The Tulsa Shock don’t plan on starting the season slow like most expansion teams. No, they’re putting in hard work from Day 1 in Coach Nolan Richardson”40 minutes of Hell” system. Plenette Pierson is leading the charge, as a player who’s already well-known for her hustle and grit. She’ll be updating us every week leading up to the season on the team’s progress.
Without further ado, we present the first installment of Plenette’s Training Camp Diary:
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by Plenette Pierson / @ppierson234
The much-anticipated first day of training camp with my new coaching staff, new teammates, and new city came and went with much excitement. From the first day I touched down in T-town the people have been so warm and excited about our team being here.
As most of you know Coach Nolan Richardson is well known for his system called “40 minutes of Hell”. My teammates and I were very nervous about what to expect for the first day of training camp, much to our anticipation it really wasn’t that bad.
His practices are mentally and physically demanding. I say mentally and physically demanding because his system seems to be structured chaos, the only way you can make a mistake is to stop movement, at times we aren’t quite sure what we are suppose to be doing. Good luck to all the other 11 teams trying to scout our offensive sets!
Now let’s talk about getting mentally tough. Coach Richardson has us running three laps around the court with our hands above our heads. Whew! I’m tired thinking about that! All the players who have been here and are still here will both grow physically and mentally tougher as the course of the season goes on.
As a veteran this year I have the upper hand on these rookies. As you know we drafted Amanda Thompson and Vivian Frieson. We have a lot of rookies on this year’s team and
the vets decided to hand down duties to the rooks from day one. Well some of the rookies complied with the duties that were placed upon them while others were a little more defiant. So as the days went on and on the rookies became more and more defiant and the vets were determined to really put the rooks in their place.
So, we stole their car keys and then made them wash all of the vet’s cars. Yes we even had Marion Jones out there scrubbing the cars down. With all that said, life in Tulsa isn’t so bad at all, I have great teammates and staff around me so we will be fine.
We are finding our way on the court and we are very excited to get on the court and face another team to see what we can accomplish. Watch out WNBA because the Tulsa Shock is coming through!
Plenette Pierson is a seven-year WNBA veteran with the Detroit and now Tulsa Shock. You can follow her @ppierson234 and get live Shock practice and game updates at facebook.com/tulsashock and @tulsashock.
