TRAINING BUILT TO MAXIMIZE POTENTIAL

It is highly important you, or your athlete read this page to see if you are a good fit for our training style.  After reading, fill out the form at the bottom of the page to learn specifics about our workouts, package pricing, and scheduling your first workout.

Growing up in the 90’s, just as generations before, we called up our friends to play hoops in the yard, the park, and school.  Nowadays we call this ‘self-organizing’, but back then we just wanted to get together and play.  There were no parents telling us what to do.  We made our own teams.  We played hustle/21.  We called our own fouls.  We imitated the pros we saw on tv.  Through it all we learned how to play basketball.

Unfortunately these days, kids just aren’t doing this nearly as much anymore, and you can see it on the court.  All you have to do is go to most youth games, high school, or AAU, and a few things are evident:

1 – Sound decision making is lacking

2 – We are more individually skilled than ever, but less and less kids know how to play team basketball

We’ve all seen games where it is turnover after turnover because of poor decisions, or kids just stand around on offense watching 1-2 players be the stars.

Back in my youth, when we did have organized practices, much of our focus was trying to master the fundamentals.  Dribbling, shooting, passing, team offense, and team defense.  When we weren’t playing 5 on 5, many of the drills focused on individual skill work without defense.  High repetition. Was it boring at times?  Of course.  But because of the high repetition, we did become skilled enough that it produced players who knew how to handle themselves in many situations of a basketball game, and allowed players to play just about any spot on the floor, inside or outside.

With our training programs, we first take this approach by assessing the fundamental skill level of the player.  This involves basics like shooting form and ball handling.  We will also put them in decision making situations to see how they react.  More importantly, if we can either attend a game, or see game film of them playing, it will help get a feel of the strengths/weaknesses of the player.  After assessing the skill level, we will develop a training plan to help improve their game.

We will utilize live offense and defense to put the player in constant game-like situations.  We want them to improve decision making, read the offense/defense, move without the ball, etc.

While the athlete’s individual skills will improve, more importantly, it will be easier for the athlete to connect these improving skills to the actual 5 on 5 game, thus helping them better understand game strategy when they play for their school and club teams.

Our workouts have very little non-contested offense and defense.  No cone drills.  No form shooting.  No Mikan finishes.  Very little stationary dribbling.  Why?

• When you compare these drills to a 5 on 5 game, very rarely in the game do these situations actually happen.  In games, we don’t get the opportunity to wait to shoot, or just dribble in place for multiple seconds.  Instead, we take these classic drills, and update them to today’s standards.

• Additionally, it’s very difficult for the athlete to take these individual drills, and apply them in a game when there are 9 other players on the court.  This is especially true with youth players as they don’t have the game experience yet.

• Many studies have been done on how humans acquire and build skills.  Or more simply, how we learn?  The most effective way to build skills is NOT by bulk repetition (as what I did when I grew up).  Learning is not a linear process.  Studies have found that the most amount of skill acquisition and learning occur when we put the body into situations where it must adapt.  In other words, we need to gather/perceive information in our environment, then act upon it.  The scientific approach is called ecological psychology and ecological dynamics (how our body moves).

Some drills the player will succeed, some drills will bring failure.  But at the end of the workout, it will be a learning experience.  Our end goal is to train players to thrive in any situation they see on the court, helping them to be resilient, adaptable, and leaders of their respective teams.  

Ready to see package pricing and schedule your first workout?  Contact us below