Inside The First Round of Training Camp!

Training camp is officially underway as of Wednesday evening! We’ve had some great practices and workout sessions so far, so as promised, here’s a recap of everything that’s gone on so far:

Side Note! If you want to make sure you don’t miss a single training camp update, check out the following links:

• YouTube

• Twitter

• Instagram (there’s a few accounts)

• LinkedIn

Wednesday Evening Session

This was the first session of training camp. Coach Bob MacKinnon gave a speech just under 20 minutes to all the players, going over expectations, goals, and basic offensive/defensive sets. I was able to record the entire interview, but unfortunately, I’m unable to release it publically due to the tactics discussed and…how explicit it is. Let’s just say Coach MacKinnon makes it very clear what he wants from the players and why.

After his initial speech, the players began warming up. They went through a variety of stretches and sequences before moving into layups and shooting. The players were divided into three groups: red, black, and gold. The red team was made up of returners/starters from last season, the black group was a mix of returners and strong newcomers, and the yellow group was all newcomers ready to try and prove themselves.

All drills were done full-court, for the sake of conditioning and to make sure the players were pushing the ball up the court. Coach MacKinnon shouted at the players that it should only take them three dribbles to get from one end of the court to the other; if they weren’t ready for the TBL, then they could take four.

After these drills, the players began working on defense, particularly rotating and help defense.

Unfortunately, they couldn't rest long, because the next morning at 6 AM, they were back at it.

Thursday Track @ 6 AM

If you’ve been reading this newsletter for long enough, then you know that every Sunday at 8 AM, the Firebirds go to a local track to do some conditioning. They continued this trend during training camp, except they had to wake up two hours earlier! At the track, the team conducted a mile time trial. It was once again incredibly cold, but the players had to persevere to prove themselves worthy of a roster spot.

Once they were done on the track, the training camp roster split up into two groups. At Marshall Creek Community Center, the first group put up shots a little after 7 AM, while the other group stretched and did a core workout. Half an hour later, the two groups switched roles.

After this grueling morning, the players had around 11 hours to recover before they had to be back at Word of God Christian Academy for another evening session filled with working on team philosophy and game-like scenarios.

Today (Friday)

Today follows the same schedule as Thursday, with the players waking up at 6 to run at the track, followed by shooting, stretching, and a core workout afterward. This evening, they’ll once again meet at Word of God. Training camp will conclude on Saturday at 1 PM, where the players will have a full scrimmage, equivalent to the length of a full TBL game. Everyone will get ample playing time and the coaches will finalize the roster.

Additional Exciting News

I hope you found this insightful and learned something new! Aside from training camp, our media day is this upcoming Sunday! The Firebirds media day will be hosted at Ravenscroft School and is open to media, sponsors, and fans alike. It’s always a blast, and you don’t want to miss it!

Man…it’s crazy to think that we’re one week away from the season.

I’ll share the final results from training camp and media day highlights on Monday. If you can’t make it on Sunday, then you can make it up to us by buying tickets for our home opener here 😉

-Tex