When I think back to the Winter of 2014...life was crazy. I was an assistant coach at Minnesota State Moorhead and we had just won the school's first conference title in over 30 years. It was a great time to be a Dragon. But I had to make some major decisions. My family was moving to Columbus, Ohio and my fiance was working in reality television in New York City. And here I was, sitting in an office slugging back Diet Mountain Dew's with my boss. I didn't think a part-time college coaching job and the beautiful Minnesota winters were enough leverage to get my wife to quit her job, so off to NYC I went.
When I got to New York I began applying for college coaching jobs, but I knew I needed to make a little money in the meantime. I began working at a gym on Long Island training players, and I'll be honest, I thought it would be easy. I had figured, "Hey. My dad is a high school coach. I grew up in the gym, spent seven seasons at the college level...this will be easy."
And then I woke up and saw that Paul Pierce scored 25 points the night before. Here is a guy that (in my mind) was 52 years old, couldn't move, and just gave an NBA team 25 points in limited minutes. How did he do it?
That question bothered me.
So I started watching film.
But not on the players you would think. I wasn't watching Durant or LeBron. I was watching players like Pierce & Joe Johnson. And then it went to Steph Curry, but not for the same reasons kids watched him. I watched him because I saw a mediocre athlete (by NBA standards) doing whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.
I quickly realized that coaching and training are similar, but very different.
I played for a high school coach that won over 450 games by the age of 50 and worked for four different college head coaches in seven years...and I'm sitting at my brother-in-law's desk in awe because I felt like I knew nothing about the game of basketball.
I began spending time around world-renowned trainers DJ Sackmann, Micah Lancaster and others, and what I quickly began to realize was that they focused on completely different things than I did as a college coach.
As a college coach, I had to recruit, help develop a practice plan, scout teams, supervise study hall, upload film, etc. We had to manage team emotions and work on developing chemistry. To put it simply, we had to prioritize our limited time, and skill development got the boot.
I am really excited about the launch of this platform. Over the last year The Film Room has exploded on Instagram - helping kids from all over the world improve their game. Now, I am excited to bring that same detail-based instruction to coaches all over the globe.
I am excited about the opportunity to connect with you! If you have something you would like to see us break down or go over, don't hesitate to shoot me a message.
You can email me here: reid@basketballcatalyst.com
Reid Ouse