This instructional set probably has the most value if you are interested in coaching or teaching the game to youngsters. If you are looking for some tips to improve your game, you may want to save your money, as there may not be too much to be gained from this two DVD set, from two time NBA MVP Steve Nash.

Disc One covers tips and drills for improving individual skills, and Disc Two covers team offensive and defensive concepts. Featuring boys and girls from about age eight to twelve executing the drills, these DVD’s seems to be aimed at those who work with kids, or coach youth basketball. The marketing for this item however is misleading, and doesn’t even mention that kids are involved. This description is taken from the back cover of the DVD, `MVP Steve Nash teaches the fundamentals of basketball in his step by step program designed to give every basketball player a competitive edge on the court’. Assuming `every player’ includes the NBA, if an NBA level player can really benefit from watching kids doing these drills, that player probably has some major problems with fundamentals.

Disc One is all of 42 minutes long, and covers ball handling (17 Minutes), shooting (15 minutes), passing (5 minutes), and defense (5 minutes). The thoroughness of the instruction varies, but is generally rather minimal and cursory. For a player with basic skills looking to improve their game, watching kids perform drills, probably won’t put you in the ideal frame of mind to improve your game. Nash usually focuses on the topic at hand, and covers what he intends to, however the lack of depth makes real improvement rather questionable. Shooting in particular, could have received much more attention. The elementary school atmosphere is probably fine for kids, but it may be hard for an adult to take seriously. There isn’t a lot of coaching or correction, mostly constant encouragement from Nash, which gets old fast.

The second disk covers team concepts for offense and defense, and Nash gives way to Roch Weilbaecher an AAU coach who runs the drills and provides instruction. At times Nash disappears, while the kids run drills. Is this what people thought they were buying? If you coach a team the drills may be useful. If not, then watching 80 minutes of drills could get boring.

What would have been cool, is Nash imparting his insights regarding the things that he actually does during a game, against NBA competition. Granted, much of Nash’s play is spontaneous and instinctive, but there is still much that he could have revealed about his game, and the basketball in general. There’s nothing wrong with making a video aimed at youngsters, but not being straight with people about what the product actually is, and who is the target market, is disingenuous and reprehensible. To be clear, the youngsters are not to blame for anything, they are only following directions. Maybe Steve Nash just wanted to be the tallest one on the court, but he doesn’t stand very tall here.

They cost more, but if you are interested in personal improvement rather than learning how to coach others, take a look at the series of videos from Betterbasketball.com.

Focused on Techniques of a guy I never heard of instead of Steve’s preparation and routine..

I have coached youth basketball for (4) years and found this an extremely usefull tool. I learned new drills and how to sucessfully incorporate them into my practices. I have noticed an immediate difference in my players using these skills in our games