Basketball, at its finest, is about a group of players and coaches dedicated to the consistent sacrifices required to learn and improve on a daily basis. It is about a team’s willingness to put in not only the necessary work but the unrequired time as well, in order to attack a shared goal of competing every single day. Competing to be as prepared as we possibly can be. Competing to improve on the court. Competing to become a bit more connected as a group. And hopefully at some point, competing against a team that has been doing the exact same thing on their end – to test our progress, gauge our growth, and see where we need to lock in the next day. Competing to win – every rep, every practice, every game.
Again, I’m not solely talking about competing on the scoreboard though; rather, I want to gauge our ability to be tied together executing offensive and defensive systems; test our ability to fight for that gap, that rotation, that scramble box out. To see if we’re focused enough to communicate early, loudly, and often on offense & defense, over and over and over again. Will we pitch it ahead in our transition offense to a big running the floor, knowing he’s gonna get us back by setting a great screen later? Can we get in a gap to create for a teammate, will we make the extra pass, are we ready to let it rip when we get to our spots, knowing that the team has our back?
“Basketball is a sport that involves the subtle interweaving of players at full speed to the point where they are thinking and moving as one. To do that successfully, they need to trust each other on a deep level and know instinctively how their teammates will respond in pressure situations. A great player can only do so much on his own – no matter how breathtaking his one-on-one moves. If he is out of sync psychologically with everyone else, the team will never achieve the harmony needed to win a championship.” -Phil Jackson, Sacred Hoops
This game, in that way, is the quintessential assessment of civics in sports – can we, as a collective, consistently find the correct balance between our own self-interest and the self-sacrifices needed for our team to be successful?
Finding that balance as an individual, as a team, as a program and an organization is no small feat. It requires a tremendous amount of personal accountability, compassion, empathy, and selflessness to achieve control over both our skill and savvy. And despite the “buzz-wordiness” of this phrase, it requires the courage to be vulnerable; to embrace the risk that comes from putting your trust in others, and the responsibility of others placing their faith in you, knowing that the reward is often delayed and damn difficult to obtain. And unfortunately, there’s no finish line here – it is a constant, daily battle we must endure.
I didn’t always realize, or at least fully understand, this when I was playing – I’m sure some of my teammates will furrow their brows a bit if they happen to read this – and as we are all wont to do, I’ve overcorrected a bit in my quest to ensure that our players know it’s about them, at least as it relates to my willingness to share coaching content with the broader public. This website is our attempt to reverse course on that front. This will serve as a place to learn about all of our services and upcoming events, but more than that I hope it will be a place where you can come to learn – about the game, about preparation and work ethic, about mentality, and about so much more.
The quest to teach what I believe impacts winning, on and off the floor, reverberates through everything I plan, practice, and evaluate in my work. I look forward to sharing with you long into the future and appreciate you joining us on this journey.
Training and Instruction
Pure Sweat Basketball with Jordan Delp is dedicated to providing players with a game-like training environment that maximizes the effectiveness of their time in the gym and is customized to most efficiently improve each player’s overall skill level. With a focus on handling pressure as a ball handler, cutter, and passer, finishing through contact and around length, shooting it in at all four levels, defending on and off the ball, and making the right decision consistently, we are focused on building “gamers,” rather than “drillers” – we want to help players be able to IMPACT WINNING as much as they possibly can, and believe that the game is the best teacher we have to make that happen. Reverse engineering our practice plans from the game situation(s) we wish to teach, we naturally progress from one point to the next in order to ensure we don’t skip steps to help players quickly translate our work from the practice court to in-game competition.
Personal Training
Group Sessions
Coaching
