50 All-Stars is a Colorado nonprofit youth basketball organization centralized in Broomfield. We operate year-round and specialize in player development and training utilizing the following categories: Workouts • Team Practices • Private Sessions • Open Gyms • Games • Conditioning • Combines • Clinics • Camps • 3-5 Year Olds • Tryouts

Newsletter #11

staff@50allstars.com 925.979.5027 [ return to website ]
April 1st, 2019The Official Newsletter of 50 All-Stars BasketballIssue #11

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ADDING SOME SPRING TO OUR STEP
Hey guys! Another Spring is upon us, and we're excited to be at yet another stage in the evolution of our program. As the players do, we will also continue to improve. Our latest step is to ensure that each grade level is full in regard to maximum roster spots. This alleviates so many pressures, financially for us and flexibility for you. Kids being able to play other sports throughout the year is one of our goals, but we can only really do that if we have enough to perpetually avoid game forfeiture. Thanks for your help in spreading the word about our program!
PLAYERS CLUB

PLAYERS CLUB

The Players' Club is our attempt to offer as much as humanly possible to the players and families who truly want it all. We'll also be using the funds raised through this endeavor to ensure our program always has the resources it needs to best serve every player and the community around it. For $200 per month, our $50 boot camps and private sessions become free of charge. Also included are monthly ability & agility combines (normally once every 4 months), a monthly film session where we show video breakdowns of our games, college games, NBA games, or even an inspirational movie or two.

There are only 20 spots available, so it's first-come first-serve. Families with multiple siblings may pay for one "spot" that any one sibling may use at any given time. You may also pay for multiple spots, if you'd like for more than one to be able to attend simultaneously. All members of this club may have their business (or your favorite charity) mentioned and/or displayed at our quarterly parties, along with its logo prominently displayed on our donation page. We'd consider you a sponsor for our non-profit, so this can be a business expense. These monthly payments are all considered donations to our non-profit, so feel free to use our 501(C)(3) NONPROFIT TAX ID# 46-3770431 for your tax-deduction needs.

Believe it or not, all of what we do is still not enough for some truly special players. So this is our fix for that. Be sure to grab your spot while you still can by visiting this page for more info!

MONDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS

MONDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS

In our efforts to provide absolutely everything for our players, one thing has kinda missed the mark. We know kids need to shoot, we know they need to play, we know they need to learn team dynamics, we know they need to get stronger, and we know they need to get faster. But I believe the thing they need most is to develop as much skill as humanly possible. So through all we offer 7 days a week, no days are more important than what we do Mondays and Wednesdays.

When I first started the program, all 7 days of the week were skill workouts. It was amazing, as players improved at a faster pace than at any other point in our program's history. Only thing, however, was that only a few players could survive the mental load, and those players were so few that it wasn't financially viable.

So I introduced Saturday open gyms, where the kids could just play one day a week. Open gyms added the much needed experimentation and increased the fun we were having. But soon after, that wasn't enough because the kids weren't doing their part in getting enough shots up on their own. Players need to get up tons of shots and shooting workouts are super easy things any kid can do on their own, but they just weren't. So we added a shooting day on Sunday. And still my business never grew until I promised our travel team kids two days out of the week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) where they could work on plays and team stuff. I later threw in Fridays to cover random things we were missing throughout the year that took the monotonous edge off.

So we are now left with just Mondays and Wednesdays to learn how to IMPROVE ONE'S SKILL. The other stuff is great in so many ways, but these two days are the most important. But lately, our best players refuse to show because the amount of days they come per week are adding up. They love Saturday open gyms, they know they need to get their shots up on Sunday, and they feel obligated to not miss the two team practices. And of the other 3 days of workouts, they tend to choose Friday because it's easiest on the commute.

No one said this would be easy, but make sure you make things as easy as possible by showing up to our two best days before you show up to any of the rest. It's a 13 week cycle of crucial drills that will transform any player into something truly amazing... but only if you show up.

ELITE TEAM CHECKLIST

ELITE TEAM CHECKLIST

ELITE TEAM MEMBERS: Please take care of the following: Email your birth certificates to staff@50allstars.com, email your report cards to that same address, and high school players need to create your BBCS profiles to be eligible to play.

Players in the past who have not taken care of the aforementioned have had to sit out of games. These episodes have been especially stressful, as the families feel as though they've wasted money traveling to these tournaments with hotels and more. Each instance has said that we should do a better job informing you guys, which is why we've repeated this more and more every year of our existence. Some have even ironically stated that we repeat these things too often now, but still every year we have at least one player who fails to take care of these steps.

So please take care of these items. Thank you so much.

IAN SALMON'S MILESTONE

IAN SALMON'S MILESTONE

Ian Salmon has done it! He's now our official all-time leader in attendance! But he's not done yet. Soon he'll reach his 1,000th event, the halfway mark of our 2,000 event ultimate goal.

Due to our efficiency, we've estimated the famous 10,000 hour mark as being 2,000 hours spent under our tutelage. With Ian progressing skill-wise and showing no signs of slowing down, it's truly exciting to see if our calculations were correct.

We have so much faith in this young man, and are so proud to see all he's achieving. Our program is extremely difficult, and he's handled it all in stride. Obviously with much help from his parents, I feel this has truly been a community effort. Oftentimes playing 2-3 years up, and all the time playing his heart out... IAN SALMON is the epitome of what 50 All-Stars is all about.

See ya in 1,000 events!

4th GRADE FOCUS: MAX KORNEV

4th GRADE FOCUS: MAX KORNEV

Max is currently a 3rd grader, but is a 4th grader because we promote grade levels in January of each year. He's a very interesting kid to say the least! Without further ado, here's this quarter's FOUR QUESTIONS FOR OUR FOURTH GRADE FOCUS:

Q. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ASPECT OF BASKETBALL? A. Playing games.

Q. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT OUR 6AM BOOT CAMPS? A. They're crazy, and I couldn't see myself doing them now. But maybe when I'm older.

Q. HOW DO YOU WORKOUT WHEN YOU'RE ALONE? A. In many ways. I like that a lot because I get to choose what I do.

Q. ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT THIS UPCOMING YEAR? A. Yes, because we'll be learning more stuff.

SECOND GRADERS GALORE!!!

SECOND GRADERS GALORE!!!

We're so *happy* to have so many new Happy Valley kids in our program. Joining just this winter, we've had a wave of players from that one school, the highest concentration of which just so happen to be in the 2nd grade. Having a solid base of friends all from the same neighborhood and kids within the same grade are all crucial elements in maintaining the most effective program possible. So we're extremely fortunate that this group has entered into our world to simultaneously hit on all three.

It'll also be this group that will spearhead our elementary elite team next year, so we're doing all we can to prepare them for that as well. This will be our first true attempt to redefine the local culture that has only included elite water sport athletes thus far. Because they're so young, the sky is truly the limit. These kids are fortunate enough to not have to overcome any pre-existing incorrect thought processes about how hard kids are meant to try in basketball, and we're looking to seize upon this opportunity as best we can.

Here's to the future, and here's to Happy Valley!

FIVE PERFECT WEEKS PREP

FIVE PERFECT WEEKS PREP

Starting mid-March, a few players and I will attempt to complete the near-impossible Five Perfect Weeks challenge. This will be great for the kids, as it'll include a workload that maybe only a pro athlete would ever attempt to do. I'm already so proud of the kids who've said they'll give it a go, and I'm positive a few of them will actually complete it.

Who I'm not so sure of is myself. I know I used to be a high level athlete, but age is a beast no one has ever defeated. To combat that to the best of my ability, I've been training since January a few days a week. I've already had to skip weeks due to the pain, but I'm dead set on being strong enough by mid-May.

I figure this might be the last time in my life where I'll be able to truly go 100%, and I'd love for the kids to experience who I once was so that they're able to properly create who they'll one day become... if not one day OUTDO.

So I'm basically just writing this to say PRAY FOR ME! And maybe have the ambulance on hand this summer :-)

OUR QUEST FOR A NEW GYM

OUR QUEST FOR A NEW GYM

Yes, we still want our own gym! I've tried several angles to get this done, but I've been advised to redirect and simplify my approach each time. Just like our players, I'm improving in this regard each and every day.

My goal has been to properly share my vision in the most simplistic way possible, but the challenge in that is my ideas are enormous. My latest angle is to just create everything except for the gym myself, as if the gym already existed. I'm designing a website that will include everything we plan to do with the gym for the community around us. I'm working hard to make every aspect seamlessly flow in a logical and realistic manner. Once that's complete, I'll share it with all of you so that you can share it with any of your friends who might like to jump in to help to build this lifelong dream of mine.

I'll keep you in the loop!

KINDERGARTEN FEARS

KINDERGARTEN FEARS

I'm very proud of my grand design, and believe it can help any player achieve greatness on and off the court. The exact plan, however, is meant to start in kindergarten. This is an issue, since the parents of the kids that age are extremely fearful of the process.

Of the young kids who've given our membership a go at that age, every one of them has loved it. Still spreading the word is tough.

So far, our main event has been our free summer camp for 3-6 year olds. Recently, we've also implemented Saturday Future Stars events for that age. To put this thing into hyperdrive, however, I have a new plan:

Starting TODAY, any player signing up for a membership prior to their 6th birthday may join the program for just $900. What's more is that you'd be able to keep that yearly rate forever, until you cancel. With our normal membership rate ranging from $1,800/year to $2,400/year, you would save over $30,000 over the course of your child's basketball years.

This shouldn't scare you into thinking you'd have to be ultra committed to anything, but should see it as a way to allow your kid to explore many other sports, take tons of vacations, and much more without worrying about not getting your money's worth. And even if all you did were the popular Saturday morning Future Stars sessions and the Sunday morning shooting sessions on a lowered rim, $900 is still the cheaper option than paying for those events a la carte. With a membership, you'd also have 3 weekday options and you could join us for games on the weekend.

So don't fear. It's fun! And even if it's a bit scary at first, I'd argue that it's best to remove that bandaid sooner rather than later. All we'd need is for you to email us your birth certificate for confirmation to get started. We'll make a much bigger deal about this at our 3-6 year old summer camp, but just wanted to give you guys the heads up now just in case you have a 6th birthday coming up. Let's do this!