Posted by Barry
Today, I’m taking my 11 yr. old daughter, Danielle to see LeBron James and the Cavaliers play her beloved Nets. She is mad that the Nets have traded Jason Kidd and will be moving to Brooklyn in a couple of years. I tried reaching out to Danny Ferry to see if he was traveling w/ the team. We have had a couple of chats and exchanged emails the past couple of years and I was hoping to see if I could get an intro for Danielle. Unfortunately, he was on a college scouting mission.
She likes meeting famous people. She has met The Roches, her favorite singing group, Olympian Jason Reed, Elizabeth Gilbert, best selling author of “Eat, Pray
and Love”, Oakland A’s DH Jack Cust and is buds with Trevor Ariza. Every time I work w/ Trevor, when I call to say “Goodnight” to Danielle, he gets on the phone and chats her up for awhile. He surprised her by sending an autographed picture of him slamming on Emeka Okafer, which made ESPN highlights.
Anyway, it was a great game, with the Nets winning a close contest and LeBron going for 42 pts.
Each year we go to a game. So far, she has seen Kevin Garnett, Reggie Miller, Dwayne Wade, Allan Iverson, Dirk Nowitzki and now Lebron.. She also has a lifesize cardboard cutout of Vince Carter.
Posted by Barry
The player and his team had a wonderful season finishing 24-2, winning their conference, district and regional titles. They made it to the final eight in the states. Although the player increased his foul shooting with over a 30% increase, he was a bit shaky come tournament time. When speaking with his father, I found out he wasn’t able to practice consistently with his father and had stopped listening to his CDs. I am always amazed how much success in any area is predicated on practice and effort.
Posted by Barry
The Kean Cougars dropped 2 of 3 prior to the NJAC Conference Playoffs making their road to the NCAA tourney more difficult. Instead of hosting the entire tournament, they defeated Rutgers-Newark at home and then had to travel to William Paterson University and College of NJ. They won all three games, going 47/66 for 71% from the foul line, to earn an automatic bid in the NCAA and got to host the first two rounds.
Posted by Barry
Received an email from player’s father who had this to report. “My son’s team played one of the strongest team in the conference last night that made it to the Final Four in last season’s State Tournament. They seemed to have done their homework because every time my son came close to the basket with the ball, they fouled him hard. As such he took 17 foul shots and had a great night hitting 12 of them for 71%. He started hitting 3 of 4 but then missed 2 then hit 6 in a row and then 3 of his last 5. They won by a few and it was a great win away in front of a large crowd. His team is now 13-1.”
Posted by Barry
Been working about 3 weeks primarily with the 10 players in the rotation and they are making great strides. That group has shot 68% during that period vs. 62% prior. The team is now 21-1 ranked 6th in the country and there is going to be an article in The New York Times. They lead the country in scoring and scoring margin and rank high statistically in several other categories. Chari’ Cooper has gone 36/49 or 73%, quite an improvement from last season’s 49%.
Posted by Barry
This is an very interesting and talented group of players with 1 senior, 2 juniors, and 10 Sophmores and Freshmen. Chari’ Cooper, 6′2″ senior averages 12 pts. per game and over 14 rebounds per game. Unfortunately, she is the worst free throw shooter on the team and shoots over twice as many as any other player. Last season, she averaged only 49%. Melissa Beyruti, a deadly sharpshooter leads the NCAA in 3 pointers made while pt. guard Ebony Jackson is the other junior on the team. Her Dad, DeRoy, was the starting pt. guard on Orange HS (NJ) undefeated state championship team, my alma mater.
Ironically, I helped coach his team in summer league games. The other starters are 2nd leading scorer soph Cardiss Jackman and frosh Tifffany Patrick, who is currently shooting only 51% from the line.
It is easy to see how poor foul shooting could become a deadly Achilles’ heel for this team.
Posted by Barry
Every once in a while I am going to ask a trivia question. Feel free to email me back at barry@foulshotdoc.com if you think you know the answer. Name four colleges that have the name of a color for their name. Example: Red University. Names like Rutgers’ Scarlet Knights (my alma mater) or Syracuse Orangemen do not qualify.
Posted by Barry
I received a call last week from Coach Michelle Sharp, Women’s Basketball Coach at Kean University in Union, NJ. She had heard about my work through a friend. Last season, her team was 27-4 making it to The Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. However, 3 of the 4 losses were due to poor free throw shooting. Currently, her nationally ranked team is 14-1 but still shooting very inconsistently from the line. Her concern is obvious.
Coach Sharp is an excellent coach and explained that she had tried just about everything she knew, but still couldn’t solve the foul shooting problems. So, she was reaching out to me for advice.
Since it’s the middle of the season, and involves a team rather than an individual player, it is going to present quite a challenge. It was agreed that I would devise a series of workshops dealing with the psychological and mental aspects of foul shooting. Should be interesting.
Posted by Barry
Just came back from visit to Michigan and it went quite well. In fact, better than I expected. The player is an excellent student very eager to learn anything to enhance his game.
In the shadows of The Palace of Auburn Hills, where his beloved Pistons play, we worked out on the courts of Oakland University. After watching his typical workout routine, we realized he spent, like most players, lots of wasted time doing things that weren’t really going to help in game situations like stationery shooting in an “around the world” manner.
The first day of our on the court workouts, I included a variety of agility drills, defensive work , dribbling and sprinting. When we came down to shooting, the player was sweating, huffing and puffing, just like in games. There were only a couple of minor flaws in his shooting stroke and it was apparent his free throw woes were predominently mental.
Off the court, I was able teach the player the whole mental approach to foul shooting. Using a variety of relaxation techniques, the player was able to slow down his heart rate, learn to breathe properly, and when to take his free throw with total confidence. I made him relaxation and visualization CDs for him to use daily for continued success. We ended our sessions with him making 31 out of 35 foul shots, nearly every shot “all net”. I look forward to seeing his progress during the season.
Posted by Barry
Got a call recently from a parent who wanted me to work with his son on foul shooting. The player, a high school junior, is an excellent player who has a good chance to play at the Division 1 level. The only major flaw in his game is at the foul line. The player had shot only 35% his sophmore season. I had the father send my a couple of DVD of games as well as what I call four angle video. Four angle video is filming the player from in front, in back and on both sides during foul shooting as well a jump shooting. This enables me to get a idea of the player’s technique and determine where their might be some flaws in basic shooting form before actually working with the client. I have scheduled to go out to Michigan this weekend.
