I really don’t know where to start with today’s RANT. i guess the best way to start is by saying all kids have a dream. They all want to be successful on the court and hope that someone notices them. Many dream and hope to play in college one day. The problem is they simply do not understand how to make that dream come true.
I watch it EVERY DAY, a kid cones into the gym and works out. They run hard and sweat. They put their time in on the court. The problem is they are constantly working on the wrong things. I shoot everyday after school at the hoopgroup for two hours. Its a free shooting session for any kid the wishes to shoot. Very rarely do we work up a sweat. We shoot from the same 8 spots every day. We always shoot three’s for 30 mins of that 2 hours. The kids who come to after school shooting is proof that showing up everyday is the key to becoming a better shooter. I know if a kid cannot shoot the ball, it makes it very difficult to play at the the next level. Yet everyday I watch kids who are poor or inconsistent shooters come in the gym and workout. But do not understand that shooting is there weakness and the thing that is going to halt there dreams in there tracks.
Every parent thinks there kid works hard. Now never tell a parent there kid is not a hard worker. All I’m going to tell you is there is levels to this. There is Justine Pissott and there is the kid who does there best. You know the kid who has homework, a tutor, plays another sport, has a job, got injured or can’t get a ride to the gym consistently. These are are legit excuses for why a kid can’t work on there games. Yet they do want they can. But at the end of the day I’m sorry to tell parents …nobody cares about the reasons why. They just want to know is your kid in the gym or not. Its the difference as to why some kids go play at the next level or not. Why some kids pick a school or settle on a school. More dreams are killed for this reason than any other reason.
NBS CAMP is in two weeks. Its a chance for kids to truly prove themselves. I had a high school coach say to me “she has a previous commitments otherwise she be at NBS’” now I smile and say I understand. But the truth of matter is he and I both know she is not now or ever coming anywhere near NBS. She, her coach and advocates are wrongly hoping she can trick a college coach into giving her a free education vs. trusting her ability and earning it. In the past week I have watched kids get D1 offers pulled off the table. I have watched kids really believe they are playing well; only to be shocked nobody is calling. I have seen parents bragging about there kids performance and perplexed no schools are recruiting there kid. Well what they don’t understand is coaches are not dumb and understand the level of competition you are playing against. When will kids and parents understand this, I will never know. Your kids Notoriety and credibility is based on there performance against quality competition at the level they hope to play at one day. In other words; If you want to play D1 nobody cares how you played vs D2 competition. If want to play D2 or D3 nobody cares how you played against weak high school competition. Regardless of how many times you write on social media… WE PLAYED GOOD COMPETITION. What you call good competition and what I and college coaches call good competition is totally different and you can’t trick us.
Now everyone has a inner circle they trust in recruiting and training advice. The problem with that is; not everyone in your inner circle knows what the hell they are talking about. Too often folks have agenda’s and its not always in a kids best interest. But at some point the kid or parent has to take some responsibility for there decisions. As I told a AAU coach this yesterday.
Here is the deal. You either working hard or your not; there is no in between. You either making wise decisions about what your inner circle will look like or your not. If you really want to make your dreams or your kids dreams come true… surround yourself with people who will give you this👀
CORE SKILLS STARTS MONDAY … remember daily rates for those starting in the middle of the week