Your player may have started basketball late, be playing multiple sports, or had a recent growth spurt (or lack of growth spurt compared to peers).

They probably missed a season (or 4?) since COVID, and haven't yet found their stride.

So far they've only had access to volunteer coaches (doing their best), or AAU coaches (focused on team performance).

They are either bored as the most skilled player on their rec team, or overwhelmed as one of the lower skilled and experienced players on a tournament team.

In high-stakes games, instead of developing more skills, your player is either sitting on the bench, or being told "don't shoot, don't dribble, just give it to ____".

They are an intelligent, quick-learning, kind, funny, conscientious teammate that defers to other players (instead of taking even obviously open shots), and they wouldn't be caught dead labeled as a "ball hog."

They are a perfectionist with themselves, and a rule-follower for their coaches. Often applauded as "the most coachable kid," they are overly critical of ther mistakes - expecting to make every shot, and have 0 errors (likely caused by being subbing out and punished for errors in the past).

Something is holding them back, preventing them from taking the shots and performing the skills in games that you see them execute easily in practice.

You want them to be aggressive, but hey often hesitate, freeze up, or clearly avoid opportunities to take initiative. By hesitating, they usually miss shots, fail to get past their defender, etc and so prove to themselves that they were not actually open (which is what they use to argue against you when you share your perspective!)

Your player LOVES basketball, but are nervous about the next level of competition, and you're both afraid that they're not going to make the cut. If they do make it as the player they are now, they won't play much, and now you're wondering if it will still be worth it...

You fear after all the work they have put into getting better, if they don't make it "over the hump" at this next threshold, they will fall even farther behind, or worse - be so devastated that they may just decide to quit.

In a word, your player lacks Confidence.

What if you could help your player install a software upgrade this off-season?

Sound too good to be true? Well, here's how it works:

We start with the end in mind - we want your player to be Confident. Not nervous, but also not so full of themselves they become reckless.

Just a calm, cool, collected confidence that comes from layer-upon-layer of absolute, stone-cold certainty that underlies what we call Concrete Confidence.

The number one bunker-buster for confidence is contradictions (which is why after 6 years of playing for 6 different coaches, your player has so many different ideas contradicting in their head - that they just freeze!)

If we want consistent concrete confidence to be the result, we have to built a cohesive system - as in without contradiction. Which we did. Over 15 years. Then tested it on 100 players. Then revised it. Then published Version 2.0 in 2024.

So, what is involved with this Confidence Formula 2.0?

The elements of the Confidence Formula

PERQ:

Cohesive Curriculum
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After a lot of 1on1 training, I realized the most wasted time was me talking while on a basketball court with the player ready and waiting for action. Despite my best efforts to be concise, if I was teaching, I was talking. If I was talking for 5 min, the player was standing still for 5 min.

If I did that 5-6 times in a practice, HALF of our workout time was "wasted" in talking when it could have been spent in action (and despite the common framework of "learning styles", everyone learns by DOING).

So, I developed a curriculum. The best concepts I know, borrowed, stolen, or invented laid out in a sequential progression of everything I wish a high school player knew (and some coaches).

I connected the basketball theory of "why" behind every "what" of skill, and every "how" we would practice it, every "where" in a real game this would be used, and every "when" the decision-making takes place and wrapped in "what it's called" for good measure.

What we ended up with is a 20-30 min explanation and demo of everything we are going to do on the court - priming your players brain for what they will be doing, before they are under the pressure of trying to do it! (Turns out trying to execute anything for the first time while also listening to a firehose of information never works out well).

Espresso Workouts
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Much like Espresso instead of a gallon of coffee - if you want to feel the effects of caffeine from a very small cup in a big hurry, expresso gets you the result.

"Less talk, more action" is the best way to describe it.
By getting the talking done in advance, our court time became fantastically more effective. Not just 2x more, but actually 4x more (we got twice as much done in half the time).

We were able to (and really had to, due to information overload and mental overwhelm) reduce our 1on1 workouts from 60 minutes down to 30 minutes. But to be that efficient there was another piece missing that we needed to perfect...

The Faster Feedback Loop
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"Say the instructions in five words or less." Was the single biggest constraint, and leverage in my coaching effectiveness.

Originally found and tested with K-2nd grade after school programs, I quickly applied the method to everyone up through college players.

TAGteach - Teaching with Acoustical Guidance is a behavior science-based framework for concise instructions and precision feedback. It has literally allowed us to help a player master and stack dozens of pieces of a skill, infinitely faster than the standard "yell and punish mistakes until they get it right" approach, with better results, and longer lasting retention.

Training, not Practice
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"Practice" brings up a certain mental picture of what that looks like, based on player's past experience.

"Skills & Drills" (Blah) is about the only other thing parents and players have heard of. So if it's not practice, that's what they picture.

I like to use Training - a term stolen from soccer. We are training body and mind for the real game situation in which context, decision, and skill are all intertwined. Practicing scripted pattern plays, or isolated skills is a waste of everyone's time.

​We call ourselves "Play Practice" because we like to play first - let players experience some specific problems in a certain game situation - before we practice by breaking down the decisions and the skills that go with that situation. Then we get back to playing again as soon as possible - but only in 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 scenarios (5 players are rarely involved in the same play action, and so extra bodies just gums up the works for player attention)

What happens after the 12 weeks are up?

The Confidence Warranty

​After 100 players had graduated version the Confidence Formula Ver. 1.0 between 2021-2023, I decided to study their outcomes comparing players long-term results. Here is what we found:

The confidence warranty is exactly what it sounds like - we place your child under our care to ensure they can maintain progress with a minimal obligation of time that can be sustained year-round by:

7th-10th grade players who want more.

We help your 7th-grader perform at a high school level BEFORE their freshman tryouts!
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If your player starts with us before 9th grade (even if it's 3 months before their freshman season) our stats show they have a 94.6% of making their high school team.

If they didn't make their freshman team, or didn't perform the way they wanted and are striving to get ready for JV and above in 10th grade, we may still be able to help them. 

Our best clients are parents with basketball experience, usually former players and amateur coaches that want to translate their knowledge to their own player, but don't want to risk ruining the relationship with their child in the process.

Parents that see the passion and potential in their player, but see the gap between their dreams and their current reality and recognize the need for help to connect the dots and bridge that gap.

​Parent's willing to invest in an alternative path - a shortcut to accelerate their player's progress - instead of accepting status quo or trying to overcome problems by sheer volume of playing more games on 4 teams every season.

Here are the top 4 Objections  have:

1) How can a player improve without playing 5v5 games?
We don't think they should NEVER play games, just that focusing on puzzle pieces of games for 3 months, allows assembling the puzzle to be much easier when they return. Not to mention the side benefits of physical and mental recovery from a 3-month break!

2) How can an online course help when my player can't keep their focus on anything for school?
Not to discount anyone's condition, but EVERYONE is diagnosed with ADHD these days. Everyone loses focus when the subject is boring. We strive for engaging, useful, and personal topics centered on basketball that are relevant, and cause your player to think about what and why they do things a certain way on the court!

3) How can players get better with such short practices?
"Less talk, more action" is the best way to describe it.
By getting the talking done in advance, our court time becomes fantastically more effective. Not just 2x more, but actually 4x more (we got twice as much done in half the time). And our follow up studies show that it sticks - its not more faster in one ear and out the other, we strive for learning by doing and making learning stick by connecting everything to player's experience and things they already understand by layering concepts week after week!

4) Why so expensive?
Price = what you pay vs Value = what you receive.
If you are used to paying for a certain amount of court time, games, etc with no results guaranteed (I call it the "sweat and hope" approach to coaching) then our price is high.
If you are paying for results, then we are actually a great value! We consistently produce better learning outcomes in a fraction of the time, and have proven that the learning sticks (based on recall results 3 - 12 months afterwards). So instead of 4 AAU seasons, and then coming to us because your player is falling behind, you can set up your player for success first, and then let them go compete at the highest level they can find!
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Online Curriculum:
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"I thought I'd follow up on one of our initial concerns to share that, as it turns out, the online course really resonated with Owen. He's really taken your message of confidence and courage to heart; he is uplifted and more determined after the 2 modules he's had so far; I think that these are messages that young men need to hear and they need to hear it from someone other than their parents!! So far, so good -- thank you."
- Holly Stark

"The result has been nothing but positive Braeden in his decision making is getting so much better. You can see it just in the short time during the games that he's recently played with his travel team. He's definitely making quicker decisions. And as a result, he's getting more more points and he's being more productive on the court. There's a component that I like a lot is the online curriculum feature where they break down film and talk about certain strategies and goals. And it's a well rounded program. It's not just basketball, thinking about basketball, it's thinking about how do I make the most out of what I'm doing in my training."
- Sean Curran

Investment:
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"The biggest obstacle that would have prevented us from signing up probably would just be the costs. Quite frankly, we have four children. And it's just a lot financially. And besides that with four kids, you know, a lot of things going on all the time. It just was a time and money commitment.
It's still a significant investment of the resources and time that we have. But far and away, it has been worth it. And we've done other things, that by comparison, I think that the cost was well justified here. We definitely got a lot of bang for our buck. Sayuki's confidence increased, true to the name of the program, beyond what we could have possibly hoped for.
She ended up going from someone who was really not sure that she wanted to continue (playing basketball)... because she got really a late start, and so she was behind fundamentals-wise.
She went from the someone who is at the end of the bench, just getting a little bit of playing time focusing on rebounding and defense to arguably, you know, one of the most consistent outside shooters on our team.
She went from somebody that was eager to get the ball out of her hands as soon as it came to her in her seventh grade year, to someone that, you know, when our team was having trouble breaking the press, her coach would put her in as point guard, she became one of the primary ball handlers.
That confidence went beyond the basketball court too - she became a team captain last year, which was amazing to see. And she's like more involved in leadership things at school at this point. So when I say that the expense feels well justified on our end, that is that is a literal fact."
- Brian Elkevith

The Training Environment:
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"The second, we kind of went "all-in" with Connor it was just like, he was immediately part of the team, very comfortable with everybody welcoming him from coaches, to the other participants. And it was just like an immediate, you know, like, "let's get going" and "we want to be here for Connor." And that was the focus, and it has been every day for over a month now.
The thing that is like kind of preached here and practiced here is just the confidence level. And I just saw it immediately once Connor just started getting into working out and working on different skills and working on footwork, like his confidence grew immediately.
I would say that knowledge of the game here is superior. For myself, I'm kind of an old-school basketball guy. And the game has changed so much that I don't know if people understand how much it's changed. And so coaching Connor (as a big guy for his age) for the future in the modern, more versatile game - that was just kind of the focus here from the get go, which we love!"
- Clint LaPierre

Results:
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"My daughter received more coaching in 30 minutes than in the last 2 years with her AAU team!"
- Jamie Frost

"The 30-minute sessions sounded like, well, too good to be true. I'm not gonna lie. I hear people say all the time, 'work smarter, not harder' but my entire life, the way I was raised is to work harder and I think we kind of don't believe that 'work smarter' stuff.
I'm in awe of the level of efficiency of the practices. Starting with the way the coaches structure things, it is remarkable how much like these practices are starting to feel long to me. Because there's so much content. It's just everything is moving so quickly, every five minute chunk, has something of tremendous value that I don't know how they're getting so many reps in a five minute chunk at whatever they're doing before they move on to the next thing. It's really remarkable.
- Brian Elkeviztz

"The progress has been so noticeable that people were asking us after the AAU tryouts what his secret has been to the improvement."
- Tim Granfield

From a Player:
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"When I first started, I was really just someone who hustled and played great defense and was able to get rebounds. Now I'm able to do everything from scoring off the dribble, guarding guys much bigger than me, out-rebounding every single person on the court, scoring on all levels.
Being confident. Learning these skills has also boosted my confidence, which allows me to play how I do now. The program is amazing. It brought me from a player averaging around two points a game to someone who's was able to score 30 points in a games playing against teams from Massachusetts and Maine and all over New Hampshire. It's been a great help!
- Ethan Berg
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The "What did they DO?" Guarantee:
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​(When your player enrolls in the Confidence Formula)
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​If someone who knows your player doesn’t comment on how much better your player is performing within 3 months, Coach BJ will personally provide a whole year of weekly 1on1 training to your player for free!

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We help your player build Concrete Confidence.

Other programs may focus on "fluffy" confidence in the abstract, or worse - stunt your player's progress by punishing mistakes and decisions that kill your player's confidence.

​We help your player build their own Concrete Confidence by learning not only What to do, but When, and Why to do it - empowering them to make decisions, understand their mistakes, and take control of their game performance to thrive in any situation!
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"Instructor is so great with the kids. The first coach my son has liked. Good exercise and fun."
~Chantel M.