Play Practice Basketball

Portsmouth, NH's Premier Basketball Confidence Training Program

Defensive Dictator

"More coaching in 30 min than my daughter had in the last 2 years with her team"
- Jamie Ruel

"I think one of the key things that I always liked about what you do, the drills that you guys create, isn't geared towards a nine year old or a 10 year old. It's the same footwork. It's the same drills that you're running with high school, college, maybe even some of your NBA players that you guys have trained in the past. And I think that's really one of the areas that has helped Cole excel, is a lot of that development and footwork and just understanding spacing - a lot of things that he's learned from you guys at a young age that most kids just don't learn."
- Scott McClure

"BJ is a fantastic coach who has really helped develop my son’s skills as well as his love of the game. BJ coaches in such a supportive way that makes my son feel comfortable and wanting to get more and more coaching. We feel so lucky to have found him."
- Nikki Curran

"Exceptional basketball training based in NH. My child has grown both as a player and as a person while working with Coach BJ Mumford. He is very detailed and the training is technical. Highly recommend."
- Michael Pellman

"BJ has been great helping develop my son. He keeps the training interesting and develops their all around skills. I would highly recommend BJ to work with boys and girls of all ages."
-Jason Conway

"My children have been attending training sessions with BJ for the past month or so. He is extremely patient with the children and customizes the training based on varying skill levels. The children look forward to each session and we’re very thankful to BJ and this tremendous program."
- Sumi Soman

Problem

Your player is struggling to stay in front of an average ball handler on defense, hurting their ability to stop opponents from scoring, and ultimately killing their ability to earn more playing time!
All of the coaching advice they have gotten revolves around "effort," "slide your feet!" and the need to improve their "lateral quickness."
The real problem is that neither you or their coach have the time to distill all the details of defense down to individual skills that they can understand and take on the challenge of improving.

Solution

The Defensive Dictator is designed to help your player develop "sheep-dog" level defense - dictating not only where, when, and what type of shots their opponent will take, but ultimately the outcome of every game they play in.

Using a framework I borrowed from my mentor Ron Ekker called "The 3 Pillars of Defense", our priority in this course is to accomplish:

Containing the ball

Contesting every shot

Rebound (1&2 made them miss a bad shot, now clean up the mess!)

This course is our response to countless client requests for a defensive-focused program, and after digging into everything we think a player should know, we came up with 21 core concepts, and 24 key skills.
We address the 3 Pillars of defense from both an individual skill of on-ball 1on1 defense, and from a team defense in help positioning, rotation, and shot blocking.

How it works!

5 touch points we use every week to layer on each concept like a coat of paint - what we call our "PERCQ" System:

🎥 Prime their brain with a preview video

🎯 "Espresso" workout - a high-intensity injection of basketball ideas and execution in as little as 30 minutes

🏀 Compete vs peers in 1v1 and 2v2 live situational games

📹 Record stats and video of every workout

📝 Quiz them to lock in concepts

Example weekly commitment:

Mon - watch a 15 min preview video

Tues - attend a 30 min 1on1 training session (can be scheduled any day that suits you!)

Wed - review recording of your workout on Homecourt, practice at home

Thurs - take a 3-5 question quiz

Fri - practice at home, referencing video as needed

Sat/Sun - Attend a 60-minute SOCK competition group with peers

Who is This For?

SOCKS™ transition program for players who are ready to level up:

In 5th grade or higher

That have played 2+ years of basketball and

Are ready to FOCUS on improving their skill level in a way that translates to games

Objections!

Why only 4 weeks?

Going deep on a single focus with a hybrid approach for 4-weeks is our tried-and-tested solution to mastering a skill set, and each of our courses uses "interleaving" to overlap on core skills and concepts from a variety of game situations

Why so expensive?

We deliver game performance results, guaranteed. We are not counting minutes... only results!

We spent 20 years perfecting our instructions and progression of skills and concepts to eliminate wasted time, and maximize the effectiveness of our repetitions

We specialize in this age group from 7th grade to varsity-ready, so we know exactly what they are capable of, how they think, and what works for them

We are a simplifier - we can take the most complex skill and concept and make it digestible, achievable, and even easy for your player in minutes!

Isn't this just another "skills and drills" night?

No! Skills and drills is what everyone else does:
- often as a token add-on to a program, otherwise focused on team coaching
- with huge groups of 20+ kids on a court
- working on skills in isolation from any decision-making or game application

We work with a max of 8 players per group, with competitive discovery of problems, skills as solutions, and immediate game application of skill in competitive situations

Why should I choose this format?

1on1 training is like tutoring - it has a great amount of leverage in getting 150+ repetitions with the full focus of coach and player to make a change with a deep level of understanding and certainty

The group competition is optional, but produces better outcomes by connecting the dots between 1:1 skills and the full team game by using our Play-Practice-Play format.

The “magic recipe” is when we get both the skill breakdown and competition consistently every week - then results start to compound quickly!

What if I can't make it to the group training session?

No worries, the core program is built around the 1:1 sessions, so the SOCK group is treated like “office hours” - an optional opportunity to get more reps against peers and refine the skill-to-decision-making connection to better translate to games.

We’ll add you to all sessions of the SOCK group in the month you begin training and the month you end your 4 weeks of training, usually bridging 6+ weeks - so come to as many as you can!

What our clients say

"(Sayuki) went from someone who was at the end of the bench, just getting a little bit of playing time, focusing on rebounding and defense to arguably one of the most consistent outside shooters on her 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, when her team was having trouble breaking the press, her coach would put in as point guard. She became one of the primary ball handlers.
And that confidence went beyond the basketball court - She became a team captain last year - Which was amazing to see - and she's 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 a literal fact." - Brian Elkevizth

Uniqueness

We help your player become an off-ball Ninja

Other programs use only scripted offense, making players helpless when play breaks down

We help your player become an off-ball Ninja - Exploiting defensive psychology to creating scoring opportunities BEFORE touching the ball!