Aurangabad in October
I am now at the airport in Aurangabad, India heading back to New Delhi. I have been in Aurangabad for the last 3 weeks conducting the U18 Boys National Team training camp. When I stay in one place this long and develop a routine it almost becomes a second (or third, fourth,,,,,) home to me. My daily routine looked like this. Up by 7 am, skype with my family, breakfast at the hotel, take a taxi to the SAI training center, practice from 9:30-12:00, back to the hotel, eat lunch, relax..work on projects, exercise on the eliptical in the hotel fitness room, taxi back to the training center, practice from 5:30-8:00, back to the hotel for dinner (Indian time), work on projects, relax, off to bed. There was one day that broke the routine...our coaches did some sightseeing on our day off. We went up to the famous Ellora Caves. These caves actually have detailed structures excavated out of the hills by both Buddhists and HIndus between the 5th and 10th century. On the way back we stopped to see the Daulatabad Fort. This was a 14th century fort city. Both of these sights were facsinating.
We had 25 players in our first camp of four for the U18 national team. I designated the mornings entirely for player development. We spent hours working on their ball-handling, passing, offensive moves, shooting , and defensive fundamentals. The evenings were primarily used for team development. We continued to work on basketball fundamentals but within the framework of team play. Joining me for the camp were two of India's best coaches, Jora Singh and Paramdeep Singh. I have now turned it over to them to finish the camp out this week. This team will gather together again in January. I look forward to that opportunity to see their improvement. They were a great group to work with and I really enjoyed building the personal relationships as much as I did helping them to become better basketball players.
Back to Delhi to prepare for the next adventure.