Year-round Basketball Skills Training | How to take your game to the n3xt Level…

After over five years of operations at Premier Hoops, I have been asked all sorts of questions in regard to basketball.
From the players…

• How can I get better at basketball?
• How can I jump higher?
• What should I do to make my dribble moves better?
• How can I make my foot speed quicker?

From the parents…

• What basketball camps should I send my kid(s) to?
• Are there any good teams that my kid(s) should play for?
• What are some good basketball clinics in Massachusetts?
• What foods should my kid(s) be eating to perform better?

Of course, the players and parents are asking the right questions; however, a lot of things have changed since I was playing basketball.
In this article, I will discuss the biggest problems in youth sports today and why many kids fail to reach their full potential.
Too much pressure | From my experience as a youth basketball coach and the President of a growing basketball skills training program in Massachusetts, I have noticed a lot of pressure on youth athletes to play multiple sports. Kids are being pulled in different directions by their coaches, parents and teens to play different sports… baseball, lacrosse, soccer, and/or flag football in the spring; all-star baseball, basketball leagues, tennis, and/or multi-sport camps in the summer; soccer, football, and/or track in the fall; basketball, hockey, and/or swimming in the winter. Coaches are coaches and all good coaches will try to get the best out of any athlete if they see potential and fire in a player. Some coaches will pressure players into playing for their program for the wrong reasons such as: for the money or because the coach wants the player to play (not the other way around). Some parents will pressure their kids into playing sports because the parents love this sport and had great experiences playing it.  Peers will often pressure their friends to play because everyone is playing and it is hard for the player to leave his friends.
Too much structure | Structure is not a bad thing, but I am seeing more and more over-structure in youth athletics. For example, on Mondays and Wednesday a youth athlete might play basketball, on Saturdays flag football, and on Sundays lacrosse. There is nothing wrong with having a weekly structure, but the problem with many kids is that these are the only nights that they are playing this particular sport. Some parents and players believe that because they have basketball on Mondays and Wednesdays it means that they are “doing basketball”. This hinders the kids reaching their full potential by only playing a single sport a couple times a week.

Not enough consistency | This goes along with the point that because kids have so much structure in their sports’ schedules that they are not actually practicing by themselves. Many parents are paying for programs for their kids to get better at sports. These kids will go to these programs, but then rarely practice or play outside of the program. To reach your full potential in any sport, you have to play all the time!

Basketball is one of the easiest sports to get good at quickly. All you need is a basketball and you can practice your handle anywhere/anytime. All you need is a basketball and a hoop and you can practice shooting, layups and dribble moves to score. In many other sports you need a teammate to help you practice.
To get better, I would strongly recommend the following:

• Basketball clinics
• Finding a good team/coach to play for
• Private lessons
• Basketball camps

However, you will limit your full potential if you only do the above recommendations.
To take your game to the next level you need to play basketball all the time.
This means working on your drills and playing pick up games BEFORE and AFTER team games and camps… if you ask any big time player how he got to where he got, he will tell you that he played all the time.
In summary, many of the questions players and parents ask me in regard to basketball sometimes sound unrealistic. For many of the kids, who have over-structured sports schedules with multiple sports each season, they cannot improve on basketball because they just are not playing enough. I hear this a lot: “Now it’s spring so Johnny is playing baseball” and “Now it’s fall so Eric is playing football”. If kids really want to improve in a particular sport such as basketball, they have to put basketball first. That doesn’t mean to stop playing other sports, but I truly believe the over-structuring of kids and sports is deterring them from reaching their full potential in one sport. The good news is that if a youth really wants to get better then they will do it by themselves without motivation or pressure from anybody else.
If you would like to contact me please do so at anytime.
Coach Mike Leykin
Founder, President, and Coach at Premier Hoops
mleykin@premierhoopsters.com
www.premierhoopsters.com