Undeniably, the 2010 Division I National Championship game between Butler University and Duke University was one of the best title games in the recent past, and debatably, in the history of the tournament. Coming down to the wire, an intentional Duke miss from the free throw line gave Butler’s Gordon Hayward an opportunity at a game-WINNING three-point shot from half-court that just about found the bottom of the net. Duke triumphed in the game, 61-59, in a match-up amongst two very gifted teams playing their finest basketball of the season.

The key reason why Duke was playing at such a higher level was due to the amazing outside shooting of their “big 3”; Kyle Singler, Jon Scheyer, and Nolan Smith. All three players were at the top of their games, and the shooting rhythm they displayed was an illustration of what jump shots should look like: smooth, efficient, and consistent.

Many in the country, while tuning in for the basketball game, came across President Obama put his own jump shot on display at halftime, with a game of H-O-R-S-E against CBS’s Clark Kellogg. The President was down early on, but managed to come back and rob victory from the hands of Kellogg by converting on some long-range jumpers in the White House backyard.

Mr. President, we at Aim High Hoops are well aware of the fact that you’re in the hottest seat on the earth already, by the nature of your job, and the criticism comes early and often for you on a regular basis. However, we’d not be doing our jobs as citizens if we didn’t offer some useful criticism on your shooting mechanics!

We’ll keep it short and sweet: you were shooting across your body! When you are getting tired, or aren’t in rhythm, you’ll have a tough time keeping your shot on line with the basket. In the basketball instructional videos that we feature, instructing players how to keep the ball on line with the basket is one of our core principals….and vital to successful shooting.

This advice comes at no charge, Mr. President. However, we’d gladly agree to a tax break on our first return next year!

Billy Lewis & Jonathan Schneiderman

Aim High Hoops, Inc.

www.AimHighHoopsOnline.com

I’m in the midst of creating a summer class for incoming high school students. The goal is to teach personal and interpersonal habits that could help them be successful in high school. The text on which we’ll base the curriculum, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens”, by Sean Covey, explains the “private victory” habits first, which adolescents use to feel comfortable and confident with who they are as people. Covey then moves on to the “public victory” habits, which assist to create positive and productive relationships. He goes to extraordinary lengths describing how human nature calls for us to win that “private victory” first before moving on to the “public victory.”

What does this have to do with basketball?

How often have you noticed a coach, player, announcer, or journalist referring to a basketball team playing (or not playing) well together? Playing together means that individuals on a team make a mental promise to do what is necessary to help their team succeed. A lot of times this means doing the tough things; i.e. taking charges, and the unselfish things, like making an extra pass to the “very open” teammate.

It takes self-confidence to put the team’s success first, and it shows strong character.  Watching northern Illinois native and Butler Bulldog senior, Willie Veasley, is an illustration of character on display in basketball.  Here is a 22 year-old, who as averaged single-digit points for his career, yet is the winningest player in Butler history, and has now led his team to the Final 4 with a chance to be a national champion. There are games he has had where the stats are all but absent, yet he was one of the main reasons his team played well and was victorious. 

How can that be? Well, Veasley has enough confidence in himself that he is not threatened by the success of his teammates. He has worked hard enough, believed in himself all along the way, and has learned the value of working to bring out the best in his teammates for the good of the team. 

This is part of the program we offer at Aim High Hoops. Our instructional videos underline the values of conditioning (hard work) and confidence, two traits which will allow players to be successful within and beyond basketball.

Check back soon!

Billy Lewis & Jonathan Schneiderman

Aim High Hoops, Inc.

www.AimHighHoopsOnline.com

In what may turn out to be our official slogan, “Next Generation Skill Development” brings together what Aim High Hoops is all about. Providing players resources to “develop” their skills over time is our goal. We are working to build an organizational framework where players can go back to us on a constant basis and always find something to help them enhance their games.

One of our main features will be the basketball instructional videos, where we focus on all aspects of individual improvement for players of all skill levels. In the first year of Aim High Hoops, we are looking to produce instructional videos for the mechanics of shooting and then for ball-handling.

The website will always be updated with blog postings, featuring insight from established basketball players and coaches, who will be sharing their ideas on basketball skill development among other topics.

Players will have the opportunity to connect on a personal level with Aim High Hoops, in ways not available inside the industry. Personalized skill assessment tools will be followed up with a personalized instructional plan.

For the past five years, each of us has been involved with influencing the “next generation”, as classroom teachers and coaches. We understand how students learn and would like to use what we know to make players’ experience with Aim High Hoops as advantageous as possible.

We are also constantly studying the trends inside the game. Players will always be doing new and more impressive things on the basketball court, and in doing so, creating new challenges to which the next generation can aspire. I am not talking about trying to duplicate a great play, like Michael Jordan switching the ball from right to left hand in mid-air. That is certainly not something players need to be practicing in hopes of utilizing it in a game situation. Rather, I am talking about things like Jordan’s fade away jump shot in the post. That is a weapon he used constantly and made it look easy doing so. How many guards shot that shot before MJ? How many more shoot it now? One of my college teammates, a 6’2” “center”, mastered the fade away so he could score against bigger defenders, and did it so well he won conference player of the year as a senior.

Our purpose at Aim High Hoops is to help the next generation of players build up well-rounded skill sets, including a powerful foundation in the fundamentals along with a range of offensive weapons to help themselves and their teams reach the highest potential.

It’s going to be an exciting ride!

Billy Lewis & Jonathan Schneiderman

Aim High Hoops, Inc.

www.AimHighHoopsOnline.com

No two basketball players are exactly the same. Every player has individual, defining traits of how he or she shoots, dribbles, passes, competes, wins, loses, practices, etc.

At Aim High Hoops, we embrace the fact that every basketball player’s game is unique. In addition to producing training videos for shooting and dribbling, we also will be offering individualized shooting instruction beginning this spring. We hope to assist players understand the strengths and weaknesses of their jump shot, by providing a personalized assessment of the player’s shot and strategies for improvement.

We offer this to players of any level. Think of it like building a house. When you need help laying that first brick, we’re there for you. For those who have the foundation (playing experience) built but need a few of the smaller details addressed, we can do that too.

The personalized feedback idea arises from our experiences as classroom teachers. Students learn in their own ways, despite the subject. Sometimes, the advice that teachers give clicks better with some students than others. The first thing I suggest to students who desire extra support to help their learning is one-on-one work, either with a tutor or myself. A result of the personalized attention is usually a better understanding of the material, because it can be explained in a way best suited for the student.

What we asked ourselves was, why not apply the successful teaching method of individualized instruction to basketball skill development? We couldn’t find a good answer to that question, so we pursued ideas to make it happen. There is nothing new about individualized basketball instruction, unless you are talking about reaching out regionally and nationally to players in their own backyards.

Our purpose is to get the Aim High Hoops name out to the national marketplace. There is certainly some national competition out there for instructional videos, don’t get me wrong, but as soon as you buy a video from most of those companies there isn’t much opportunity for follow-up. I think about when I first tried to teach myself piano. The instructional books I bought were well-organized and fairly easy to understand, but the learning was slow. It wasn’t until I worked with a piano teacher one-on-one that the music concepts really became clear, and the result was that my learning really accelerated.

We are confident that our instructional videos will help your understanding of shooting and dribbling, but we hope we can provide more than that to you. We are looking forward to the thought of bringing our teaching ideas and applying them to your individual game to help you become the very best player you can be.

Keep checking back!

Billy Lewis & Jonathan Schneiderman

Aim High Hoops, Inc.