Category: Player Development

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Rising Above the Rim: 5 Winning Strategies to Dominate Basketball Tryouts

Photo of boys basketball tryouts- action shot

Basketball tryouts are an exciting yet nerve-wracking time for aspiring athletes. Whether you’re a seasoned player or just starting your basketball journey, making a strong impression during tryouts is crucial. To help you stand out and increase your chances of making the team, here are the top five things you can do:

1. Showcase Your Skills with Confidence:

During tryouts, coaches are looking for players who not only possess the necessary skills but also display confidence in executing them. This means dribbling, shooting, passing, and defending with poise and self-assuredness. Confidence not only makes you a more appealing player but also elevates your teammates’ performance. Remember, it’s not just about what you can do but how confidently you do it.

2. Embrace the Hustle:

Hustle and effort are two qualities that coaches highly value. Dive for loose balls, fight for rebounds, and demonstrate relentless energy on the court. Show that you’re willing to do the dirty work and put in the extra effort. Your determination and work ethic will set you apart from others who may rely solely on their talent.

3. Be Coachable:

Coaches appreciate athletes who are open to feedback and willing to adapt. Listen attentively to instructions and corrections during tryouts. Implement them immediately, and show that you can apply feedback effectively. Being coachable not only helps you improve but also demonstrates your commitment to the team’s success.

4. Display Team Chemistry:

Basketball is a team sport, and coaches want players who can seamlessly fit into the team dynamic. Be a good teammate by communicating on the court, setting screens, making unselfish passes, and celebrating your teammates’ successes. Show that you can contribute to the team’s chemistry and cohesion.

5. Exhibit a Positive Attitude:

Your attitude both on and off the court matters. Stay positive, even if you make mistakes during tryouts. Coaches appreciate players who maintain composure and a positive outlook. Demonstrating resilience in the face of challenges shows your mental toughness, a quality highly regarded in basketball.

Bonus Tip: Prepare Physically and Mentally

Before tryouts, make sure you’re physically prepared. Train, practice, and stay in shape to showcase your best performance. Additionally, mentally prepare by visualizing success, staying focused, and maintaining a strong mental attitude.

In conclusion, making a lasting impression during basketball tryouts requires more than just skills—it demands confidence, effort, coachability, teamwork, and a positive attitude. By embodying these qualities, you’ll not only stand out but also contribute positively to any team you aim to join. Good luck, and give it your all!

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Parent’s Corner: How to Support Your Aspiring Athlete- Emotionally, Nutritionally and Academically

Hello #EliteHoopsFamily!

Welcome to this week’s installment of Parent’s Corner. We understand that being the parent of a young athlete comes with its own set of challenges and rewards. Today, we’re delving into three crucial aspects of supporting your child—emotionally, nutritionally, and academically.

Emotional Support: The Foundation of Success

Your emotional support is paramount in helping your child reach their full potential. While coaches train them in skills and tactics, parents play a leading role in instilling confidence and resilience.

  1. Positive Reinforcement: Always focus on the effort rather than the outcome. Congratulate them on a well-played game, irrespective of whether they won or lost.
  2. Open Communication: Encourage your child to express how they feel about their performance, training, or anything else on their mind.
  3. Be Their Safe Space: It’s essential that your child knows they can turn to you for support, encouragement, or just a listening ear.

Nutritional Support: Fuel for Excellence

As we often say, “You can’t run a Ferrari on regular gas.” Nutrition plays an essential role in your child’s athletic development.

  1. Balanced Diet: Ensure your child is eating a mix of carbohydrates, proteins, and healthy fats.
  2. Hydration: Proper hydration can make a huge difference in your child’s performance and recovery.
  3. Snack Smart: Pre-game and post-game snacks like fruit, protein shakes, or granola bars can provide quick energy and aid in recovery.

Academic Support: Building a Well-Rounded Athlete

Basketball is just one facet of your child’s life. Maintaining academic performance is equally crucial for their overall development.

  1. Time Management: Teach your child the importance of managing their time efficiently to juggle both sports and studies.
  2. Encourage Consistency: Consistent, shorter study sessions are often more effective than last-minute cramming.
  3. Be a Resource: Help them with their homework, or better yet, guide them to resources that can aid their understanding of complex topics.

Wrapping Up

As parents, your role in our child’s athletic journey is invaluable. Your emotional, nutritional, and academic support creates a nurturing environment where your young athlete can truly flourish. Remember, it’s not about raising the next basketball superstar; it’s about raising a well-rounded, happy, and successful individual.

Till next week,

William Jenkins

Founder and Director of Player Development, Elite Hoops Academy™ and Prosper Elite™ Basketball

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Dribbling Towards Life: A Game Beyond the Court

William Jenkins

Young Men and Ladies,

You’re not just a team, you’re a family. Out there on that court, you’re writing a story. It’s a story about teamwork, passion, and resilience. It’s about dribbling past obstacles, shooting for your dreams, and rebounding from failures. Remember, every game is not just about winning or losing, it’s about learning, growing, and evolving.

Basketball isn’t just a sport; it’s a metaphor for life. Each pass, each shot, each strategic move echoes the decisions we make in life. Every time you get back up after a fall, every time you face a stronger opponent, every time you pass the ball to a teammate, you are learning about resilience, courage, and collaboration.

Read more: Dribbling Towards Life: A Game Beyond the Court

Don’t be afraid to miss a shot. Just as in life, not all attempts will lead to immediate success, and that’s okay. Every missed shot, every loss, every mistake is a step towards growth. It’s an opportunity to learn, to improve, and to become better.

Look around you; see your teammates. Each of you brings something unique to this team, an essential piece to this puzzle. This game thrives on unity, it thrives on teamwork. When one of you wins, all of you win. When one of you stumbles, all of you rise together. You’re not just players on a team, you are a family.

So, go out there, play your hearts out. Play for the joy of the game, play for the roar of the crowd, play for the thrill of the basket, but most importantly, play for each other. Play with integrity, with passion, with resilience. Remember, champions are not just made in gyms or on courts, they are made in the hearts and minds of each one of you.

As you lace up your shoes and step on that court, remember this – It’s not about the scoreboard, it’s about the journey. It’s about the hard work, the sweat, the tears, the laughter, the camaraderie. It’s about leaving everything on that court, knowing you gave it your all.

So, let’s make every dribble count, every pass meaningful, every shot a step towards our dreams. Let’s be more than just basketball players, let’s be champions in life. Because each of you has a champion within you, waiting to come alive, waiting to take that winning shot.

Go out there and make every moment count, and no matter what the outcome, remember to hold your heads high, for you are not defined by a game’s result but by the heart and soul you put into it. Here’s to you, here’s to your journey, here’s to the champions that you are!

See You All at the Courts!

Coach William

William Jenkins
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Putting in Work: Winter 2021 Skills & Drills

Elite Hoopers (some missing) at weekly Skills & Drills @Frisco Field house, TX

So proud of these young athletes – they showed up every Friday and put in work to get better. Each of them coachable. Each of them focused. Each of them got better!

Coach William demonstrates the importance of ‘squaring up’ during Skills & Drills Winter 2021
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Want to Develop a Mentally Tough Young Athlete ?

One of the best compliments an athlete can receive is the label “mentally tough.” Mental toughness isn’t a quality people are born with.  Rather, it includes a set of learned attitudes and ways of viewing competitive situations in productive ways.

Coaches and parents are in an ideal position to help young athletes develop a healthy philosophy about achievement and an ability to tolerate setbacks when they occur.   Here are some specific attitudes that we communicate with our young athletes at JENKINS ELITE HOOPS, that you can use.

1. Sports should be fun.

Emphasize that sports and other activities in life are enjoyable for playing, whether you win or lose.

Athletes should be participating, first and foremost, to have fun.

Try to promote the enjoyment of many activities in and of themselves so that winning is not a condition for enjoyment.

2. Anything worth achieving is rarely easy.

It’s important to recognize that the process of achieving mastery is a long and difficult road. According to Vince Lombardi, the famous coach of the Green Bay Packers, “The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success.”

Becoming the best athlete one can be is not an achievement to be had merely for the asking.

Practice, practice, and still more practice is needed to master any sport.

3. Mistakes are a necessary part of learning anything well.

Very simply, if we don’t make mistakes, we probably won’t learn. John Wooden, legendary UCLA basketball coach, referred to mistakes as the “stepping stones to achievement.”

Emphasize to athletes that mistakes, rather than being things to avoid at all costs, are opportunities for performance enhancement. They give us the information we need to adjust and improve.

The only true mistake is a failure to learn from our experiences.

4. The effort is what counts.

Emphasize and praise effort as well as the outcome.

Communicate repeatedly to young athletes that all you ask is that they give total effort.

Through your actions and your words, show youngsters that they are just as important to you when trying and losing as when winning. If the maximum effort is acceptable to you, it can also become acceptable to young athletes.

Above all, don’t punish or withdraw love and approval when kids don’t perform up to expectations. Such punishment builds fear of failure.

5. Don’t confuse worth with performance.

Help youngsters to distinguish what they do from what they are. A valuable lesson for children to learn is that they should never identify their worth as people with any particular part of themselves, such as their competence in sports, their school performance, or their physical appearance.

You can further this process by demonstrating your own ability to accept kids unconditionally as people, even when you are communicating that you don’t approve of some behavior.

Show children that you can gracefully accept your own mistakes and failures. Show and tell them that as a fallible human being, you can accept the fact that, despite your best efforts, you are going to occasionally bungle things.

If children can learn to accept and like themselves, they will not unduly require the approval of others in order to feel worthwhile.

6. Pressure is something you put on yourself.

Help young athletes to see competitive situations as exciting self-challenges rather than as threats.

Emphasize that people can choose how to think about pressure situations.

The above attitudes will help to develop an outlook on the pressure that transforms it into a challenge and an opportunity to test themselves and to achieve something worthwhile.

7.   Respect Your Competition.

Some coaches and athletes think that proper motivation comes from anger or hatred for the opponent. That’s totally wrong!

Sports should promote sportsmanship and an appreciation that opponents, far from being the “enemy,” are fellow athletes who make it possible to compete.

Hatred can only breed stress and fear. In terms of emotional arousal, fear and anger are indistinguishable patterns of physiologic responses. Thus, the arousal of anger can become the arousal of fear if things begin to go badly during competition.