Today’s show welcomes back Bobby Whyte. Bobby is an athletic performance and basketball skill enhancement trainer operating out of northern New Jersey. Bobby recently appeared on episode 178 of the podcast https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-178-bobby-whyte/, speaking on his integration of strength and skill training for basketball.
The world of sports performance can easily suffer from isolationism in the realm of strength, speed and movement skill. In the recent podcast with Tony Villani, the difference between 40-yard dash speed, and actual game speed in the NFL was made very clear. We need to understand more about the nuances, and principles of movement in sport to prepare athletes for it, instead of over-focusing on linear speed mechanics.
When we understand the over-arching principles of learning and movement, we can apply them to any sport or skill. Throughout this podcast, we’ve had intelligent minds like Adarian Barr speaking on biomechanical principles, and then folks like Michael Zweifel, Tyler Yearby, and Rob Gray talking about foundational principles of learning and skill acquisition. Bobby Whyte has been using those principles, and tying it all together in his basketball performance program.
On the show today, Bobby Whyte speaks how he has taken concepts picked up from Adarian Barr and applied them to movement training and acceleration in the game of basketball. He shares his thoughts on key physical abilities in basketball, and how he uses motor learning principles to help athletes improve their specific skill array for the game. Bobby will speak on how he has taken motor learning principles into landing mechanics and common injury prevention themes in training, and finally Bobby will talk about how he specifically seeks to develop the all-important confidence level in his players in his training sessions.
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Timestamps and Main Points:
5:21 – What Bobby has been learning and integrating since his last time on the podcast 2 years ago
6:45 – How Bobby has integrated some of Adarian Barr concepts directly into basketball speed and movement training
18:49 – How basketball, and related movement training, has universal application into many other sports, such as football
24:44 – Key physical abilities on the basketball court that can transfer into great gameplay
28:33 – The importance of chaos in basketball qualities and carryover
35:26 – How Bobby views landing and landing mechanics for his basketball athletes, and how good general strength training can go a long way in helping prevent injury without needing to do plyometrics where athletes need to move a “certain way”
42:45 – Bobby’s take on feedback and instruction in the course of coaching his athletes, and avoiding over-coaching
51:54 – How confidence in one’s specific game and skill abilities is a key and defining factor in athletes that make it to the next level of performance
59:01 – What is a “good drill”?
1:03:14 – Bobby’s thoughts on the benefits and drawbacks of the vast amount of information available to athletes today
“The best athletes can maintain (Adarian Barr’s) athletic posture until… it’s time to cut, it’s time to shoot, etc.”
“When I’m falling (to drop into a basketball move), I’m almost pulling myself down”
“A lot of players will go into that horizontal fall, and there will be a pause before they get moving… our goal is to smooth that out”
“They players that struggle with (coming up off the knees into an acceleration) struggle to get on their arches”
“All of those physical abilities just give me more action capability; the athletes who succeed are the ones who understand how to apply their physical gifts in an effective way where they are making decisions in their sport”
“I look at everything, not as a race to speed, but as a race to position”
“If you spend all of your time shooting alone in the gym, with no chaos, it’s not going to hold up, so you have to experience that chaos”
“We can’t train perfectly for a game that’s imperfect”
“Give me an athlete that can do a 360 layup, and he’s not bad at finishing, it’s going to be hard to find one”
“I try to have those opportunities to let athletes figure things out themselves”
“The last thing I want to think of when I’m jump shooting is where my elbow is”
“If there’s a hiccup, there’s a hitch (in a shot) there’s a whole bunch of things that simply adding speed will correct and make it fluid”
“I don’t want you to have an emotional attachment to the goal (making the shot)”
“This is what moves the needle more than anything, if you can rewire a player’s mind”
“The best players I have, the ones that end up getting scholarships, they have very little or no self-doubt; on the other hand, I have players who get bigger, faster, stronger, get more skilled, and never really do much with it”
“(when Bobby gives a star player a difficult challenge) The other players in the group will see the best player struggling, and overcoming it, and he becomes a teacher”
“I don’t want to teach players how to move, I want them to learn how to move”
Show Notes
Coaching the “Two Falls” Specifically for the Game of Basketball
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About Bobby Whyte
Bobby Whyte is an Athletic Performance and Basketball Skill Enhancement Trainer operating out of Northern New Jersey.
Focusing on developing the complete player athlete, Bobby practices the “Evaluate – Educate -Empower” program he experienced first hand growing up training with now world renown trainers and specialists. His personal journey, beginning with a 12” vertical jump at age 15 to playing and coaching basketball internationally provide him understanding and the confidence needed to tailor programs which maximize individual development. With a quick wit, Bobby makes tough, challenging sessions entertaining.
Bobby is a certified NASM Personal Trainer and FMS Movement Specialist. He’s also certified with I’m Possible Training, the world’s largest basketball training company. He’s worked with athletes ranging from beginner to NBA/NFL/Overseas Professionals. Most recently, he spent 6 months working in China as the Head Strength Coach for the Guangxi Rhinos.
Bobby has the ability and knowledge to develop skill and performance programs to deliver complete, healthy athletes. He believes growth takes place at the edge of ability and it his passion to bring athletes to that edge.
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