What Every Player Can Learn By Thinking Like a Point Guard

by POINT 3 Alpha Mark Williams, Team Footprintz

(if you missed part one of this post, you can read here how one of NYC's best skills trainers drives his players)

Taliek Brown, our other trainer Charles Jones, and I are all point guards.

Point guards always need to see a step ahead of everyone else on the floor.

If I’m the point guard, I have to think about what will happen two moves after the initial pass or cut. I have to know someone is open even before they know that they’re open.

We want all our players to have this mindset, not only the point guard.

If a player cuts left, the defense will react one way, and I am going to counter another way to take advantage of it.

So much of the game is mental. We videotape our workouts and then we show the player what they’re doing right and wrong. Immediately after the session we show players video that video, and it’s uploaded so they can check it online after their session on their own too. Showing players video helps them see their own weaknesses and how much they’ve improved in certain areas. 

INTENSITY BALANCED BY FUN

Once we step on the court, it’s always full intensity. We are intense, but not to the point of military intense because at the end of the day the game is still about fun. We want to make the training experience both fun and intense. Taliek and I are both very approachable and very honest with our players.

As far as teaching the younger kids, we make fun of them when they mess up, and they make fun of us when we do the same. You have to remember that basketball is a game, and especially younger kids need to have fun, otherwise they will lose interest.