Sefu Bernard on Developing Basketball Players

Sefu Bernard joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast. Sefu is in charge of player development for the Washington Mystics where he works with them on their skill development and pretty much everything involved in basketball. Sefu really values people, he really looks at players from a holistic level, and is obsessed with trying to get them to a whole new level. Sefu will share his journey and will be vulnerable sharing things that he often doesn’t talk about with people.

In this episode, they discuss what life was like for him as a child (3:40), his experience moving (7:50), the difference in him and his brother (11:00), his experience moving to Toronto (13:50), how he thinks his son would feel in a similar situation to the one he went through (19:40), how his mom responded when she moved to Toronto (21:00), the values his parents passed down to him (22:30), what it felt like to be obese as a kid (25:30), when basketball came into his life (28:00), his experience with education (31:30), what he was like as a basketball player (34:30), how he instills a competitive spirit in those he works with (38:30), what’s gotten him to where he is today (41:00), why he knew he had to make a career move (44:05), what his day to day was like in player development in 2007 (48:20), what his day to day looks like today (53:20), what would get in the way of him being world class at his craft (55:30), complacency vs. being content and gratitude (1:02:30), and what he does to make sure he’s his best self (1:05:10)

Thank you to Sefu for coming on the podcast. We encourage you to check him out on twitter @SefuBernard and his website https://sefubernard.com/. For any coaches, teachers, and even parents interested in sport specific stuff go to @theLLaBB where he shares ideas where he frames the art and science of player development. He also recently launched a new initiative geared towards people who are working in the youth sport experience that can be found @ACXBasketball.

Lastly, if you liked this episode and/or any others, please support us at Patreon or follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.

-Brian