Imagine Wearing a Cast on Your Ankles and Playing Basketball. It’s not a difficult sight to imagine- A basketball player wearing a cast due to a broken foot or ankle. But what if it wasn’t a broken foot or ankle, and the player’s range of motion was so limited in their ankles that it felt …
Building a Basketball Speed Philosophy It’s funny to think about is how hard coaches work on their X’s and O’s but completely miss how they want their players’ footwork to be performed. Not all coaches fall into this category, but a lot do. Many basketball coaches will use “motivation” to get their players to move …
There are not too many subjects I like to talk about more than speed. And if you were to add BASKETBALL SPEED to the conversation, you probably couldn’t get me to shut up! Basketball and Speed are my passion, and when the two are combined – WATCH OUT! When it comes to basketball speed, one …
Whenever we talk about coaching a movement skill, we need to follow a framework or a model. This allows consistency and a way to know what’s right and what’s not. For instance, with a typical Defensive Basketball Shuffle, the athlete needs to complete a full lateral gait cycle when speed is the goal. The athlete’s …
When we all start as coaches, we want to show our stuff. We give the athletes everything we know in the first 10-minutes of a practice or training session- ha-ha! Been there, done that! Authentic coaching comes when we start to realize less is better. What does less mean? It’s about giving one thing to …
Don’t Empty The Tank of Your Athletes! It’s almost like a badge of honor. You know -when a coach gets a high off physically destroying their athletes with punishing amounts of conditioning! The problem with this approach is the athletes rarely recover from that kind of workout and don’t have enough left in the tank …
You have an athlete that repeatedly falls out of control with her body every time she does a shuffle change of direction or a shuttle run change of direction. As she plants her outside foot to change the direction, her shoulders rotate toward the plant leg, and she shifts her upper body in that direction …
Isn’t it funny how we typically look at the feet, legs, and hips when we talk about speed and ignore the upper body, arms, and especially the head and eyes? I’m not going to talk about the upper body (arms, thorax, core…); however, I will dive into the influence of the head and eyes. When …
I can’t tell you how much I love watching old clips of the great lateral movers in sports- Barry Sanders, Roger Federer, Steffi Graff, Mia Hamm… Of course, I love watching today’s younger athletes, as well! The ability to create space for themselves or get to the ball quickly with one or two quick lateral …
Sprinting and Muhammad Ali Have One Thing In Common… Have you ever had the chance to stand next to a great sprinter and watch him or her strike the ground? It is quite remarkable. The grace at which they do it, and the power that comes from it is what makes them great sprinters. While …
