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BASKETBALL SKILL TRAINING
Basketball is an ever changing sport and along with it so is skill training some for the good and some for the bad. As the pro game has changed into the WWF of basketball (Look at me my tats, arm sleeves, baggy shorts etc.), so has skill training. In trainers quests to become noticed and known many of the drills currently being done not only don’t transfer to game success, but also reinforce bad movement mechanics that prohibit players from reaching their true potential. These drills may look cool and would be great in a NBA halftime setting but leave players handicapped in a game when playing the ever so popular athlete in today’s game. The key is to do drills that translate to game success by exposing these athletes’ bad habits that they have developed while relying on their athletic skill set. There is no National Basketball Trainer certification program and to often you will see trainers that never had any true success with the game but may do some eye-catching drills to often making excuses of why they did not have basketball success. Excuses are the true crutch, which will prohibit us from achieving our goals. As a young player I spent eight plus hours a day in the summer with a basketball in my hand buying into the concept that hard work beats talent when talent does not work. There is some truth to that but it is not entirely true.
I have heard many trainers tell me I know I have to come up with innovative drills to get noticed. I constantly remind them that this is not about you or money or getting noticed it is about the kids and life lessons. As a successful College and pro player and coach with degrees in Health and Physical Education, Special Education, Educational Leadership and Exercise Science I knew something had to be done. At OtterBasketball we have developed a program that has turned out over a thousand division one players in the last 10 years but more importantly successful individual’s in life. Understanding how to create an environment that promotes the team aspects of basketball. In the OtterBasketball training system we are going to expose you to a program that uses Exercise Science concepts as well as a deep understanding of how to put yourself in positions to make the game easy from a movement and basketball conceptual standpoint as well as a mentality that says no one will ever out work me to maximize your game. We have developed players that are more skilled than I ever was by spending less time working harder but more quality time in the gym. With the model of working harder and smarter beats talent even when talent does work hard. Are you working on the right things grabbing drills off of You Tube is like playing Russian roulette with your game. The first component we want to focus on is efficiency this is a very difficult thing to do and grasp. People today want fast results in every study out there you will find that nothing worth having comes fast or easy many studies saying that it takes over 10 years and 10,000 hours of deliberate practice techniques to master a skill. We have found a way to speed up the process but we are still talking about some serious work not just physical but mental as well. As people and trainers throw around the word efficiently we find they truly don’t grasp its concept. Think about this the first time someone started teaching you basketball or you started playing basketball you picked up a ball and began dribbling not thinking about your foundation or how to increase your ball in hand time or how handling the basketball correctly created multiple angles to incorporate in the game. These things as well as many more must be emphasized to speed up the 10,000 hour principle talked about in many of todays success books. Here at OtterBasketball we have had players walk on at division one schools and become All-Americans for these kind of results you must buy in to the program and the details and become true students of the game. I am sick of people saying he is not athletic enough to play at this level its all bull crap lets start working harder and smarter then the competition today!!
Today I want to give you one key component of many that will allow you to do move more effectively with the ball and allow you to start looking more athletic when you play. In the efficiency of movement piece there are over 40 checkpoints we want to identify for player to start developing correctly. One early in the process is hip placement. Proper hip placement is essential when asking players to accelerate properly with and with out the ball or change direction. It comes down to loading we want players to be able to survey the floor and make reads. In order to move quickly players must have proper hip placement so they can load the ball of their foot to make cuts or accelerate or back peddle or even explode to the rim. Hip placement while maintaining proper kinesthetic alignment is one of the keys that allows players to move more effectively allowing them to load quicker and more effectively which in turn speeds them up by making them more efficient. In the upcoming training series we will dive deeper into hip placement and talk about the essential 4 hip locations that translate directly to effective movement in the game no matter what skill a player may be performing.