I’m Mike Nilson and I want to help you become a better player through building basketball habits. Let me show you how the best players eat, train and lead. Can you imagine what jumping a few inches higher would do for your game? Or how much better you’d be on defense if you were quicker. How much more could you help your team if you played stronger? That’s what I’m here to help you achieve.
Since 2000, I’ve helped thousands of basketball players and coaches become their best. They’ve all been at different places in their development, but the common attribute they shared was that they were willing to make a commitment to practicing basketball habits. Don’t worry if you’re new to training or are a picky eater… I was once there too. As long as you have the right mindset, you can do anything!
What’s A Hoop Commitment?
HERE’S MY DEFINITION
I heard a story years ago that changed my life: The key to Jerry Seinfeld’s success is that he commits to writing one joke a day. ONE JOKE! The greatest comedian of our time isn’t writing 10 or 20 jokes a day… he commits to writing just one.
Every day that he creates a joke, he earns the right to put an “X” on his calendar. The “Xs” create a visual chain of success that he can watch grow. I could just imagine the stacks and stacks of calendars he has that are full of “Xs”.
On days when Jerry is sick, tired or unmotivated, he says to himself, “Don’t Break The Chain.”
It’s easy to fail if you only have a couple days of success in a row, but when you have hundreds of “Xs” on your calendar, there’s no way you can fail. The longer your chain of success, the stronger you become mentally and the closer you get to achieving your dream.
After hearing Jerry Seinfeld’s story, I immediately put a calendar on my wall and started my chain of success. Now that I have thousands of “Xs” in a row, I personally know the power of not breaking the chain.
A Hoop Commitment is a promise to practice a daily habit that will improve your game.
You can’t be a great player in one day, even if you practice for 24 hours straight. The only way to accumulate the 10,000 hours it takes to master a skill is to commit to building basketball habits through daily practice.
HOOP COMMITMENT
IS A PROMISE
TO PRACTICE
A BASKETBALL HABIT
EVERY DAY
TO IMPROVE YOUR GAME.
IS A PROMISE
TO PRACTICE
A BASKETBALL HABIT
EVERY DAY
TO IMPROVE YOUR GAME.
Where Should You Start?
3 BASKETBALL HABITS
While there are endless ways to become a better basketball player, I’ve spent my career becoming an expert in 3 of them: Nutrition, Workouts & Leadership…or Eat. Train. Lead.
You can’t be an expert in strength & conditioning without being an expert in nutrition because food is what fuels your workouts, helps you recover and eventually builds muscle.
And you can’t be an expert in nutrition without being an expert in leadership because changing eating habits requires extreme motivation. That’s why I’ve spent my career learning how to help players improve the way the eat, train & lead.
Pick one of the areas below and commit to practicing some aspect of it EVERY DAY for the next 30 days. By the end of the month, you’ll know exactly how to fit it into your schedule and will be on your way to making success a basketball habit.

Common Mistakes
THE BIGGEST OBSTACLES TO YOUR SUCCESS
As a strength & conditioning professional, nutritionist and basketball coach, it breaks my heart to see motivated players set themselves up for failure.
Most people start out with the right intentions, but they have a misguided idea of what it takes to become their best. Having a faulty plan is actually worse than having no plan at all.
Here are 3 of the most common mistakes that keep players from reaching the top:
HANG A CALENDAR
WHERE YOU’LL SEE IT
EVERY DAY.
WHERE YOU’LL SEE IT
EVERY DAY.
Choose Only 1
BASKETBALL HABITS
Knowing that you’ll continually strive to get better for the rest of your life, there’s no pressure of which commitment to start with first. Any of the basketball habits you choose will be the right one.
Here are two simple options to get you going. Pick one of the basketball habits and Don’t Break The Chain!
JOIN THE COMMUNITY
Join the team and I’ll send you the latest and greatest training tips on basketball nutrition, workouts & leadership straight to your mailbox every week. Sign up below!