Your Kid Looks Great in the Driveway. Then the Game Starts. Imagine a driving school that ran like this. You show up, sit in a parked car in an empty lot, and for three straight months you practice turning the wheel and working the pedals. Nothing else. No traffic to read, nobody merging next to […]
Why Your Basketball Skills Disappear in Games Read More »
The Best Player on the Floor Looks Like He’s Barely Trying. That’s Not an Accident. I’ve got two kids in the same middle school group who might as well be playing two different sports. The first one plays like the court is made of lava. He catches the ball and right away the dancing starts,
Why the Best Basketball Players Look Like They’re Barely Trying Read More »
Stop Catching the Ball Like It’s on Fire. Take Two Seconds. I train a couple of middle school girls who are basically two different players depending on the setting. In practice, once they warm up and lock in, they look genuinely good. They read the floor, they make plays, they remember everything we’ve worked on.
Stop Catching the Ball Like It’s on Fire. Take Two Seconds. Read More »
You Don’t Need the Ball to Take Over a Game Most kids think scoring is something that happens to them. The point guard decides to pass, or the coach draws up a play, or the ball just happens to find them in a good spot. And when none of that happens, which is most of
How to Score Without the Ball in Your Hands Read More »
I had two of my players going at it in pickup the other day, and it was not a fair fight on paper. One of them’s a big, getting ready for high school, already carrying that size. The other one hasn’t hit his growth spurt yet, so he was giving up a lot of height
Why Losing 1v1 to a Bigger Player Might Be the Best Thing for Your Game 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 »
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 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 »