The Basketball Podcast: EP35 Joerik Michiels

In this week’s basketball coaching conversation professional basketball skills trainer Joerik Michiels joins the podcast. Michiels, and Chris Oliver, have a conversation about progressive and modern basketball training methods. Michiels is from Belgium, and is the owner of Elite Athletes and Elite Academy. In a progressive way he works on all of the basketball skill and movement skill elements they believe are important for the modern basketball player.

Joerik has trained numerous professional players, and has participated in the NBA Basketball Without Borders as a coach and skills trainer. His academy is well known for its methods and holistic approach to training players of all ages.

Listen Here:

Joerik Michiels Quotes:

“We said, ‘Let’s do an experiment. We want to see if we can get kids from 10 years old and develop them over eight years . . . can we get kids from the lowest level to the highest level?’”

“For the first four years, we did nothing 5-on-5 . . and every practice fundamentals were 80% of the game and then 20% we worked on basic decision making stuff with team tactics.”

“If you get kids who are willing to work hard and you give them the right stuff to work on, you can get results with every player.”

“The biggest thing that separates us with the other teams is the mindset.”

“The first rule is: don’t be on time, be early . . the second rule is: practice starts when the first player arrives.”

“We call it the kaizen mindset. So, every day you want to do something to get better . . all our players, they believe in that.”

“We want our players to dream and to dream big . . everything is possible if you work hard. We want to focus on the things you can control, and the thing you can control is always how much effort you want to put into this.”

“It’s one of the struggle points we have right now . . Our goal is not to win games. Our goal is to build players in the long run . . the results will come if you put in the work.”

“The biggest thing that I learned in eight years working with pro players is the secret is in the basics . . You need to become amazing at the basics.”

“I have three things that I work every day on . . ball-handling . . finishing. . and form shooting. . I think those are the three most important things in basketball.”

“With our players, we don’t want to put them into boxes . . we want our players to be able to do everything . . our big man also has to do the pick and roll reads . . the ball handling . . the finishing.”

“I want my players to fail in practice . . I want my players to try new things.”

“The skill work videos I do privately with them [players] . . and then we try to do once a week the video with the team.”

“It’s all about giving them the tools. We give workshops to them like: how to make your to-do list, how do you plan your week, what is the most efficient way to study.”

“We want them to be so mentally strong that if you’re uncomfortable, it doesn’t matter any more – we fight through it.”

“Basketball is always evolving, so as a coach you should be always evolving, too . . the best coaches are just the best researchers a lot of the time.”

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Joerik Michiels Breakdown:

1:00 – Introduction
2:00 – Elite Athlete Concept
3:00 – Beginning of Elite Athlete Program
6:00 – Long Term Development Focus and Success
7:00 – Winning Games is an Outcome
8:00 – Teaching Mindset
10:00 – Leading to the Kaizen Mindset
11:00 – Struggle Points
13:00 – Basic Amazing!
14:00 – Meaning of Basic Amazing and Fundamentals
15:10 – Block Practice and Adding Decision Making
18:30 – Teaching Young People on Shooting
20:00 – 24/7 Concept and Mamba Mentality
21:00 – Good Coaching Perspective at his Academy
23:00 – Stepping Away from the Traditional Programs
24:00 – Mindset of the Position as Basketball
26:00 – Things to do to Foster Creativity to an Athlete
28:30 – Getting Great Ideas from Soccer
30:00 – Using 1-on-1 Approaches in the Practice
31:20 – Using the “Watch Films” Approach to Athletes
33:20 – Homework Traffic Light System
36:00 – Don’t be a Playstation Coach
38:00 – The Mindset of the Player
40:00 – Being Uncomfortable is Okay
41:00 – Pro Players is Less Creative
43:00 – Final Thoughts on Coach Development

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