Archive for the ‘Mike Lee's Thoughts’ Category

Becoming an Expert

Sunday, August 29th, 2010

One day Picasso was approached by a woman in a marketplace.   “ Wow, is that really you, Picasso? “ she exclaimed as she pulled out a napkin from her pocket. “Would you be able to draw me something?”

“Of course,” Picasso responded.  About 30 seconds later he handed the lady back the napkin.

She looked at it with amazement and said, “ Thank you so much – this is incredible!” and began to walk away.

Picasso turned to her and said, “Oh my lady – that will be 1 million dollars.”

“A million dollars!?” she exclaimed, “but this only took you 30 seconds!”

He replied, “ Ahh my lady, but you don’t understand.  It took me 30 years to be able to do that in 30 seconds!”

You cannot expect instant results from hard work.  It takes CONSISTENT patience and persistence to develop great habits and skills.  It takes about 20,000 shots with correct form to make this correct technique a habit.  Kobe Bryant didn’t just spend 1 summer in the gym and instantly become an All-Star.  It was hours and hours of consistent summers in the gym working smartly on his game.  The combination of a perfectionist and patience can be deadly.

The 10,000 Hour or 10 Year Rule

Although most people think that world class performance requires huge talent, research shows that 10 years (or 10,000 hours) of practice can make anyone a top performer in pretty much any field, from sports to music to business.

The talent myth is very easy to believe when you look at people at their peak. People forget that Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, or that Abraham Lincoln lost numerous elections, or that Barbara Blackburn failed typing in high school (she went on to become the world’s fastest typist, with a peak of 212 wpm).  Continue to read here.

Here are some links to other sites that cover the 10,000 hour rule.  Anyone who has any interest in developing talent should check these out!

http://hunternuttall.com/blog/2009/04/how-to-become-an-expert/

http://hockeycoachingabcs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=539

http://thetalentcode.com/2009/05/07/deep-deep-practice/

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Automobile University and Success Magazine

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

I am in my car all the time.  Throughout the year I put about 30,000 miles on my car traveling for basketball events and until recently it was a decision between music and phone conversations.

I’ve been doing workouts 30 minutes away from home at which start at 6AM so I’m up at 5 and there is no one awake to speak to.

So one day I decided to download a couple of Kevin Eastman’s free podcasts available on his website.  It was short, but it was so much better than listening to morning talk shows or music.  This led me to download an audio book featuring 15 hours Zig Ziglar and Jim Rohn.  I can’t remember which one of them it was, but they mentioned how much time you spend wasting in your car.  He said everyday he gets in his car and attends automobile university on his way to work, meetings, etc.

The real reason that inspired this blog is that I recently came across a new magazine that I never knew existed.  I have been a subscriber to Entrepreneur for about 4 years now, but the other day was walking past Barnes and Noble where I caught Jim Collins on a cover of a magazine called Success. If you want to read more about the magazine just click through to their website, but the best thing about the subscription is that every magazine comes with a CD with audio interviews. Each month features about an hour with John Maxwell, Jim Rohn and usually 2 to 3 other business leaders who focus on one topic.  So far the 2 topics have been Leadership and Innovation.  If you don’t have time to read books Success magazine is a great resource with short articles, book summaries and of course, the leadership interviews.

If you have an average drive of 30 minutes a day, that’s 150 minutes a week or 2.5 hours that you spend in the car.  That’s 125 hours per year that you can be filling up your mental factory. How are you supposed to face each day with a positive attitude if you are reading the news about the wars, economy and crime?  The way you think is affected by what you put into your mind.  What you read, watch and listen to drastically affects your thinking.

“Our lives are most affected by the way we think they are – not the way they are,” Jim Rohn.

–

The founder of Mike Lee Basketball Services (formerly Playmakers Basketball), Mike is known throughout the country for individual player skill development.  He has been a speaker at several events and has also recently authored several instructional workout DVDs, which will be released over the next year.  Titles out right now include, 25 Killer Scoring Moves, Secrets of Unstoppable Guard Play Vol. I & 2. and Secrets of Unstoppable Shooting.  Since 2006 Mike Lee Basketball has trained over 5,600 boys and girls through their skill development programs. Dozens of players that Mike has worked with have gone on to play collegiate basketball, some at the NCAA DI level.  In addition to his own basketball services, Mike is a Nike Girls Skills Trainer and a member of the Nike sponsored, Ganon Baker Basketball.

From 2001-2006, Mike participated as a player and assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. During the fall of 2006 he was awarded a scholarship to attend the Coach K and Duke University Leadership Conference in Durham, NC.  In December of 2006 he graduated from the University of Wiconsin-Stout with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a self-planned concentration in Basketball Entrepreneurship.

mike@mikeleebasketball.com

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Clayton Hanson Achievement Scholarship

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

Mike Lee has been selected to direct the inaugural Clayton Hanson Achievement Scholarship Basketball Skills Academy, June 11, in Wisconsin Dells, WI.  The 1 day Skills Academy will be held for boys and girls in grades grades 5-7 and grades 8-12 at JustAGame Fieldhouse in Wisconsin Dells. Current Wisconsin Badgers, former NCAA DI players  Zach Morley and Clayton Hanson (Wisconsin), along with current Reedsburg Head Coach, Brian Bestor (Northeastern Illinois) will assist in teaching basketball and leadership skills.

Clayton Hanson, a former basketball standout at the University of Wisconsin,  established the Achievement Scholarship in 2005 with the support of local businesses and private donors.  The scholarship is awarded annually to selected graduating seniors from Reedsburg Area High School who have demonstrated significant achievement in the classroom and leadership in the community.

Click here to download a registration form.

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Nike Girls Skills Academy: Houston, by Mike Lee

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

Houston Girls Skills Academy Recap

This past weekend I had a great opportunity to work the Nike Girls Southwest Skills Academy in Houston with Kyle Manary.  Some of the top girls in the 2012, 2013 and 2014 classes from Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Arkanasas, Kansas were in attendance.

It is always a great experience working with kids who have a sincere desire to improve their game.  I get asked for help before the workouts or during breaks than at any other camp that I do.  The girls there are ready to soak up as much information as the can.

One of the girls I really enjoyed working with the last 2 years is 5-11,  Jasmine Vasquez, of Frisco Liberty in Texas. Her intensity, footwork and competitiveness is hard to find in the game, regardless of age, gender or whichever level you are talking about.  Yes she is talented, but she is where she is because of her mentality.  If you are a DI college coach you should check her out!

Coach Manary did a great job teaching in a detailed, short phrases, which I think is a must for any coach.  It’s short, to the point and specific. For example, when teaching a between the legs-crossover (AKA-Utep 2 Step) he emphasizes “shoulders over knees” to sell the between the legs before crossing it back over.

I also picked a few new ball handling drills from Drew Hanlen of Pure Sweat Basketball.  He has some great drills for handling the basketball under pressure.

For more information on Drew or Kyle you can click on their names highlighted in this post.

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Advice For a Young Coach, by Mike Lee

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

I have received a couple emails lately from people looking to get into skill development training and coaching, looking for advice “for a young coach”.  I laugh every time I see one of these because by them stating they are young it makes me feel like I am old.    While I never think of myself as someone who has made it – my road is always under construction – I looked back on what I have done and have received some pretty good advice from others over the past 8 years.

1.  Second to None Work Ethic: Forrest Larson, “Be the hardest worker at every camp you are at.”  Sweat with the kids, play defense and be exhausted at the end of the day.  There would have been no way I could have slept in the bunks at Honesdale with some crazy kids from Jersey and New York when I was at Five-Star if I wasn’t absolutely beat.  I learned my work ethic from parents and grandfather, but being around Forrest Larson and Dave MacArthur took this to a completely different level.  Sometimes you never know what you are capable of or what hard work really means until someone pushes you until you almost blackout – multiple times!

2.  Be an Energy Guy: It might not be your personality.  It’s not really mine, until I get on the floor – it is what I LOVE.  Whether it is or not, choose to be energetic and enthusiastic.

3.  Work Different Types of Camps: Do some that you get to do a lot of game coaching, but also where you get a chance to teach.  I worked at Five-Star, which was 50-60% game coaching and 40% station work where you get to teach. If you want to learn HOW to teach the game try to work at one of our camps or check out Forrest Larson,  Ganon Baker, Micah Lancaster, and Kyle Manary. I do think you need a mixture of what you learn, but if you are able to coach a team in the winter and get experience that way – learn how to TEACH in the off-season.  If you want to come up and work some of our camps let me know.  We don’t play any games except 1 on 1 and drill almost the entire time.

4.  Sacrifice: If you want to be a manager or student assistant at a college I’d highly suggest working as many of their camps this summer as possible.  Even if it’s on a volunteer basis.  You will have to prove to them that you want to be and deserve to be a part of their program.

5.  Study the game and yourself: In the fall or spring try to go watch individual instruction at a college near you. DVR or record games to see how to attack ball screens, how a player changes his speeds, how to read screens or angles defenders take to recover on dribble penetration.
Play>Pause>Rewind>Play>Rewind>Play>Rewind!

Make a goal of reading at least 1 book per month on personal development and putting the relevant thoughts and ideas into action.  I try to read 2-3 books a month, almost all on personal development or developing our business.  You have to be a first-class learner.  There are a lot of great books out there, but here are some of my favorites:

6.  Undivided Attention to your Players: Individual Instruction – Ganon Baker, “Treat each player you work with as if they are the only player you train”.  At a camp – Forrest Larson, “Are you doing everything you possibly can do help these kids get better?”

7.  Spend Your Own Money: When in college  I was on the road all summer and worked for pennies at most camps.    I’ve spent my own money to go watch Syracuse workout, see the Knicks practice and also watch the Nike Lebron James Skills Academy.  You have to make sacrifices.  Both physically and financially.

8.  Networking Advice: My freshman year in college when I realized I wanted to coach college basketball, I was always asking other coaches what I needed to do to get a job.  The answer I always heard was,” you need to network.”  I remember sitting down at the Syracuse Men’s basketball office with Associate Head Coach Bernie Fine and he asked, “ If you were a head coach looking for assistants would you go through a stack of resumes or just get in touch with people you already know.”  To me, the answer was obvious.  I’m going to just start talking to people I already know and know what they are good at to start building my staff.

Even after everyone told me I needed to keep in touch with everyone I met, I didn’t really know how.  I always felt I would be bothering them or they would know I was calling or emailing for the sake of staying in touch.  Last summer at the Lebron James Skills Academy there was a coaches chalk talk and ESPN analyst and former DI coach, Fran Fraschilla, brought up probably the best technique for networking I have heard.  Maybe it’s a no brainer to everyone else, but I wish I would have heard it 10 years ago.  He suggested that we ask for advice.  Call someone up and ask them for advice in a certain area that you know they are good at. People always love to give advice and you won’t look like you are “staying in touch” just in case you need them to recommend you for something.  You can never have enough friends!

9.  Build Your Brand: Everything about you, your email, your voicemail greeting, your work ethic, how you treat your parents, coaches and teachers tells everyone else who you are as a person – what you value and what you represent.  For a more in-depth look at this read Alan Stein’s latest blog, Brand You 2.0 or pick up Dan Schwabel’s book, Me 2.0.  It might be some of the most important advice you ever read.

After quite a bit of thought these are the 9 things I came up with that I think have helped me get where I am.  Like I said before, I know I have not arrived – and if I feel that way it will be time for me to do something else, but hopefully you can take something from this post.   No matter what level you are coaching at.  Some of it only applies to basketball, but you can use your imagination and you’ll see how most of these things are needed to be successful in anything that you do.

As always, if I can do anything for you please let me know!

–

The founder of Mike Lee Basketball Services (formerly Playmakers Basketball), Mike is known throughout the country for individual player skill development.  He has been a speaker at several events and has also recently authored several instructional workout DVDs.  Titles out right now include 25 Killer Scoring Moves, Secrets of Unstoppable Guard Play Vol I & II, Developing the Complete Player, Breakdown and Secrets of Unstoppable Shooting.  Since 2006 Mike Lee Basketball has trained over 5,000 boys and girls through their skill development programs. Dozens of players that Mike has worked with have gone on to play collegiate basketball, some at the NCAA DI level.  In addition to his own basketball services, he is a Nike Girls Skills Trainer and a member of the Nike sponsored, Ganon Baker Basketball.

From 2001-2006, Mike participated as a player and assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. During the fall of 2006 he was awarded a scholarship to attend the Coach K and Duke University Leadership Conference in Durham, NC.  In December of 2006 he graduated from the University of Wiconsin-Stout with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a self-planned concentration in Basketball Entrepreneurship.

mike@mikeleebasketball.com

Check Out More Videos, Add me as a friend on Facebook or Get Updates on Twitter!

www.mikeleebasketball.com

http://www.youtube.com/mikeleebasketball

http://www.facebook.com/mikeleebasketball

http://www.twitter.com/mikeleehoops

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Off-Season Skills Training Part II, by Mike Lee

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

Below is a compilation of 3 previous blogs that are relevant to off-season training.  If you haven’t read Part I of off-season skills training, please check it out here.  In order to know where you are going you need to figure out where you are at right now.  Watch some game film and do an honest evaluation of yourself or ask your coach to do one of you.  This will help you build your off-season skills workouts.

The Notebook

When you are working out it is crucial that you are organized before you get to the gym.  It’s not about how much time you put in the gym, it’s what you put into the time. What I mean by organization is this.  Get a notebook and write down your workouts before you get to the gym.  All great coaches make practice plans so why wouldn’t you do it with your individual workouts?

1.  This is a way to making a commitment to what is in writing, almost like a contract with yourself.

2.  You can use your notebook as a reference point to see what you have been working on.  This will give you the ability to vary your workouts and drills so that you are staying motivated.

3. You can look back on your notebook to see how much work you have been putting in.  Maybe you are in a shooting slump, but you can look back to your notebook and see that you have gotten up 10,000 shots in the last month.  That should give you confidence to keep shooting the basketball.

4.  Motivational Quotes:  Somewhere in your notebook mix in some motivational quotes.  It can be as simple as “Dream” or “I am passionate, I have a purpose, and I am unstoppable”.  Use something that empowers yourself.  Maybe you want to have a theme or quote for each week.  Be creative and make your notebook unique!

Example:

10 Minutes:  2 Ball Stationary or Tennis Ball

10 Minutes:  1 Ball Moving

10 Minutes:  Half Court Drives:  Dribble Attack Moves

10 Minutes:  Shooting off the Dribble

40 Minutes:  Shooting off the Catch

Challenge Yourself! But How?

As a trainer I am always looking for ways to challenge players during workouts to get them to understand that there is always another level that you can take your game to.  I meet a lot of players that are satisfied with where they are at because they don’t have someone pushing them, giving them goals to strive for or know what type of goals they should be setting for themselves.

So how do you get to that next level besides just “going hard”?  Like Alan Stein says, “Train Hard.  Train Smart!”.  One part of training that I see players get bored with easily is their ball handling.  Here is a great way to challenge yourself.  Let’s say you are working on the stationary 2 ball drill “2 Dribble Cross”.  In this drill you are taking 2 pound dribbles and then crossing one ball tight to your body and one ball out in front.  Have your partner or coach time you and see how many crossovers you can get in 30 seconds.  Let’s say you get 20.  This is now your record.  Perform this drill 2 times a week during your ball handling drills and try to beat your record each time.  If you practice this consistently you should see your record go up about every week.  If your record is going up I bet your crossover is getting better too!

You can do this with many different drills, especially your shooting workouts:

Goals for Shooting Workouts

  1. Certain # of Total Shots
  2. # of total makes
  3. # of total makes in a time period:  ie-10 makes in 1 minute
  4. Set a Record-Beat the Record
    1. Perform the drill 1 time and set a record of makes.  Let’s say the player makes 10.  They now repeat the drill and have to tie or beat 10.  If they don’t tie or beat their record they either have to repeat drill or do pushups, abs, etc.

5.  # of Makes before you miss 2 shots in a row.  10 Makes before you miss 2 in a row

1 on 1…Detrimental or Productive.  YOU CHOOSE!

The summer is a GREAT time to work on your 1 on 1 game, however, be careful how you play the games.  Make them realistic.  99% of the time I see players going 1 on 1 they are playing the game “incorrect”.

Incorrect:  Check the ball up at the top of the key, make a double between the legs, behind the back, double cross, repeat all that and then back your defender down into the paint, etc, etc…THAT IS NOT REALISTIC

Correct:  Check the ball up at the top of the key and you have 4 seconds and 3 dribbles to get a shot off.  You need to be able to quickly make correct and consistent reads to attack the defense.

Click here for a drill I picked up from Coach Frank Martin at Kansas State.  We are actually filming a 1 on 1 Drill DVD this weekend, which should be released in the Spring of 2010.

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Spring Events in Wisconsin

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Alan Stein will be directing his Cutting Edge Quickness, Reaction and Agility Clinic in Madison, WI April 24 from 5PM-8PM.  Click here for more information on the event.

Mike Lee Basketball also still has openings in their Spring Break Skills Camps in Milwaukee, Eau Claire and Wausau, WI. Click on a city below for a flyer with exact locations and times.  You can also click here to register online.

March 29-April 1:  Eau Claire, WI
March 29-30:  Wausau, WI
April 5-8:  Milwaukee, WI

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Off Season Skills Training-Part I: Where do You Stand? by Mike Lee

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

This series is a combination of posts that I have used in the past, but they are time relevant with the season ending for most programs. Even though they have been posted before they are updated with new thoughts and quotes.

The first part deals with year-end evaluations and how to handle them.  Later in the week I’ll talk about how to build your own workouts and address areas from your evaluation.

With the end of the season right around the corner for many high school teams I thought I should touch on the subject of player evaluations.  When I was coaching we used to do them at the beginning and end of each season with individual player meetings throughout the year.  If your coach doesn’t provide you with an evaluation, ask him or her for one.*

When I played one thing I always looked forward to was being evaluated at the end of the season or at a camp.  I think the reason why can be summed up in two sentences I picked up from a book, Winning, by Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE – I haven’t asked him why yet, but for some reason Alan was not too thrilled about this book J – I thought it was great!

“Maybe some information is hard to swallow at first and yes, “bad” news often hurts, but soon enough, like all knowledge-it’s power-in fact, it’s liberating.  When you know where you stand you can control your own destiny, and what is more fair than that?”

So the question is, “What are you going to do now?”  Are you going to sit around and feel sorry for yourself because the coach said you needed to work on your jumper or get in the weight room? Or are you going to form your organized plan of attack and get to work?

In order for you reach your goals you need to define your VISION.  You need learn and in order to learn you need to seek wisdom of those who came before you.  Search for the truth.  Great players want the TRUTH.  Kobe wants the truth – Kevin Garnett wants the truth.  Michael Jordan wanted the truth.

Without the truth you really don’t know where you stand or where you can improve.  Bill Parcells said the first thing you need to do in order to start winning is to figure out why you are losing.  Figure out what is wrong with your game in order to improve it.

*click here to view a sample evaluation form that I have used in the past.  Be sure that your players know what you are basing their evaluation on.  We used a scale of 1-5.  “1” being a low skill level and “5” being close to, or at the level of, the best in country for their age level.  That’s what our kids strived for so that’s what we compared them to.

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Never Take A Play Off

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Pete Rose is arguably the best baseball player of all-time.  The best hitter in most eyes, but the one thing that separated Pete Rose from the others was his ability to never take a play off.

There’s a story about him playing in the 1970 All-Star game.  Typically these games are fun for the fans and not real serious.  As Pete was rounding third and heading for home plate someone in the outfield tried to gun him down and there was a play at the plate.  Instead of running by or sliding and getting tagged out Pete Rose laid out the catcher and knocked to ball lose to score the run.  Afterwards, his explanation of the play was simple.  “There might have been someone in the stands that had never seen my play, I didn’t want them to think that I ever took a play off.  I wanted to show them how hard I play every time I take the field.”

This kind of attitude is contagious amongst your teammates.  You CANNOT control the score, the refs, or the fans.  But you can control how hard you box out, play defense, chase down lose balls, and get your teammates and yourself good shots.  Just do the simple things that you CAN control and the outcome will be favorable.

Remember there might be someone in the stands that has never seen you play.  Make sure they see the player that never takes a play off.

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Skill Development is Skill Specific, by Mike Lee

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

I spent last Wednesday working out a player in Eau Claire, WI.  We worked on freeze dribbles into pull-ups, creating space off the dribble, a bounce off move series, and separating into pull-ups. Normally this is a description of a workout I would do with a high level high school player who is trying to play in college or has even received scholarship offers.

She is in 5th grade.  She is a girl.  And she has PASSION.  I can see love in her eyes.

My point is this. Skill Development is not gender specific or even age specific; It’s SKILL specific. What a player works on should be determined by how skilled they are, not how old or whether or not they are a boy or a girl.  I have seen several middle school/high school girls that can handle the basketball better than men’s college basketball players, which is not any exaggeration at all!

I really wish I would have had someone film the workout so you can see what can be done with love, passion and a purpose.  It’s unbelievable what some people could accomplish if they would just believe and work.

If you haven’t seen this already, check out the video of Lexi Hanley getting 46 2 Ball Skips in 30 Seconds.  I got 63 and I hope she beats me some day.

–

The founder of Mike Lee Basketball Services (formerly Playmakers Basketball), Mike is known throughout the country for individual player skill development.  He has been a speaker at several events and has also recently authored several instructional workout DVDs, which will be released over the next year.  Titles out right now include, 25 Killer Scoring Moves, Secrets of Unstoppable Guard Play and Secrets of Unstoppable Shooting.  Since 2006 Mike Lee Basketball has trained over 3,600 boys and girls through their skill development programs. Dozens of  players that Mike has worked with have gone on to play collegiate basketball, some at the NCAA DI level.  In addition to his own basketball services, Mike is a Nike Girls Skills Trainer and a member of the Nike sponsored, Ganon Baker Basketball.

From 2001-2006, Mike participated as a player and assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. During the fall of 2006 he was awarded a scholarship to attend the Coach K and Duke University Leadership Conference in Durham, NC.  In December of 2006 he graduated from the University of Wiconsin-Stout with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a self-planned concentration in Basketball Entrepreneurship.

mike@mikeleebasketball.com

Check Out More Videos, Add me as a friend on Facebook or Get Updates on Twitter!

www.mikeleebasketball.com

http://www.youtube.com/mikeleebasketball

http://www.facebook.com/mikeleebasketball

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