Being a Great Player

Lewis Carroll, the author of "Alice in Wonderland", said, "If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there."  I will adjust the quote slightly to address the countless young basketball players who claim to be striving to earn Division I scholarships and other lofty goals:  If you don't have a plan that will take you where you want to go, how do you expect to get there?

The first step is to be honest with yourself.  Do you want to be a truly great player, or does saying that you want to be great just sound neat?  If you really want to be great, it will take an extraordinary investment of time and effort.  The process is also a lonely one.  If it were easy to be great, there wouldn't be so few Division I college and professional basketball players.  But it is not easy, so few players dedicate the necessary time.  You will have to sacrifice to get where you want to go.  There is no shame in deciding that becoming a big time college or professional basketball player is not worth the time and effort involved.  You can still learn a lot and have a great time participating on a team and doing your best to make that team successful.

If you do decide to take the less travelled path of becoming great, you will need to work harder, longer, and smarter than those around you.  A player who simply plays on a high school basketball team and an AAU basketball team is not doing what is necessary to improve dramatically.  Countless players play on teams all year.  The players that will separate themselves from their peers are spending time working on their skills and their physical development in addition to playing on competitive teams and in competitive pickup games.  The players who work the most and who have the most productive workouts will be the players who distinguish themselves.

The summer is ending and high school basketball players have two or three months before official basketball practice begins.  Whether the goal is to "reach the next level" or to help the team be as good as possible, the best way to reach the goal is to take advantage of the time available in the next couple months.  I work with players that want to improve their basketball skills.  I have left my contact information at the bottom of this website.  Don't hesitate to call or write if you want to take advantage of my offer to help you execute your plan to be a better basketball player.