Toughness - Defined by Jay Bilas, ESPN Analyst, and former Duke, USA, and Professional Basketball Player.All players should read and become familiar with the attached article on toughness.  Jay Bilas does an amazing job defining toughness in all aspects of the game.  We would also invite parents and anyone else associated with our program to read the article as well.


“Toughness” – Jay Bilas – ESPN .com

I have heard the word "toughness" thrown around a lot lately. Reporters on television, radio and in print have opined about a team or player's "toughness" or quoted a coach talking about his team having to be "tougher" to win.

Then, in almost coordinated fashion, I would watch games and see player upon player thumping his chest after a routine play, angrily taunting an opponent after a blocked shot, getting into a shouting match with an opposing player, or squaring up nose-to-nose as if a fight might ensue. I see players jawing at each other, trying to "intimidate" other players. What a waste of time. That is nothing more than fake toughness, and it has no real value.

I often wonder: Do people really understand what coaches and experienced players mean when they emphasize "toughness" in basketball? Or is it just some buzzword that is thrown around haphazardly without clear definition or understanding? I thought it was the latter, and I wrote a short blog item about it a couple of weeks ago.

The response I received was overwhelming. Dozens of college basketball coaches called to tell me that they had put the article up in the locker room, put it in each player's locker, or had gone over it in detail with their teams.

Memphis coach John Calipari called to say that he had his players post the definition of toughness over their beds because he believed that true "toughness" was the one thing that his team needed to develop to reach its potential. I received messages from high school coaches who wanted to relay the definition of toughness to their players and wanted to talk about it further.

Well, I got the message that I should expound upon what I consider toughness to be. It may not be what you think.

Toughness is something I had to learn the hard way, and something I had no real idea of until I played college basketball. When I played my first game in college, I thought that toughness was physical and based on how much punishment I could dish out and how much I could take. I thought I was tough....

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Shooting Workout
50 Mikans
50 Reverse Mikans
10 free-throws
7 Spot Shooting
5ft.         5 shots each spot
10 ft.     10 shots each spot
15 ft.     “ “
20 ft.     “ “
I dribble pull up 5 shots each
25 free-throws (5 between each set of 7 spot shooting)
Elbow Pull ups (start from wings/top of key)  10 shots going left and right
10 free-throws
Transition pull ups 15-20ft. 
3 spots 10 shots each
15 free-throws (5 between each set)
Elbow catch and shoot (defensive slide from elbow to elbow)  20 shots
10 free-throws
50 3-pointers  5 spots 5 shots each (2 sets)
40 free-throws