The first part of the season sure has gone by fast. It is hard to believe that I am more than a half way done with my college career. This past semester has been filled with a lot of highs, a few lows, and a lot of twists and turns.
This week I will briefly touch on some things that many people might not realize happens in D3 basketball. Specifically, I will talk about our preseason commitment to the sport and some of the things we do as a program to get ready before we step on the court with coaches on October 15th.
Most students at MIT arrive on campus a good week and a half before classes start. We move in, help with freshman orientation, and some even participate in community service or leadership development programs.
The end of summer is probably my favorite time of the year. Aside from getting back together with my closest friends, there is a solid week in which I basically have no obligations. With school, basketball, and summer internships it can be fairly hard to find some alone time to do what you please during the year so getting some time is amazing. This year
Boston was great. The city was lively and I had one focus in mind – get in the gym.
I hope that every program is able to take advantage of the machine called “The Gun”. This machine is quite a contraption that has nets to catch rebounds and an electrical throwing arm to pass to the shooter. With this machine I was able to rattle off about 1,000-1,500 jumpers a day in about three or four hours depending on the intensity or focus of the workout.
During these sessions I felt that I was subtly redefining myself as an individual. I’m sure this feeling is not uncommon among athletes from all sports. I think the biggest thing that helped me improve as a player during these workouts was the “visualization”.
We are lucky enough to have a coach on our staff that has PhD in Sports Psychology. Coach Oliver Eslinger (Clark ’97) talks a lot about the importance of visualizing everything we do. Making a move as if a defender is there, imagining the footwork of a move before practicing it, and visualizing a tight release on your jumper are a few examples of the countless techniques that can be utilized.
Although a lot of players were in the gym anyway, the first day of classes signified the start of official captain’s practice. Captain’s practice essentially takes the place of regular practice except we focus on playing, drills, and lifting. This year we were lucky enough to have Coach Akin Aina (MIT ’96) as our Strength & Conditioning coach.
We committed to 5 days of team plus 1 extra day of individual workout time. It seems like 6 days a week is a lot out of season, but this type of commitment is critical in order to compete consistently at a high level. Coach Akin developed a great strength program for us and it definitely helped us get through the tough preseason workouts.
Two reasons that I personally like the high intensity off-season workout schedule is (1) it simulates the intensity of season and (2) it separates the players that are serious about ball from the ones who think that they are serious about ball.
For conditioning we run 3 mile “bridge-loops” (run around the
Charles River crossing bridges along the way), swim, and on-court running. Our conditioning is then tested the week before season begins. I still claim that this test is the hardest mental and physical exertion that I have ever done for athletics. We are required to run Harvard Stadium. This stadium looks like a coliseum and we have to run up and down every stair in the whole stadium in under 30 minutes.
Every year we talk it up to the freshman about how hard it is and every freshman says that the stadium is much harder than they had imagined. I can honestly say that I will never run that Harvard Stadium after I graduate from school.
After the stadium, we rest up and fine tune our skills to get ready for the first day of practice on October 15th.
We, as D3 players, really do commit to our sport year around. It takes an enormous amount of effort but I believe that I speak for most when I say that it is more than worth it. We find our best friends, learn how to time manage, push ourselves in new ways, meet great people from around the nation and world, and – hopefully – make a difference in others’ lives as well.
Off topic, I would like to thank the training staff at
Amherst for their efforts and help after an injury last week. I am always amazed with how much competitors care about the welfare of opponents. It is one of the reasons that I love this sport and the D3 community so much. Thanks, good luck to all of those that have finals, and safe travels.
Jimmy Bartolotta
*In my next piece, I plan to recap the games from the whole first part of the season.