Larry Umaña Head Trainer

Fundamental Body Mechanics Specialist & Shooting Coach

Nathan Lopez Head Trainer

Elite Guard Skill Development Specialist with collegiate level experience.

Coach Larry:

Ironically, I will not showcase a list of basketball achievements and/or accomplishments. At the age of 14, I was forced to make a very important decision in my life. My heart was in playing ball, but my talent was in swimming. Basketball and swimming fell within the same season, so I had to pick the sport that would change my life. Fortunately, I received a full athletic scholarship to swim for a Division 1 program at Saint Peter's University in Jersey City, NJ.  As a D1 swimmer, I definitely understood what hard work, dedication, and determination meant.  

My experience as a skill development trainer goes back to my first teaching position over 20 years ago.  As a physical science teacher, I've developed the gift of making difficult scientific concepts simple to understand.  So, when I volunteered to coach middle school basketball in my hometown of Paterson, NJ, I applied the same strategies to simplify the game to increase understanding and ability to my players.  

Throughout the years I focused more on individual development by breaking bad habits and strengthening weaknesses.  As a student of the game, I gained an extensive knowledge on body mechanics, which has been the key to my success as a skill development trainer.  I have trained players of all ages (boys and girls) from grade school up to the collegiate level.  Having the ability to train all positions on the court, most of my clients come to me to strengthen their ball handling, shooting mechanics, motor skills, balance, agility and most importantly, footwork.  My philosophy as a trainer is to teach basketball efficiency through fundamental body mechanics, footwork, alignment and muscle memory repetition using scientific concepts, innovative drills and inspirational messages.  I am a certified USA Youth Basketball Coach/Trainer focused on evaluating and improving broken shot mechanics. My goal is to provide the best training possible to develop confident and successful athletes.

Coach Nate:

I started developing my skill set the summer of my sophomore year of high school in 2008.  As a varsity member for Ridgefield Park High School, there were many things I needed to work on in order to receive more playing time.  Since that year, training was something that became part of my life.  From high school to the collegiate level, I knew there were things in my game that needed to be polished, and every off-season, I worked on different aspects of my game to improve for the upcoming season. 

Training was so much a part of my own life that other athletes, young and old, would ask me for advice and drills that they could use for themselves.  I would often have players join my personal workouts just to show them different things they can do on their own.  As time went by, little did I know that I had already started walking in my calling.  My philosophy as a trainer is to create every drill into game like situations. This helps simplify the game once you are in a five on five setting.  It's important that athletes know where they are on the court and how to be successful in their position no matter where they are.  Most clients come to me for elite ball handling, shooting mechanics, and for stronger one on one skills.  I am a certified USA Youth Basketball Coach/Trainer with four years of collegiate basketball experience, and three years of coaching.