Your Questions

Small classes enable us to provide lots of individual instruction for each child. Coach student ratio is generally 1-5.

Absolutely not. We don’t have “stars” at First Shot. Everyone is recognized for his/her individual abilities. All programs are designed so every child plays in every event – no one ever sits out.

No one likes to lose, especially a child. But as adults know, many failures are necessary before success can be achieved. We always address this before it happens by sharing stories about athletes like Michael Jordan who lost and failed many times before he won. We encourage your child to think positively, to focus off the loss and on to what has to be done so he doesn’t lose again. We show children how to avoid the mistakes that caused them to fail in the first place. Of course, winning is important because it builds self confidence. But, losing is equally important because it builds experience.

Yes. Parents are our cheering section and your enthusiasm encourages all the children. Parents are invited to stay for all or part of the class, but it is not mandatory.

Yes. The adage, “You get what you pay for” is true. Leagues are run by nice people who, like all good parents, are sometimes looking out for their own child. They are volunteers who may or may not know anything about basketball, much less teaching it properly to children. First Shot does not accept volunteers or any relatives of our students. All our coaches are experienced, trained and paid. They know how to speak to children in an empowering way and, most important, they know how to teach.

We start another one. We run two 12-week semesters between October and June. In fact, 70% of our enrollment is with returning students and half of our new students come from recommendations.  We are very proud that some of our current players are sibl ings of older brothers and sisters who graduated from our program years ago.