Shownotes
Matt Mann is a basketball shooting coach and the Founder of Skills Within Hoops. Mann's journey began in Australia where, with no formal training available, he taught himself basketball fundamentals using makeshift equipment and a relentless drive for improvement, eventually playing professionally in five different countries. Today, he channels his experiences into a thriving platform that transforms players into confident, consistent, and strategic scorers. I bring a global perspective to my coaching, having played basketball in five countries. His training is backed by mentorship from the NBA's top skills trainer, Drew Hanlen, and shooting expert, John Townsend.
On this episode Mike and Matt discuss Matt’s inspiring journey from playing Division 4 basketball in Australia to achieving success as a trainer. Growing up in Australia, Matt initially had no exposure to basketball but found a passion for the game after filling in for a friend's team. His determination to improve and compete against his peers led him through various divisions, facing challenges and setbacks, including a significant injury that threatened his dreams. Eventually, he transitioned into coaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, where he discovered a natural talent for training young athletes. With mentorship from NBA trainers, Matt has developed a thriving coaching business, emphasizing the importance of fundamentals and communication in basketball.
Follow us on Twitterand Instagram @hoopheadspod for the latest updates on episodes, guests, and events from the Hoop Heads Pod.
Make sure you’re subscribed to the Hoop Heads Pod on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts and while you’re there please leave us a 5 star rating and review. Your ratings help your friends and coaching colleagues find the show. If you really love what you’re hearing recommend the Hoop Heads Pod to someone and get them to join you as a part of Hoop Heads Nation.
Grab pen and paper before you listen to this episode with Matt Mann, basketball shooting coach and Founder of Skills Within Hoops.
Website - https://www.skillswithinhoops.com
Email - skillswithinhoops@gmail.com
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/skillswithinhoops/
Visit our Sponsors!
A Perfect Gift To Your Team for the Holidays!
Score Big on Dr. Dish Basketball's End of Year Sale and give your team the gift of extra, more efficient reps this season! 🎁
👉 Learn More: Visit drdishbasketball.com today.
Your first impression is everything when applying for a new coaching job. A professional coaching portfolio is the tool that highlights your coaching achievements and philosophies and, most of all, helps separate you and your abilities from the other applicants. Special Price of just $25 for all Hoop Heads Listeners.
Empowering athletic coaches with financial education, strategic planning, and practical tools to build lasting wealth—on and off the court.
If you listen to and love the Hoop Heads Podcast, please consider giving us a small tip that will help in our quest to become the #1 basketball coaching podcast. https://hoop-heads.captivate.fm/support
Twitter/X
Podcast - @hoopheadspod
Mike - @hdstarthoops
Jason - @jsunkle
https://www.facebook.com/hoopheadspod/
YouTube
Transcripts
Foreign is brought to you by Head Start Basketball.
Matt Mann:I am now at a point where I am dreading getting this letter because every Single year is Division 4.
Matt Mann:Division 4, Division 4.
Matt Mann:The letter came I remember getting out of that letterbox.
Matt Mann:I took it inside and I put it on the kitchen counter.
Matt Mann:I'm looking at this letter, I can't bring myself to open it.
Matt Mann:The heartbreak that I can remember feeling of what that letter was going to share to tell me was just killing me.
Matt Mann:Three days went by.
Matt Mann:I had to convince myself we have to just rip the band aid off.
Matt Mann:And I remember coming home looking at the letter and just thinking, I can't delay this anymore.
Matt Mann:Like I need to know which direction I'm going.
Sponsor/Advertiser:Matt Mann is a basketball shooting coach and the founder of Skills Within Hoops.
Sponsor/Advertiser:Mann's journey began in Australia where, with no formal training available, he taught himself basketball fundamentals using makeshift equipment and a relentless drive for improvement, eventually playing professionally in five different countries.
Sponsor/Advertiser:Today, he channels his experiences into a thriving platform that transforms players into confident, consistent and strategic scorers.
Sponsor/Advertiser:His training is backed by mentorship from the NBA's top skills trainer Drew Hanlon and shooting expert John Townsend.
Mike Clemsing:Hey Hoop Heads.
Sponsor/Advertiser:Find the shooting machine that meets your team's exact training needs this New Year's with Dr.
Sponsor/Advertiser: Dish Basketball's: Sponsor/Advertiser:Buy one Dr.
Sponsor/Advertiser:Dish get one free.
Sponsor/Advertiser:Learn more at DrDish Basketball.com and follow their incredible content Drdish bball on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
Sponsor/Advertiser:Mention the Hoop Heads podcast and save an extra $300 on the Dr.
Sponsor/Advertiser:Dish, Rebel All Star and CT models.
Sponsor/Advertiser:Those are some great deals.
Matt Mann:Hoop Heads.
Sponsor/Advertiser:Get your doctor Dish shooting machine today.
Matt Mann:Hey this is Scott Morrison, Utah Jazz Assistant Coach and you're listening to the Hoop Heads podcast.
Sponsor/Advertiser:Prepare like the pros with the all new FastDraw and Fast Scout.
Sponsor/Advertiser:FastDraw has been the number one play diagramming software for coaches for years.
Sponsor/Advertiser:You'll quickly see why FastModel Sports has the most compelling and intuitive basketball software out there.
Sponsor/Advertiser:For a limited time, Fastmodel is offering Hoop Heads listeners 15% off Fast Draw and Fast Scout.
Sponsor/Advertiser:Just use the code HHP15 at checkout to grab your discount and you'll be on your way to more efficient game prep and and improve communication with your team.
Sponsor/Advertiser:Fastmodel also has new coaching content every week on its blog, plus play and drill diagrams on its playback.
Sponsor/Advertiser:Check out the links in the show notes for more.
Sponsor/Advertiser:FastModel Sports is the best in basketball.
Sponsor/Advertiser:Grab pen and paper before you listen to this episode with Matt Mann, basketball shooting coach and founder of Skills Within Hoops.
Mike Clemsing:Hello and welcome to the Hoopets podcast.
Mike Clemsing:It's Mike Clemsing here tonight without my co host Jason Sunkel.
Mike Clemsing:But I am pleased to be joined by basketball shooting coach Matt Mann.
Mike Clemsing:Matt, welcome to the Hoopets pod.
Matt Mann:Hi Mike.
Matt Mann:How you going Mike?
Mike Clemsing:Great.
Mike Clemsing:Excited to have you on.
Mike Clemsing:Looking forward to diving into all the things that you are doing as far as training kids and helping them to become better shooters.
Mike Clemsing:Let's start by going back in time to intuit when you were a kid.
Mike Clemsing:Tell me a little bit about how you got into the game of basketball when you were younger.
Matt Mann:Sure.
Matt Mann:Just to start here, I just want to thank you for having me.
Matt Mann:I really appreciate that and I'm looking forward to having a chat with you.
Matt Mann:So the way that it all started for me was quite interesting.
Matt Mann:I was actually, I grew up in Australia in the south central part of Australia in a city called Adelaide.
Matt Mann:It's a lot like Las Vegas and Phoenix.
Matt Mann:So it's a lot.
Matt Mann:Lots of dry desert heat, lots of sunshine.
Matt Mann:So from about five or six years old I was playing cricket.
Matt Mann:So you might be familiar with cricket, you know, it's sort of like baseball.
Matt Mann:So I was playing cricket quite a lot and I played that for basically nine years.
Matt Mann:And the reason I was playing cricket was because my older Cousin, who's about 12 years older than me, I just looked up to him like an absolute legend and I just wanted to do anything and everything that he did because he was like the coolest guy on the planet and I just wanted to do what he did so I could be like him.
Matt Mann:Fast forward till I was, you know, about 15 years old.
Matt Mann:So like I said, I've been playing cricket for about nine years before this and that was like the only sport I'd really done.
Matt Mann:I mean I'd done swimming, but cricket was mainly it.
Matt Mann:Basically it was on a Friday afternoon.
Matt Mann:One of my best friends in the second year of high school.
Matt Mann:So in Australia we start high school from year eight.
Matt Mann:So I know in America they sort of start year nine in high school.
Matt Mann:In Australia we start in year eight.
Matt Mann:So this was year nine, second year of high school for me.
Matt Mann:It was Friday afternoon and we were at high school.
Matt Mann:My good friend basically came up to me at the end of high school and said, we have a game tomorrow, we've got a basketball game tomorrow and we've only got four players.
Matt Mann:Like some of our guys are sick and they're out and they're unavailable.
Matt Mann:Can you fill in?
Matt Mann:And I was like, man, I don't know the first thing about basketball, so if you can ask anybody else, that would be great.
Matt Mann:And he was literally like, matt, I've asked everybody else, like, you're my last resort.
Matt Mann:So I was like, gee, thanks, friend.
Matt Mann:Like, I'm your last resort.
Matt Mann:Like, thank you.
Matt Mann:But anyway, I was like, okay, you guys don't have enough numbers.
Matt Mann:So I was like, great, I'll help you out.
Matt Mann:Just don't expect very much from me.
Matt Mann:So next day comes, go and go and help my friend out with his basketball team.
Matt Mann:And basically, when our bench, you know, is like, close to the sideline, I went over and to the middle of the jump ball.
Matt Mann:After the ball went up, I stuck to that sideline close to our bench.
Matt Mann:And all I did for the entire game was run up and down that sideline.
Matt Mann:I didn't even go towards the center court.
Matt Mann:I literally just stuck from corner to corner, like defense and offense.
Matt Mann:Just ran from that corner up and down the sideline the entire game.
Matt Mann:I touched the ball zero times because I said to them was, I do not pass me the ball.
Matt Mann:I touched the ball zero times.
Matt Mann:After that game, I went back home to my mom, and I was like, mom, I had the time of my life.
Matt Mann:It was awesome.
Matt Mann:I got to run up and down.
Matt Mann:There was so much action going on.
Matt Mann:And I almost think from that moment, even though I touched the ball zero times, I fell in love with basketball.
Matt Mann:And then I begged my mom to take me to the department store, get a basketball.
Matt Mann:So we went there, we got just a rubber $5 basketball, and I basically used that basketball from the moment I got home until it was like, you know, late in the evening, to the point where the grip had gone.
Matt Mann:It had become so slippery now, and all of that had worn away to the binding and the string from underneath all of that, which was starting to come through.
Matt Mann:And I just loved everything about basketball.
Matt Mann:Just the.
Matt Mann:The feel of the grip in your hands and the release of the ball, and then listening to the ball go through the net and that snap, like that swish of the ball going through the net.
Matt Mann:Just everything about basketball I just, like, just fell in love with.
Matt Mann:So from that point forward, that's basically all I did.
Matt Mann:And I had just those horse blinders on.
Matt Mann:Like, that is all I wanted to do.
Matt Mann:Like, even going back to high school, all I would think about was just basketball now.
Matt Mann:And I had a couple friends that were in primary school that had been playing basketball, you know, for A couple of years before we all went off to high school.
Matt Mann:And I remember these couple of guys, they were like best friends and I was like best friends in that group as well.
Matt Mann:But, you know, I didn't play basketball.
Matt Mann:But they all gave each other the nickname of like Jordan because this guy named Brad was like, you know, the best kid in school.
Matt Mann:This other guy named Michael, he gave himself the name of Scotty Pippen.
Matt Mann:So these two were just like, you know, a one, two punch at school and, you know, you couldn't beat these guys.
Matt Mann:Fast forward couple of years into high school, I think it was the last, yeah, it was the last year in high school.
Matt Mann:Our schools ended up playing against each other and you know, I went to like a different school than what they did.
Matt Mann:And I had, I knew that we were playing them in the future.
Matt Mann:So I dedicated all my time to just getting better because I wanted to show these two guys from primary school that I have not only reached their level, but now I've superseded their level.
Matt Mann:So we played them and I ended up dropping like 36 or 38 against this guy Brad, which was given the nickname Jordan back in primary school.
Matt Mann:And I remembered, you know, all, all of those things from primary school.
Matt Mann:And I wanted to be better than him.
Matt Mann:So that was a proud moment for me because they all started basketball when they were like six years old, seven years old.
Matt Mann:So they'd already been playing basketball, you know, for a number of years.
Matt Mann:And anything that I do, I strive to be one of the best at.
Matt Mann:So whether it was like when I was doing cricket or swimming, you know, I want to have the best times in swimming, cricket.
Matt Mann:I wanted to be the best bowler and get the most people out, you know, that anybody had done piano.
Matt Mann:I wanted to be the best pianist, you know, I could be.
Matt Mann:So when I started picking up basketball, it was the same thing.
Matt Mann:I just dedicated like all of my time to working on dribbling, shooting, trying to work out all these moves.
Matt Mann:So my determination to not only beat these guys from primary school, but to be the best that I could be, you know, just.
Matt Mann:It just fuels my determination.
Matt Mann:So going back, even thinking about learning how to play basketball, my cousin who I heard mentioned earlier, who's about 12 years older than me back in Australia at this point in time when I was sort of like 15 years old, basketball wasn't that big of a sport.
Matt Mann:We had afl, soccer, cricket, that were like the biggest sports for boys in Australia.
Matt Mann:So we, we had a thing in Australia called Game of the Week and it was on Saturday nights typically around 2am, 3am and it was only a one hour slot.
Matt Mann:So the game had been edited down to like a, you know, about a 45, 50 minute game.
Matt Mann:My cousin would record the games on VHS and like I said, it was just a game of the week.
Matt Mann:So I would use that VHS for the entire week, give it back.
Matt Mann:He would record the next game.
Matt Mann:You know, I just watch that.
Matt Mann:And all these games where it had Barkley, Kevin Johnson, Hakeem, Jordan, Pippen, you know, Orlando, the supersonics, you know, back then where Sean Kemp was there, Gary Payton, I would literally go frame by frame and break down what Jordan was doing, what Kemp was doing, what Barkley was doing, looking at Hakeem's footwork.
Matt Mann:And I would go frame by frame, rewind, frame by frame and watch it rewind and just repeat that process until I feel like I had it down enough that at that point then I'd go outside and I'd practice that move for like an hour, you know, an hour or more, come back inside, watch the game a little bit more and watch for some sort of like move or sweep or you know, one, like a one dribble, pull up or something like that, break it down frame by frame.
Matt Mann:And then I'd go back outside and work on that for like another hour.
Matt Mann:And that's how I taught myself how to play basketball.
Matt Mann:Because everyone else in my family, my mom, she was a swimmer.
Matt Mann:My stepdad, he was into rugby and my stepbrother he was into rugby.
Matt Mann:So, you know, and my 12 year old, the cousin is 12 year olds, and me, he was into cricket and AFL, so Australian Rules football.
Matt Mann:So no one in my family had ever played basketball before.
Matt Mann:So no one knew how to really try and help me or what to do or, hey, this is, you know, how you shoot and you follow through and you know, the, the typical basketball techniques, no one in my family knew any of that.
Matt Mann:So I worked out everything myself.
Matt Mann:And a lot of that came from watching the VHS and breaking that down frame by frame and then going outside and just trying it and just seeing what I could do.
Matt Mann:So that's how I got into basketball.
Mike Clemsing:That's an incredible story, Matt.
Mike Clemsing:When you think about just being a kid, going from no exposure at all to the game to an experience where, as you said, you don't touch the ball.
Mike Clemsing:You're just running up and down the court and all of a sudden it just sparks something inside you and boom, now you're becoming this self taught player.
Mike Clemsing:At what point in that development process did you get exposed to a coach.
Mike Clemsing:Like even at the school level, when was the first experience that you had somebody actually whether it was working with you in a practice setting, on a team setting, obviously the, the training side of it, like what you're doing now or what a lot of people are doing or what a lot of players get exposed to, that I'm sure in Australia wasn't that big at the time and obviously even in the United States at that point the training business hadn't taken off.
Mike Clemsing:So what was your first experience with formal coaching?
Matt Mann:So I had just developed this love for basketball and it works differently in Australia where if you play for your school, it's more of a, a social sort of thing.
Matt Mann:You know, you sort of get some of your mates together and you know, they don't really have tryouts or we call them trials in Australia for school basketball.
Matt Mann:It's just like, you know, you just sign up and typically it's you and your mates who sort of get together and you play other schools.
Matt Mann:And it's more of a social sort of thing, like an after school activity that you do.
Matt Mann:If you want to get serious about basketball in Australia, you join a club.
Matt Mann:So I started just falling in love with basketball so much that there was a basketball club down the road called North Adelaide Rockets.
Matt Mann:And it was literally like a five or six minute drive from our house.
Matt Mann:And I was talking to my mom and I was like, hey, can I go and play like district basketball?
Matt Mann:So fast forward there I made a team and it was the under sixteens Division four team.
Matt Mann:So just like college over here, Division one is like the best kids.
Matt Mann:And in Australia we've got six divisions so Division One being the best, Division Six, basically newbies.
Matt Mann:So I ended up making Under 16 Division Four.
Matt Mann: r basketball In Australia was: Matt Mann:So she played for Australia, she was my coach and she was very strict on a lot of different things.
Matt Mann:So she taught me a lot about discipline.
Matt Mann:And I remember one of the early examples of her discipline was we played this game, we beat this team.
Matt Mann:I was doing really, really well that game.
Matt Mann:And after the game I basically ran up to the score bench looking for the score sheet because I wanted to see how many points I got.
Matt Mann:They had already given the copy to Gene, like our head coach.
Matt Mann:So I was like, gene, can I have a look at the score sheet?
Matt Mann:You know, I want to see how Much, you know, how many points I got.
Matt Mann:And she basically stood there and looked me dead in the eyes and said, do not ever, ever ask how many points you scored ever again.
Matt Mann:This is a team game.
Matt Mann:It does not matter how many points you win a score.
Matt Mann:It's.
Matt Mann:It's about the team and whether we either win together or we lose together.
Matt Mann:And from that point forward, I have never worried about my stats ever again.
Matt Mann:But her discipline during trainings and the level of perfection that she required from every single player was a real eye opener for me.
Matt Mann:Coming from the small, you know, 18 months, two years experience, I'd sort of had going to this, like, regimented, Olympian type style, training was just next level.
Matt Mann:And that's where I think I learned a lot of habits when it comes to discipline and understanding repetition and understanding fundamentals and how important it is to have that foundation and those fundamentals, because now that allows things to just open up in your game so much.
Matt Mann:So that was probably my very first experience coming into such a high level of training like that.
Mike Clemsing:Well, it sounds like you were very, very fortunate in getting an opportunity to play for her as your first coach.
Mike Clemsing:And just all the things that you talked about in terms of fundamentals and discipline and having that instilled in you in your first experience with a formal basketball setting, I'm sure that proved to be invaluable to you as you continue to move on as a player.
Mike Clemsing:So walk us through the remainder of your time as a player and then how getting into the potential of being a coach, how did that start to get onto your radar?
Mike Clemsing:How did you start thinking about that?
Mike Clemsing:So walk us through the rest of your playing career and then how that led to you eventually thinking, hey, maybe I want to get into coaching.
Matt Mann:Yeah, sure.
Matt Mann:So next year I played again, under 16, is Division 4, went to the trials or tryouts again.
Matt Mann:I was expecting, you know, maybe moving up a division because of the work I'd put in, not knowing, you know, much about the politics of basketball and just what it really took to sort of move up in divisions.
Matt Mann:So I stuck in Division 4 again for another year that, you know, just stayed as it is.
Matt Mann:I developed, developed to the point where I became the main scorer and the main player on, on this team next year, the following year again.
Matt Mann:I'm moving up into under 18s now, because you play two years in each, each age category, I'm feeling pretty good about myself.
Matt Mann:The, the couple years I've had under Gene, you know, and her tutelage now, I feel like that's pretty good.
Matt Mann:That's going to set me up for moving up after these tryouts.
Matt Mann:It was back in the day where you would get a letter in the mail, you know, so they didn't have email, you know, back then.
Matt Mann:So you go to tryouts, then you're waiting, you know, about a week or two to get the results in the mail.
Matt Mann:You get a letter, you open it up, congratulations, you know, you've made under 18.
Matt Mann:Division four.
Matt Mann:That was a bit of a heartbreak.
Matt Mann:I was like, man, that's unreal.
Matt Mann:I was like, okay, I can start there.
Matt Mann:Not a problem.
Matt Mann:And I'll show them that when we go to our first training that maybe we need to jig things around a little bit.
Matt Mann:And I can take one of the spots from the Division 3, because Division 1 and Division 2 train together.
Matt Mann:Division 3, Division 4 train together.
Matt Mann:And then Division 5 and Division 6 trained together just so they have enough numbers to do team drills and, you know, run through things like that.
Matt Mann:So that year, new coach, new players, I'm feeling pretty good, you know, had another pretty good, successful year.
Matt Mann:Unfortunately, I didn't move up, go to tryouts again next year.
Matt Mann:I'm thinking, man, like, I've had another really good year.
Matt Mann:I'm going to go to tryouts.
Matt Mann:I'm going to give it everything I got following tryouts.
Matt Mann:I'm excited to get this letter.
Matt Mann:I'm thinking, man, I think I've done so well.
Matt Mann:I want to aim for Division 2 because I get all the under 18s together, right?
Matt Mann:Under all the under 16s, and everybody, you know, all goes to try us together.
Matt Mann:So you've got all the Division 1 players right through to all the Division 6 players.
Matt Mann:So I feel like I proved myself enough that maybe I could go if things worked out Division 2.
Matt Mann:If not, surely I've locked in Division 3.
Matt Mann:Letter comes, I rip it open.
Matt Mann:I'm, like, excited to see what it is.
Matt Mann:Congratulations.
Matt Mann:You've made under 18.
Matt Mann:Division four.
Matt Mann:You have got to be kidding me.
Matt Mann:After all the work that I've put in and the successful seasons I had before that.
Matt Mann:And at the end of every season, they do, like, trophy awards and, you know, all that sort of stuff, so.
Matt Mann:And under 16s, I got the MVP for the team.
Matt Mann:You know, under 18s that first season, I got MVP, best league player.
Matt Mann:And I was thinking, man, how did I get Division 4 when I was the best player on the team and I got, like, MVP of the league as well?
Matt Mann:I was just like, how, how, how could that be?
Matt Mann:So that fueled more fire, you Know, it's almost like I'm one of those people that if you tell me I can't do it, I'm gonna find a way, no matter what it takes to prove someone wrong, that it's, it's achievable.
Matt Mann:I.
Matt Mann:I play throughout the entire year during multiple trainings.
Matt Mann:I am tearing up some of the Division 3 players.
Matt Mann:I'm looking over at my coach on the sideline like, can you see what I'm doing here?
Matt Mann:Like, And I'm looking at the Division 3 coach like, hey, like, I'm showing up your guys, like, I'm proving to you that I should be on your team.
Matt Mann:There is so much frustration because they just will not give me the time of day to even be looked at corner.
Matt Mann:Division 3 tournaments in Australia work a little bit differently.
Matt Mann:Like, they're typically for longer weekends.
Matt Mann:So we don't have, you know, tournaments every weekend.
Matt Mann:We have like Australia Day tournaments, which are like three day tournaments.
Matt Mann:And that's January 26th sort of weekend.
Matt Mann:We have like Easter, Easter weekend tournaments, Queen's birthday weekend tournaments, Christmas tournaments.
Matt Mann:So that don't come around, you know, a whole lot.
Matt Mann:There was one tournament, we traveled from Adelaide over interstate to a.
Matt Mann:A city called Irimpel.
Matt Mann:And this was like, like I RL tournament was known for like, being good teams from all over Australia, you know, come and play in I Rimpool.
Matt Mann:We go there.
Matt Mann:I have such a really good start to the tournament.
Matt Mann:There's been a couple days playing.
Matt Mann:We're playing three, four, you know, games a day.
Matt Mann:I'm playing really, really well.
Matt Mann:I'm talking to my coach, like, can you see how well I'm doing?
Matt Mann:I'm like, why can't someone see that I can play Division 3?
Matt Mann:Like, I can play with those guys even more.
Matt Mann:And I remember it was after a game, everyone had packed up their bags.
Matt Mann:Everyone sort of like disperted.
Matt Mann:And I stayed back and I talked to the coach and I literally just like, you know, a bottle that was about to burst.
Matt Mann:I had so much frustration from a lack of understanding about, like, what was going on and why wasn't I being looked at?
Matt Mann:Why wasn't I being moved up to Division 3?
Matt Mann:I just let my coach have it and I was furious and angry and I was like, you've got to know something.
Matt Mann:Like, tell me why I'm stuck here in Division 4.
Matt Mann:Basically, at that point, out of the I Rimpel tournament, he came out and said to me, we know you're talented and you're skilled, but I've talked to the Other coaches and we've agreed that we're going to hold you back into Division 4 so that you can really hone your craft and really excel at mastering the skills against sort of maybe lesser skilled kids and kids who are a little bit slower than Division 3 and Division 2.
Matt Mann:And it was like a double edged sword where on one hand it was almost like a relief to hear that, but on the other hand it was almost like pulling my hair out because I'm like, why didn't you tell me this before?
Matt Mann:Like I would have been okay with that if you just told me so that, you know, that made me feel better that they're holding me back to develop me.
Matt Mann:So I was like, okay, that's good.
Matt Mann:I can understand that.
Matt Mann:I've had my couple years and under 18s now it's time for under 20s.
Matt Mann:And I've got to a point where I've like given everything to basketball.
Matt Mann:I've given my blood, sweat and tears and felt like I've devoted my life to basketball for these four or five years.
Matt Mann:You know, that I've been playing now and we've moved up to the under 20s.
Matt Mann:I go to the under 20s tryouts and I'm at a point now where I am thinking, do I hang up the sneakers?
Matt Mann:Cause maybe just basketball just isn't for me or do I try and push through and keep going?
Matt Mann:So I sort of did like a half and half where the under 20s tryouts came and I told myself I am going to give it my absolute everything.
Matt Mann:I'm going to sprint harder than I've ever sprinted before.
Matt Mann:You do your 17s.
Matt Mann:You know, in a minute I'm going to try and make sure that I get well under a minute for this.
Matt Mann:I'm going to play defense the fastest I can play defense, move my feet.
Matt Mann:I'm going to sprint, you know, down on recovery when you know is if there's a fast break, I'm going to make sure that I'm the first person back on defense.
Matt Mann:I'm going to jump as high as I can to get the rebound.
Matt Mann:I made a promise to myself, I'm going to do absolutely everything in my humanly possible way to give it my everything.
Matt Mann:And if it doesn't work out, I can walk away knowing that I gave it everything that I possibly could.
Matt Mann:There was no questions asked.
Matt Mann:I can hang up the sneakers and go, okay.
Matt Mann:Basketball just didn't work out for me.
Sponsor/Advertiser:Coaches, Game Changer is making your game film more valuable than ever.
Sponsor/Advertiser:New this season to Game Changer Film room allows team staff to analyze full game videos, add content comments to specific moments, and quickly share feedback with other coaches, team members or families.
Sponsor/Advertiser:The One USports app automatically skips downtime in the game film, condensing event video into active play so you can focus on the moments that matter.
Sponsor/Advertiser:The best part?
Sponsor/Advertiser:It's completely free for coaches.
Sponsor/Advertiser:Download Game changer now on iOS or Android and take your coaching to the next level with Filmroom on gamechanger, Game Changer Stream Score Connect.
Matt Mann:After these tryouts Same thing We get the letter in the mail, right?
Matt Mann:There's that, you know, about a fortnight before you get the letter.
Matt Mann:I am now at a point where I am dreading getting this letter because every Single year is Division 4.
Matt Mann:Division 4.
Matt Mann:Division 4.
Matt Mann:The letter came.
Matt Mann:I remember getting out of that letterbox.
Matt Mann:I took it inside and I put it on the kitchen counter.
Matt Mann:I'm looking at this letter.
Matt Mann:I.
Matt Mann:I can't bring myself to open it.
Matt Mann:The heartbreak that I can remember feeling of what that letter was going to share to tell me was was just killing me.
Matt Mann:Three days went by.
Matt Mann:I had to convince myself we have to just rip the band aid off.
Matt Mann:And I remember coming home, looking at the letter and just thinking, I can't delay this anymore.
Matt Mann:Like I need to know which direction I'm going.
Matt Mann:I open the letter expecting Division 4.
Matt Mann:I open it up, read it.
Matt Mann:It says, congratulations, you've made a spot in the Division 1 and 2 squad.
Matt Mann:At that point, it was a mix of so many feelings, like joy, excitement, disbelief, but also like uncertainty because I'm like, this surely can't be for me.
Matt Mann:I think someone's mistyped my name and put me in the wrong category.
Matt Mann:It had the, the date and the time on there to show up for the first training session.
Matt Mann:So I was like, I'll go, I guess, and I'll find out whether this is actually right.
Matt Mann:Expecting this to not be right.
Matt Mann:I take my letter with me.
Matt Mann:I rock up just a little bit earlier than everybody else because I didn't want the embarrassment of showing up to something where I didn't feel like I deserved to be or where I was going to be welcomed.
Matt Mann:So I showed up a little bit early to give myself enough time to leave if that wasn't the right place for me.
Matt Mann:The Division 1 coach was named Paul.
Matt Mann:I showed him the letter and I was like, paul, I know we've never met before.
Matt Mann:My name's Matt.
Matt Mann:I received the letter.
Matt Mann:It says, I'm supposed to be here for this training.
Matt Mann:Can you confirm whether this is actually True or not, and without any doubt, he said to me, yes, I want you here.
Matt Mann:You are supposed to be here.
Matt Mann:And again, I just paused and tried to take that in for a minute, thinking, is this guy thinking that this is me?
Matt Mann:Like, is he thinking that I am who he thinks I am?
Matt Mann:Because I've only ever played Division 4.
Matt Mann:That's when he told me, you know, in the basketball arena, you've got your, your one court, all the chairs you know, go up to, like the bleachers, you know, up to the nosebleed sections up there.
Matt Mann:He told me that when he was doing his scouting, he was sitting up towards the very back of the stadium chairs, up, up, up, the seating up there.
Matt Mann:He heard me communicate the loudest of anybody.
Matt Mann:He heard me communicate on defense and offense, and he had never seen or heard of me before.
Matt Mann:But during those tryouts, he became aware of who I was purely because of my defensive communication being so loud that I drew attention to myself not knowing that he was even up there.
Matt Mann:And he's like, in Division 1, we play a lot of team defense and we rely a lot on communication.
Matt Mann:He's like, that is why you're here.
Matt Mann:So from that point on, I felt like I had a place to be.
Matt Mann:So I played out my under 20s.
Matt Mann:My first season under, under 20s, I did okay.
Matt Mann:You know, I learned a lot.
Matt Mann:There was a lot of bumps through the road, and Tom was our point guard, and he took me under his wing and tried to help me understand how to be a point guard and how to run things at a Division 1 level.
Matt Mann:Even though I had players that were supportive like Tom, there were other players on the team who would literally walk into training and just stare me down, just believing that I should not be there.
Matt Mann:And there's one player in particular that it was week after week, month after month, that he would just stare me down, not pass me the ball, knock me around when I am on the court just because he thought I didn't deserve to be there.
Matt Mann:That, again, helps me prove to other people, you might not think I belong, but I'm going to prove to you that I do.
Matt Mann:So understanding that there's only one more season Left of under 20s, I talked to my coach about making a bit of a change.
Matt Mann:And after you play under 20s, most people quit basketball after that, because after that, it becomes a men's league now.
Matt Mann:So now you're going into the men's league, which is more like the, you know, 21 to 25 year olds.
Matt Mann:So it's a lot of sort of like, you know, college age type players, you know.
Matt Mann:And I told my coach and I said, I want to try and take a leap ahead of everybody else at my age level.
Matt Mann:I talked to him about going to the men's coach and talking to him about me wanting to play men's.
Matt Mann:There was one Sunday afternoon and it was following our training, everybody had cleared out.
Matt Mann:The men's coach was down there, and they weren't training for about another hour or so.
Matt Mann:But on that day, he just came early and I saw him sitting over there going through his papers and I thought, you know what?
Matt Mann:This is a moment in time that I need to take advantage of.
Matt Mann:And I was terrified to go after him and talk to him because he had never, you know, I'd never talked to him before.
Matt Mann:I'd never even really, like, knew who this guy was.
Matt Mann:I just knew through just recent learnings who the actual, you know, Division 1 coach was for the men's basketball.
Matt Mann:And I always made a promise to myself that I'll try and take advantage of every single moment that I have.
Matt Mann:And I sat there shaking in my boots, him sitting over there, and I'm like, again, this is a similar situation where I just have to rip the band aid off like I did with that letter.
Matt Mann:I have to go and find out.
Matt Mann:I went over and I talked to him, I introduced myself to him and I said, I would love to just come and train with a Division 1, Division 2 men's teams.
Matt Mann:I'm not expecting any court time or anything like that.
Matt Mann:I just want to get better.
Matt Mann:And by, you know, I'm not going to get as good by still sticking in under 20s.
Matt Mann:I need to play against people who are bigger, stronger, faster than me.
Matt Mann:Without hesitation.
Matt Mann:He's like, I know who you are.
Matt Mann:Come along.
Matt Mann:We got training tomorrow.
Matt Mann:This is a time and place.
Matt Mann:Come, come train.
Matt Mann:I was like, I cannot believe he just accepted that and took me on.
Matt Mann:Like, I did not expect that at all.
Matt Mann:Like, I was preparing myself for the rejection.
Matt Mann:And, you know, who are you and why do you think you deserve to be here?
Matt Mann:And, you know, like, lots of no thanks.
Matt Mann:But that moment again, I was filled with so much, like, joy and excitement to be like, oh my God, someone is willing to give me a chance.
Matt Mann:So I went there and for like the better part of eight or nine months, all I did was just train with these guys.
Matt Mann:And I got knocked around, like, because, you know, I'm just a sort of skinny point guard that, you know, I didn't do a lot of weight training sort of back in those days.
Matt Mann:So I go there, these guys are so fast, so good, so strong.
Matt Mann:But I just kept coming back, you know, it's almost like, you know, when Alan, you see Allen Iverson, you know, get knocked down and he just comes straight back at you, you know, it's almost.
Matt Mann:Almost one of those people that almost crave, you know, getting hit and then coming back and go, you know, I'm come, I'm coming back at you.
Matt Mann:So about eight or nine months went past, and then the coach offered me a uniform to play in the Men's Division 1 reserves.
Matt Mann:So from there I ended up playing the Division 1 reserves, working my way up to playing Division 1.
Matt Mann:And I actually got recruited by another team that their point guard was leaving to go play professional basketball.
Matt Mann:And he asked me to basically, you know, if I would be interested in coming over and playing point guard for their team.
Matt Mann:So I believe I'm pretty respectful.
Matt Mann:I called a meeting at the end of one of the trainings for the current club that I was training at, and I got everyone together and I basically told them, I've got some I want to share with you guys, and I want it to come from me.
Matt Mann:I don't want any.
Matt Mann:He say, she say anything like that, you know, around the club or around the league.
Matt Mann:I want you guys to hear it straight from the horse's mouth.
Matt Mann:And I told them about the opportunity and I said, you know, if you guys want me to stay here, I will stay.
Matt Mann:But they've asked me, you know, and I'm interested in going over there and with the coach, which I talked to earlier and got his approval.
Matt Mann:And, you know, I had the respect of the teammates and I wanted to show them respect and, you know, tell them about the opportunity that I had.
Matt Mann:And most of them were, like, really excited for me and they're like, yeah, 100%, like, that's an opportunity.
Matt Mann:It is going to suck that you leave, and obviously we would want you here.
Matt Mann:But if you're getting an opportunity to go and run this Division 1 team as a point guard, they're like, you.
Matt Mann:You've got to take that opportunity.
Matt Mann:So I took that opportunity from there.
Matt Mann:Basically, the professional team in Adelaide called the Adelaide 36ers, they were holding a lot of tryouts because they were going to get, like, some, you know, development players, and they were looking for, like, new, new players, and they.
Matt Mann:They held, you know, different tryouts at different locations to give, like, you know, a lot of different players opportunities.
Matt Mann:You're only supposed to register for one location.
Matt Mann:I was a little bit cheeky and registered for two locations.
Matt Mann:I don't think anyone ever picked up on the fact that I went to two tryouts because I, I was just so desperate to become a professional player that I'm sort of bending the rules a little bit because this is my dream now.
Matt Mann:My dream is to, to play professional.
Matt Mann:You know, that, that's, that's my goal, that's my dream, to do that.
Matt Mann:So I remember going to, to both of these tryouts.
Matt Mann:Long story short, I got a letter in the mail from the Adelaide 36ers and I still have it today.
Matt Mann:And my mom, my mother has it in her filing cabinet.
Matt Mann:And it's a, it's a congratulatory letter from the 36ers saying, Congratulations, you've been selected as one of the developed development players for the 36ers.
Matt Mann:So again I was like, yes, like someone has given me an opportunity.
Matt Mann:Like I'm starting to edge that little bit closer to my dream.
Matt Mann:So I ended up training, you know, with the 36s are like a development player.
Matt Mann:Then the worst thing that you could imagine at this point in time, I'm driving to the hoop on a fast break.
Matt Mann:We are going one on one.
Matt Mann:And funny enough, the guy who was guarding me, he actually played on our team the year before.
Matt Mann:And him and I, we would always clash heads.
Matt Mann:We would butt heads at training constantly.
Matt Mann:The season began, we played some games.
Matt Mann:Our team got the rebound outlet to me at the half court.
Matt Mann:This other guy who was on our team, he was like basically at center court and we're both sprinting towards the basket.
Matt Mann:It's like becoming like a race, right?
Matt Mann:It's a one on one battle.
Matt Mann:It gets to about the, where the foul line is.
Matt Mann:I've got the ball in my left hand, he's on my right hip, he's got his arm bar on my hip.
Matt Mann:And I know I put a lot of work in in the off season.
Matt Mann:He did not.
Matt Mann:He had put on a lot of weight, he had slowed down.
Matt Mann:So I think basketball sort of ending for him.
Matt Mann:I thought one quick good hard push and I'm going to get in front of him and I'm going to finish.
Matt Mann:At that point in time, he nudged me.
Matt Mann:My quad went to my left, my shin going down to my foot went to my right and my knee hyperextended backwards.
Matt Mann:At the same time.
Matt Mann:Snap.
Matt Mann:My ACL torn in half.
Matt Mann:I'm laying on the ground, like with adrenaline, not knowing what the heck is going on.
Matt Mann:The game continues on and we've got all these 6, 8, 6 10, 7 foot guys that are coming down now, you know, rebounding and playing offense.
Matt Mann:I'm laying on my back on the sideline.
Matt Mann:And it was actually the opposition's doctor, the team doctor, who got her daughter to run up the stairs to the front office of the stadium that we were playing at and call an ambulance.
Matt Mann:Because no one, the rest didn't stop the game.
Matt Mann:They just let it keep going.
Matt Mann:And my team knew.
Matt Mann:I talked to them after.
Matt Mann:My team knew the moment that I didn't get back up, they knew something was wrong because they knew every time I hit the ground, I'm straight back up.
Matt Mann:But there's one time I was down on the ground, they knew something was wrong.
Matt Mann:Five or ten minutes go by.
Matt Mann:There's a hospital just down the road from the, from the stadium.
Matt Mann:No one's there yet.
Matt Mann:The, the opposition's team doctor got her daughter to run back upstairs again to find out, like, you know, where the ambulance is at.
Matt Mann:The lady in the front office tells her, my apologies, I forgot, I'll call an ambulance now.
Matt Mann:I'm like, are you kidding me?
Matt Mann:You forgot to call an ambulance?
Matt Mann:And then within a blink of an eye, they were there.
Matt Mann:Took me over to the hospital and by this time, it's about midnight now, and my mother's come to meet me there.
Matt Mann:My girlfriend, she's there.
Matt Mann:My girlfriend at the time, she's there.
Matt Mann:And you know how like mothers have like this sixth sense of things, right?
Matt Mann:They've always just got this unique sense for picking up on things.
Matt Mann:This doctor comes in, moves my knee around a little bit and goes, oh, I think you sort of just like bruised your knee, you know, he's like, maybe just stay off it for about six weeks, you know, and then sort of get back into playing after that.
Matt Mann:My mother's just like, things just don't.
Matt Mann:They don't seem right.
Matt Mann:So anyway, we go home with the 36ers.
Matt Mann:We have a place called Sports Medium.
Matt Mann:And that's where all the professional surgeons and doctors and nutritionists and dietitians.
Matt Mann:That's where, you know, you can get access to all these guys.
Matt Mann:So we caught up, made an appointment, went in there.
Matt Mann:First thing in the morning, I'm sitting in this room, this doctor walks in.
Matt Mann:He was barely even in there for a few seconds, looks at my knee, he's like, you've torn your acl.
Matt Mann:And I was like, what are you talking about?
Matt Mann:Like, you haven't even looked at my knee.
Matt Mann:You haven't even done anything.
Matt Mann:So anyway, he Picks it up.
Matt Mann:He holds my knee and puts his hand under my calf and turns my leg clockwise where my shin is.
Matt Mann:And he's like, your leg should not twist like this.
Matt Mann:It's supposed to bend this way.
Matt Mann:It is not supposed to rotate this way.
Matt Mann:That's how I know you've done your acl.
Matt Mann:I was like, man, I'm not sure what that means, but I was like, you know, like, what's, what's the recovery going to be?
Matt Mann:Surgery.
Matt Mann:This, this, this hearing surgery just frightened the life out of me.
Matt Mann:And he was basically like, this is going to be about a 12, 12 month recovery.
Matt Mann:That was a stab in the heart.
Matt Mann:Like, I've never had 12 minutes away from basketball since I first started playing, let alone 12 months.
Matt Mann:I was like, oh my God, that this is just gonna tear me up.
Matt Mann:And so I made a joke to him.
Matt Mann:I was like, the other doctor we saw, he said, it's gonna be about six weeks.
Matt Mann:Can I take that?
Matt Mann:I was like, I'd much rather that.
Matt Mann:But he's like, that's not, that's not gonna happen.
Matt Mann:So had my surgery, took me 14 months to recover before I could get back on the court and actually just start running up and down the court in a straight line, not even zigzagging, putting pressure on anything like that.
Matt Mann:Fast forward, you know, a little bit, a little bit more.
Matt Mann:I get an opportunity to go play overseas in England.
Matt Mann:So I go play overseas in England, an opportunity comes over to go play in Germany.
Matt Mann:So I skipped over to Germany.
Matt Mann:Things didn't work out over there, so I went back to England, spent a little bit more time in England, then had an opportunity to go to Canada.
Matt Mann:So I played in Canada for a while and then made my way down to America from there.
Matt Mann:So I wanted to go to the, the summer league down in Las Vegas and try out for the NBA.
Matt Mann:So that didn't, that didn't work out.
Matt Mann:And then from there, that's sort of basically where the playing career had sort of like started to wrap up a little bit.
Matt Mann:I had met my current wife in Mexico and so she was living in Seattle.
Matt Mann:I'm living up in Vancouver, up in Canada.
Matt Mann:And you know, it's only like about a three hour drive.
Matt Mann:So I'd go visit her, she would come and visit me.
Matt Mann:Basically it got to a point where like, are you going to move to Canada or am I going to move to America?
Matt Mann:So it was easier for me to pack up my life and move to America.
Matt Mann:So we did that.
Matt Mann:Kid you not.
Matt Mann:I basically crossed the border Just before COVID happens.
Matt Mann:So I get into America and they're like, basically, welcome to America.
Matt Mann:Stay home.
Matt Mann:So, you know, I'm like, is this how you treat everybody who's coming to America?
Matt Mann:You know, that's how you treat all your, you know, all your new, new, new arrivals.
Matt Mann:So now, now that we're living through Covid, everything's dead.
Matt Mann:Like, nothing's going on.
Matt Mann:No one's working.
Matt Mann:I'm waiting for my green card to come in, so trying to think about how I can earn, like a bit of cash.
Matt Mann:We ended up running into one of my wife's friends in Safeway and hey, what have you been doing, like, during COVID She's with her six year old boy and she's like, we just got back, you know, from the basketball courts.
Matt Mann:You know, I've been trying to help him stay active, teach him a little bit of basketball.
Matt Mann:My wife is like, man, that's awesome.
Matt Mann:Matt knows so much about basketball.
Matt Mann:You know, maybe we could work something out.
Matt Mann:Not a problem.
Matt Mann:I basically go and train him and just, just help him with, like, basic, you know, coordination and, you know, fundamentals and just the very, very basics.
Matt Mann:His mother loved it, started telling everybody about it.
Matt Mann:So word of mouth starts, you know, coming, coming my direction.
Matt Mann:And all these people start reaching out.
Matt Mann:Hey, you know, can you train my son?
Matt Mann:Can you train my daughter?
Matt Mann:You know, can you do this?
Matt Mann:So I started thinking, man, maybe I could turn this into, like a bit of a business.
Matt Mann:So I started with just a small, small handful of kids.
Matt Mann:Three months later, I've got 72 kids on the books, and I was like, wow, this is just blown up to something that I did not even expect.
Matt Mann:So basically from there I started training all these kids, start looking up drills, and, you know, I didn't really know anything about, you know, NBA trainers or even training as a business.
Matt Mann:I'm just trying to think of all the drills that I did and what I did to work on my fundamentals and, you know, what I did to develop myself.
Matt Mann:And that's what I started, you know, working with these kids.
Matt Mann:So I started trying to think of who else is out there that I could, you know, get some drills and skills and stuff from.
Matt Mann:I ended up becoming friends with Drew Hanlon, who's, you know, very well known MBA skills trainer.
Matt Mann:And long story short, we become, you know, pretty good mates.
Matt Mann:And I learned a lot from him.
Matt Mann:And now, you know, I go down to Portland and, you know, I help run clinics down there where there's just him and me and, you know, I've been to his retreats in Las Vegas.
Matt Mann:I've been down to help, you know, work out all his NBA players down in la.
Matt Mann:And from there I basically got in touch with Dave Severance, who I think now works for Indiana, John Townsend, who's, you know, an NBA shooting coach.
Matt Mann:So he's.
Matt Mann:He's become a mentor of mine, especially when it comes to, like, shooting.
Matt Mann:So he's basically told me everything that I know about shooting.
Matt Mann:You, you're going to know about shooting?
Matt Mann:Yeah.
Matt Mann:I've talked with Phil Handy.
Matt Mann:So that's how basically I went from playing basketball and went through all of my experience to wrapping up my playing experience and getting into training and skills training.
Matt Mann:And that.
Matt Mann:That wasn't even something that I'd even thought of or dreamt of doing.
Matt Mann:It just so happened to be Covid and nothing was going on and it sort of just spiked from there.
Matt Mann:And just with my love and obsession with basketball now that's all I do is watch film, study, learn shooting techniques from Drew, from John, and really understand the nuances that it takes to become, like, a really good shooter.
Matt Mann:So, yeah, that's.
Matt Mann:That's basically my story of starting basketball and how I got into training players.
Mike Clemsing:So, Matt, I think what we've just discovered here is that part one of the Mat man podcast is the story of your playing career and how you got into training.
Mike Clemsing:And part two that we're going to have to have you back for is to dive further into the training techniques, the relationships with the guys that you just mentioned, and talk to you a little bit more about that experience.
Mike Clemsing:But before we get out tonight, I want to give you a chance to share.
Mike Clemsing:How can people get in touch with you, reach out to you, whether you want to share, email, website, social media, whatever you feel comfortable with.
Mike Clemsing:And then after you do that, I'll jump back in and wrap things up.
Matt Mann:Yeah, a lot of players reach out to me on Instagram, so it's at Skills Within Hoops.
Matt Mann:You can also email me at Info skills within Hoops.com.
Matt Mann:there's the website skills within Hoops.com so you can reach out to me anywhere through those channels.
Mike Clemsing:Perfect.
Mike Clemsing:Matt, can I thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule tonight to jump on with us?
Mike Clemsing:Really appreciate it.
Mike Clemsing:And to everyone out there, thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode of.
Mike Clemsing:Thanks.
Unknown Speaker:Your first impression is everything when applying for a new coaching job.
Unknown Speaker:A professional coaching portfolio is the tool that highlights your coaching achievements and philosophies, and most of all, helps separate you and your abilities from the other applicants.
Unknown Speaker:The Coaching Portfolio Guide is an instructional membership based website that helps you develop a personalized portfolio.
Unknown Speaker:Each section of the Portfolio Guide provides provides detailed instructions on how to organize your portfolio in a professional manner.
Unknown Speaker:The guide also provides sample documents for each section of your portfolio that you can copy, modify and add to your personal portfolio.
Unknown Speaker:As a Hoop Heads pod listener, you can get your Coaching Portfolio Guide for just $25.
Unknown Speaker:Visit coachingportfolioguide.com hoop heads to learn more.
Matt Mann:Thanks for listening to the Hoop Heads Podcast presented by Head Start Basketball.
