US Sports Camps and the Nike Basketball Camps are proud to welcome back SmartHoops and Emory & Henry College to our camp family for 2010. 

SmartHoops is a challenging, “bridge the gap” basketball curriculum for serious athletes who are moving from entry level hoops into the highly competitive phase of middle school/early high school interscholastic or club play. SmartHoops’ teaching is designed to instill in each player a fundamentally sound way to “think” the game, not just play it. The goal of the SmartHoops teaching approach is to provide a sound basketball “value system” that good coaches will immediately recognize and value, whether an athlete is a “go to” player, or a player seeking to simply earn a spot on a roster. Athletes will spend as much time in the classroom as on the court, covering the finer points of the game. Athletes will also see great players on film in game situations doing things the right way (and sometimes, even the wrong way!). Athletes must take notes in the classroom and will take a final exam on the last day of camp. The SmartHoops habits, tactics, and concepts that the athletes will learn can transform a good player into an indispensable player regardless of what “system” their coach runs.

Directing our camp program is Founder/Owner of SmartHoops, Richard Ford.  Richard grew up in Durham, North Carolina and dreamed of playing basketball for Duke. He rarely missed a Duke home game. Richard grew into a regional basketball standout in high school, and was described in the sports media as the “consummate point guard”. Richard was recruited by several D-I schools to play basketball, but Duke was not among them.  Nevertheless, Richard applied to Duke, was accepted, and chose to go there to pursue his hoops dreams on a path less traveled. Fortunately for Richard, Duke had just hired a young basketball coach named Mike Krzyzewski, who had been a walk-on at Army under Coach Bob Knight.  Coach K has credited Richard with being a foundation of Duke’s early success. All of this from of a 5’9”, 150 lb. walk-on point guard.

Richard has spent much of his life teaching young players intelligent basketball strategies. He has run and worked basketball camps for 14 years, and has taught male and female players from second graders to D-I college athletes in a variety of contexts. For the last 6 years, Richard co-directed a national point guard camp, teaching high school and college point guards the finer aspects of point guard play in venues from coast to coast.

Richard’s teaching approach is concept-based. In addition to intense on-court instruction, Richard also holds entertaining classroom sessions to break down the fine points of the game. Richard reinforces his concept-based instruction with video clips, personal stories, and cooperative learning/teaching approaches.