Training
The 4 Essentials Of Our Program You Will See Everyday
Our focus is to develop player footwork, ball handling, shooting and play pickup games.
Why Footwork?
Our feet and lower body are the foundation to everything you do in basketball. The way you dribble, the way you shoot all start with the placement of your feet. The better your feet move the better you will move when playing and training. The footwork that will be emphasized are your different types of pivots, ball handling footwork and shooting footwork so players can have the proper balance and movements in all aspects of the game. Many of the footwork movement and techniques translate to the defensive side of the ball as well. This is a part of the game many miss. With teaching proper footwork, it also allows players to be better defensively. The better your feet on offense the better your feet will be on defense. Vice versa. Footwork is the start to everything you do as a ball player.
Why Ball Handling?
Many place shooting as a top priority when it comes to the game of basketball. I actually prefer to put on emphasis on ball handling first at a young age. Why? When it comes to youth they usually aren’t strong enough to shoot a basketball properly. This is why youth leagues around the world have started to make sure the basket is lower to start when kids are learning the game. But in order to get to the basket how does one get there? Ball handling. You can’t shoot if you can’t dribble to get to the basket. One must also do so under the rules that are given. Rec leagues are great to spark interest but aren’t great to make sure kids play the game the right way as they let a lot rules slide. Yes, there is a place for rec leagues, yet if a player wants to enjoy the game in its purest form, the game must be practiced properly from the start. With kids lack of strength, teaching ball handling a majority of the time with shooting involved at a young age will benefit kids in the long run.
With the lack of strength, if kids shoot without any teaching behind it, many technique issues will arise. If proper mechanics of a shot are not empathized early in life, bad habits will build and it will be harder to break as kids get older. Its easier to push a ball down to the ground rather than trying to lift it up at a young age. You should work on both of course but you develop the muscles need to lift when you work on dribbling at a high level. Ball handling is at the top of my book of essentials due to needing players to get around the basketball court. It’s hard for kids to learn the game and try to think everything through when kids can’t comprehend the rules. To defeat that one can, learn how to keep their dribble. The rules than become easier to understand. If you are dribbling at a higher level it allows you to create opportunities for oneself and their teammates which makes the game fun. If you are unable to dribble at a young at you lose interest quickly as shooting is extremely difficult when young. I know many want to talk about how the ball going in the basket brings joy and excitement to the game but if you are illegally dribbling or running with the ball and breaking all the rules it’s not teaching the game properly. Its teaching building bad habits for kids that will be hard to break when they get older. Constant dribbling with the right footwork will help players build confidence, be more agile and build a better I.Q. for the game when done the right way.
Why Shooting?
At a young age most kids struggle to shoot the ball properly due to the lack of strength. Many don’t have the ability to lift and shoot the ball on a 10-foot basket. It’s important to first start with the hoops lower which is a model most if not all Europeans countries adopted for youth programs. The US has gotten on board with this in recent years but many still let young kids play on a 10 foot which isn’t all bad. The next thing is to focus on technique. Teaching kids, the proper foundation of where their feet should be, their hand placement on the ball, the location of their elbow and how to follow thru correctly must be done with precision at a young age. The skill of shooting is a long game.
It takes years to master. It must be done properly as when you get older these if you created bad shooting habits, it will take years to fix. Shooting is not an overnight skill that we master. Unlike dribbling, the little details cannot be missed or a player will struggle especially when they get older. With ball handling, one can be very creative and get outside the box to make one’s ball handling better. With shooting mastering something that is boring over and over again can make someone lose interest especially when the ball isn’t going in when one may think what they are doing is exactly right. Shooting must be done almost daily to keep the muscle memory going. Our club will make sure kids are set up in a way kids will learn and show improvement in one of the hardest skills if not the hardest skill in the game.
Why Play Pick Up?
We play pickup games in every practice. That’s what makes us different. Every practice after using our training techniques to work on the above, we set aside time to let kids just play. We also have a set day up during the week for kids to just come to the gym and play pick-up. Why is this important? It is for our players to build an I.Q for the game and not over coach kids with training every day. In today’s game, kids are more skilled with a trainer at the palm of their hands. What they lack is the understanding of the game of when to pass, when to shoot and when to make the right decision.
True development happens when a kid learns to be creative on their own and plays the game with freedom and able to make the right paly. We don’t want to overcoach as when you do players become robots and it actually hurts a player. More errors will occur as the game is too fast to make the same decision over and over again. To learn the game without any boundaries is important for growth. We want to provide that for our players. Our practices are built to transition every drill we do into a game like scenario. This helps when a kid plays in pickup games as it will show that their footwork, dribble moves and shooting come more naturally and instinctive rather than forced. Playing pick up games give kids more game like experience without having to go travel to every tournament every weekend to get what your player needs right here at home. Do you want to play against different competition and high-level players when you can? Yes. If you can get it in your own environment right at home that is ideal. That is what this is trying to create and will create. The more we develop higher I.Q. and skill players here at home the more intense pickup games can be and the better the I.Q. of a player will become. Pickup games are essential in the developing of a player. Removing this is why basketball have become stagnant in the I.Q. department of a player’s development. This club is getting back to that and know it is what separates us from the rest.