@Blair Bass 100%! As you gain more understanding of how the body works, you start to gain new perspective and see things with a little more intent and can spot things mechanically just a little easier.

@Rhett Harmon love it. Most days I do take cold showers after working out. It’s a great start to my day. I also have a weight room and sauna in my home, so I make the most of it as it’s a good reset to my body and mind before bed.

While I agree that decision making is huge, decision making tells you where to go, but shooting determines what the defense allows you to do. Great decision making only works if the defense respects you. If you can’t shoot, defenders just drop off, clog the paint, and kill your team’s spacing, rendering good "decisions" useless because the floor is completely shrunk. DJ Sackmann, Drew Hanlen, and Micah Lancaster preach this constantly: shooting gives a player gravity. Mechanics and scoring ability have to come first, without the threat of putting the ball in the basket, the best decision in the world still ends in zero points. Games are won by scoring IMO 🙏🏼

@Joseph Wunder couple takeaways from youth camps for me! 1) Cover what you feel are the most important fundamental topics that youth players NEED, and sell out on it! Athletes don't care as much about what they are doing as compared to the coach/trainer giving all their energy to the kids and explaining the importance behind it. I bust my butt in even the easiest drills and I work while they work, so they can see someone with a lot of experience putting all their energy and focus into the same things they are doing. 2) Don’t be afraid to shift gears and think on the fly as the camp progresses. You might have a great plan written out, but all that could go out the window based on the skill differences between the least skilled and most skilled. So always challenge your most skilled campers, but be ready to adjust to your least skilled, but to the point they are still seeing a challenge and success. 3) Have FUN and provide ENERGY to the hoopers! But make sure they understand the difference between work time and play time. At times I stop competitions and drill time to get the kids to re-center and re-focus on the task at hand, and remind them of the importance of what we are doing.

@Daniel Cooper Preciate it!

I only say “other” because it can be something different each time based on the player I’m working with. With 1:1 workouts, we dive into what needs to be worked on most. For example, with someone who struggles with shooting and footwork, we dive into ball handling and footwork right away, and work into shooting after. As we progress, we add those ball handling/footwork details into our shooting drills. Then we get into live reps, then a finisher challenge. But it very well could change the next time. We might get more into live reps right away, like the video I posted today on Instagram, and finish it with a challenge. But every athlete is different. High level athletes need more live reps and to stay sharp with their decision making. Less experienced athletes need more intentional detail work, and can slowly add those live reps in various ways that still focus on the skills/details we work on during the workout.

My player development journey began in 2018 as a volunteer coach for a HS boys team, working with individual players before school and helping any way I can during practices, so oftentimes playing them. I then applied for an internship at IMPACT Academy in Vegas working for Joe Abunassar. I was 1 of 3 interns selected to get it. So I spent half a year out there in 2019 working with the pre draft process, helping hundreds of college players as they get ready for the NBA draft, as well as working with pro players. After Vegas, I went back to my home state to teach and coach, then slowly building my clientele in the summer months for training. In 2022, my wife and I moved to Omaha so I can be a fulltime trainer working for a legit training business, working with 3rd-pro level players, and coaching their grassroots AAU teams, as their top teams compete on the UA Rise/Association circuits. In 2024, my wife and I moved back to central Nebraska to start my own business, renting out gym space and building clientele, until I ultimately got my own gym last summer and now have a waiting list of kids wanting to get in and work with me. Been a long, crazy process but it’s been a dream of mine since 2018 that’s taken some twists and turns, but that’s all part of the journey. I’m still teaching, pursuing my masters degree, I’m married with 2 kids and a 3rd on the way, so it’s been a wild ride to get to where I am.

@Brendan Williams joining another business definitely helped me! Especially so I can see firsthand how the business is operated. We had 8 guys on staff, with me and one other being on salary, then 2 fulltime trainers, and 2 part time trainers, and my 2 bosses. I got to see the 1:1 side of training, small groups, classes, the AAU side, and everything in between. I was also head of marketing and social media, so I was kind of set up in a good position to where I knew what to do when I left the program. Plus I got to learn from some of the smartest trainers I personally know just based off my 8 years of experience, which helped me gain new perspective. In my 2-3 years working in Omaha, we gained more notoriety all around the state because I’m from western Nebraska, so a lot of people I knew from all over the state started following us and after that, more and more people knew about us, which made me more confident to be able to start my own training business knowing I would have some people ready to work with me.