I am a player development basketball trainer. I work with professional players and I work youth players who aspire to one day be professional players. As I continue to travel the country working with professional players I have found that more and more aspiring professional players are seeking me out to discover what the “secret” to developing into a professional basketball player is.
Jimmer Fredette is one of the professional players I work with. His work ethic to be the best is what allows him to be a professional basketball player. He once made 41 straight three pointers in a workout.
The so-called secret, they thirst to acquire is actually quite simple. The secret is be a pro. As I explain this to young players they seem underwhelmed and disappointed in my response. Many of them are hoping that I’m a doctor that can go write them a prescription of pills to turn them into a pro.
The lifestyle of a true pro is disciplined, focused, honest, and habitual. As we speak I have an NBA player living on my couch for the summer. He could have easily payed to stay at a hotel, but he said he wanted to stay with me so we could watch film and hold one another accountable to live a disciplined, focused lifestyle.
He’s in bed by 10:45 at the latest, he’s up by 6:30 at the latest. He gave up drinking, his eating habits are ridiculous (I know because he’s making me eat just as healthy as he does)! He gives himself one half day to have “good clean fun” as he calls it. On Saturdays our work day starts at 7:30am and we finish around noon. The rest of Saturday is his half day to be “normal” when he allows himself to go out and socialize and get away. Sunday’s are physical recovery, but mental strengthening is the focus. On Sunday’s we reflect on basketball and life as well as watch film.
The thing that aspiring professionals have to understand, and this is my purpose for writing this, is what it takes to be a pro. Let’s be honest there are many that could do all of the right things and they will never be a pro athlete, on the other hand I see so many that have a chance to be a pro, but they are not living a pro’s lifestyle.
Chris Paul and I speaking to kids at our camp earlier this summer. Paul was up at 5:30am working out before camp started.
I was fortunate enough to host a basketball camp with Chris Paul in His hometown, Winston Salem, North Carolina. I’d like to think I’m a hard worker, actually I’d like to think I’m the hardest worker. Normally I am, being the hard worker that I am I assumed that I would be the first person at the gym. Our camp started at 9 AM, I got to the gym at 6:15AM. It turns out I was the 3rd person to arrive. Chris Paul was in the gym and had been there with his strength and conditioning coach since 5:30AM! So many young players see the glory, but they don’t understand the grind that precedes the glory.
One of my proudest accomplishments this year has to be the development of a former Colorado high school standout Thomas Bropleh. Thomas was rated as the #60 player in the state going into his junior year at George Washington High School. Because of his hard work, just one year he was rated as the number 2 player in the state. He went on to play collegiately at Boise State. After college he spent last year sparingly playing in the NBA’s Developmental League for the Texas Legends. After being released in January, Bropleh began training with Chauncey Billups and I at our training facility, D1 Sports Training.
Bropleh (r) works with Chauncey Billups and I during one of his off season workouts.
Bropleh’s daily schedule went like this: 9-10AM spot up 3’s, 10 -10:30 AM ball handling, 10:30 -12 noon specific player development. 12 – 1 cardiovascular and strength boot camp. 1-1:30 stretch. 1:30 lunch.
Bropleh was invited to go on a tour in China where he and other American professional players played professional teams all over China. Bropleh was one of the best players there. In June he began working out with the Nuggets. Unfortunately for Bropleh the Nuggets were stockpiled with players at his position so they were unable to sign him. While he didn’t get signed he did impress every coach and the other players as well. As a result Bropleh has put himself in a position to go play professional basketball in another country this year, and make good money doing so.
The moral of the story is if you aspire to be a professional player you must develop a professional basketball player’s work ethic and focus internally long before you experience professional basketball player results externally. Are you willing to change your diet? Are you willing to give up going to the club? Are you willing to give up the pointless arguments with your significant other that consume way too much of your precious time? Are you willing to grind at 5:30 AM like Chris Paul? Are you willing to punish your body today, and wake up and do it again tomorrow like Thomas? If not, say bye, bye to being a pro.
*See what it takes to be a pro by watching Jimmer Fredette in the video below. He ends a workout with an NBA shooting drill called the Spurs 100. He attempts 100 shots at game speed. Jimmer made at least 82 every time he did the drill.
