It's very clear to me that basketball is evolving into a shoot-first mentality game. Further distance shots, full-court sprint drills, and running baseline to baseline not knowing if you're going to get a touch on the ball.
“You put in what you get out. If you don’t put time into your game, you’re not going to get better.” - Charles Oakley
Point guards shoot first, wings shoot first (which is their job), forwards shoot first, and god help us even the center position shoots first; from the 3pt line mind you.
As a youth development trainer, how do we navigate through this? How do we set up our training sessions to build the hardest skill (in my opinion)? It takes the longest time to master, takes the most amount of time to refine, and as a basketball trainer, I only have 1-2 hrs max to do this, once or twice a week to make matters worse?
What do we do?
What kind of skill training secrets, moves, and techniques does a trainer utilize to help athletes succeed, and maximize progress in short spurts?
The answer...we're still trying to figure that out, for this generation of players, who have a higher sense of self-entitlement, added social media pressures, and mental health concerns, which surpasses practice time?
How do we as trainers navigate through all this?
As basketball players, lovers of the game, we navigate these issues with our passion and putting in the TIME.
We maximize every minute during training and focus attention on specific aspects at a time. No wasted movement, no unrelated questions or conversation not attributed to practice or training sessions. All with a smile on our faces, optimism in our minds, and execution in every skill, trying to be flawless.
Were you surprised at my answer?
That's how all the greats did it. That's how all the "greats" to come will continue to do it.
As a basketball trainer, that's my mentality for the allotted TIME I have with each athlete, let's get the most out of this session, and grow our confidence knowing we put the TIME IN!
- Coach Ben
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