How To Grow Your Game This Summer

This summer you will have a chance to grow your game.  You have many choices.  Most players will choose the following route:

• Go the courts a few times per week
• Spend 15 minutes “warming up”
• Jack up alot of NBA Three Pointers at half speed
• Take a few trick shots from behind the backboard
• Shoot from out of bounds abut 5 times
• Dribble around with alot of East to West movement
• Play a game of pick up with whatever other guys come in the gym
• Avoid a defensive stance at all costs
• Have a lot of laughs and giggles as your alley oop pass flies out of bounds
• Take a whole bunch of shots your coach won’t let you take during the year
• Mimic the “And One” move you just saw on youtube.com
• Get off the court and sit down and guzzle down a few Gatorades
• Go to your AAU or Select Team Game (if you are indeed affiliated with one) and squeeze off a few shots and try and turn it on
• Go out for pizza and stay up late playing Xbox

Approximately one percent of YOU wll go another route.  It will look something like this:

• You will hit the weight room before the court.  You will follow a program specifically designed for basketball and work toward gains in explosive strength, flexibility, and injury prevention success
• You will warm up in a methodical way designed to introduce your muscles to the court movements you wil execute
• You will execute a pre-designed workout focusing on game shots at game speed
• You will take at least 500 shots
• Dribble to attack practicing explosive pivots and rip thrus
• Finish as if your life depended on it
• You will incorporate defensive sliding into your offensive workouts so you can make the transiton in the games
• You will meet someone at the gym as focused as you to facilitate your workout and avoid clowning around
• You will practice at an intensity level higher than the game itself, so the game will be easy
• You will recognize your strengths and magnify them until you are the best at that skill
• You will admit your weaknesses and address them in a fashion that will facilitate steady improvement
• You will remember the feedback of your coach
• You will not fear making mistakes or how you look to the other 99% in the gym
• You will find the best pickup and AAU games possible,  and guard the opposing team’s best player
• Commit to being the first player baseline to baseline each play despite the fact you may be too tired to shoot threes
• You will measure your success and failures in your workout so you can chart.  You can’t improve what you can’t measure.
• You will cool down properly, consider modalities like ice and Jacuzzis, and rest to recover
• You will eat a salad with unprocessed foods and eat lean meats and poultry
• You won’t drink 400 calories of sugar in your after workout drink.  If you are trying to gain weight then the drink can be a smoothie.
• You will enjoy your workout but not at the expense of intensity
• You will watch Youtube.com videos of Ganon Baker, Hubie Brown, and Alan Stein to figure out your workout tomorrow
• You will dream of success in making the team, making the big shot, and getting the scholarship you took one step closer to in your workout

Many dream about playing college basketball.  Only about 5% of high school players get there.  What are YOU doing this summer?  If you are ready to go to the Next Level… I am ready to help.