Last Tuesday, we participated in the business competition known as “FastPitch”. The format was for entrepreneurs to present both their product or service and their business model, all in three minutes. A 3-person panel of judges had three additional minutes to ask follow-up questions or make additional comments.

While we didn’t win any prize money, planning for the FastPitch speech allowed us to think about our reasons for developing Aim High Hoops, and about what we sought to provide to basketball players, parents and coaches. We were able to focus on our mission—“Helping players learn both basic and advanced basketball fundamentals, using high-quality professional resources and customer service” —and how the mission is naturally the cornerstone around which everything we do is centered.

We discussed our first instructional video, “Pure Shooting”, which we look to have for sale by the end of the summer. We believe that a competitive advantage is in the presentation format. Many outstanding athletes do not become successful coaches, because they know how to “do what they do” but not “explain what they do”, as their athletic talents always came naturally and without them having to think about it. As teachers, we know how to break content down into comprehensible, logically-ordered pieces so the audience understands the connection between everything. In this case, our students will be the instructional video viewers and the lesson is about becoming a Pure Shooter.

We also went into depth about the Pure Shooter’s Report Card, our shooting analysis that will allow us to connect to players across the country with individual instruction, right from their own backyards. We wrote a bit about the Report Card back in an April 2010 blog and will continue to share developments.

The third product/service we feature, and have not yet blogged about, are our Aim High Hoops Shooting & Ball-handling clinics. Our purpose with those is not to cram as many players in the gym as we can, but rather, maintain the player to coach ratio at 8:1, ensuring individual attention for each player. The first clinic program correlates with our first instructional video on the mechanics of shooting and the way to become a “Pure Shooter”. We are going to have the DVD and Report Card available on site.

We are extremely confident that what we provide helps players who want to become great shooters become great shooters. The reason for the optimism is because the basketball knowledge that the Aim High Hoops team brings in, in addition to the products we offer, gives a precise picture of how to build the right fundamental foundation for becoming a great basketball player. Obviously, it is up to the players to truly “build” that foundation of skills. The biggest thing to remember is: Players that understand correct habits in early stages have an easier time staying on the fast track to basketball excellence, while players who learn poor habits have a great deal to “unlearn” before being able to reach their potentials, a considerably longer process.

Overall, it was an outstanding experience at FastPitch!

Billy Lewis & Jonathan Schneiderman

Aim High Hoops, Inc.

www.AimHighHoopsOnline.com

12-time NBA All-Star. 4-time NBA champion. 2-time scoring champion. Regular season and NBA Finals Most Valuable Player. Olympic Champion.

Kobe Bryant might just be the top player in the NBA, and will certainly be a Hall of Fame inductee when his playing days have ended. His feats are magnificent; his will to win unshakable.

We just recently published an article on our “Pure Shooting” instructional video, where we offer our ideas on the correct way to shoot a basketball. This instructional video will be ready for purchase later this summer. One of our themes is that “it is never too early or too late to become a pure shooter”

Kobe Bryant isn’t just a pure shooter, but also one of the more prolific scorers in the history of the game. He shares the regular season records for 3-point shots made in a half (8) and a game (12).

Inside a recent Sports Illustrated report titled “Kobe’s Final Challenge”, a subtitle could simply have been “it’s never too late to become a more pure shooter”. The article goes into detail about corrections Kobe made to his shooting mechanics during the 2009-2010 season on the advice of assistant coach and former NBA player Chuck Person. It could have been easy for Kobe, one of the best players ever to play the sport, and one of the best shooters in the league, to disregard Chuck Person’s advice and continue shooting exactly the same. Instead, he listened, processed the information, and worked hard to do a very difficult thing: train his shooting muscles to do something unique of what he was used to doing, in game situations, without having to think about it. Kobe’s work has paid off; his shooting is now more consistent, and NBA defenses are paying the price!

Kobe, in attempting to become more “pure”, was attempting to make his shooting mechanics more reliable and consistent. In our “Pure Shooting” instructional video, the objective is to help basketball players develop and strengthen the correct shooting mechanics, in an effort to shoot the ball the same way each time, in game situations, where there isn’t any time to think about the mechanics. This is only possible, as we make clear in the video, by “knowing” how to shoot, and then “doing” it (shooting the correct way) a lot. The bottom line: there is no substitute for the correct shooting mechanics, and players who continue to strive to become as “pure” of shooters as possible will always have a spot on the basketball court.

Billy Lewis & Jonathan Schneiderman

Aim High Hoops, Inc.

www.AimHighHoopsOnline.com

We at Aim High Hoops accomplished a major step for our company the first weekend of May. We filmed professional video for our first instructional video, titled “Pure Shooting”. By our count, we logged 30 hours on set, all to capture 7 hours of dvd, which will be condensed down to roughly 1 hour when all is said and done! This process of outlining a script all started in August 2009, and in between then and May, we filmed “Pure Shooting” 5 times on our own so as to watch our ideas on screen, reflect on the good and bad that we saw, and then finally change the script to communicate our vision as clearly as possible.

A lot of great individuals were needed for the film operation, without which we wouldn’t have been capable of making this instructional video. Rogue Lens (roguelens@gmail.com) is the company responsible for filming the footage and arranging a final, professional product. There was a variety of demonstrators ranging from 3rd graders, all the way to the collegiate and post-collegiate levels. Courtney Weibel and Devan Bawinkel were our showcased demonstrators; Courtney will complete her senior season for Marquette University in 2010-11, and as a senior in high school broke the national record for career 3-point shots made, while Devan finished up his college career with the University of Iowa this year after scoring 2,000 points in high school.

We look to have the video available by the end of the summer, and we strongly believe we’ve crafted something that can help shooters of all ages and experience levels reach their full potentials by learning how to shoot the ball “pure” every single time, thus strongly increasing the chance of the ball going into the hoop. There is ALWAYS room for a pure shooter on the court, and like we say in the video: “it is never too early or too late to become a pure shooter!”

Billy Lewis & Jonathan Schneiderman

Aim High Hoops, Inc.

www.AimHighHoopsOnline.com