The Cross Over Movement Blog

I wrote about this once before, but I am tired of my email and now this web site getting spammed, so I want to be 100% clear. Vern Gambetta had a post on a similar subject yesterday:

How many of these have you seen: Buy it now, internet special only $119.95 - Learn the secrets of the Super bowl Champions or how about Shoot like Lebron James in Six Sessions or your money back.

Well, in my inbox today, I received an email from some guy named Paul Hoover telling me that:

Who’s The Next NBA All Star?
You are!
If You Enroll In the ” NBA Pro Secrets” Revealed Master Class.

Now, that is awesome. I am 31-years-old and haven’t even played a pick-up game in over a year, but all I need is one class and I’ll be ready to take on Kobe. Man, this is the greatest deal ever. Where can I sign up? Anyone want to give me an advance on the million dollar contract I am sure to sign once I complete the class? I can’t wait to form my entourage! Maybe a reality television show!

Back to Gambetta:

WORK and talent is the same no matter what the language. That is the secret and you do not have to pay for it – WORK – specific, individual, planned and directed work that helps each athlete to tap into their talent. No short cuts, no magic potions or exercises. If you study what champions do regardless of sport discipline, regardless of the era, you will see one common ingredient – WORK!

Man, that is a bummer. This guy Hoover said all I have to do is take one class, but Gambetta wants me to actually work. What about my entourage? Do they have to work too?

Hoover sent me this email because this is how their system works. I know because they tried to get me to participate. Several trainers write a chapter for a book. They are not paid. You get an affiliate fee for the sales from your links. So, the more this Hoover guys hustles and pimps someone else’s product, the more he makes. I have heard this guy Rali Todd pays the highest affiliate fees in the business, which is why so many people are lining up to endorse his product. Basically, it is the Matt Fuery get rich quick internet special plan. It’s all marketing and hype.

Does anyone really believe these claims:

You have never learned and will have another opportunity to learn directly form some of the most unstoppable pro ballers exactly how to get tot he NBA,Become a Heart Thumping, Fan Drooling, magical hoops star.

People are free to produce any product they want and if people buy them, more power to them. They can get rich off the stupidity and dreams of others. That’s America.

However, if they want to promise that I can be an NBA All-Star, I will take every opportunity to expose the truth. These products are all hype. Sure, there may be some good information inside. Who knows? I’m certainly not paying for it. The free articles I have read by Rali Todd contain almost nothing of value, not an original thought.

I have emailed several trainers across the country. Nobody has ever heard of Rali Todd. Nobody knows where he came from. Every good trainer knows these promises are complete and utter lies (otherwise, I’m on my way to the League, suckers!!).

Hype will not get you to the League. I know a kid who is the greatest hype machine ever. He’s a friend of a friend. He got all kinds of recruiting sites talking about him. Every year, there were rumors he was going to Arizona, USC, etc. He never went anywhere. He went to prep school. He was supposed to go to Texas Tech or some Big East school out of prep school. He went nowhere. Last I heard, he called a trainer I know because he was signing with an agent and going pro overseas and he wanted to train. The trainer was ready to go the next morning. After 2 months, they had never worked out.

Sure, it’s great to boost your ego by tricking these people into talking about you like you’re the real deal. But, eventually, people see through the hype and you’re an unemployed, ex-baller that people laugh at because of all the stunts you pulled even though you had no game to back it up.

That’s hype. That’s not real. Real is being in the gym getting better. Basketball ain’t rocket science. You put in deliberate practice and you improve.

Nobody can sell you a scholarship. There is no magic formula and all the answers do not come in a box.

This product is just another internet marketing scam to enrich a couple people off the dreams of basketball players. Do not be fooled. It’s nothing more than empty promises, marketing and hype. It’s like the Home Shopping Network ads for 20-minute abs. They are scams. They have enough truth not to get sued for false advertising (like, if you have 7% body fat, you can probably get 20 minute abs), but they are not useful products. They are marketing. They play to American’s laziness and the desire for short cuts around the work required to be great.

If you want to be great, dedicate yourself and work hard. Don’t believe the hype.

One of my goals with this site and the book is to educate consumers. Many parents tell me they do not know what to look for in an AAU program or individual trainer. To change the system on the grassroots level, the change must start with the way consumers spend their money in the youth basketball marketplace, and my hope is that better educated consumers see value in the long term, training-oriented approach I advocate.

This morning, I read this in Robert Sutton’s Weird Ideas That Work:

“By listing ideas that people believe are wrong or misguided, and then reversing them, people follow a different cognitive path than usual to reveal beliefs, theories and evidence about what the company ought to do…in doing so, people may notice gaps between what they believe is right and what they actually do.”

He recounts his consulting work with one company:

“To help them think about the kind of company they wanted to be, we developed a list of what they believed were the worst characteristics of several key competitors.”

I decided this might make an interesting experiment. Imagine we are starting a new AAU program. In the comments section, I invite any comments listing the worst things other programs do and any wrong or misguided ideas on can think of. Please do not mention names of programs or individuals. This is not meant to be a session on criticizing others, but a lesson on what consumers (coaches, players or parents) want in a progressive program. If the comments are too negative or mention names, I will delete the entire comment.

Thank you for your participation.

Everyday, on multiple sites, basketball coaches seek information. They want to know more, devise more options and find answers to questions. However, is this quest detrimental? Can coaches know too much about the game?

I observed a college coach for a season because of my familiarity with several players on the team. The coach grudgingly allowed me into numerous practices and I attended several games. This coach is a highly regarded former player who won a championship as a player. But, the coach is an awful coach. The coach knows the game and is a better player, even now, than any of the players. But, the coach cannot communicate with the players on the floor. The coach suffers from the “Curse of Knowledge.”

I understand the purpose behind the big recruiting events and tournaments during the NCAA recruiting windows for high school players. I think changes can and should be made to the process, but I understand the motivation for players and college coaches. Basically, these are like giant try-outs for college teams.

Today, I saw this posted online:

ADIDAS Explosion Camp
Presented by First Step Basketball Academy and All West Hoop Report
Sunday November 11, 2007
11 am to 8 pm
Participation Fee: $85
Limited to 120 top Middle School players
6th to 8th grade
The #1 fall individual exposure event provides all participating players the opportunity to demonstrate their skills to all media expected to attend.
** Play Top Southern California Competition
** Get Evaluated by the West Coast’s and the Nation’s Top Scouts
** Each Player receives ADIDAS Explosion Jersey shirt
** Special All West Hoop Report Youth Rankings
**Special Hoopmasters Report
** Special ADIDAS Giveaways for contest winners

So, ADIDAS is offering Southern California middle schoolers the opportunity to pay more money to play pick-up games against the same players they play against every weekend in AAU Tournaments. And, the apparent reason is “to demonstrate their skills to all media expected to attend.” Why do sixth graders need to demonstrate anything? Sixth grade is developmental basketball, not performance. These kids should be learning the game, not trying to impress scouts.

I had a 6th grader a couple weeks ago ask how he could be rated in the top 100 players. I told him to practice, get better and worry about it five years from now when college recruiting begins to be important.

ADIDAS is now taking these camps to other countries and starting their PHENOM brand in other sports. Nobody talks anymore about Demetrius Walker, the “best” player on the “best AAU team ever.” His AAU coach started the phenom camps with ADIDAS and used Walker as the example. He was in SI, rated #1 in his class and the next, next LeBron. The message was clear: if you wanted to be next, next, next, the phenom camps were the way.

Walker is now entering his junior year and he is no longer in the top 250 players in the country. So, how important are those 6th grade rankings? What does it say about an organization that used a kid like a paid endorser and obviously has done little to help the player expand his game, as evidenced by his free fall from the rankings? Walker is no longer considered the “next, next LeBron;” instead, he can be the “next Schea Cotton,” a cautionary tale for those who get too invested in the early hype these premature exposure events create.

These are sixth graders. Why not use the resources to provide a training camp, an opportunity for the best players to train together and learn and develop skills from top coaches? That is what a sixth grader needs, not the opportunity to play in front of the media.

There are many concepts that basketball coaches accept, almost blindly as “truths.” Somewhere, someone taught something a certain way and other listened and the ideas perpetuated until one person’a way of teaching was accepted as fact. Unfortunately, most coaches do not challenge “fact.” They accept it and use it. Vern Gambetta writes about the Cascade Effect:

The cascade effect is the tendency of scientists and experts to echo the opinion of their peers even if they are unfamiliar with the research in question…Do not get caught up in the monkey see monkey do syndrome.

These “truths” are everywhere in basketball: static stretching to warm-up, never crossing your feet on defense, always use your left hand on the left side, etc. On a site this week, I argued that watching the waist when playing defense is another of these truths which I call myths. When I questioned the efficacy of watching the waist, I was told that nobody needed to prove anything because it is the best way. I don’t know why the opinion of a few, or even the majority, make something the best without any critical evaluation.

The arguments against watching the ball were unfounded, mainly that a player who watches the ball will be jumping all over the place. I don’t know how we make the leap from a defender watching the ball to a player jumping all over the place like a dog chasing any movement. Instead, I used the analogy of driving a car: if the car in front of me brakes, I anticipate it and I brake; but, if I catch something out of the corner of eye, I flinch. If I watch the ball, I anticipate the move; if I watch the waist and see a ball fake out of the corner of my eye, I am more likely to flinch, and the flinch. Furthermore, if I do not react in some way to a fake (react, not overreact) how am I possibly going to defend the action? When a player makes a shot fake or a jab step, as a defender, I do not know if it is a jab or a drive step or a shot or a shot fake until the action is completed. If I think it is a shot fake, and do not react at all, and it is a shot, he shoots an uncontested shot; if I believe it is a jab step, not a drive step so I fail to react, the offensive player beats me before I even start to move.

Watching the waist and not biting on fakes sounds like good defense. But, is it? The verbal arguments are persuasive and in slow motion appear correct. But, do they work in a game?

Every player on my volleyball team looks to the bench after every mistake. I have lectured the team and implored the captains to take more of a leadership role. However, nobody willingly takes responsibility for any mistake - they look at the bench and ask if it was their fault - and they blame each other. Not surprisingly, we struggle in close games. When the going gets tough, rather than come together, we break apart.

This is a common theme in youth athletics, as kids fail to take responsibility for themselves and lack sophisticated coping techniques. Sports are a good vehicle to teach responsibility, especially for kids who rely heavily on parents, teachers and/or coaches for almost everything.

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On the same day I wrote about Jeff Pearlman’s article about the Yankees, Grant Wahl had a good read about US Soccer player Michael Bradley (son of US National Team Head Coach Bob Bradley, not the former Villanova University basketball player by the same name).

Reading the article, Bradley epitomizes the mindset of a successful athlete. While he trains hard and studies the game, the game remains fun. Sure, it is his livelihood, but the business-side does not interfer with the play side of sport.

“I didn’t want a vacation on the beach or whatever,” Bradley says. “When you’re a soccer player and this is your profession, this is what you want to do every day. So you pay attention to things. You watch games. You talk about games.”

I see this in one of the players I train, which is why I am confident recommending him to colleges. He wants to play every day. He enjoys it. And, consequently, he is going to continue to improve where others plateau.

The rest of the article exudes Bradley’s enthusiasm for his sport. He obviously has a passion for soccer, which is the most basic requirement for eventual success. While parents and coaches push and push in an effort to help their son or daughter improve, unless they develop the passion for the sport first, the pushing usually has a negative consequence, causing the player to dislike the sport.

Once the player has Bradley’s passion, no pushing is needed as he wants to play, practice, perform, etc. He wants to study other players and watch tape of his performance. But, it is his motivation, his desire, his decision, his pushing, and it derives from his passion to play the game and maximize his talent.

As coaches and parents, we must not lose focus of the importance of the passion in the talent development process. Without a joy for playing the game, what’s the point of working to get better?

For more on the “Psychology of Talent Development,” see Chapter 4 in the Second Edition of Cross Over: The New Model of Youth Basketball Development.

ESPN.com’s Jeff Pearlman has an interesting article about rooting for the Yankees today. He describes his friend, a former die-hard Yankee fan, who no longer cares deeply about his team. It’s not because they failed to win the World Series, but because failing to win the World Series equals failure. Rooting for the Yankees is no longer fun because if you win the World Series, you did as expected, and if you don’t you failed. Imagine being Joe Torre with that type of pressure. Where is the joy and fun in playing the game?

Unfortunately, Pearlman’s words describe the current youth basketball phenomena, to a certain extent. In some areas, programs, teams, families, basketball is no longer a journey, but a destination. Anything less than a basketball scholarship is failure. I spoke at length with the Women’s Basketball Head Coach at a BCS school last week and she bemoaned the pressure these young players feel and the lack of resources at their disposal to help them make educated decisions.

I certainly do not want to dampen any player’s dreams. However, I am saddened that an entire childhood of basketball can be deemed a failure if a player fails to earn a scholarship. As Pearlman says:

When did a baseball season in New York become solely about the finish line, and not about the journey? How can a team that clawed its way out of a 14½-game hole be deemed a failure for falling to a team — the Cleveland Indians — that features two of the league’s top five starting pitchers? Do the memories of Alex Rodriguez’s 54 home runs and Chien-Ming Wang’s 19 wins and Derek Jeter’s steely determination and Joba Chamberlain’s meteoric rise fade to ashes without a diamond-studded ring?

Is this who we are? Is this what we’ve become?

On our volleyball team, we have a senior captain who is opinionated. We also have a number of junior varsity players who cannot get their serve over the net. I agree that a high school players should be able to serve, but we have several first-year players and a fairly small team. This is not club volleyball; this is an opportunity for kids to learn a sport and have fun. It’s the pure form of high school sports.

When we were discussing our serving woes, the captain said that we should make the JV kids run if they missed their serve. This is not an uncommon coaching tool. Many coaches assume that if a player makes a mistake, it’s because he or she was not concentrating and running is the punishment.

However, this course of thinking errors in several ways:

1) I do not believe there is a single girl on the JV team intentionally missing her serves. In fact, I think they all very much want to serve well. Therefore, it is not a lack of effort or desire. Punishing players for missing a serve would be punishing a lack of skill.

2) These players who struggle to serve need more practice time, not less. What happens when they run as punishment? They miss time practicing their serves.

3) I believe in confidence. When a player serves, if she is more worried about running than serving properly, the fear of punishment steals her concentration. For a player already struggling with the physical skill of serving, a loss of concentration is not going to help the player serve.

For the varsity, who serves pretty well, this idea may have some merit. When the varsity misses in practice, it is often from a lack of concentration. With a punishment in place, these players may focus on the task. For skilled performers, the punishment may hone their focus.

However, for the JVs, punishing missed serves is punishing a lack of skill. When coaching or teaching, the easiest way is not always the best way. These players need more practice, not less, and confidence, not fear. While the captain meant well (and many coaches), one must think about why he or she is using punishment and what it is he or she is punishing. Lack of skill does not deserve punishment; for some of these players, it probably took some guts just to try a new game as a sophomore or junior in high school. Do we really want to discourage them?