Episodes
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Alex is a phenomenal coach and a pioneer in this space, he's an advocate for progressing and evolving the current state of development and basketball coaching as well as the overall approach to things like: performance training, front office work, athletic training, etc
The traditional/dominant approach is outdated, and as Alex mentions in the episode - you wouldn't expect your doctor to be using methods/medicine from 2000 or early because that would be malpractice, why do we continue to accept this as the status quo and not demand for this field to be as updated and progressive as possible. The most recent and relevant research/information should be applied to coaching as much as possible
Alex and I talk about a bunch of great stuff in this episode and he's always a treat to talk to and have the pleasure of having on the podcast, please make sure to check out all his stuff linked below:
Website - https://transformingbball.com/subscribe/
Podcast - https://education.transformingbball.com/podcasts/the-transforming-basketball-podcast
IG - https://www.instagram.com/transformingbasketball/ -
Enjoy the rest of Jack and I's conversation!
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Missing episodes?
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Jack is a great human & basketball player, he and I talk about his journey from being under recruited, having his freshman year taken away by covid, winning a national championship the next year and then back to back conference championships along with all the struggles and hardship in between
After SMCC Jack takes us through his experience at Franklin Pierce which a NCAA Division 2 school in NH in the NE10, he played there for one semester and shortly transferred to UNE (University of New England) to finish out the year and why that change was so important to him and why it was such a better fit
Jack provides some great insight for any players listening and anyone in general! -
This week I touch on what exactly skill is, and how it differs from things like technique, as well as what exactly constraints are and how we can use/apply them
There's an important distinction that I think needs to be more known and that's the difference between a games-approach and the constraints-led approach, while you'll see a lot of crossover between the two they are very different. There are plenty of coaches that create small-sided games and apply one constraint and then leave that and let them play for awhile, and that's where I believe the misunderstanding comes from - some people think that I throw the ball out and just let my players play 3v3 freely... that's not the case.
I work hard to engineer practice sessions to development skillful basketball players, and that happens through creating unique and creative small-sided games with specific constraints applied in order to elicit the skills needed to be improved upon.
Let me know what you guys think!! -
Trevor does an amazing job breaking down, what can be pretty dense, science about learning. In the weeds, talking to the researchers about their work and applying it constantly to his own work and then creating content and making it super consumable for anyone listening
Trevor and talk about a metaphor he coined "zoo tiger vs jungle tiger", what that means to him and how it applies to life and even sport. We talk a little about representation and why it's so important and even why we lack in that area sometimes, we talk about the mindset needed to truly grow and then we talk about the importance of feedback when teaching and/or coaching!
Make sure to check out Trevor, you won't regret it:
IG - https://www.instagram.com/learnerlab/
Website - https://thelearnerlab.com/
Podcast - https://thelearnerlab.com/podcast/ -
Drake is true professional and currently working with one of the best force plate companies in the world (Hawkin Dynamics). Drake and I talk about force plates, interpreting data, applying the information you get from the technology, using that data to address things like asymmetries, things like how to recognize if an athlete is "cheating" a test and much more
I think the force plate talk is great, but you can also learn a lot from Drakes journey. Hearing about the amount of internships he did, the people he connected with, the positions that didn't work out and everything else in between speak to the industry and also why he's so effective at the position he currently holds with Hawkin
Make sure to check out Drake on social media and check out the force plates too!
https://www.instagram.com/strength2.speed/
https://www.instagram.com/hawkindynamics/
https://www.hawkindynamics.com/ -
Erik Huddleston is the assistant performance coach for the Indiana Pacers, Erik is a true professional and has equipped himself with so much knowledge & experience prior to entering the NBA. That education & experience presents itself during this conversation.
Erik and I discuss a lot of great topics: how to structure an NBA teams season for performance training, game-day lifts, using isometrics, addressing asymmetries - when to correct those asymmetries and when to leave them alone, PRI concepts like exercise selection for wide vs narrow ISA individuals as well the in between individuals and much more
Make sure to check out Erik on IG!
https://www.instagram.com/eph.24/ -
We're back!! Our first guest since the hiatus us Alex Sarama, Alex is a basketball coach from the UK. He's extremely good at what he does, he's immersed himself in the literature of skill acquisition and ecological dynamics in order to develop basketball players and ultimately change the way we as an industry look at developing basketball players
Alex is a delight to talk to, he's extremely genuine and truly wants to change this industry for the better. I think he's one of the best coaches in this field and this is just one podcast that shows that
Make sure to check out Alex on all platforms!
IG - https://www.instagram.com/alexsarama/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlexJSarama?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Some great videos I came across -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGOUh0rmsaE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-SSSyUfDhM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xt5Ouu3g98
Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-basketball-podcast/id1398261897?i=1000558143105 -
This week I talk about how to design better practices and how to optimize those practices. I discuss some important mindset shifts, important concepts and much more in order to accomplish the goal of designing better practices
Follow me on socials:
IG - https://www.instagram.com/tc.performance_/ -
The past two seasons with SMCC have been beyond rewarding: 2 YSCC Conference championships (back-to-back), first ever USCAA Division 2 National Championship in program history, multiple All Conference and All American players. I was lucky to be apart of all of it, and I was able to learn a lot from it as well.
My takeaways:
1. Trust & Buy-in = Everything
2. Film is so important
3. The mind is powerful beyond comprehension
2 Bonus points:
1. The college system as a whole could do a better job with their practice design
2. Freshman need to come into the season better prepared
Make sure to check out all my stuff on social media:
IG - https://www.instagram.com/tc.performance_/ -
Ross is one of the most passionate professionals in this field I've had the pleasure of connecting with, not only is he passionate but he knows what he's talking about! Ross gets in depth talking about how he builds athletes and so much more along the way
You don't wanna miss a second of this episode!
Check out Ross on social media and his program as well!
IG: https://www.instagram.com/coach_ross_dpt/
Program "Good Drills": https://good-drills.com/ -
John Evans is one of the best jump coaches in the world and is notably the performance coach for pro dunkers Isaiah Rivera, & Jordan Southerland (1footgod), as well some other very incredible dunkers/jumpers and thousands of athletes all over the world now with his online business "THP Strength".
John was a treat to have on, the conversation was free flowing and a fun one to have. Early on he and I talk a little about skills training and what I think the top 3 trainers in the industry are, we then talk about what his approach would be with a brand new athlete to the weight room with their goal being to dunk a basketball.
We talk a little about long term athlete development and some stories from Johns end, then John finishes up talking about olympic lifting and 1-foot bounce
There was a lot of great stuff in this episode as well as it being a great listen!
Check out John on all his platforms:
IG - https://www.instagram.com/johnevans_thp/
Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thpstrength/id1503429069
Website (THP Strength) - https://www.thpstrength.com/ -
Jon is on a mission to help athletes get to the next level with mental performance, he specializes in basketball mindfulness and it's clear by the way he talks about it and implements it that it's extremely effective.
The mental performance side of sports is something I'm super intrigued by. I've studied it, implemented it with my athletes, with myself and I've seen results in both. It's an extremely powerful thing, Jon thinks so as well.
Jon and I talk about what mindfulness is to him, he talks about his 3 buckets of mindfulness. We also talk about how he implements mindfulness, strategies as well as some tactics to use for both individuals and teams or groups.
We then touch on some specific topics like "being totally involved but unattached", self-talk, dealing with emotions/feelings and also breath work and the role it plays in all of the above
Make sure to check out Jon on socials:
IG - https://www.instagram.com/playfreebball/ -
Mitchell is a player development coach in southern New Hampshire, he integrates the science of motor learning/skill acquisition along with sports psychology in his practice. He develops his clients holistically as humans and not just as basketball players, we had a great conversation.
Mitchell and I talk about a lot of different things regarding sports psychology, things like what he's seen are important in the development of psychology in himself and his clients: focus & confidence. Some of the tactics he uses to develop the brain, his training methods as a whole help with that (training with chaos, challenging things like focus and their current ability, etc) as well as things like visualization
We also touched on how we both agree that the player development on teams, be it college, high school, etc could be better and need to improve. A lot of programs preach and teach what they think is right and what they think is going to get players better but it's not actually helping them translate skill to the court.
Lastly, we talk a little about Mitchell's experience in Columbia playing professionally.
Check out Mitchell on socials:
IG - https://www.instagram.com/hoopin_mitch/ -
Different format to this weeks episode: I'm joined by Coleman Ayers, Gabe Macias, Dario Saisan, Martin Andrade and Danny Metser to talk about some really interesting topics
Some of the things we discuss were: psychological stressors and the effects they have on things like free throw shooting, finding alternative consequences to physical punishment (running, push-ups, etc), what is the "it" factor in players - where does it comes from, the different styles/subcultures in basketball depending on where you are in the world geographically
I enjoyed this episode a lot because everyone of these guys are super open minded and extremely intelligent when it comes to basketball skill development, performance and a lot more. That made this discussion as great as it was!
Check everyone out on socials:
Coleman - https://www.instagram.com/byanymeansbasketball/
Danny - https://www.instagram.com/dmhoops/
Dario - https://www.instagram.com/saisantraining/
Martin - https://www.instagram.com/onlyaboutbball/
Gabe - https://www.instagram.com/gametimeelitetraining/ -
Shea Frazee is a skill development coach in Southern California, he's worked with 35+ NBA athletes and a lot of the top high school prospects in that area. Shea is an extremely intuitive & intelligent individual, he understands training & coaching on a different level than most.
Shea and I talk about his training philosophies and how he trains his players, we touch on how he trains both in a 1v1 setting and also in a group setting. We talk about how he goes about adding "cognitive load" in his sessions, how he can challenge his athletes psychologically as well as physically. The game of basketball is not 1 dimensional, it's 3D and multifactorial - sometimes we neglect the psychological aspect of the game in our training sessions.
Shea also speaks on his perspective in building confidence and what exactly goes into confidence, he has a 5 important steps in building confidence (towards the end of show).
Check Shea out of socials:
IG: https://www.instagram.com/shea.frazee/
Website: https://www.sheafrazee.com/ -
Our confidence starts during early childhood - how our parents nurture us, how our teachers teach us, how our youth coaches coach us, the people that have a position of influence at that stage so early actually have a massive influence on your confidence today.
Were you boxed in and not allowed to express yourself creatively at home, or in the classroom or playing youth sports. If you were that can trickle into you as both a person and an athlete
I don't say that to scare you, because if that's you don't worry. There are things you can to increase your confidence, I talk about those things in this episode. I break it into how players can increase confidence and then how coaches can be a helping hand in increasing a players confidence -
Martin is a player development and sports performance coach in Uruguay, South America. He's a mad genius when it comes to player development, he's able to apply the science of skill acquisition to his sessions at an extremely high clip. I think he's also one of the best in the business at creating one of the best environments for his athletes.
We talk about international hoops, using constraints to develop skill, can we build a player like Kyrie, creativity and much more!
Enjoy
Check Martin out on social:
IG - https://www.instagram.com/onlyaboutbball/
Website - https://www.onlyaboutbball.com/ -
Lee Taft is renowned as "The Speed Guy", he's one of the most influential figures in the industry when it comes to speed work, change of direction and specifically basketball change of direction. He could easily be considered one of the GOATS in the industry.
He and I talk about the state of youth basketball right now and how some AAU programs and the system as a whole are failing some of these athletes, Lee also adds some of the things he's actively doing within his community to combat the AAU system and it's great stuff.
We talk about building speed, change of direction as well as how to training power athlete to be more elastic and the opposite.
Lastly, we talk about some myths about defensive stances and what a "good" stance should actually look like -
Joel Smith is one of the great minds in the performance industry, he has one of if not the best performance & strength and conditioning podcast with over 300 great episodes with great guests that bring a unique set of knowledge and a different perspective on how to train!
I really like Joel because he's an extremely progressive thinker, he doesn't settle for the traditional strength & conditioning philosophy and is constantly pulling from different practices, different sports, different coaches and making them work in his own way.
Joel has done phenomenal work for the performance work with his podcast but also has also contributed plenty of articles, e-books, books and even courses. I'm very thankful to have gotten him on the show and hopefully I'll get him on again in the future!
Check out Joel on all platforms!
IG: https://www.instagram.com/justflysports/
Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/justflysports
Website: https://www.just-fly-sports.com/
Podcast: https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/ - Show more
