Progressing Skills Training in North America with Tyler Leclerc

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Head to the show notes to access this incredible free resource. Welcome back to the Transforming Basketball Podcast. Really happy today to be joined by Tyler LeClerc. Tyler's doing some great work applying a constraints-led approach in skills training. In Massachusetts, and it's about time he joined the podcast.

So Tyler, it's great to have you with us.

Thank you for having me.

So Tyler, just for coaches, trainers listening to this, could you just give us an introduction about yourself and the great work that you are doing?

Mm-hmm. Yeah, so I am a trainer in the Boston area. I'm, my gym is about 30 minutes north of Boston, so I've been training ever since I was 17, 18 years old. Just absolutely fell in love with the training part as opposed to the playing part.

Went to college for a year, played one year of college basketball, decided, you know what, I want to go all in on this training thing. So I decided to do that, picked up a part-time job, was, uh, was trying to train as many hours as I possibly can.

And then that kind of led me down the path of, okay, let me try to find a better way to train players. Because everything I was seeing was just a lot of the old school stuff. It was very simple, but no one really seemed to be getting into how do we actually learn?

What's the science of learning? How can we optimize this process? So I started kind of going down that path and just finding ways to slowly get better. at what I'm doing training-wise. And that kind of led me down a lot of the small-sided games approach, a lot of the constraints-led approach.

And then that's just led me to be here where I'm now completely bought into that and have been doing it for the last few years at my own gym. So yeah, it's been going great.

Great stuff, Tyler. So, you know, if maybe there's a trainer who's brand new to this or a coach who has really just recently heard about the CLA, what would you say is the easiest way to describe the difference between the work you are doing and the dominant approach that is still very obviously very popular in America?

I would say the best way to at least think about it is spending your time the best that you possibly can while training. So I think a lot of people in the training industry love to use the words that it works, so it's okay.

But at the end of the day, as trainers, as coaches, we should always be looking for the most optimal way to use our time. So the constraints-led approach is going to be a much better use of our time where we're going to extract more value.

From the time that we're putting in. So the dominant approach, yeah, may work, but how well is it working and can we be doing something better?

Absolutely agree with that. So what would you say are the biggest challenges as more trainers, more coaches try and adopt this, especially in the context of the US? Are there some common barriers you're seeing, maybe with parent perception of, of what a workout should be, especially I'm guessing the private training sector?

Yeah, in the private training sector, I would say the biggest thing is just getting over that hurdle of it looking different. And maybe parents or players not really understanding what you're doing, because oftentimes the training doesn't look as pretty, as perfect. The reps aren't going to be perfect.

There's going to be more messing up. There's going to be more struggling. There's going to be more of a responsibility on the player to kind of really take that role and learn as opposed to just the coach directing everything. Here's what you're going to be doing exactly like this.

It's going to be perfect. So I think a lot of it is just the coach getting comfortable with, hey, Parents might not understand it at first, but I truly believe that this is the best way to go and coach. So I'm going to buy into it.

And I think oftentimes a lot of coaches struggle with it because they're not that confident in it. So they're the parents, the players can kind of see that on them where it's like, eh, I don't know. He doesn't seem so sure about it.

So I'm not really sure about it. Versus if you can demonstrate confidence in what you're doing, I think parents and players can really see that and they'll just buy in. Especially when you can understand and articulate, hey, this is what we're doing. This is why we're doing it.

I think they're going to understand. And then obviously once you give them enough time, they're going to see results and then the parents and players will buy in once they know it works.

Love that. So I think an interesting challenge you have too is that your players are coming from all different AAU or high school teams and they're coming to train with you. And obviously that's difficult because we spoke about it when we met in, uh, in Providence a few months ago where you've got so many different styles, all these kids who are playing basketball in such different ways because of the way they're being coached.

So how do you go about, I guess, circumnavigating that and really planning, delivering your practices when you know everyone's used to such extremes of basketball?

Yeah, I think it helps that I have, or at least being in the private sector, people are coming more so to me as opposed to the other way around. So they know kind of what they're buying into before they get there. So it makes it a lot easier to be like, okay, this is the way that we do things.

And then everyone can kind of fit into that as opposed to kind of the other way around where it's like, I'm just a team coach and, and I have to kind of adjust. So I think that that really helps. But I mean, that's just the nature of coaching in general.

I think that every player is gonna be different. So it's always finding ways to communicate a little differently, present information differently. Being able to connect with each athlete a little differently and then being able to kind of make that work on the broader scheme of things as like a team or as a group.

So.

Most definitely. So I'd like to get to the practical and you share some great ideas on your Instagram, Tyler, just with what this looks like. So maybe you could talk us through a little bit of what a practice review looks like, whether it's a small group session or equivalent, and typically your thought process kind of going into the practice and Maybe even, maybe just talking through some ideas of a recent workout.

I know you're really busy now in summer, so maybe even some stuff you delivered yesterday on the court, just so coaches can really hear what you're actually doing on court.

Yes. So I think a lot of the pre-workout or practice mentality is really just understanding, okay, who do I have in front of me? What do they really need? Not only like as a player development coach, not only what they may need from a skill perspective, but maybe also from a mental perspective as well.

Or maybe even from just a performance aspect. So one of the players that I'm training right now very consistently is one of my guys, Manny, who plays in, in South America. So the process for that essentially looks like we went through all of his film.

So I had somebody cut up all of his mistakes. So all of his turnovers, every single one of his missed shots, whether that was mid-range and 3, I went through all of that film, said, okay, where are we seeing certain tendencies where he's making mistakes?

What are the situations that he's making mistakes in? And then from there, and where can we just get even better? Okay. So he shot, I think, 39 or 40% from 3. We'd like that to be a little bit higher. So where are the opportunities where, okay, this is gonna see the biggest jump in his game, is gonna make the most amount of money, have the best performance, and ultimately, you know, reach his potential as a player.

So kind of taking all that into account, then building a practice plan from there, knowing, okay, one of the problems that he had at least this season was, I would say, a decent amount of decision-making work. Where he has a lot of the skills, but it's certain situations where maybe it's 2-on-2, he tends to kind of turn the ball over, makes the wrong pass at the wrong time.

Sometimes with contact he struggles. So I want to continue to put him in situations where we can learn from that. And then a big thing that we're doing is we're trying to film as many of the sessions as we can. So I think a lot of people say, hey, like, let's watch film to learn from that during the season.

But a lot of people aren't doing that in the summer or during the offseason. So trying to film these workouts. And then we can go through, hey, these are the decisions that we're working on. These, and then he can go back and look at it.

Not only during the session can we learn from it, but also after the session that we can learn from it. And I think that just speeds up the iteration process of, okay, make a mistake correct. And then make sure that we're actually putting that behavior in practice.

So overall, his sessions look like 2 days a week where we're doing more so solo work, where we're doing some constraints-led approach stuff. We're doing some differential shooting. And then we have 3 days where it's primarily with defense working on the decision-making. In small-sided games and stuff like that.

And I think that that's the best plan going forward for him throughout the entire summer. We have about 8 weeks until he, or 8 weeks total, and then he goes off to a season. So.

Great stuff. So what would you say, Tyler, to the trainers or coaches who say that they like the ideas of the CLA, but players need to have all the block stuff first and that they have to explicitly be taught all these techniques before You create these small-sided games and you use constraints in these more open environments.

I think for the people that say that, at least in my opinion, it's just, it's just a cop-out where, okay, because if you just ask them why, like, why do they need to have block practice? They can't give you a really good answer.

Now, there may be some use, very small use for some block practice if you really need to build some confidence for some player. But even then, that's more so towards the season, right? Because at the end of the day, it's always a distinction between performance and learning.

In the offseason, we're trying to learn. If we're trying to learn, the best way to do it is not block practice. That's been shown every single time. It's very hard to argue that once you actually start getting into the nitty-gritty, look at any studies, any evidence-based stuff.

So I think when they say that, it's just like, it's just common belief. You need to do that. You need to do that. But why? They don't have a really good answer. So I think it's just kind of a cop-out where they don't have to actually think about it.

They can just use that as an excuse to why they can keep doing what they're actually doing.

Yeah. Fantastic. And obviously I think with young kids, youth players of all ages, I think it's really easy to go all in CLA and just skip all the block stuff. I think it's really interesting when you get to pros and they come in and they have those very established routines and really they actually don't know any better.

Or what they often do is they assume that they became pros just because of block stuff and they try and make that link. Whereas, you know, there isn't really sufficient evidence to say that they made it because of that. How have you gone about navigating that?

Do you actually explain what this is to some of your pro clients and say, look, this is why we're doing it? Or do you kind of just go straight in and really let the workout do the talking as the players enjoy it and obviously find themselves getting much better?

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I would say I try to explain it to the players that I know need it. I think when you do some of this stuff with players, you can see it on their face, or they'll even be like, hey, like, can we mix in some block shooting?

Like, I wanna just do some spot shot. Then you kind of have to maybe explain, hey, like, this is why we're doing this. You may feel like you're getting better when you're doing the block shooting, but you're really not. Here's why. Like, explain that.

And again, do it with confidence. I think a lot of people, a lot of coaches get stuck in that mindset of, okay, I'm just gonna do the block practice because I don't really know how to explain it or I'm not confident in it.

So then they kind of, the player kind of dictates what they're gonna do where they're like, hey, I wanna do this.

They're like, okay.

Yeah. Because they're not confident in their knowledge enough to be like, nah, I think we should do this and here's why. So it all depends on the players. I think some players do understand it at least a little bit, even if they don't actually understand the science, they can kind of understand like.

Hey, this is probably better for me, but some players understand. And I think you need to be able to communicate that to them.

Completely agree on that. It's like you said, if you're confident in it and it really, and you really live by it, I don't think you'd compromise who you are. Of course you could do some, some small bits of it. That's really what the player wants.

But like you said, Tyler, it's like, I think it's just the coach. You're really kind of having an influence on our session and moving towards more live activities. So let's get to educating other trainers, other coaches. It's great timing because the episode with Coleman's gonna come out in the not too distant future after this.

And through Mastery Hoops, you are doing a lot of educating and trying to bring this approach more into the limelight, especially within North America and the skills training industry. So how would you typically go about introducing some of these ideas to trainers, coaches, really, you know, never hearing about it before coming from the traditional background?

I think a lot of it starts At least what we've done is a lot of it coming from, okay, let's start to understand a lot of the basics of like block versus variable practice. Let's understand what our actual role is as coaches. 'Cause I think a lot of people don't even understand that, where a lot of coaches and trainers, they'll do the same stuff that a player can do on their own.

Yeah.

Doing that, and you have no, there's no point for you to be there. The whole point of you being a trainer or you being a coach is to enhance their practice even further. So therefore you need to be doing something different. You need to be coming with some knowledge that's going to help improve their practice.

So I think understanding, okay, what even is the role of a trainer? What is block versus variable practice? What even is skill acquisition science in the first place? And then, okay, now we can start to showcase, here's some tools that we can use.

Here's the benefits to it. It's not only gonna be more beneficial, it's gonna be more fun. And then also from the business side of things too, like helping them understand that doing this the right way will actually help you in the long term.

'Cause I think a lot of trainers, which we kind of, when we were first introducing a lot of this stuff, we were like, coaches don't really care because Most of 'em are just doing it for the money. Not, not, I wouldn't say most of 'em, but some of 'em are just doing it for the money.

So when you can tie that to, hey, if you do this the right way, you get players better results, you're probably gonna get more business. So then when they have the financial incentive to be like, oh, like this is actually gonna help me make more money, they can kind of buy into it a little bit.

Because especially at first, like we were talking about, it's weird, it's different. Some people might not wanna stick around. Some people are uncomfortable. They just wanna go do the stationary ball handling, the block shooting, whatever. So you might lose business initially. So I think that's a lot of the tough part to educating the coaches is also telling them how to navigate the business side of things as well.

Because obviously if you're a team coach, it's a little bit different. You have kids.

Yeah.

Going anywhere, you can kind of do whatever you want. It doesn't matter. Versus in the business sense and like the free market, hey, kid doesn't like it, he can leave. So you need to kind of make sure that, hey, you can do this in the private sector and be successful and actually help you more.

And it's not going to hurt your pockets.

Yeah, that's it. I think even, even if you're not doing it well, it's still gonna be more enjoyable than just being put through a workout of techniques and drills. That's a great point. Here's an interesting one for you. Obviously, you know, I think North American basketball is always under the spotlight and people either rightly or wrongly pointing out flaws in the youth system and the development landscape.

What do you think needs to change to really create a more beneficial environment, let's say, for youth players growing up in the US?

I mean, I think a lot of it is, a lot of it's incentives, but I think a lot of it is just built around obviously the money first and foremost. It's, it's a business at the end of the day. So if you can change the incentive somehow, I think that that can help.

But I think a lot of it is just educating parents really on like, what is the actual goal here? Because I think a lot of players or young kids are playing on teams where the coach only cares about winning, but then also the coach doesn't know any better to really teach the right way.

So I think Ultimately, at the end of the day, it's about education, educating the parents about, hey, what does a proper development program look like? What does that process look like from 6 years old all the way until they're 20, we're trying to go to college and play pro, whatever.

What does that actually look like? And then also just educating the parents or the coaches about, hey, it's not necessarily about winning when you're in 6th, 7th grade. A lot of coaches are just trying to be 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th grade champions.

Like that doesn't matter. So I think ultimately understanding a lot of that is what's going to help change the scene to make kids get better development. I think at the end of the day.

I definitely agree on that. I love that you said education, and I think a big part is trainer coach education. And I think now there's like so many resources for coaches to learn this. And I know that wasn't the case a year ago, 2 years ago, let alone 5 years ago.

So how?

How did you actually encounter this? And would you give any, what advice would you have to coaches if they really want to go down this rabbit hole and understand properly what CLA is? You know, how, how did you do it?

So, I mean, I think, like you said, there's way more stuff out there now. You just wrote a whole book on it. At least like me and Coleman, while we started Mastering Hoops in the first place was like, we were trying to learn this stuff and we had no idea where to go.

Trevor Reagan's another good one. I think his website's Train Ugly. We got some good stuff from him. You have your book, read that, transformingbasketball.com, go check that out, Mastery Hoops. So I think there's a lot more resources now where before when I was coming up and learning, it was just a lot of books, like textbooks, any books on the subject really, which again, at that time it was a little harder to find.

There's so many more people talking about it now. So many more videos on YouTube. There's so many more resources, people doing it that you can reach out to. So I think that that's a very positive thing. I think if coaches are trying to learn, A, pick up a book.

Right. I made a post on Instagram one time and I think I commented at somebody. I was like, oh, like go pick up a book. He's like, we're basketball trainers. We don't read books. I'm like, what? That sounds ridiculous. Like, I think at the end of the day, if you want to get better at your craft, you should be reading regardless of whatever your craft is.

Knowledge is power at the end of the day. So I think there's a lot more resources and there's a lot more people doing it. Go try to learn from someone that's doing it. Try to intern from them, pay to go out there, learn it, read the books, listen to the podcast.

Obviously people who are listening to this. They're on top of it. So just use your resources and just learn. At the end of the day, you have to be hungry to learn if you want to be able to understand this stuff. And really anything that you do, it doesn't matter what it is.

And would you say like something that struck me with you, Tyler, is you seem very intentional just staying on top of your schedule and your time to do that. Is learning actually a part of your routine or how you go about it? Because a lot of coaches struggle with this.

Yeah, 100%. At least even now, like being as busy as I am with training and stuff like that, I still put like 20 to 30 minutes at the end of my day every day to read, especially earlier on when I had more time.

If I'm not training 7, 8 hours a day, I'm dedicating at least 1 to 2 hours a day to just learning. Like in my earlier stages of training, I would watch 5 to 10 games worth of film on Synergy, and then I would read for an hour to 2 hours.

And I did that for a year straight. And then obviously, okay, once you have a little bit less time, 'cause you get a little bit busier, you still have to continue to put time aside if you wanna learn to keep getting better. I think like money in general and success in anything that you do in knowledge, it's, it's very much a lagging indicator of what you do.

So like your knowledge is a lagging indicator of the books and the things that you are doing now. That knowledge will accumulate over time. So the knowledge you have now and the money you have now is all a lagging indicator of what you did 6 months ago.

So the knowledge that you're going to have in 6 months, the success is all a lagging indicator of what you're doing right now. So your actions have to line up to what you want or to what you want your future to look like in 6 months.

I love that. That's really, really good advice to coaches. So Tyler, where would, where can coaches find out more about the work you do? Obviously I'd recommend all coaches listening, if they're not already following you, to go check your work out, especially all the high school, high school coaches listening to this.

Yes, you can find me on Instagram and YouTube at TJL Training. And then, uh, like we were talking about Mastery Hoops, just masteryhoops.com if you guys are interested.

Fantastic. Tyler, big thanks for taking the time to join the podcast. Great to have you on. And look forward to next connecting when I'm on the East Coast.

Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

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