Level Up Your Guard Game With Coach Geno Ford

 Coach Geno Ford is a successful former high school basketball guard in Ohio.  He has been named Ohio Mr. Basketball and would later go on to Ohio University have have a successful college career playing guard for that team as well.

He would begin his coaching career at his alma mater Ohio University in 1998.  He would eventually find him promoted to full-time assistant.  After these early days, he would find himself with positions at Shawnee State University and Muskingum University before landing at Kent State University where he would win MAC Championships and Coach of the Year honors in both 2010 and 2011.

Coach Ford is currently the head basketball coach of the Stonybrook Seawolves where he spent time as an assistant before being promoted to head coach.

Geno Ford's Guard Game Drilling Exercises

 In the excerpt below from Coach Geno Ford's Developing Guard Play-Beginners to Advanced, the drill focuses on developing a players dribbling skill by focusing on hand eye coordination and muscle memory.  Check it out below to see just once piece of Coach Ford's complete program for developing strong guards on the basketball court that will be ready to dominate for you and your team.

 Geno Ford's Dribbling For Beginning Guard Players

Using a two-ball dribbling exercise the players will be asked to dribble two balls for 20 reps at their knees.  The balls will be dribbled exactly the same going down and going up in unison.  They will then transition to rhythm dribbling as low as they can go below their knees.  The players will then finish with a series of reps of higher dribbling up to their shoulders.  

To continue the skill building and warm up of the players, Coach Ford will have the players run through the same series of mid-level, low and shoulder-height dribbling, but this time dribbling each ball alternately.  While one ball is going down, the other ball is coming up.  The players will dribble the balls alternately at mid-level above the knee and the go low for a series of reps as close as they can get the balls to the floor and finally, they will finish with the shoulder-height alternative dribbles.

These two simple series can be used by players at all levels for skill refinement and warm up purposes.  It is especially important for guards who are early in their basketball careers to spend a lot of time with simple exercises like this to build the necessary hand eye coordination and muscle endurance and memory.

 

Geno Ford's Dribbling for More Advanced Guard Players

 Now that a baseline of skills has started to develop and be used by the beginning players, let's take a look at some more advanced drills for high school, college or professional players.

Windshield Wiper Dribbling Drills for Advanced Guards

In the first example, the player is going to keep their arms relaxed and essentially swing them back and forth as they dribble in front of their bodies.  This creates a "windshield wiper" appearance to their arms.  The coaches would recommend that players perform this drill for 50 repetitions before moving to the next drill.

In the next variation of the windshield wiper dribbling exercise, the coaches will have the players swinging their arms forward and backward as they drill keeping the two balls dribbling in unison, this time on either side of their body and not in front.  This drill will also be performed for at least 50 repetitions.

The key with these drills is understanding the inherent importance of ball handling skills for the guard position.  These players must be able to dribble the ball where they need to in order to set up offensive opportunities without turning the ball over.  Therefore, thousands of repetitions of these drills are necessary to hone those skills.

Offset Dribbling Drill

The last drill demonstrated in this excerpt from DEVELOPING GUARD PLAY is an offset drill where one ball is kept extremely low while it is dribbled, while the other is allowed to come shoulder height.  This off-balancing creates the need for the player's entire body to get involved in the dribbling.  Once this one has been performed for 50 repetitions with one hand low and the other shoulder height, the player will then repeat the drill with the opposite hand low and the other high.

 This is just once excerpt from Coach Geno Ford's complete approach to developing basketball guards from beginning to advanced.  The rest of the menu can be seen below.

 Now you too can have the complete system to help develop your own skills or those of your players.  You can get your copy here at CoachSpot.com or at the BUY NOW button below!  Check out DEVELOPING GUARD PLAY today!

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