SoCalHoops Coaching News

We've been meaning to start a new special section on "coaching" here at SoCalHoops. No, not the section we have now which has simple links to other folks' sites (like Basketball Highway, or other sites that focus on coaching techniques, plays and strategy), but something different.  Instead we're putting together a collection of information and data (names addresses, telephone numbers) about coaches who work with players (of all ages) in SoCal on things such as shooting technique, strength training, explosiveness, footwork, plyometrics, and ball-handling, in short, all the skills that players need to improve their games. 

We are constantly being asked by players and parents at the games we attend for the names of coaches who work with young developing players, either in group workouts or privately. Likewise, coaches also ask us if there is some kind of a clearinghouse here at SoCalHoops where they can let parents and players know that their services are available.  Well, since we've tried to fulfill that same role for the local leagues, tournaments, and high school and local colleges and univerities in general, we though, why not? How hard can it be?  It's just a list of names and addresses, right?

Well, it's easier said than done, but we're making progress and we expect to have some info up soon. Purely coincidentally, this past weekend, Mark Mayemura, one of the driving forces behind the Los Angeles Rockfish and the Rockfish Spring League (the other guy who propels the league is Dave Benezra), who also put out a couple of great publications, Recruiting SoCal and Recruiting USA (which also has it's own website, hence the link), sent us some information on an article recently published in the Detroit Free Press on just such a person who frequently works with players here in the SoCal region.

Now it just happens that this guy Mark was writing about is one of the best shooting coaches in SoCal, and it also  happens that he's Grant Hill's personal coach. Now if you guessed Ken Krofft, who is also a great shooting coach, you'd be close but not too far off because they're friends and occasionally work out together.  We're talking about Chip Engelland.

Chip Engelland, is a SoCal native who attended Palisades HS (he led the City in scoring as a HS senior, something like 30 ppg), then got a scholarship to Duke. He then spent the rest of his twenties playing pro basketball (kind of a basketball gypsy) in the CBA and other pro leagues. Chip won one of the CBA 3-point shooting contests, way back when (in the early Nineties), and shot better than 50% throughout his career from behind the pro 3-point line.  Chip has worked quite a bit with the Rockfish program in the past, he's a superb teacher of shooting mechanics and he's great working with the kids. He still spends quite a bit of time in SoCal and when he's not doing basketball camps (for example, he runs the LA Athletic Club summer basketball camp) or doing consultation, he still finds some time to volunteer time with the Rockfish; Chip's a super guy and a great shooting coach. He's also the shooting coach for Steve Kerr (another Pali High grad), Bryce Drew and Corey Carr. Chip has a company called Chip Shots, which holds shooting camps/clinics/private instruciton for individuals and high school, junior college and college programs. Chip Shots can be reached at (312) 837-6500.

And here's the story from the Detroit Free Press which Mark referred us to. We've left out the picture of Chip and the sidebar box which compares Grant Hill's shooting stats pre-Chip and post-Chip, but here's the link to the story (hopefully it's archived) so you can see that for yourself:

Shot coach helps Hill rebuild jumper from bottom up

April 14, 1999

BY JO-ANN BARNAS
Free Press Sports Writer

He's there at most every practice -- second folding chair on the left on this day. Inconspicuous and quiet, dressed in sweats, right elbow resting on his knee. Watch him for a minute. Only the eyes move. No clipboard or notebook in sight. Makes sense. Chip Engelland isn't a Pistons coach. No NBA logo on his shirt. No team paycheck in his pocket. Engelland isn't an employee of the Pistons, either.

But as this lanky 37-year-old sits and watches -- it doesn't matter where, really, at the Palace, on the road -- follow his gaze. Watch him watching. His focus is always on one player. Grant Hill.

Since mid-September, when they were introduced by Duke assistant Johnny Dawkins, Engelland has been Hill's behind-the-scenes personal instructional coach.

Shot doctor? Naw. That implies something is broken, and Engelland said Hill didn't become a four-time NBA All-Star with poor form or errant shooting. But Hill realized his jump shot needed fine-tuning. It wasn't reliable enough.

"He's going to be a Hall of Fame player with or without my help -- he's A-plus right now," Engelland said. "But Grant knows where he is and where he started. What I try to provide is peace of mind." A comfort zone. That's what Pistons coach Alvin Gentry calls it.

But actually, Hill said this working relationship is deeper than that. These two Duke grads -- strangers until last summer -- have been steadily reworking Hill's game, one layer at a time. And not just a few minor adjustments, like shifting a foot here or moving an elbow there.

Starting over, Hill said. Starting over, as in....   "Standing there with my hand behind my back at Franklin Racquet Club, with these 7-year-olds at summer camp around me," Hill said, remembering those early workouts during the NBA lockout. "I'm shooting one-handed shots from that little dotted line near the basket, all these kids watching everything I'm doing. That's pretty embarrassing. And the thing about it was, when I first did it, I couldn't do it -- I couldn't make the shots. "But it was really a process of breaking down everything -- my balance, my form, my follow-through. Sometimes I guess you have to swallow your pride a little bit. I think it's paid off a lot this year, but I still have a long way to go."

Hill, 26, said Engelland has provided him exactly what he was searching for after last season. "Last summer, I was real honest with myself," Hill said Tuesday. "Like for four years, I knew I had to work on my jump shot -- and I still do -- but I never really put the time in. You go to a court and shoot 50 jumpers, and it was like, 'OK, I put my time in.' But this past summer I said, 'OK, I have to start doing it now. I have to really put my time in.' I want to constantly get better. I have yet to have a perfect game, a perfect season -- that's what you strive for. And I don't think it's necessarily all that bad to get outside help. Some people might look at it as an ego thing, but think about it: Sometimes when you're working by yourself, you're not honest. When you're by yourself, you start to justify -- 'Hey, I'm an all-star; I've done this and that.' But when you get an outside person, someone with a different perspective, someone who's going to be real honest with you, believe me, you start to look at yourself a little differently."

Since hooking up with Engelland, Hill has found even more confidence in his shooting. He said his game feels better. His statistics have yet to reflect that, but Hill and Engelland said better stats aren't their goal. Hill is averaging 21.1 points a game -- same as last season. His field-goal percentage is also about the same (45.2 in 1998; 46.9 this season) as is his free-throw percentage (74.0 in '98; 76.5 today).

"I know Grant feels that he's shooting it better, and that's three-fourths of the battle," Gentry said. "Obviously, Chip has done a great job. Grant's shooting with a lot of confidence, and his shooting's better from the perimeter than it has ever been in his career." As an example, Gentry brought up the Pistons' 89-82 victory over Atlanta last Wednesday. Hill scored 30 points, but how he scored those points was more important to Gentry. "He took over the game shooting jump shots," Gentry said. "To me, that means he has made unbelievable progress -- not so much statistics as the fact that he feels like he can make that shot now. Whether he makes it or misses it, it's very important that he's shooting it feeling like it's going in. Anything Chip can do to help him, I'm all for it. And Chip has been great. I mean, you don't even know he's there, really."

A former ball boy for John Wooden's UCLA teams in the early 1970s, Engelland has a basketball past as interesting as it is diverse. Born in Chicago and raised in Pacific Palisades, Calif., Engelland showed a keen interest in the sport in the seventh grade when a high school tennis coach spotted him shooting on an outdoor basketball court. The coach walked over and told the boy to keep his elbow in, wrist bent, and take nothing but shots from five and six feet out. "You learn the game like golf -- from the cup back," the coach said.

The advice stuck.

Five years later, Engelland passed along the same advice to another gangly youngster shooting baskets at the same outdoor court. The kid's name was Steve Kerr. Later, the two became friends, and when Kerr went on to play for the Chicago Bulls, Engelland became his personal shooting coach. "A better teacher than player," Engelland said, describing his career. Actually, Engelland was a better-than-average player. A 6-foot-4 guard, he earned a scholarship to Duke, where he was co-captain of the 1983 team and was a career 55.4 percent three-point shooter.

After graduation, he played 2 1/2 seasons in the Philippine Basketball Association for a team called the San Miguel Brewery Corp. From there, he played for a variety of Continental Basketball Association teams, including the Topeka Sizzlers in 1986-88, and then for Calgary in the World Basketball League. His playing career ended in 1991. Engelland went to law school at DePaul, quit after two years, then started a series of Chicago area basketball camps called Chip Shots. In Kerr's first season with the Bulls -- 1993-94 -- he was in a shooting slump when Engelland asked if he wouldn't mind some advice. "He had a sore knee, and I noticed it affected his balance," Engelland said. "I told Steve he needed to widen out his stance." Kerr finished the season shooting 49.7 percent from the field, compared to 43.4 the previous season. On three-pointers, his percentage went from 23.1 to 41.9.

Although he works predominantly with Hill, Engelland still assists Kerr as well as Bulls rookie Cory Carr and Houston rookie Bryce Drew. Engelland and Hill work together several times a week, mostly after practices. Engelland attends almost every Pistons game, even on the road. "This is new ground for both of us," Engelland said. "I've never followed a player to this extent as I have with Grant. Grant is a sponge -- a tremendous student. The full integration of everything he's learning and applying I don't think will be realized until next January and February."

Hill said: "Chip and I were talking about the off-season. I said, 'I want to take a week or two off and then get out there working.' And he said, 'Why don't you wait until after your wedding in August?' I said, 'No. I'm going to be tired, but I feel like I need that time to continue to work and continue to get better.' "

That comfort zone?

"In doing those things that we did last summer -- the two- and three-foot shots with one hand -- that's not what a typical player would want to be doing," Hill explained. "But I was doing them. I just wanted to get better, and I feel like he's somebody who can help me."

 
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