My Philosophy
My training philosophy is based on the following three things
Developing a well rounded skill set
Progressing from the fundamentals to the advanced skills at an appropriate pace
Integrating fitness training with basketball skill
Well Rounded Training
If you want to make the team and earn playing time you must prove to your coach that you can help them win. The way to do that is learn a well rounded skill set that enables you to contribute in multiple ways. Many training programs exclusively focus on ball-dominant skills such as ball-handling, shooting, scoring, and finishing moves, while ignoring equally important skills such as defense, rebounding, passing and playing off-ball. Ballhandling, shooting, scoring and finishing are very important and should be worked on, but the less glamorous parts of the game should not be ignored for one very important reason, those skills impact winning.
The problem with solely training ball dominant skills is that a basketball team needs players that fit a variety of roles, and only a few players will play the role of primary scorer and/or primary ball handler. The rest of the team needs to be filled out with players who can defend, pass, rebound and play off ball. If you want a spot on the team, or more playing time, you must be willing to play a role, that means you need to spend a portion of your training time working on role player skills. We will still spend lots of time on ballhandling, shooting and scoring. We will also work on the all around game!
Progression
The process of learning any skill is simple, but not easy. Develop coordination that enables you to perform the skill. Break it down into small steps. Put the steps together, then continue to build on the skill by increasing intensity and complexity. One of the biggest issues in modern basketball training is that advanced skills are being taught to non-advanced players. If you’ve ever watched training videos on instagram, you will likely see trainers teaching players to replicate moves from elite NBA players. Those are great players and we should all be impressed with their skills. However, the VAST majority of players are not even close to being ready for that. In order to learn the advanced moves, you need to build a foundational skill set. If you are patient and willing to learn the fundamentals, then you will be even better at the advanced skills in the long run, because those skills will be built on a solid foundation. To be clear, I’m not against combo dribble moves, step-backs, fade-aways and euro-steps, I think those moves are awesome if they are built on the proper foundation.
Fitness
I have a saying. First, you need to learn to move. Then, learn to move with the ball. Developing your coordination is essential for learning new skills. Developing agility will make your ballhandling skills more effective and make you a better defender. Learning how to jump will directly translate to your finishing ability and your jump shot. Developing strength is essential for durability and will allow you to play with physicality. Developing stamina is necessary to play at your best for an entire game. Your physical fitness is not separate from your basketball skill. If you are serious about success in basketball, you will put just as much effort into your physical fitness as your basketball skill.