Play Practice

Play Practice Basketball

Portsmouth, NH's Premier Basketball Confidence Training Program

Footwork Focus

We help your player build certainty from the ground up so they can be a decisive attacker, instead of a nervous avoider!

"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 like an ice climber wearing bowling shoes - they're cautious, taking it slow, and a bit anxious about making a mistake!

Your player is athletic, skilled, and great in practice, but struggles in games - often hesitating to shoot or attack the basket. These are all avoidance behaviors caused by fear of making mistakes.
Your player often gets called for traveling violations, may have multiple turnovers per game, or just look like they are playing out of control.
Most of the coaching they receive is focused on winning games, so mistakes are either explicitly punished in practice, or they are subbed out of the game!

They can feel their chances to improve slipping away like a climber on an icy slope...

Let's face it - your team coaches are pressed for time, have a team to coordinate, and games to win.
They triage their time by asking for outcomes, not details.
Even if they know the details that should be involved, and what a skill looks like when done correctly, they simply don't have time to help your player learn how to do a skill, if they are not already skilled!

The end result is your player either:

  • Figures it out on their own - while being yelled at for mistakes (about 20% of players in our experience)
  • Or they fall behind, get discouraged, and settle for a role, or even worse - quit!

 Solution

Now imagine if you're player was wearing spiked ice-climbing shoes on that icy slope... not sliding backwards, but gaining traction, certainty, and confidence from every step!

That's where we come in.
The Footwork Focus is designed to lay a foundation "from the sneakers up," giving your player "ice-climbing certainty" - first in their feet, and then in their decision-making, levering up their effectiveness in all other skills.

​"Certainty of footwork and decision-making is the greatest lever we have to improve basketball performance." - Coach BJ

 How it works!

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

  • We Prime their brain with a preview video
  • We use an "Espresso vs gallon of coffee" workout and injection of basketball ideas in as little as 30 minutes
  • We Record their workout to document progress and guide their practice at home
  • We Quiz them to recall what we did, why we did it that way, and what it's called

Example weekly commitment:
Sun/Mon - watch a 15 min video
Tues - attend 30 min 1on1 training (or 60 min group)
Wed - review recording of workout on Homecourt
Thurs - practice at home, referencing video as needed
Fri - take quiz
​​Sat - practice at home, referencing video as needed

 Who is this for?

Who is this for?
Green SOCKS™ to Blue SOCKS™ transition program for players:
- In 5-9th grade
- That have played 2+ years of basketball and
​- Are ready to "broaden their pyramid" of skills from the ground up

 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... What you get is up to you, how we deliver it and how long it takes is up to us!
- 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 of 5th-9th grade, 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 the Group vs 1on1 format?
- 1on1 training is like tutoring for players that are beginners, feel behind their peers, or are new to a skill or concept - it has a great amount of leverage in getting 150+ repetitions with the full focus of coach and player
- The Group format makes everything we do translate better to games with our Play-Practice-Play format - we play to discover why we need a skill, breakdown the skill as a solution to a problem, then play again to test it vs live defense. Coach BJ's expertise in instructions and feedback allow him to touch a group of up to 8 players with specific individual feedback on every repetition, while they get the benefit of competitive application of each skill
What if I can't make it to the group training session?
​- We offer this program in 1on1 and group format, so if you know you'll have to miss a session in advance, we will make it up in a 1on1 session instead! (Make up session needs must be stated at start of the program)

 Our Game Performance Guarantee

If your player does not visibly and measurably improve in game performance after 4 weeks, we will give you a full refund.

 Uniqueness

We help your basketball player gain ice-climbing certainty from the sneakers up!
Other programs give your player vague instructions and punish mistakes leaving them on a slippery slope of indecision - avoiding and hesitating instead of attacking!
​We help your basketball player build ice-climbing certainty from the sneakers up so they can be a decisive attacker!