Impact Basketball Offering Certification for Coaches, Trainers

Every time you’re watching an NBA game, there’s a good chance you’re looking at a number of players who have been trained by Joe Abunassar of Impact Basketball.

Impact Basketball has gyms in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Sarasota, and it’s one of the most popular training sites for NBA players. Abunassar has trained over 200 NBA players including Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Chauncey Billups, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry, Rudy Gay, Serge Ibaka and Rashard Lewis among others. Each year, he trains nearly a quarter of the prospects in the NBA draft and he has helped countless players get selected – including some who went as high as No. 1 overall.

In Abunassar’s 18 years working with NBA players, he has developed a proven system that prepares players for their season and helps them further their development. Now, Abunassar is passing on his wealth of knowledge in the form of Impact Basketball’s Certification program.

This is a brand new online course that features over 300 videos and offers guidance in on-court skill work, weight lifting, athletic training exercises, nutrition programs and year-long planning templates. This course is designed to help coaches, trainers and parents improve their player development skills and ensure they have all of the resources they need to maximize their players’ potential.

“The more college players we talked to that trained with us for the draft or high school players we talked to that came to us for camp, the more we realized that most coaches are not well versed in development systems and also they don’t have the staff to do it,” Abunassar told Basketball Insiders. “We also had a lot of coaches asking, ‘What do you guys do? How do you guys develop players? What makes Impact, Impact?’ This program tells you everything. You’ll know what to do with the players and when to do it. I really feel like this will be a tremendous help and benefit coaches on all levels.

“We’re not telling them how to coach or what to run, we’re just adding things to their program that could help their players get better so that they can execute what their coach wants. We’re not trying to barge into people’s gyms and say, ‘Hey do this, do that.’ We’re teaching them the process and giving them the information that they need so that they can implement it as they see fit.”

Many of Impact Basketball’s certified coaches and trainers have gone on to work in the NBA and college basketball. Others have applied the program to their college, high school and middle school teams and seen immediate results. These drills can be used for individual instruction or large groups, and anyone who enters the program will continue to have access to the videos and resources forever.

Some basketball organizations around the world are expected to make this a requirement for all coaches, to maintain an elite level of basketball instruction as well as prevent injury and improper training at all levels.

“There are certain things we’ve learned to do that work and we want to share them with everyone for two reasons,” Abunassar said. “The first reason is because our information can really help people. I think that the course is so complete; it includes everything from drills to when to use the drills to how to combine them with strength training to when to put nutritional stuff in. The second reason is we do want to start a movement to create a standard. There is certification in sports training so parents, coaches and employers can feel comfortable hiring or interviewing them. We want to do the same thing for skill development, and we have the knowledge to do that because we’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work.

“We have a couple of organizations that are moving to make this certification mandatory, because these organizations are trying to improve the quality of coaches in their organization. We’re taking a very serious approach to this; this is not just something where we are just trying to sell videos. This is something that we’ve met with some of the highest organizations in the world to talk to them about.”

Not only will this certification improve a coach’s resume, it could also expand their client list. That’s because anyone who completes this program will be listed on Impact Basketball’s online database of certified coaches and trainers to help them in client recruitment and employment. Certified coaches will also have backing from Abunassar going forward and have Impact’s stamp of approval, which has helped many individuals advance their coaching career since Impact is highly respected in basketball circles.

“Our guys are getting hired,” Abunassar said. “We have over a dozen of our coaches that are in the NBA now that had prior experience with us. Because of what we’ve done in player development, we help guys get jobs. We’ll even enhance the resume of certified coaches, putting our logo and our names behind it. If you complete the program, we will feel confident backing you.

“Everybody coaches, everybody is going to go in and say, ‘Hey I run this defense and this offense and I’m disciplined’ – all that kind of stuff,” Abunassar said. “But if you have this unique niche and credential where Impact has certified you, I think it will be something that will help you and make you stand out from the next coach. It will also help your team stand out as you improve your players’ efficiency and effectiveness.”

For more information on Impact Basketball’s Certification program, click here. For a limited time, you can save $100 by using the promo code “InsiderSportsFan” when you make your purchase.