Book Private Basketball Lessons with Coach Lazarus

I was a 3-sport athlete in high school lettering in football, basketball, and tennis. I played Div. 3 football and basketball for DePauw University. After college, I continued to play competitively in leagues and tournaments. I am a former Div. 3 football and basketball player that has worked with clients ages 8 and up whose experience varied from brand new to the sport to professional basketball players for the past 16 years. Notable players include Dwight Howard (Orlando, Lakers), Kent Bazemore (Atlanta Hawks and Golden State), Anthony Lamb (Golden State), and Lamonte Turner (University of Tennessee).

"Where the mind goes, the body follows". I am a firm believer that if a person believes they can do something, eventually they will do it or at least attempt it. I specialize in increasing intrinsic confidence by helping clients discover the limiting beliefs that negatively impact how they perform on the court and how they show up in the world. Once we renew the mind through leadership coaching and diligent practice through repetitions, the client begins to experience the reward for hard work. In addition to that, technically I focus on teaching efficient movement, a competitive mindset, and proper mechanics as the framework for improving overall athletic performance and basketball related skills.

With the first couple of minutes, I take the time to connect with my clients to learn what’s going on in their world and how they are doing. We transition into dynamic warm up that is based on their needs (footwork, coordination drills, dynamic stretching, etc.) Once warmed up and ready to go, I tend to only work on one skill set at a time with a goal of adding 2 layers/levels of application of skill that translates into playing in an organized basketball game. For younger clients, sessions may be shortened depending on the attention span of the client. For older, more advanced clients, sessions are a minimum of 1 hour. Depending on depth of training and/or when a client is close to nailing a skill, sessions may go beyond an hour.

My best coach I ever had was my varsity high school coach, Coach Brewer who still is coaching at my high school to this day! He demonstrated what it looked like to look and be sharp, confident, how to carry myself as a student-athlete, and transformed this shy, nerdy kid into a tenacious competitor. To have him as a head coach for all 4 years was a tremendous blessing for me as a student-athlete and a kid who needed a positive male role model in his life. I've taken what I've learned from him and have molded those characteristics into my passion for developing basketball players and youth in general.

I am a father of 2 young men who attend ArtCenter College of Art and Design and a daughter who is in 8th grade. In addition to being a basketball coach and skills development trainer, I also am an educator and youth development professional. For the past 17 years, it has been my vocation that has allowed me to empower youth from differing ethnic groups and social economic backgrounds through my work in education and the non-profit sector. I enjoy facilitating moments when students and/or athletes realize that what they previously thought they were not able to do, they do and we celebrate that breakthrough, which becomes the catalyst for increasing their confidence to do the things they truly desire to accomplish.