Jesi M.

I have been coaching since high school, when I volunteered with a 5th grade girls AAU basketball team, and since then have coached a wide variety of athletes and levels. I began my coaching career at the college (NCAA D-2) level, working with women's basketball and softball. I was then asked to join the volleyball staff as the strength and conditioning coach. I then moved on to the D-1 level where I was an assistant women's basketball coach before switching to the strength and conditioning side. I have worked with men's and women's basketball, men's and women's volleyball, men's and women's tennis, baseball, softball, cross-country, golf, and fencing. Despite working at a college, I have worked with all levels, from a 5 year old just learning how to move and play to the professional athlete trying to gain a little advantage . I am currently certified through NSCA with my CSCS. My biggest passion has always been basketball and so I love working with basketball, but I love that being a strength coach also opens doors to work with other types of athletes. You can understand the body better when you work with a variety of movements and patterns and athletes. I also have my BS and MS in psychology with an emphasis in health and sport. The mental side of sports and working out is huge and often neglected!

I competed at both the college and professional levels. I played at Northwest Nazarene University and then went on to play in the Women's Bluechip league on the USA Elite team. I also had the opportunity to play in Slovakia and Honduras. I have also run several marathons and enjoy pushing my body physically and mentally.

If a client is looking for basketball specific workouts, I would start out with some stationary ball handling to get the athlete warm, then move in to some full court ball handling. Position wise, coaches want and need every player to be comfortable handling the ball, so posts need to work on this as well as guards. I would then move to position specific skills with the player. Guards I would do "live-ball" moves with from all over the floor. I am a big believer in drills being part of the conditioning, so I demand a lot and drills are made to be physically and mentally tough. As a player I was always in better shape than everyone else and this helped me move on to the professional level! I try to make things fun, while challenging, and often have my athletes sing while they are doing something that is physically tough. I do things like this for two reasons; first, it takes the person's mind off of how tired they are, but more importantly, it teaches them to talk (aka communicate) while they are tired. Communication and the ability to think while physically tired is so important in any sport! Your body does what you train it to do, so if I can train the athletes to sing, then talking will be easy in games when they are tired. I typically mix in free throws in drills so that athletes get used to shooting those while fatigued. There is always a punishment if the free throws are missed so that they can get used to shooting under pressure too. I also add in conditioning drills that include all movements used in basketball (defensive slides, sprinting, jumping, backpedaling, shooting, cutting, etc.). As a coach, it is important to me that I also know what the athlete feels they are good at and what they are weak at because during a session I will make sure that there is a drill or two in which they will be successful (success builds confidence!) and also time that we work on what they feel they are weak at. I am a big supporter of video-taping drills as well because often an athlete THINKS they are doing something (getting low on defense, cutting hard, sprinting full speed) but when they see themselves do it on tape, they realize that they have more to give. I always work hard, and expect the same from the athletes I work with; I expect athletes to commit to getting better and be disciplined in their actions, but I also keep a child-like mentality in the sense that talents and gifts were given to us to be enjoyed and to have fun. There is an important balance between fun, enjoyment, and hard work.
Performance sessions always begin with a warm-up that includes basic low level plyometric, footwork (ladder, hurdles, jump rope) and some activation. Then the workout would progress based on what the goals/needs are of the athlete. It could be a session more focused on conditioning or strength with a small hit of conditioning or a workout that includes both in an even amount. I like to give athletes specific exercises that they can do on their own, so I often give "homework" that helps the athlete build skills and strengths on their own.