My Motivation- Brenna Saline

Brenna Saline is a player who was not afraid of work. She had strong goals in basketball, and was committed to working to achieve her goals. As a result of her hard work, she was not only a great high school player but she went on to become a very good college player.

You had always been a good player coming up in junior high and frosh-soph level.  At some point things took off until by your junior and senior years you were at a different level. In my opinion you went from pretty good to great. How did this happen?
I don't think players understand exactly what "Galesburg Basketball" means until they've been in the program a few years and how to represent it correctly.  It wasn't until my after I'd been in the program a couple seasons to know what it took to turn our team from a good to a great one.

 

A lot of times, players talk about how things just "clicked" all of sudden, something happens and their motivation and goals change. Was there something that sparked your increased motivation?
It was always the norm to win for GHS basketball but for me it was always a motivation to get a banner in the gym.  It drove me every day to become better and work harder than I did the previous year.  Especially after my junior year ended, the only goal I had was for our team to make it to state and that motivated me daily in the summer and preseason.

Could you describe your work out plan or program that you used in the off-season?
My workout plan included shooting 500 shots a day in the summer.  I worked on mid-range jumpers, three pointers, shots of the dribble, and game like shots (i.e. coming off picks).  I also played 1 on 1 against guys at the YMCA a few ballhandling drills (two ball dribbling, zig zag drills) and did a variety of off season conditioning/quickness routines (jump roping, 5 dot drills, sprints, scrimmaging).

If freshmen or soph who wanted to become a successful varsity player came to you, what kind of program would you give them to reach their goals?
I would give them one that included lots of shooting especially game like shots.  I always used partner shooting but you can also get your own rebound and pass it out to someone which would work on conditioning as well shooting.  Also a big aspect of basketball is quickness so jump roping and doing dot drills would be something I would recommend.  Being a guard, I would have ballhandling be part of the plan, too.  Two-ball and one-ball dribbling both in place and in the full court can help tremendously with strengthening those skills.

What advice would you give to a player for the off-season?
The off season is really where improvement can take place.  Therefore, a player needs to work the hardest during preseaon, postseason, and summer.  One can drastically improve her fundamentals during this time because the results are not as important as working on the little things.  The off season is where individuals on a team can go from average to great with lots of hard work and determination.