Coach Strick’s Comprehensive #ATTACK Training Philosophy
Our basketball year is designed to be a comprehensive year of player development that builds players skill level up in a variety of ways. Culminating with the spring AAU season. From start to finish, our comprehensive player development goal is to help each player reach their fullest potential.
TRAINING
The first training option we offer is our Summer #ATTACK Camp where the main focus is on properly shooting the basketball, which is the number one skill to learn in basketball. The name of the game is basketball, because the goal is to put the ball in the basket. So we will look to build the foundation of our players skill level with being able to put the ball in the basket.
From there we will have almost 30 straight weeks of one-hour player development sessions that include competition and increased decision-making situations. These group training sessions allow for players to learn the skills and fundamentals, while also applying them in actual game-like settings. So we combine the fundamental skill work to learn technique, with a games based approach using small sided games to help players improve in an active setting. These trainings are done in a way that it will only enhance what a player is doing with their school team during the year.
Put all those group trainings together and it basically amounts to training with us once a week for 9 months. We don’t do trainings during spring AAU season, since most players that train with us, also want to play for us. As someone who has coached from youth through college, I am not a believer in working out too many times a week with a coach/trainer. At some point the player has to have a love for the game to want to work on their game themselves. The goal each week is that I would give them things to work on, and they would do their “homework” and work on it on their own. We want to show them the skills, and hope it fosters a love for the game to want to work on those skills themselves. Those are the players that always succeed moving up in levels.
MEMBERSHIPS
Memberships are for the players most committed to our comprehensive player development program. When we say “1-2-3 All In, 4-5-6 Family”, these are the players that lay the foundation for that. There are a few reasons why memberships are important.
One: All memberships are connected to a guaranteed AAU roster spot. We want AAU players that have an elite level of commitment to their game. Without a membership, there is no guarantee we will have a roster spot or team available for a player.
Two: Players that we see throughout the year always get better. There’s really know secret to this. Put in the work, in the right environment, and the player is always going to get better. Our best AAU teams ALWAYS have players that we see the most.
Three: Individual trainings are ONLY offered to players with memberships. The Total #ATTACK Memberships sell out and take up most of the individual training sessions done by Coach Strick. However, if he has any openings, or if other trainers become available, players with memberships will be notified via email.
AAU
I coach every team in our program in practice, so every player and coach in our program is taught the same way. I believe all our practices being run by an ex-college coach, are worth our AAU tuition alone. It is my belief that if I teach players how to play the game properly, that it doesn’t matter who coaches them in games. My most successful teams were when I did the least amount of in-game coaching. So we teach players how to play, then let them go play.
We teach players how to play, not plays. We do not allow teams to play halfcourt zone defense. We teach man-to-man because we feel that is what is most beneficial to the development of younger players, and what the college coaches want to see when they are recruiting older players. While all our teams press in the #ATTACK system, our younger teams are only allowed to press man-to-man, even though there are other presses that would be more effective at younger ages. Why? Because we believe learning and developing > meaningless youth game wins. If winning is the most important thing to you in youth sports, this is not the AAU program for you. We want to win, and we’ll compete to win, but we understand the bigger picture.
I have said that AAU/Club basketball should not only be for “elite” players, because I truly believe it has a lot of benefits to it, and not just for Division 1 basketball players, or players looking for athletic scholarships. First, who gets to determine who is “elite” talent?! Second, what that does is then people think I will take anyone and let them play AAU because I have been known to take chances on players that others won’t. But that does NOT mean AAU is for everyone.
So let me explain what “not only for elite” players means. It means you don’t have to have elite talent to play for us, but you need to have an elite commitment level to play for us. You have to have a love for the game, and a desire to work on your game, to have an elite level of commitment. Players that want to ALWAYS come to every workout, training, practice, and games, are the “elite” AAU players we’re looking for. We want to help the players that truly want to be helped in the game of basketball, and want to get better. And for the players that already have college level ability, it makes it that much easier for us to help them get to where they want to go.
I do not go out and recruit players to play AAU for us. I did enough successful recruiting at a real level, and don’t have any desire to do it for AAU. The development of our players, and what our college players have done for their college programs, is good enough “recruiting” for us. So our younger/new teams always struggle as they adjust to the higher level play in AAU and learn how we #ATTACK. But the players that stay in our program and train with us, and are completely bought into what we are doing, always reach their fullest potential. Whatever that means for each individual player.