Most of my job is making shots smoother. This one was about the opposite. I worked with a middle school girl who had a beautiful stroke. I mean it. If you handed me a clip of just her upper body and asked me to grade the shot, I’d have given her high marks and moved […]
Give Your Shot Some Bones: When a Smooth Stroke Is the Problem Read More »
I’ve got an 11-year-old who’s smaller and younger than everyone in his group. He plays up, against bigger kids, older kids, and most days he’s getting cooked. He knows it. He signed up for it. A few weeks ago he finally got a shot to fall. One bucket. And he celebrated like he’d just won
You’re Showing Up to the Wrong Game in Your Head Read More »
I had a brand new player, never trained before, and I tried to make a drill easier so she could get a few more makes and feel good. She turned it down. Not rudely. She just wanted the hard version. She wanted to keep bricking it until it started going in, the way a skateboarder
Be More Like a Skateboarder Read More »
There was a moment in middle school that I still think about. Someone who knew basketball watched me play and pulled me aside after. Said I had real skills. Good handle, decent shot, could see the floor. Then he said the thing that actually stuck: “Your practice game and your game game are two totally
You Don’t Need to Be the Fastest. You Need to Be the Hardest to Read. Read More »
A high school kid came in looking like he was getting stabbed every time he shot the ball. Not exaggerating. Every rep was a full-body emergency. Shoulders up, jaw clenched, eyes wide. The ball would come out and he’d wince before it even hit the rim, like he was bracing for bad news. Which, to
You Play Like You’re Trying to Survive Something Read More »
Every player wants to know the shortcut. The drill that fixes everything. The coach who unlocks it. The training program that turns it around in six weeks. And there are plenty of people happy to sell you that idea, which is convenient for them and expensive for you. Here’s the actual answer: the biggest thing
You Can’t Buy the Hours (But You Can Make Them Count) Read More »
A middle schooler came in recently and told me every shot felt different. Off. Inconsistent. Like something was always slightly wrong no matter how many reps he put in. He had the look of someone who had been thinking about this for a while and had already ruled out several innocent explanations. So we did
Every Shot Is Going to Feel Different. That’s Not the Problem. Read More »
There’s a specific type of player that defenses love. Not the bad shooter. Not the slow guy. The hesitant one. The player who has the skills, has put in the work, and then gets into a game and decides that today is not the day to test any of it. Defenses don’t need a scouting
You’re Leaving Points on the Floor and the Defense Knows It Read More »
A high schooler I work with had a really clean catch and shoot stroke. Practiced it constantly. Rebounder feeding him, same spot, same setup, feet always set. In practice the guy was a problem. You could not leave him open. Then he got into games and suddenly nothing felt right. The pass was a little
Every Shot Is Going to Feel Different. That’s Not the Problem. Read More »
Most shooting coaches will tell you to square up. Get your feet set. Get your body organized. And they’re not wrong, in a perfect world where every pass is perfect, every dribble ends exactly where you want it, and defenders stand politely while you get ready. That’s not basketball. The gather is the moment between
Your Gather Is Slower Than It Needs to Be Read More »