After coaching the Santa Monica College men’s basketball team the last three years, Trevor Shickman has found a new way to work with players.
Shickman has joined Abunassar Impact Basketball, a high level training service based at the Home Depot Center in Carson. The clients range from about 50 NBA players to one-third of the annual NBA draft choices to high school players, including some on the Westside.
“I used another training program at SMC but in my third season there I discovered this one and was blown away,” said Shickman. “So we switched and when I wasn’t coaching at SMC anymore I joined the company.”
Shickman says high school players go through the same training as professionals, a program that integrates basketball, basketball specific performance, and movement. In addition, nutrition is emphasized.
Shickman admits he misses coaching and doesn’t rule out returning sometime in the future. He came to SMC after being an assistant at Georgia Tech and is well aware of the demands of the profession. Right now, however, he’s concentrating on his new work and preparing with his wife, Caron, for the birth of their first child in April.
Shickman said that one of Abunassar’s star pupils is former Santa Monica High star Tim McGrath, who went to San Diego State from high school and is now preparing to play for Cal State Dominguez Hills.
Through the years high school coaches have been concerned about their players working with private coaches, because maybe players are being taught things that don’t mesh with those emphasized by the high school coach.
“I fully understand,” said Shickman. “I was the same way. But we support the high school coach. We just want to make players a little better within the system they’re playing.”
He cites as an example a player who regularly makes three of eight shots but might make five of eight benefiting from the fundamentals taught by his group.
“If a lot of players on the team are making a couple more, think of how much that would help,” he said.
