Coach Donald Watts
DonaldWatts@ChampWorkouts.com

“I enjoy taking my coaching and the people that I work with to new heights,” says Watts. “I like to see people achieve what they think is impossible. I like seeing them smile at the ease of performing the same action they thought they weren’t capable of 10-15 minutes earlier.”

Consistently being an outstanding athlete throughout high school and at University of Washington, and having worked with some of the best coaches and players in the world, Watts teaches what he knows. “I’ve had some great opportunities to hang out and talk basketball and learn basketball from the best,” says Watts. “I grew up with a lot of the old pros. In those days, they were more specialized and they’d pass on little tidbits of their speciality. I like to think that I soaked it all up and came up with my own philosophy.”

When Watt’s career was slowed down by chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), he began to study movement. One of the sports he looked at was martial arts and what struck him was how everyone seemed to improve, no matter their skill level. “I took that and applied it to my coaching philosophy. I broke down the skills and attributes of a good basketball player and developed a progressive system that everybody can improve with, just starting with smallest movement. Learning basketball is like a dance. You train your body to move a certain way, whether you’re learning jumping or shooting skills. For instance, when I’m training people how to shoot, I place a lot of emphasis on rhythm and flow. Sometimes when you put too much emphasis on form and technique, it has the opposite effect, it makes a person more rigid. Basketball is a fluid game. It’s very dynamic.”