Ohio basketball training facility uses technology at summer camps

CLEVELAND — Summer camp doesn’t mean days spent at the pool for some northeast Ohio kids. Some are heading to sports camps with a technological twist that’s even being used by some professional athletes. 

John Dorsey has been putting in hours and even days of work with his 9-year-old son to improve his basketball skills.

“Doing our usual three times a week basketball workout, little shooting, and right now a little bit of ball handling and passing drills,” he said.

Now they have a new tool at their disposal. 

“The technology, the instant feedback they get for the passing drills, the ball handling, the visualization that he’s able to get from the ball handling,” he said.

Dorsey was talking about Shoot 360, a system of large TVs that provide a variety of interactive drills, something he said is improving his son’s game. 

Hooptech, a basketball training facility, uses the Shoot 360 technology at its facility, offering a number of clinics at their summer camps and programs. It’s something Kahrin Spear, the director of girls basketball, said is extremely important in today’s game.

“It’s really nice having the technology built into the camps because it just creates more opportunity for diversity in the camp structure as opposed to just being on an open court,” he said.

It doesn’t end there. Spear said the technology gives athletes feedback instantly.

“What’s amazing about this technology is that they get real-time analytics for what’s going on with their shot. You can see up there on the screen, it’s tracking your depth, your arch, and your left and right,” she said.

Dorsey said this type of basketball training is something he could have benefited from when he was a player.

“We didn’t have things like this when I was that age, places to work this hard, so we did a lot of that work in the driveway,” he said.

Dorsey said he is hopeful that, with the help of this technology and his motivating spirit, his son will go a long way in the sport.