In just about every sport , it takes great feet to compete at a high level.

Proper footwork in basketball is as vital to successful play as effective skating is to quality hockey play. After all, foot control (explosive stops and starts) is a key element of body control and controlling opponents. If you cannot skate, you will never be an effective hockey player regardless of your other skills; likewise in basketball. Therefore you must understand how your feet operate. The feet are made of two parts. The balls of the feet are the Go or Push pads and are used to power your system.  The heels are the brakes and are used primarily for stopping and stabilization. Having your energy backward on your heels or operating on the brakes means you are stuck (flat) to the floor and slower to react.  (Note: Engaging the toes to the floor in a gripping fashion shifts your energy forward and keeps you on your pads.  This promotes instant forward movement or explosion…

“Every Step You Take” addresses the power of every step on earth for everyday walking. For  sports, how you operate your feet  determines your balance, stability and ability  to locomote effectively and deceptively. If you think you  are “non-athletic” or have  slow feet in your sport, check first to see if you operating on your feet properly.  Determine if your energy is typically moving towards  your “push pads” (balls of your feet) on steps or back towards the brakes (heels) .  It’s okay to have your heels touch the floor as long as your energy (from the heel) is moving away from the ground during the stride forward .

“No homo, but Ray Allen’s sh*t looks like he’s got baseballs in his legs. Ray must walk on the balls of his feet because I can’t see any amount of training that would make his calf muscles that big and leave the rest of his leg skinny.”

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I notice players with poor foot mechanics and ones with great feet for that matter. But poor foot mechanics is a major contributor in lack of athletic prowess and simply an unnecessary handicap.  Futhermore, individuals with bad foot mechanics and/or poor structure (geometric harmony) are also prone to injury.

Notice. The vast majority of players that can jump, or those with speed or quickness generally walk the same way. It’s true for the mediocre and athletically challenged as well.  The typical step of that group is  heel first walking (touching). Notice the heel first walker usually has less calf  and hamstring definition, plus less pronounced glutes.  Hmmm… who would you rather be?

When you catch people at the gym walking up on their  toes, are you really surprised when they can jump or are explosive?  I know embouchure is a term used to describe the proper approach or positioning  of the lips on the mouthpiece of an instrument, but I like to think of the feet and their grip to  the court (or earth) in that way.  I talk extensively about this in the “Virtual Game…”, “We Can Build You”-Chapter 4. Once you understand proper foot mechanics  and subsequently foot control, you’ll be able to control opponents with  greater ease; especially in basketball (with the law of leadership) or right to be first (in movement).

You have the power in every step you take to make a difference in the symmetry of your body and your physical capacity.   A whole generation wanted to be like Mike. It should include walking like him. Be cognizant of how  you walk. Soon you’ll be better equipped to walk the walk and perhaps… talk the talk.

Slow down man,  please…you’re going absolutely too fast. Don’t you see  these people out here? Where are you trying to go…huh? C’mon now … you really need to slow your roll before you run over somebody.  I know you know how to “drive.”  I’m just saying,  it’s  much easier  to negotiate “traffic” moving more   s  l  o  w  l  y.

Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger.  It’s not  just  you, everybody seems to be in a hurry? I don’t quite get it. Yeh, yeh speed kills… in football maybe. In basketball going fast usually just kills your  ability to be in control.  Speed may be necessary sometimes, but mostly makes negotiating the terrain more difficult. Besides, going fast may not even get you there more quickly.

Let’s just say that speed is about how fast you can go. Quickness on the other hand is how efficiently you can get there. You don’t have to go fast to be quick. In fact , speed and quickness many times is based on the ability to stop fast, which makes you fastest in your shortest steps– relative to any opposition.

Basketball is one of the few sports in which the offense has the advantage. Unfortunately, many players and teams give theirs away with poor technique and a flawed offensive approach. One of the keys to offensive manipulation is the right to move first. This gives the offensive player the ability to deceive or control opponents with intentions or false intentions to go places or do things. If all of our movements are in frames – as in motion pictures – and we can learn to control our movement in each frame, then we should then be able to mislead and manipulate opponents with our intentions in early frames of movement. It is extremely difficult to predict anyone’s start, stoppage or change of movement. Furthermore, the defender must match the rate of the proposed movement in those early frames or risk being moved past. Therefore, we can control our opponents by proposing an action and being continuously contrary to their responses. Given the typical controlled rate of a Virtual Player’s movement, it becomes easy to make necessary changes to exploit or maintain advantage.

-The Virtual Game of Basketball-

It’s no coincidence that the best players not only play slow, but seem to slow the game down as well.

TBL: You don’t need speed to succeed. Act  like you know and go slow…er!