Next Season Starts NOW!

It's hard to believe that it's been almost two months since the season ended. As the spring sports hit full spring and the weather FINALLY starts to actually FEEL like spring, it's vital for the development of the high school basketball player to also be thinking about their plan to get better.

There are more opportunities to play year-round than ever before, but quite simply, NOTHING....let me repeat, NOTHING makes up for the consistent attention needed to develop individual skills. Playing games is important to develop a "game sense" and instinctive reactions to constantly changing conditions, however, it simply takes TIME and PERSISTENCE to develop the necessary skills to actually experience success.

One of my favorite books in recent memory is Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. Gladwell uses several examples to illustrate his rule of 10,000 hours. Basically, in order to master or perfect anything, it takes 10,000 hours. Broken down, is one person spending a lot of time spent focusing on something while others are likely choosing to do something else. (Ha...classic example illustrating the economic definition of an opportunity cost) Basketball SKILLS fall into this category.

For example, I've never heard of a great shooter whose story is that he just picked up a ball and was a "great shooter"...(well maybe in his own mind)...But, when you profile guys that are universally recognized as "great shooters", their stories of time spent working on their stroke are strikingly similar AND they reflect Gladwell's theories.

Put in terms of a high school basketball player's development, we might not be talking about 10,000 hours....but the mentality is the same. It takes an investment of part of one's self to remain consistently committed to a goal and endure KNOWING the results will reveal themselves over time.

Without question, being a well-rounded athlete is important. There are valuable skills and experiences taken from playing a variety of sports. Simply look at our list of all-time leading scorers at Mounds View...only one of the top 10 was a "basketball only" athlete. With that being said, putting consistent practice in during the off-season, even if it's 15-30 minutes a day will pay HUGE dividends come next winter.

Without rambling further, I'm sharing some resources that I've collected over time to help guys with this task.

• Understanding Shooting Practice
• 2008 USA Basketball Shooting Workout (this is the actual workout that the USA athletes used in preparation for the 2008 Bejing Olympics. Kobe Bryant would complete this workout...and continue to do more individual work)
• Minnesota Off-Season Shooting/Ball Handling workout - this was given to me by Travis Busch who played for Tubby Smith at the University of Minnesota. He had to track his workouts daily.