"Athletes are born, basketball players are made"
"Somewhere there is a kid in a gym practicing, where is your child?"
Has your child ever been trained by an NBA player? The answer is most likely no, but now here is your chance! Welcome and Thank you for enrolling your child in the Venom Sports personal basketball training/skills program, ran by Acie Earl. Your child will be involved in the most complete hands-on, instructional, and fundamental basketball program ever offered in the Iowa City area. Your child will learn every session from one of the best players and basketball minds in the area, and ever to play at The University of Iowa.
In the past you may have, and most likely will continue to register your child in numerous sports programs, leagues, camps, and clinics. These activities are great and essential for a child to learn and to play in a team concept, learn winning/losing, gain sports coaching concepts and experience. Many times your child is taught by high school and college age volunteers who are just there earning a weekly check or gaining volunteer hours for their major. They are not stressing the skills needed to have your child excel. As a parent of four daughters, I can remember many times when my wife and I would literally cringe in the stands at the coaching and guidance that these so called coaches were giving my child and the others. The direct result is the child is pushed through the system with little or no fundamental training and arrives in Jr. high, high school, and AAU type-national tournaments underdeveloped. Unless your child can run and jump like Michael Jordan or Tracy Mcrady, your child's early fundamentals are a key. I'm sure as parents you all remember players like Larry Bird, Bill Walton, Patrick Ewing and Rick Barry; players who were'nt given supreme physical attributes. These players worked hard to master the fundamentals to make themselves better and eventually became some of the best players ever to play the game. So when your child arrives at this high level such as high school, AAU, Future Stars, AYBT, etc. traveling teams, the coach has two options. 1 is to work with the child extra and spend his time teaching or re-teaching; or 2, cut the child and/or limit their playing time. Usually the coach has no training to re-teach the child what they need in order to play for the upcoming year. Often these coaches are more suited to run the programs and team concepts out of a book or emulated from other successful programs. As I look back to my childhood, documentaries and books, the great players were taught the fundamentals by a specific coach or parent who put in the time and had the knowledge of the game.
Acie feels that personal instruction will build, improve, reinforce the experience and ease the transition period between your child's sports programs from season to season. Many times your child's skills are rusty or lost from time to time when not actively practiced. Late Summer, early Fall, late Spring and early Summer are the most dangerous times for a basketball player if they don't work out and/or practice regularly. Plus, with today's sports prices, it's almost vital to protect your money, time and energy you put in to see your child succeed. Acie can assure you that with his teaching style he will never curse, yell or degrade your child's skills. Acie only requires that parents please advise Acie of any behavioral, attitude, mental, physical, or medical conditions before the program begins.
Acie is not a babysitter and any kids that don't show the desire to listen, learn, show up on time, follow instructions, and work with other kids will asked to leave permanently. Acie will provide a positive learning setting to boost confidence. By no means, Acie is not telling you as a parent to quit enrolling your child in their own specific past programs. The key is to add on, and supplement their sports programs with Acie's training to enforce and reinforce skill developement as your child grows and gets older. Acie has the answer to this ever so growing problem. Let a qualified individual who has expertise at all levels to work with your child individually each session to set goals, critique tendencies, set programs, and give positive reinforcement to your child to constantly improve. Acie feels that personal instruction will build, improve, reinforce the experience and ease the transition period between your child's sports program from season to season. Acie's program is also designed for kids that might want to continue to play competitive ball or have gotten cut from their team in the past, such as B and C team players. Acie can bring your child's skills up to par with the other kids and improve their confidence and self esteem.
Acie also has drills and programs to make your child faster, quicker, and more athletic to keep up with the other children their age. This is a seperate plyometrics, calisthenics, and muscle reflex program used in some division 1 colleges, all NBA and NFL teams as well as overseas Soccer and Basketball teams. Even if your child doesn't take basketball serious at their age, Acie's program can be a perfect evaluation period to see if your child has the skills, desire and interest to play. Plus, it's a perfect program to keep your child active in down times between his/her other sports.
For maximum results, Acie believes the program should be implemented 1-2 times per week in 1-hour workout time blocks to achieve maximum results. It is not uncommon even to do sessions 3-4 times per week, providing the session is not too strenuous or long. Acie will usually use open courts at the University of Iowa Fieldhouse, Mercer Scanlon Gym or any other local gym or rec center that works best for your family schedule. Each workout can be set up with the ease of a phone call or as a set schedule on certain days of the week to fit between you and your child's school and outside activity schedule. Acie also asks that each parent is to have their child on time, chronic tardiness will cause your child to run sprints for no valid excuse for being late. Also parents try not to change or cancel your child's appointment once it is set up, as you might cause Acie to set up and change other kids around your child. Acie trains kids 7 days a week, your child's ideal time is Acie's time. The cost for this training varies with each child's skill level and grade, but usually runs $7.00-$25.00 per hour. There is no age limit to start, ideal age is is 3rd grade and up, but 30 minute easy fundamental skills sessions can be taught at age 3 through 9, depending what the parents want to achieve. The cost is the same for a boy or girl, also see Acie personally for multi-sibling family discounts and pre-payment session discounts, such as 10 sessions prepayed for a reduced price. Checks can be made to Venom Sports or Acie Earl and major credit cards will also be accepted for payment. Parents are required to sign a standard sports release waiver at the end to the registration form.
If you have any questions, concerns or would like to sign up your child, please feel free to call Acie at 319-430-2537.