 The World's Coolest Basketball Products! |
Basketball
Diaries
Talk about your team. Got game? Got video? Got any good basketball stories to tell? Post em up on the forums at MyJumpSpace! |
|
NEW products at JumpUSA Looking for something in particular? Enter your keyword here: |
JUMPUSA.com and 1991 NBA Slam Dunk Champion Dee Brown Launch a
Camp That Will Help You Dunk
SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 30 /PRNewswire/ -- JUMPUSA.com and Dee
Brown, 1991 NBA Slam Dunk Champion, 12-yr. NBA veteran, NBA Analyst on ESPN and
CEO & President of the EDGE Basketball, LLC, have partnered to present
Summer Slam Camp, a 2-day vertical jump training camp being held on August
11-12, 2007 at The EDGE Training Facility in Orlando, FL.
Source: JUMPUSA.com"Holding the Summer Slam Camp with JUMPUSA is a perfect fit for us," says Brown. "JUMPUSA's Jumpsoles, a frontal training platform that attaches to your own shoes, are an integral part of any vertical jump training program. By training with Jumpsoles, players build up important fast twitch muscle fibers in the lower leg. And, with JUMPUSA's Proprioceptor plug for the Jumpsoles, players build up crucial jumping muscles in their ankles and feet." Mr. Brown and Honey Brown of Performance Training will teach techniques to help boost a player's vertical jump for jump shots, defensive play and, of course, slam dunking. The camp is designed not only for the teenage high school player, but also for the weekend warrior in the 30-55-age bracket, one of the fastest growing segments in recreational basketball. To cap off the weekend, there will be an exhibition by some of the top street ball dunkers in the nation as seen on ESPN's City Slam: Marvin "High Rizer" Collins, 2006 City Slam Champ; RaShaan "Snapp" Barner; Kevin "Bizness" Butler; and Mike "Sky High" Banks. About JUMPUSA.com Home of the World's Coolest Sports Products since 1991, JUMPUSA is an online sporting goods retailer and cataloger based in Sunnyvale, CA. JUMPUSA sells a full line of sporting goods and team uniforms as well as manufacturing its own line of sports training equipment. JUMPUSA is widely known for the popular Jumpsoles plyometric shoe platforms and Plyoball brand medicine balls. Visit http://www.jumpusa.com/ About The EDGE Training Center Run by ALL PRO Instructors and Certified Teachers, EDGE is known as the premier basketball training facility in the state of Florida. Erected for the purpose of "building fundamental basketball players" for tomorrow, EDGE (Elite Development Growth Environment) offers skill development, shooting instruction, mental preparation, endurance training, SAQ (speed, agility & quickness) and state of the art video analysis for athletes from 7 years old to pro players. Visit http://www.EdgeBasketball.com Contact: Amy Friedman, Marketing Director, JUMPUSA.com, 650-906-3598, amy@jumpusa.com Meet Dee Brown- All star NBA alum, Broadcaster, Venture Capitalist
One of the highlights of his career occurred in 1991, when he won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest with a "no-look" slam dunk. Brown later served as a coach in the WNBA, and in 2005 he won a one-year contract as a studio analyst for ESPN as the winner of the reality show Dream Job. Dee has hosted the ESPN show "City Slam", a show that conducts slam dunk contests in various cities. My first impression upon visiting Dee was at the orderliness of his office. An expansive horseshoe shaped workspace with neatly laid out stacks of paper. Blackberry sitting on a multi-handset charging station. Laptop sitting on a dock. Flatscreen for another desktop unit. Everything in its place, the picture of organization and efficiency. It said to me here is not only a gifted athlete who succeeded at his sport and a canny entrepreneur who's succeeding in life after his sport. Dee comes across as one smart dude. He majored in Comp Sci and Math at Jacksonville University. Those are two hardcore degrees. Not some run of the mill jock communications major. At the time the only other guy in the NBA to major in math was David robinson. Dee claims to have been the first guy in the NBA to carry around a laptop, one of those big clunky Macs. Dee is partner of a a venture capital company called Grace Ventures. He speaks knowledgeably about cell phone technology. His firm recently funded and sold a telecommunications startup for $200 million. Dee is part owner of a restaurant in Orlando. He is partners with Deion Sanders on a line of sports energy drinks. Guided by good common sense, Dee credits his dad among his influences. Dee regularly mentors current NBA players on how to manage their posse of agents, accountants, and marketing staff. "You gotta keep everybody independent and not all under the same roof. Build in accountability across departments with a system of checks and balances." The movie Jerry Maguire was much like Dee's real life experience. Dee had hooked up with a big agency but his day to day relationship was with his managing account rep. When the agent struck out on his own, Dee followed him as his first client. Together they got an education in all the various investment vehicles such as stocks, bonds, T-bills. It's where Dee learned alot about business management. Dee feels fortunate to have been drafted into a veteran team like the celtics with role models like Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parrish. It was an older team with over half the team married with families. That environment impressed upon him early the values of living a stable lifestyle with responsibilites. Dee has been married since 1993 having had three daughters then a son. At this stage in his life, Dee doesn't need any more money, just a few good challenges. Hence his businesses, the venture capital gig, his burgeoning broadcasting career. Above all, Dee exudes passion about teaching the game of basketball. That's why he created the EDGE Basketball Training Facility. Trying out for the team? The #1 thing coaches look for The EDGE Basketball Training Facility is about 6000 sq ft of basketball court area bristling with all the latest basketball training equipment, state of the art video cameras, monitors, and computer stations designed to dissect your every basketball move with the aim of putting you back together more fundamentally sound. The Edge runs various skill camps, combines, and exposure camps. Exposure camps are where you have a controlled environment where 50 top prospects are invited. In a controlled environment of drills college coaches and scouts get to observe player's skills. For a coach or scout, it's better than going out to watch a high school game because if a player is genuinely good, it's hard to get a good look. Can he really play? I don't really know. You have five guys on the other team bearing down on him obscuring his true skills. An exciting feature that the Edge Basketball Center provides is video scouting. A coach can send a recruit to the Edge, have him put through a workout, get a DVD of the session, or log on and see it online. Less time wasted in visiting dud recruits. The coach's time is spent more productively getting more quality looks at a bigger pool of recruits. From his experience coaching in the WNBA, Dee says you'll get a lot of good out of watching the womens game. "Women overall don't have the raw athleticism that's common in the mens game. Take athleticism out of the equation and you get a better exhibition of the fundamentals. Footwork. Passing. High percentage play execution. No individuals out of position running amok and still dunking over people." A consenus among high school coaches is the wish for players with better fundamental skills. Today's coaches' biggest problem is that they don't have time to skill develop. The season begins. Right off the bat they've got a crowded gym full of players trying out and they have to waste time weeding out the players who can't play. Then it's, what players can play in my system? The Coach has got a playing system s/he needs to get started teaching. Under these pressures, coaches don't have the time nor the inclination to develop the basic fundamentals like footwork,proper form, nutrition, endurance. Nike and Adidas pulling out of the camp business makes it even more pressing the need for skill development programs like Edge Basketball Training Facility. How the sport of basketball is messed up at the core Dee Brown thinks the current state of US basketball is messed up at the core. "Let me tell you the story of a kid I worked with recently. Legitimate D1 prospect. I asked him where he wants to play in college. He says "I want to go to a NIKE school". i.e. a school sponsored by NIKE wearing their shoes. Now how does a kid start thinking like this? Is it the fault of the NIKE marketing machine? Not in as much as it is the fault of the system where the kid grew up. The whole AAU system has warped kids minds in that wearing a certain brand makes you a better player. Imagine: You're a top prospect with a shot at 10 D1 scholarships. You rule out 4 top quality schools just because they don't wear NIKE? It's gotten that ludicrous how kids think today. NIKE didn't do it, the AAU coaches did it. "We're a NIKE sponsored team with NIKE rated players. Play, play, play, the more you play the better you are mentality. The kid's parents buy into that, thinking the more tournaments played the more exposure that comes. Then the kid matriculates to the next AAU level. New coach(see footnote 1) who cares first about short term wins and less about long term player development. Doing well at AAU doesn't translate to being a better player. There's a huge need for player development. Middle school thru high school. That's what I provide at the EDGE basketball training facility all year round. World class instruction you're not getting from just playing. ---------------------------------------- footnote 1: Ask yourself-- who are your basketball coaches at 6-7-8th grade entry level AAU? They're your social studies, home ec teachers. Your high school coach? S/He's your history or PE teacher supplementing his teaching income. Who has taught you how to play? Message to the dedicated young basketballer and his/her parent: You'd better avail yourself to the best basketball instruction possible. |
