Last smacznego…

Our morning starts very quiet at 7:00 whit body check. Everybody liked the results, because we have lost fat and have gained more muscle mass and of course rise HERO ranking.

After that we went to the gym for morning exercises and training. This session was a little bit different because we more analised situation whit better possition in the court.

Then after breakfast we met in the lecture room. There we started last presentations and watched clips. It was amazing atmosphere because it was hard discussion about clips. When emotions calmed down we finished lecture and listened intresting presentation from Veronika about fiba referee life.

In the gym we had our last game and last workout. Everybody was tired but still worked hard. In the game we were best version of ourselves, because we had a lot of feedback from our instructors and colleagues which we used and it was very helpful.

When last whistle rang we realized that thats it and we could see in everybody eyes that nobody wanted to leave… but after long good byes everybody left. I hope that we will meet again in the future. I want to say thanks to Kuba, Marcin, Bruno, Filip, Michal, Kuba junior, Paulina, Marc, Alex, Valentin and Veronika.

Good luck everyone!!!
Laimonas

Thursday was our day number four which we started as always with morning exercises. With half closed eyes we went to the court and started the warm up while which we were already feeling all our muscles, but we also ran a yoyo test. Happy that we survived the first workout we had our usual team shout “smacznego!” and went for a breakfast.

At 10.15 we started our presentations which took longer than planned because I was talking too much 😉 We had a really good conversation about 8 seconds violation, while which everyone learned something new. After that we also had a presentation about 3 seconds violation and goaltending & interference. At the end of the session we had a great lecture about
unsportsmanlike foul prepared by Marcin. Super hungry we went for lunch and enjoyed little break before afternoon torture.

The day started with loud music in our room. “I need a hero” from ABBA. It’s the kind of music to put you in a good mood from the very beginning of the day.

At 7:45, we meet on the court. We have referee practice. Which means, warm up, and then some exercises. Mechanics, whistle, counting, moving on the court, showing numbers to the table, everything is drilled. We also ran the bips test. Prerequisite to officiate in certain leagues around the world. When we were done, we went to get breakfast, and get showered.

We had another big music session in the room. This time we listened to Céline Dion, and other gems of French music. We go downstairs to our conference room, and get ready to work.
I am chosen as volunteer for washing the clothes. We have some shirts especially for the camp, and obviously since we do so many different sport sessions.
Presentation from Valentin. He is a Swiss guy, just like me. He talks about goaltending and interference. Especially useful when you officiate the top league players, that can actually jump and do this. Big discussions were sparked when Kuba showed some clips of his, from Euroleague.

It’s time to start day two! Just woke up from our bed, and we realize how our legs are feeling after yesterday’s workout. No worries it’s a good thing and fortunately, it’s time to go for stretching wake up.  As soon as our muscles are ready again, we are going on the court for mechanic drills, it’s time to correct the wrong habits we show during yesterday’s game. After repeating many transition exercises, jump ball, seconds counting, and so on, it’s finally time for breakfast.

Ready to work hard on the theory aspect of our job! First Laimonas presented the backcourt violation rule and then Marc talked about screens, always super interesting to go deep into the rulebook! After a short Break, Marcin takes over Marc for one long lecture about the screen, what to look at, what to expect and why!?  Then Kuba and Marcin analyze the clip we did last night about our games, always a nice discussion with all of us.

Then back to the routine!! Time to REF! After a nice game, still feeling my legs, we have no rest … it’s time to wake up our upper body! And finally, the nest time of the day, officiating the best players of the camp! I really feel, only after two days, that we know each other, and our team spirit is growing!

Let’s keep working!!  
Alexandre Tornay