but not entirely in the field of athletics.  As a college coach, our audience and the students we recruit are getting information in a much different fashion that people did even 5-10 years ago.

One of my courses will be maintaining and updating a blog 3X per week.  My goal is to make this a resource with things relating to technology and social media, but also other things that are happening in the world of athletics, motivation, etc.  For example, one of my classes I will be looking at the Big Ten and SEC, a Division 2 conference, as well as a Division 3 conference as if I was a prospective student.  The only information I will be using is anything that can be obtained online.  Examples would be school website, facebook, twitter accounts of coaches and the general athletic department, YouTube.

I will try to post some of the better ideas and things I find that schools are doing.