Basketball Trainers Versus Maintainers

Build the Foundation through Play prior to Deliberate Practice

A father once posted on a local web site looking for an NBA trainer for his 11-year-old son; his son would train only with someone who worked regularly with NBA players. Not only does an 11-year-old not need to train like an NBA player; an 11-year-old does not need a trainer.

Young players are not mini-professionals. Society accepts golf and tennis pros who earn six-figure incomes. Golf and tennis are individual (country club) sports, but these pros teach a skill – hitting a golf or tennis ball – not unlike shooting a basketball. However, basketball is more than a single skill, and children need child-directed play in playgrounds and streets where they can experiment and try new skills on their own, away from the critical eye of parents, trainers and coaches. Players need to play and develop the love for the game before pursuing specialized training.

Children play and learn through their play. The play develops a broad foundation and when players become more serious, a coach, and eventually a trainer, can focus their attention and  motivation and teach the details to assist players on their journey toward mastery.

Ultimately, however, the tallest buildings and the greatest skills develop on top of the deepest, widest foundations. Developing the foundation through play is more important than finding the best trainer for an 11-year-old. NBA trainers train the last 1%, the finishing touches and the last steps on the path to mastery. Children must ignite their passion for the sport prior to beginning their journey, and those who start too close to the end likely will fall off the path before reaching the desired destination because their path is too narrow, too specialized, too adult- and externally-driven.

Once players develop the passion and a desire to improve and excel, a trainer may have some value, especially as players reach their late teens and beyond. Years ago, I worked as an individual skills trainer when they were relatively new and not everyone had one. Now, everyone calls him or herself a trainer these days. Parents often cannot differentiate between a quality trainer designing exercises and workouts to assist players in their development and an average/poor trainer who yells a lot, was a great player, or makes players work hard.

Individual trainers fall into two primary categories: Basketball skill trainers and athletic specialists. Basketball trainers teach shooting, ball handling, defense, etc; athletic specialists train quickness, speed, strength, vertical jump, etc. Within each category are two sub-categories: Trainers and maintainers. Trainers teach skills and create individual skill progressions; maintainers run players through general workouts with little individualization, instruction, or feedback.

I shared a court years ago with an old friend and coach from my playing days. I directed clinics on one end, while he ran his on the other end. I focused on shooting and dribbling skills with specific drills; he focused on making the workout hard. He told me, “Parents like their children to work with me because they look tired when they finish.” Parents sent their children to my clinics to improve their basketball skills.

Parents gathered around the maintainer after our workouts, and several coaches with children in attendance surrounded me. He was right; parents struggle to differentiate between good and bad, but exhaustion is visible. Parents understand tired; they do not know great teaching or logical progressions.

General workouts, like basketball camps, are primarily for fun and exercise. Good ones provide an opportunity to watch and learn from better players, and players may leave with an exercise or some feedback to use on one’s own after the session. However, they lack the specificity, individualization, and repetitions to retain and transfer improvements. Players get tired, and people see the effort, assuming the effort equals improved performance, but without specific goals and feedback, improvement is minimal and primarily within the drills, not generalizable to other performance environments.

Almost any training with or without any trainer works for beginners and average players. They are not in optimal condition, so a hard workout improves their conditioning. They often have a poor skill set or are inexperienced, so more repetitions lead to slight improvements. Florida State University professor K. Anders Ericsson, an expert in the science of exceptional performance, said an an acceptable level of performance is reached within roughly 40 hours of play and practice. Experienced players require deliberate practice to move beyond the acceptable level. Maintainers maintain experienced players’ current skill levels, while good trainers offer motivated players an environment in which to improve.

Deliberate practice does not require a trainer or coach, but is the reason players and parents seek trainers. Some players invest hours to get better, but their games stagnate, resulting in frustration. Others invest less time, but improve. The answer, according to Ericsson, is deliberate practice.

Last summer, a player said he shot 200 shots. He was proud of himself, as he felt this showed his commitment. I asked how many he made. He did not know. Shooting around is not deliberate practice. In contrast, I worked with an eventual NCAA D3 All-American who tracked every shot attempt; he recorded every shot he attempted for a year as he progressed from a 29% high school shooter to a 50% three-point shooter in college.

Repetition of the same activity is nearly always associated with increased performance under some conditions, namely when the participants are motivated, when the task is simple and appropriate strategies are used, and when immediate informative feedback is available (Ericsson). Undefended, self-paced shots, common in basketball workouts, are a relatively simple task, especially when compared to true game shots. Players show improvement during workouts because of the simplicity; motivated players who receive some basic feedback demonstrate improved shooting within the workouts. This improvement does not necessarily transfer to more complex tasks, such as shooting against defenders in games.

The difference between trainers and maintainers is the “use of appropriate strategies” and “informative feedback.” Maintainers ensure players get plenty of repetitions and motivated players who shoot a lot will improve slightly; the maintainers appear effective because players improve a little and leave workouts tired.

The workout lacks a true purpose in terms of improving performance without the appropriate strategies and informative feedback. As Dr. Ericsson wrote, “In the absence of adequate feedback efficient learning is impossible and improvement only minimal even for highly motivated subjects.” Parents and players seek trainers to create these appropriate strategies and provide the informative feedback, but few create an environment for deliberate practice.

The appropriate strategies are exercises to meet players’ needs, attack their weaknesses, and improve their strengths. Instead, most run players through drills. Players do the same drills regardless of needs, positions, strengths, and weaknesses. Some maintainers run a group through the same individual drills, player after player practicing the same move in the same way or attempting the same shots. What is the specific goal for each player? What is the appropriate strategy for such a drill?

The feedback often centers on general observations: Good, faster, and similar comments that become white noise due to their frequency and lack of information. Trainers identify the cause of mistakes and provide corrective feedback with information as to how to improve or correct the mistake. When and how much to instruct are an art learned through experience. Excellent trainers devise more specific exercises and rely less on explicit and internal feedback to make corrections. However, feedback is essential.

Players require athletic, emotional, psychological, tactical, and technical skills. Playing or practicing with a team may be insufficient to develop these skills because coaches lack the time and resources to tailor practice to meet each individual’s needs. Those with the work ethic and aspirations to be great deserve an opportunity to elevate their skill level and maximize their potential. This is the role of the trainer.

As an example, a player worked out with me for the first time and had considerable balance issues, even from the free throw line. He had been to several maintainers, and nobody had mentioned his balance. The appropriate strategy was not more shooting, it was fixing the balance issues, teaching the player to bend and squat properly.

When the workout mimics a practice with 6-10 players running through a series of drills, what is the point? Private training should differ from team practice or it becomes more exercise, not deliberate practice. I watched an NCAA Power 5 player work out with an NBA maintainer one summer, as part of a small group workout with five NBA or soon to be NBA players. He missed seven straight shots; after each one, he motioned with his arm as though the problem was his follow-through. His problem was hip extension, not his follow-through, but the maintainer never mentioned his hips or provided individualized, informative feedback of any kind. He kept the workout flowing and allowed the player to miss shot after shot without any attempt to devise a specific exercise for the player. The players went hard and got their reps in, but the player finished with the same problem as he started and without any knowledge of how to attack this problem on his own. It was exercise. The five players had different problems or weaknesses, and none was addressed specifically as they ran through an amalgamation of random drills to break a sweat and stay in shape.

Players and parents must understand their purpose for seeking outside training. Weekly workouts with the same trainer doing the same basic drills are fine if players simply want more court time or to practice against different, better players. Group workouts can have some value when teaching some specific skills, such as pick-and-roll reads, one-vs-one moves, off-ball cutting, and more. Generally, the purpose is more deliberate practice, individualized exercises and feedback focused on improving the player’s specific skills, which often is difficult to incorporate into a team practice with 12-15 players. As a college coach, I shortened team practices to allow for individual sessions for each player to attack her specific weaknesses with the appropriate exercises, attention, and individualized feedback.

Seeking individual or deliberate practice does not mean an 11-year-old needs an NBA trainer. Instead, the player needs a trainer invested in him or her who can devise specific exercises to improve on specific weaknesses. Without addressing these weaknesses, improvement is limited. Before reaching this point, however, young players need a broad foundation, which is best built through unstructured, free play. Deliberate practice is not for beginners.