Alodia Sports Academy

Welcome to the 2012 spring season – the 35th league season that creates memories that last a lifetime! For those of you who have played with us before, welcome back! For those of you in your first season with Alodia, we are looking forward to getting to know you and watch you play!

Please read this entire note for some very exciting benefits to this season’s league and where we can use your help! We have also included a very quick executive summary for those challenged for time.

Executive Summary

We have added some great new benefits to make the league even better for everyone (see below for details)
In order to deliver these additional benefits and keep the league costs reasonable, we have come across a very unique, simple program that I’m asking for your help in getting started.
Follow the very simple process that takes about 20 minutes to raise a goal of $50 per player ($500 per team) and allows the players and teams to win some great prizes!
That’s it … read below for a much more thorough explanation of the program. Thanks.

Overview

The mission of each and every Alodia program is to develop the next generation of leaders through sports. We feel that the life lessons you will learn this basketball season will carry over into all aspects of your life. There is nothing like competitive athletics to teach the values of teamwork, sacrifice, sportsmanship, fair play, dealing with pressure, and handling both success and adversity. In addition to the life lessons, it is a top priority for me that you have fun each and every time you step foot on the court-be it practice or games.

Each season, we strive to enhance the youth league experience for the players without increasing the financial and time burden on the parents. This spring, we are committed to the following additional enhancements to make your experience the best we can possibly make it:

Indoor practices starting next week at the Salem Family Center
An Alodia Rockets experience for every player – FREE ticket and the chance to sit courtside during pregame plus much more! click here for more information
A customized website for each team click here to see a sample site
Access to Alodia’s instructional basketball videos
A League T-Shirt for every player in addition to the reversible jersey
An All Star game at the end of the season

In order to deliver these additional benefits to everyone and keep the league costs reasonable, we have come across a very unique program, and I’m asking for your help in getting it off the ground. It only involves about 20 minutes of each family’s time.

We are asking everyone to participate in this program to help the league by obtaining a minimum of $50 in donations with a team goal of $500. By doing this, you can receive some great PRIZES at the team and individual level.

Team with the highest dollar amount of donations receives a day of fun for everyone at It’z-Willowbrook plus GUARANTEED to be included in the pregame courtside Alodia Houston Rockets experience!
Top 5 individuals with the highest dollar amount can choose from one of the following prizes:
- o Autographed basketball by a Houston rockets player
- o Upgraded seats for a Houston Rockets game (up to 4)
- o Nike basketball shoes
- o FREE Alodia summer camp or 6 month FREE Fitness Center membership
- o FREE future youth league season
Individuals obtaining a certain number of donations receive gift cards from Game Stop, Amazon, i-tunes all the way to an X-Box or i-Touch

The process is SUPER SIMPLE and rewards people who donate by offering $50 worth of coupons to national and local restaurants or hotels. You do not have to collect any money, you don’t have to sell anything, and it only takes 20 minutes of your time to provide contact info for people you know who might be willing to donate.

Reaching Our Goal is helping our group raise money. It’s really easy.

Spend 15 minutes at home helping us and you can earn impressive rewards, from a hoodie with our group name on it to an iPod Touch or Xbox.

YOUR INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Go to www.ReachingOurGoal.org. Click the green “Member Login” link in the top right corner of the page.

2. Enter Campaign Code: A4WAA

3. Pick the rewards you want to earn.

4. Enter as many email addresses as possible of adults who know you and care about you or your family. You can also print a flyer for your supporters who don’t use email.

That’s it.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT:

Reaching Our Goal creates a secure web page about our group and why we’re raising money.

Your contacts receive a personalized email asking them to consider supporting our group.

Contributors receive $50 in savings at restaurants or hotels nationwide.

Based on how your supporters respond, you’ll receive the reward you chose.

IMPORTANT INFO:

Emails you enter are privacy protected. They are never shared. They will be deleted after the campaign.

LET’S ROLL:

Because this is so easy, please get this done by April 16, 2012

If your parents are going to help you, forward this email to them.

I’ll be notified when you have entered your contacts.

We need to have our campaign completed by Monday, April 16 to get all of the arrangements and payments made for the exciting additional benefits!

Some of the reasons that we have selected this fundraising program are:

It’s easy… nothing to sell… takes just 20 minutes online.
Share our campaign with your supporters (i.e. aunts/uncles, grandparents, family friends, coaches, doctors, merchants, etc.) via email, mail and Facebook. Your supporters will visit your personalized web page we already created for you to learn about why we’re raising money.
You can print pre-written letters for your supporters who don’t use email.
Everyone who donates $25 or more receives $50 in valuable savings, redeemable at thousands of restaurants and hotels…a great “thank you” gift.
All info you enter is privacy protected, never shared and deleted when complete.\
Campaign is powered by Reaching Our Goal, a trusted company that has raised over $50 million since 2003 for thousands of groups like ours.

If you have any questions, please send an email to info@alodiaconsulting.com,
or call our office at 281-255-2552.

Sincerely,

Norman Schippers

President, Alodia Sports Academy

WCBL Spring 2012 Fundraiser

Houston Basketball Training — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:56:18 +0000

This information was sent via email on March 28, 2012 at 4:00 pm CST to all families in the Spring Alodia WCBL

March 28, 2012

Dear Alodia Woodlands Competitive Basketball League Players and Parents,

Welcome to the 2012 spring season – the 55th league season that creates memories that last a lifetime! For those of you who have played with us before, welcome back! For those of you in your first season with Alodia, we are looking forward to getting to know you and watch you play!

Executive Summary

We have added some great new benefits to make the league even better for everyone (see below for details)
In order to deliver these additional benefits and keep the league costs reasonable, we have come across a very unique, simple program that I’m asking for your help in getting started.
Follow the very simple process that takes about 20 minutes to raise a goal of $50 per player ($500 per team) and allows the players and teams to win some great prizes!
That’s it … read below for a much more thorough explanation of the program. Thanks!

Overview

Indoor practices for the entire season
An Alodia Rockets experience for every player – FREE ticket and the chance to sit courtside during pregame plus much more! click here for more information
A customized website for each team click here for more information
Access to Alodia’s instructional basketball videos
A League T-Shirt for every player in addition to the reversible jersey
An All Star game at the end of the season

In order to deliver these additional benefits to everyone and keep the league costs reasonable, we have come across a very unique program, and I’m asking for your help in getting it off the ground. It only involves about 20 minutes of each family’s time.

Team with the highest dollar amount of donations receives a day of fun for everyone at Main Event plus GUARANTEED to be included in the pregame courtside Alodia Houston Rockets experience!
Top 5 individuals with the highest dollar amount can choose from one of the following prizes:
- o Autographed basketball by a Houston rockets player
- o Upgraded seats for a Houston Rockets game (up to 4)
- o Nike basketball shoes
- o FREE Alodia summer camp
- o FREE future youth league season
Individuals obtaining a certain number of donations receive gift cards from Game Stop, Amazon, i-tunes all the way to an X-Box or i-Touch

Here are the instructions for what you need to do:

Reaching Our Goal is helping our group raise money. It’s really easy.

Spend 15 minutes at home helping us and you can earn impressive rewards, from a hoodie with our group name on it to an iPod Touch or Xbox.

YOUR INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Go to www.ReachingOurGoal.org. Click the green “Member Login” link in the top right corner of the page.

2. Enter Campaign Code: A4WAA

3. Pick the rewards you want to earn.

4. Enter as many email addresses as possible of adults who know you and care about you or your family. You can also print a flyer for your supporters who don’t use email.

That’s it.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT:

Reaching Our Goal creates a secure web page about our group and why we’re raising money.

Your contacts receive a personalized email asking them to consider supporting our group.

Contributors receive $50 in savings at restaurants or hotels nationwide.

Based on how your supporters respond, you’ll receive the reward you chose.

IMPORTANT INFO:

Emails you enter are privacy protected. They are never shared. They will be deleted after the campaign.

LET’S ROLL:

Because this is so easy, please get this done by April 16, 2012

If your parents are going to help you, forward this email to them.

I’ll be notified when you have entered your contacts.

We need to have our campaign completed by Monday, April 16 to get all of the arrangements and payments made for the exciting additional benefits!

Some of the reasons that we have selected this fundraising program are:

It’s easy… nothing to sell… takes just 20 minutes online.
Share our campaign with your supporters (i.e. aunts/uncles, grandparents, family friends, coaches, doctors, merchants, etc.) via email, mail and Facebook. Your supporters will visit your personalized web page we already created for you to learn about why we’re raising money.
You can print pre-written letters for your supporters who don’t use email.
Everyone who donates $25 or more receives $50 in valuable savings, redeemable at thousands of restaurants and hotels…a great “thank you” gift.
All info you enter is privacy protected, never shared and deleted when complete.
Campaign is powered by Reaching Our Goal, a trusted company that has raised over $50 million since 2003 for thousands of groups like ours.

If you have any questions, please send an email to info@alodiaconsulting.com,

or call our office at 281-255-2552.

Sincerely,

Norman Schippers

President, Alodia Sports Academy

Houston Rockets April 2012 Experience

Houston Basketball Training — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:39:36 +0000

Click below for a once in a lifetime experience to sit courtside and/or be on the Toyota Center court!

April 2012 Alodia Houston Rockets Experience

Moments: Making Your Life Count For What Matters Most

Houston Basketball Training — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 22:23:20 +0000

“Defining moments don’t just happen by chance; they occur when preparation, opportunity, and providence collide.”

- Mike Van Hoozer, author of

Moments: Making Your Life Count For What Matters Most (click here for more info)

A defining moment is packaged with purpose and passion. Defining moments help us become clear about our priorities and our direction. They sometimes involve a change in direction or confirmation about which path to pursue. In our lives, we will have at least one defining moment.

A moment that transforms us.
A moment that defines who we are, where we have been, and where we are going.
A moment that creates clarity about our purpose and calling in life.

Some of us have several defining moments. The thing about these moments is that we cannot always predict the exact time and date that these moments will occur. We can, however, be prepared for the defining moments in our lives, so we can be fully present in the moment. Preparation is the key to shining when the moment arrives!

Coach’s Corner – Practical Advice

Moments that have been missed are not missing, they are gone! The best we can do is learn from the moment that has been lost, be fully present in the current moment, and prepare for the next moment to come. The great basketball coach of UCLA and mentor of men John Wooden constantly impressed upon his players the following point:

“Make each day your masterpiece.”

Coach Wooden further explained that “the past is gone and will never change, and the future is only impacted by what you do today.” In my work with athletes, I constantly emphasize this point. I have worked with very successful and talented amateur and professional athletes who struggle in a moment, because they are still obsessing over the previous moment – a moment that is dead and gone. They think about the previous play where they did not perform. In the next play, they are on the field or court physically, but they are not mentally and emotionally connected to the current moment. The challenge is to put missing moments behind us, so we can fully perform in the current moment.

How are you doing at being fully present during the moments of your life. Based on your purpose, priorities, and passions, are you making the right choices about the time that you have in a day, a week, a year, or your lifetime? What filter are you using to schedule your priorities? Does your calendar run you, or do you run your calendar?

“Mike is a great story teller, and that’ll be obvious when you open Moments. He pays such great attention to detail, and that comes from his genuine interest in his subjects. In this book, he has taken some people’s very personal moments and turned them into opportunities to teach, inspire, motivate, and encourage. And that’s a gift!”

–Ernie Johnson, Jr., 3-time Emmy Award winning Sportscaster for TNT/TBS and host of “Inside The NBA on TNT”

“Read this book! Dare to identify the defining moments in your life and you will achieve your highest potential. Touchdown Mike!”

– Spencer Tillman, Author: Scoring in the Red Zone, CBS Sports Lead Studio Analyst

Click here to learn more about the book:Moments: Making Your Life Count For What Matters Most

Mike Van Hoozer
(281) 804-8041
mvanhoozer@hotmail.com
http://www.mikevanhoozer.com
http://www.vanhoozer.blogs.com

“Helping you unleash your potential in sports, business, and life!”

The Importance Of Confidence

Houston Basketball Training — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:59:29 +0000

CONFIDENCE ALLOWS YOU THE EDGE TO PERFORM IN THE MOMENT!

You must believe in yourself if you expect others to believe in you.

Poise and confidence can’t be taught. Remember we said that poise is “just being you.” Confidence is simply “just being you and being prepared.”

Failing to prepare is preparation for failure. Poise and confidence come with proper preparation. When we are as prepared as we know how to be, and we know that we have the tools to handle most of the unknowns that might come our way, we can go into a game situation with total confidence.

It’s important to be confident, but not overconfident. Have solid respect for your opponent without fear. Believe in yourself without being self-centered or intimidated.

Having confidence means walking into the gym and having your opponent wonder how you could be so well prepared and so sure of your performance – even before the game starts.

Confidence in sports is very important. Your own (and your team’s) performance will be better when you know that you can give 100% of yourself and not be afraid. You need to relax, trust your capabilities, avoid negative thoughts, and focus on your goal.

Another important thing: don’t be afraid of making mistakes. You will make some mistakes, and that’s okay. You just learn from them and keep going. Don’t compare yourself with others. If someone is performing better than you, pay no attention and just focus on your own goals.

Confident athletes expect success and have a high level of self-belief that is crucial in how far they go to meet their goals. Confidence makes the difference that determines whether people give up or remain committed to their goals after a series of setbacks. It’s the difference between highly successful and less successful athletes.

Need a confidence boost?

Look for a model (someone who has self-confidence) and learn from them. What is it they do that makes them confident? How do they act?
Focus on your achievements rather than your failures.
Learn how to feel good about yourself.
Act as if you are self confident. You will feel more self confident.
Focus on who you are and what you like about yourself.
Prepare thoroughly for any task so that you can be sure you’re ready.
Work on any skills you need to do what you want; you can never be over-trained or over-skilled for any challenge in life.
Work on your relaxation skills.
Smile and stand up straight.
Set reachable goals for yourself and break difficult tasks into smaller steps.
Reward yourself when you succeed no matter how small the achievement.
Don’t be too competitive or compare yourself to others. Be yourself and accept that life is not a race against others; your self confidence depends on you and your personal needs.

Did you know?

Confidence was the main reason given when Maryland, down by 13 points, came back to beat Duke in the 2006 NCAA women’s national championship game.

“Maryland always thought it was going to win,” according to ESPN. “That confidence – instilled by their coach – was the difference. The players knew their coach was behind them and that it’s okay if they miss a shot or make a turnover. And whether down by 13 points or two points, Maryland played the game. They weren’t surprised when they took the lead. They almost expected it.”

Your turn

Do you always prepare to the best of your ability? What one or two things can you do to increase your preparation before practice or games?
Is there someone you know who demonstrates confidence? What traits do they have?

Enhancing Sports Performance

Houston Basketball Training — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:26:05 +0000

YOU MUST PREPARE YOUR BODY TO PERFORM BEFORE THE MOMENT PRESENTS ITSELF!

How to Truly Enhance Sports Performance

Today’s competitive sports environment demands that young athletes participate in other “training” activities in order to stay ahead or even keep up with their peers. Whether striving to earn a scholarship, a starting position or simply making the team, it is essential that modern athletes participate in some kind of advanced integrated training program in order to maximize his or her athletic ability.

These other “training” programs include such things as enhancing strength, power, speed, agility, endurance, flexibility, balance, stabilization and nutrition. No longer is it enough to simply practice a specific sport, it is now important for young athletes, just as it is for professional athletes, to train in these other areas in order to gain an advantage.

With more and more businesses offering “sports performance enhancement”, it is important to understand the basic principals that go in to designing a solid program.

Many local programs and gyms have trainers that claim to know how to improve athleticism yet they base their program design on a body building type program. Many use machines to strengthen their athletes while others use gimmicks or tools that are not as effective as more proven techniques. It’s not to say that the athletes won’t improve, they just won’t improve as much as they possibly could during that training period.

Although machines will help increase strength, they DO NOT help an athlete become a better athlete because the machines are stabilizing that individual. For example, if an athlete wants to become quicker and more athletic, it is important to use training techniques that force that athlete to use their core and demonstrate body control all while moving in similar movements that will be required of them on the field or court. Using a machine simply disengages the core and stabilizers and therefore only focuses on strengthening one specific muscle, just like bodybuilders do. On the other hand, using exercises that require multiple complex movements forces the athletes to engage their core and stabilizers just as they would have to do on the court or field. These are called functional exercises.

In order to maximize the results of a good integrated program, it is important to be patient and make sure that form, core and stability is accomplished by making every movement accurate and precise. This ensures that the right muscles are being worked in a safe and effective way. By establishing a solid foundation, the chance of yielding greater results increases tremendously. Additionally, good form and technique helps to strengthen muscles surrounding key ligaments such as the knees, shoulders, ankles etc., therefore, helping to minimize injury.

Building on key phases of athletic development

By first focusing on building a solid foundation with strong core, stability, and proper form and mechanics, you are then ready to move into the strength phase. In simple terms, the foundation phase helped you establish proper athletic movements and form. It takes many repetition to train your muscles to the point where it becomes second nature. It is important to maintain proper from and technique and continually repeat these movements so that your muscle memory is locked in. These repetitions will get boring but are very important. Just as in practice for your specific sport, how many times do you hit a ball, run a play, practice a stroke or kick? Thousands, right? No different here.

Now it’s time to strengthen these movements by doing the proper exercises that focus on athleticism. Although upper body strength is important in all sports, lower body strength is more important. If you take a look at the “ready position” for most sports, you see what we call in the sports performance world as the “athletic position”. You see the feet at about shoulder width apart or a little wider, knees bent about 45 degrees, hips sunk back, chest out and body ready to move in whatever direction is necessary. Whether you step forward, backwards, lateral or jump vertical from this position, one thing is for sure, it better be quick in order to be effective. This being the case, it’s important to train coming out of this position.

Most athletes that I talk with want to become faster. The problem is that most people think if they just go out and run a bunch of sprints and do a ton of “speed and agility” drills, they will get to where they want to go. Unfortunately, the body doesn’t work that way.

First of all, unless you have proper form and technique, going out and doing a bunch of sprints and agility drills improperly will only cause you to imbed the bad mechanics into your muscle memory making them harder to break. The sooner you correct form and technique, the better off you will be in the long term.

If you take world-class sprinters and break down their form and technique, you will notice three things that happen. For a split second, at the peak of the movement, you will see the ankle, the knee and the hip extend at the same time. This movement is called triple extension and helps to maximize the power generated by the sprinter. Additionally, you see that their motion is very smooth and fluid. The knees pump straight up and down with little movement laterally. The body maintains a slight lean forward. The arms and shoulders swing forward and backward and not side to side. All these things are basic form and technique components that need to be established first.

Now take the triple extension movement and break it down a little further. Let’s consider the knee first. In a full sprint, the knee comes up to about waist level then drives down to generate as much force as possible in order to drive the sprinter forward. In order to strengthen that motion, you must train using that same motion such as doing squats (knees bend about 90 degrees placing the knee at almost hip level and exploding up), one leg box steps ups, (same motion as the knee pumping up and down during a sprint), lunges etc.

The hip is also important. The hips must be tilted forward in order to allow your legs to maximize range of motion. Here’s a quick experiment that you can try for yourself so you can see the difference. Stand facing a wall or a solid fixture that won’t move if you lean against it. Put your hands on the wall and walk your feet back so that your body is leaning about 45 degrees. Tilt your hips forward so that a straight line exists from your shoulders, through your hips and down to your ankles. Now bring one knee up as high as you can get it without breaking that straight line. Notice how high the knee went up. Now put your leg back down and break at the hips by pushing your butt back. Now try the same thing. Bring your knee up and notice the height now. You can see that by extending the hips, your knee can come up further than when you break at the hips. The higher you bring the knee up the more power you are generating.

The ankle is critical as well. The more extension you get from the ankle at the same time as the knee and the hips, the more power you will generate. This is why it’s important to learn to point your toe up (dorsi flex) while your same knee is up. As you come down and apply force to the ground, the cocked ankle acts as an additional force generator as it goes from cocked to fully extended at the same time as the knee and hips.

Again, I’m using the sprinter only as an example in order to simplify the explanation for improving athleticism because speed is a common theme in all sports. Any athletic movement can be broken down the same way so that a proper strength and power progression can be designed.

Now that you understand the importance of building a solid foundation, core and stability, we can move into the strength phase. I will keep this as simple as possible.

The mechanics are there, along with good form, good core strength and stability. So what’s next? It is important to now increase the strength in the motions that we are trying to improve. In keeping with the sprinter and the knee driving up, hips extending and ankles extending, it is important to focus on building the strength of these motions. A solid strength program will incorporate several exercises to help achieve this.

Once the muscles and the movements are stronger, we can now work on improving power. In other words, make the movement more explosive. The best way to look at this is by analyzing the throwing of a wiffle ball, a shot put and a baseball. Take a wiffle ball for example. If you have ever thrown a wiffle ball as far as you can throw it, you know that it doesn’t go very far because it’s too light. You can’t generate much power behind such light weight. On the other hand, if you throw a heavy shot put, the same is true. You can’t generate enough power to make it go far. However, if you take a baseball, you know you can throw it many times further than a wiffle ball or a shot put. The reason being is that you are able to generate more power in the throwing motion with the weight of the baseball than the other two. This is why training for power is much different than training for strength. Training for strength is a slow movement because the weight being moved is too heavy to go fast. Training for power requires a lower weight that can be moved with the most optimal velocity. It is important to find that middle ground weight like the baseball in order to generate the most power out of that movement. In some cases, body weight will be enough, while in others, you will need to add some resistance. Again, if you easily do 12-15 repetitions, then the weight is too light. On the other hand, if you can only complete a few repetitions and the movement is slow, the weight it too heavy. Certain explosive movements require the entire body therefore sticking with 2-8 repetitions for such movements works best in the power phase.

The power phase is very important in improving athleticism. The weight being used in this phase is critical so I highly recommend that you hire a sports performance coach to help out so that you train with the proper weight. Although there are several high end gadgets that help determine power, experienced staffs such as at CAP Elite can visually and see if the proper weight is being used with close accuracy.

Now that you have good mechanics, improved strength and increased power, you are ready to work on speed. All speed is, is being able to perform the proper mechanics faster. This is the phase in which you get more sport specific and work on your specific needs such as running, swinging your arm, a club or a bat, throwing, etc. Look for my article on Speed coming soon.

The key thing to being successful is that you continue training all phases of sports performance throughout your athletic career. Training a month here and a month there only gives you temporary improvements. It takes years to truly maximize your potential and therefore must be a lifestyle you live if you want it to work the right way.

Feel free to use the advice above to find the right trainer for your needs.

Eddie Enriquez

Founder and Performance Specialist

CAP Elite, Inc. an Alodia partner

Click here to learn more

Ganon Baker’s Advice for Players

Houston Basketball Training — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:24:26 +0000

Here are a couple of videos from Ganon Baker–one of basketball’s best individual trainers and a VALUED PARTNER OF ALODIA. Both of these videos will help prepare you to be ready when you have your opportunity to shine!

This first video contains advice that applies to all players. It is specifically for point guards, and is great advice for all positions!

The video is only about 90 seconds long, and has some very concrete tips for players to work on to ensure their teams success.

By clicking the link below, and entering the coupon code below, you can get a 25% discount on Ganon Baker DVDs.

Get 25% off on Ganon Baker Basketball DVDs – Couponcode 25GBB

BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THE ALODIA GANON BAKER CAMPS THIS SUMMER AND FALL IN HOUSTON AND KANSAS CITY!

Video #2 below is from his “Beat Ganon Baker” contest (which is now closed). This is a terrific drill to compete not only with Ganon, and more importantly with yourself so that you are ready to shooting under pressure when it comes time to take important shots for your team!

Alodia Houston Eclipse: Winners’ Advice

Houston Basketball Training — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:44:57 +0000

As the school season gets close to finishing and club season begins, we wanted to ask arguably Alodia Houston’s most successful club team for words of advice to pass along to current players and parents. The 2010 Alodia Houston Eclipse captured numerous tournament titles including the Kansas City Battle of the Plains over well-established Midwest club programs. Players from this team that went on to play in college include Allie Brandenburg (Oklahoma Baptist), Nadine Ndip (Vanderbilt), Jenny Nash (Nicholls State), Renata Marquez (Abilene Christian), Taylor Schippers and Liz Donohoe (Oklahoma State), Stephanie Arenivas (Lubbock Christian), and Valencia Hamilton (Blinn Junior College). Read and enjoy!

Always have faith in yourself
Always be a leader – lead on and off the floor. You represent the name on your jersey, your coaches, your teammates, and yourself. You don’t have to be the best player on the team to be a leader.
Never lose confidence in yourself, because the mental side of the game can be one of the strongest parts.
Never measure success based on others. Measure success based on how far you have progressed. It will eliminate stress because you will focus more on bettering yourself rather than comparing yourself to others.
Never lose your work ethic, hard work beats talent every time. The harder the work the more your confidence goes up and you keep believing in yourself.
Sports are a privilege. Practice and play like you GET to be there, not that you HAVE to be there.
Have the mindset that you are unstoppable.
If you have a bad game, don’t get too down on yourself because it will keep carrying over to the next game, and it will hurt you in the long run instead of helping you.
Set goals for yourself – make them achievable but ones that will push you beyond your limits.
Take advantage of every opportunity that you are presented and always be grateful and appreciative for the people who help you achieve your success.
STAY HUMBLE! Whether you are the best player in the league or the worst player, everyone takes note of how you act on and off the floor and the more humble you are the more respected you will be.
Win with humility and lose with grace.
Never lose sight of why you started to play the game; basketball is meant to be fun not stressful.
Always respect the game –even if things aren’t going well for you. We all play basketball because it is our passion. Respect it and you will be rewarded.
Dreams do come true! Bring a good attitude and great work ethic and success will follow.

Norman Schippers
President, Alodia Sports Academy