Book Private Basketball Lessons with Coach Devin

Summary of My Career:

I have been playing basketball my entire life and still playing to this day and will continue to play for as long as my body will let me. I've played at a high level throughout my career. Playing at Park Center high school where we made it to the STATE Championship my senior year. Then, I went on to play at The University of Wisconsin-River Falls where we made NCAA Tournament runs my Junior and Senior years. Finally, I played 2 years of basketball overseas professionally in Brazil and Germany.

Accomplishments:

-High School: 2x All-Conference player, 2x All-State, 2x STATE Tournament Participant, STATE Tournament Runner-Up, 1x All-State Tournament team, and a 1,000 point scorer

-College: 1x All-Conference player, 1x All-Conference Honorable Mention Player, 1x Sportsmanship player of the year, 2x NCAA Tournament Participant, a 1,000 scorer, Top 10 in 3-point makes in school history, and D3 USA Team Participant

-Professional: Played two years of professional basketball in 2 different countries (Brazil and Germany)

Skill Development:

-Dribbling: Practicing various dribble moves and putting together dribbling combinations in order to feel confident as a ball handler when being guarded by a defender. Creating a tight handle to improve ball control and agility.

-Shooting: Working on proper shooting form, this includes hand placement, follow-through, and different shot types such as catch and shoot, off the dribbling shooting, moving without the ball into your shot, and free throws.

-Passing: Practicing different passing styles like chest passes, bounce passes, and no-look passes to enhance accuracy and vision. Also teaching when to make certain passes in different situations in order to make the correct read and get teammates open.

-Defense: Focusing on footwork, hand positioning, and defensive stances to effectively guard opponents.

Physical Training:

-Conditioning: Incorporating different types of sprints, plyometrics, and other forms of conditioning. This isn't to punish the athlete, but to improve stamina so they aren't tired in games often and are able to play at the highest level or at their best throughout the entire game.

-Agility Drills: Utilizing agility ladders and cone drills to improve quickness and footwork.

Game Strategy:

-Practice Game Scenarios: Simulating real game situations like fast breaks, moving without the ball, learning various cuts to get open, making reads off of pick and roll actions, and offensive sets to develop tactical awareness.

-Team Communication: Emphasizing the importance of calling screens, rotations, and communicating defensive assignments.

Feedback and Mentorship:

-Positive Reinforcement: Providing constructive criticism while focusing on positive aspects of their play.

-Identify Weaknesses: Helping them recognize areas where they need the most improvement and tailor drills accordingly.

-Observe and Analyze: Watching film to identify patterns and areas for improvement.

Important Considerations:

-Individual Needs: Adapting training plans to match each player's skill level, strengths, and weaknesses.

-Consistency is Key: Regular practice is essential for meaningful skill development.

-Mental Toughness: Encouraging a positive attitude, focus, and resilience during challenging situations.

-Enjoyment: Making sure the learning process is fun and engaging to maintain motivation.

Warm-up:

-Helps players avoid injury and get mentally prepared

-Includes dynamic and static stretching

-Form shooting

Ball Handling:

-I believe that being able to control and dribble the ball effectively is one of the most important aspect of basketball so I like to spend the first 10-15 minutes focusing on an intense ball handling circuit to improve dribbling ability.

As the player improves the circuit will increase in difficulty, therefore it will always challenge the athlete.

Skill work:

-Focuses on training specific aspects of the game

-Work on incorporating all aspects of the game into drills such as ball handling, passing, shooting, driving/finishing, and offensive/defensive concepts

-Simulate game like situations

Game:

-Some type of game that allows the athletes to implement what was worked on during the session:

-1v1 or 2v2

-shooting games

Conditioning and Free throws:

-This will be done throughout the entirety of the session

-Helps players focus on making free throws while being tired

The best coach I have had was my high school coach. He always pushed me and at times it felt like he was singling me out when I would make a mistake, but as I got older and progressed in my career. I learned that he pushed me so hard because he just wanted to get the most out of me, he wanted me to be great, and he wanted me to be prepared to play at the next level. I appreciated him so much once I got to college because I was ready and I was able to be really successful. He played a big part in my accomplishments and growth I had as a basketball player and I will forever be grateful that I had a coach like him!

Athletes and parents should know that I truly love this sport and I will never take it for granted! So, I will come into every training session with a ton of energy and will do everything in my power to help athletes become the best they can be. I also am a student of the game and study every little detail. Therefore, I will make sure that my athletes are fundamentally sound, able to make reads offensively, become a great ball handler (regardless of position), and be a consistent shooter/scorer. Training with me, players will not just be good at one aspect of the game, but they will become great all around players that can do everything on the court!