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Greenwell Blog: Going Back to the Basics
10/4/2014 9:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
DURHAM, N.C.-- There aren't many people I know who are wiser and more seasoned than the white-haired man you'll find wearing the bright colored sweaters on the sidelines of the Duke women's basketball bench. His name is coach Brown.
So let me give you a little bio on Coach Brown. This is a man who strongly believes in left-handed free throws, he goes for a four plus mile run every day, rain or shine, he comes to practice every single day passionate to coach and teach, sharing words of wisdom and topics ranging from WNBA stats, politics, to the importance of having respect for your elders. This man is truly one of a kind. He's the assistant coach of our team, been coaching for 36 years, and is a beloved member of the Blue Devil family. He is the man, the myth, the legend, and one of my all-time favorite people, coach Al Brown.
This year, for the first time as part of our preseason, Coach Brown is running our conditioning workouts. Coach Brown's conditioning style is a little different than anything we've done in the past and I would have to say the best way to describe it would be “going back to the basics.” Who needs technology, cones, or weights for conditioning whenever you have your own body as a weight or chairs for cones? That's what Coach Brown would ask. Keeping it simple can be just as beneficial in Coach Brown's eyes and that's the way we've been keeping it.
Twice a week for conditioning we start things off by listening to Coach Brown's inspirational thoughts of the day. He pushes us to try and reflect on those thoughts with a 30-second quiet time behind the court lines to get our minds right and focused for the workout. Then once that 30 seconds is up, we step on the court and its 'Go Time,' nothing else matters besides pushing ourselves to get better, both mentally and physically.
The things we do vary on a day-to-day basis and Coach Brown is always keeping us on our toes or at times, on our fingertips that is. One of his favorite things he makes us do are fingertip pushups and bridges. Strong fingertips are one of the most important parts to basketball in the eyes of coach Brown. Some other “different” things we've done this preseason are wall sits, standing on our hands pushups, tennis ball-dodge ball, Indian runs, arm-wrestling, wheel barrow races, and my favorite so far, football.
One day we spent an entire workout over at the indoor football practice facility, running 100 yard dashes, running routes and we even played some 6-on-6 hand-touch football.
While all those things are fun, they've been tough and mixed in with many other forms of running of course, like suicides. Doing something different for a change has been exciting and mixing things up has kept it interesting. I'm confident the work we've put in will allow us to be in great shape for the start of the season. We've had 13 “Coach Brown conditioning workouts” so far to make up preseason and it's hard to believe we only have two more to go before practice officially starts.
The season really is right around the corner, and though I've said it before – I CANNOT WAIT. After sitting out for this long, you can only imagine my excitement and anticipation! But I have to stay patient because we still have another month before games start and there's still a lot more work to do between then and now. There's always room to improve.
As the season nears I know all the pieces will start to fall into place and we will be stronger and more confident in our roles on the team. By the time Nov. 16 comes, I'm confident we'll be prepared for a great 2014-15 season. And in part, thanks to Coach P, Coach Brown, Coach Hernando and Coach Haynes, our tremendous coaching staff here at Duke!
Go Duke!
Rebecca Greenwell
So let me give you a little bio on Coach Brown. This is a man who strongly believes in left-handed free throws, he goes for a four plus mile run every day, rain or shine, he comes to practice every single day passionate to coach and teach, sharing words of wisdom and topics ranging from WNBA stats, politics, to the importance of having respect for your elders. This man is truly one of a kind. He's the assistant coach of our team, been coaching for 36 years, and is a beloved member of the Blue Devil family. He is the man, the myth, the legend, and one of my all-time favorite people, coach Al Brown.
This year, for the first time as part of our preseason, Coach Brown is running our conditioning workouts. Coach Brown's conditioning style is a little different than anything we've done in the past and I would have to say the best way to describe it would be “going back to the basics.” Who needs technology, cones, or weights for conditioning whenever you have your own body as a weight or chairs for cones? That's what Coach Brown would ask. Keeping it simple can be just as beneficial in Coach Brown's eyes and that's the way we've been keeping it.
Twice a week for conditioning we start things off by listening to Coach Brown's inspirational thoughts of the day. He pushes us to try and reflect on those thoughts with a 30-second quiet time behind the court lines to get our minds right and focused for the workout. Then once that 30 seconds is up, we step on the court and its 'Go Time,' nothing else matters besides pushing ourselves to get better, both mentally and physically.
The things we do vary on a day-to-day basis and Coach Brown is always keeping us on our toes or at times, on our fingertips that is. One of his favorite things he makes us do are fingertip pushups and bridges. Strong fingertips are one of the most important parts to basketball in the eyes of coach Brown. Some other “different” things we've done this preseason are wall sits, standing on our hands pushups, tennis ball-dodge ball, Indian runs, arm-wrestling, wheel barrow races, and my favorite so far, football.
One day we spent an entire workout over at the indoor football practice facility, running 100 yard dashes, running routes and we even played some 6-on-6 hand-touch football.
While all those things are fun, they've been tough and mixed in with many other forms of running of course, like suicides. Doing something different for a change has been exciting and mixing things up has kept it interesting. I'm confident the work we've put in will allow us to be in great shape for the start of the season. We've had 13 “Coach Brown conditioning workouts” so far to make up preseason and it's hard to believe we only have two more to go before practice officially starts.
The season really is right around the corner, and though I've said it before – I CANNOT WAIT. After sitting out for this long, you can only imagine my excitement and anticipation! But I have to stay patient because we still have another month before games start and there's still a lot more work to do between then and now. There's always room to improve.
As the season nears I know all the pieces will start to fall into place and we will be stronger and more confident in our roles on the team. By the time Nov. 16 comes, I'm confident we'll be prepared for a great 2014-15 season. And in part, thanks to Coach P, Coach Brown, Coach Hernando and Coach Haynes, our tremendous coaching staff here at Duke!
Go Duke!
Rebecca Greenwell
Players Mentioned
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