• An outstanding recruiter and teacher of the game, Enfield
arrived at Florida State in 2006 after previously spending time as
an assistant coach on the staffs of the Boston Celtics and
Milwaukee Bucks.
• Recognized as one of five 'super assistant coaches' in
college basketball by ESPN The Magazine in 2008-09.
• Enfield is also the president of All Net Basketball, one of
the top basketball instructional programs in the United States. He
has coached over 100 NBA players on perfecting the art of shooting.
His list of success stories includes Paul Pierce of the Celtics,
Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat, Grant Hill of the Phoenix Suns, and
Al Thornton of the Los Angeles Clippers.
NCDS: Andy Enfield, Asst. Coach - Florida State
During a long road trip with multiple overnight stays, what is the best way to handle ‘down’ time on non game days? By down time, I mean any time of the day that is not consumed with practice, shoot around, film sessions, or any basketball related activity. I don’t know the answer to this question, so this is more of a thought provoking paragraph(s).
At Florida State, we were just on the road for 11 consecutive days where we played 4 games. We played one game in Los Angeles and then three games in Hawaii. While Los Angeles and Hawaii are two great locations to visit, coaches know that road trips are still mainly business and certainly not vacations.
In Los Angeles, we stayed in a great hotel but unfortunately we hit LA during the worst rain storms in many years. In my opinion, teams have a tendency to become sluggish when they stay in a hotel for an extended period of time. Usually, the most exercise the players get (outside of practice) is walking from their rooms to the buffet table and then back to their rooms. My question is: “Is it better to get your players outside of the hotel each day to do a non-basketball related activity or to stayed ‘holed’ up in the hotel all day and stay ‘focused’ on the game?”
Over the years, it seems that players have enjoyed activities as simple as ‘just walking through a shopping mall’ on the road. In Hawaii, our favorite activity was visiting Pearl Harbor. This was an experience that our traveling party will never forget. However, many locations in this country don’t have a historic place like Pearl Harbor to visit. So my question is: “What is the best way to spend the players’ time on the road?”
For team meals, certain teams like to have 2-3 hour dinners and ‘keep the players occupied as a team.’ Other teams like to give players their per diem meal money and let them go and eat where they want. There seems to be a fine line….eating together to build team unity or letting the players have some freedom and get away from the group for a few hours.
Since there were 8 teams in the Hawaii tournament, I noticed that each traveling party handled the ‘down time’ differently. Who had the best use of the ‘down time?’ I guess the answer to this question is: The team that won the tournament managed the down time the best !!”
Andy Enfield
Assistant Coach
Florida State University
