Accelerate helping to elevate area players' games

Last summer, I wrote about a trend I noticed had been growing: former pro athletes providing training to younger kids and teenage athletes in the area. You can click here to read that.

I think one of the reasons Mecklenburg County athletics have been exploding recently with a historic run of championships that is only going to grow, is this specialized training kids are getting from former athletes who know what they're talking about.

Former Florida Gator football star Tony George's Heat Fitness is a perfect example of this. I've seen kids go in looking one way, and performing one way, and come out totally different. And it's not just George. Former NBA players Jeff McInnis and Muggsy Bogues have trained some of the best players to come out of this area recently. They know what it takes and what you need to get to the next level.

Charlotte is chock full of training options as people have found ways to further monetize athletics. Trainers at Carolina Courts, Velocity Sports and Athletic Republic all do a wonderful job, I've seen and heard, with helping athletes of all ages improve.

After getting a torrent of emails lately about this topic, I decided to revisit one of the facilities: Accelerate Basketball in Indian Land. This place is devoted to basketball and owner/operator Brandon Payne, a former college basketball coach, has turned his love of basketball and his love of fitness into quite an impressive basketball factory.

He's got a roster of more than 100 kids of all ages regularly training and some of the area's top players frequently stop by, including former Charlotte Christian star Seth Curry, now at Duke. Payne's services have spread by word of mouth and YouTube video to as far away as California and London. A group of California teens plan to visit to work out over a spring break and a 20-year-old London player will also come in soon. Also Payne said he's had interest from out of state businessmen about franchising.

Why the interest? Winning the college scholarship has gotten awful competitive and parents are willing to try to get their kid every advantage. And Payne has a very unique way of developing basketball players using drills involving tennis balls and ropes and ladders and steps. He's become well versed in exercise physiology and brings in experts, like chiropractors and specialized fitness trainers, to help fill in the gaps.

Players sign up on a website for hour-long classes which are offered at fairly convenient hours, even for working folks, seven days a week. For a flat fee, you can take unlimited classes with a group, almost like a YMCA workout class, or you can register for one-on-one sessions or other specialized training regimens.

Accelerate also offers a "shooting gun," a contraption that passes balls towards you that you then shoot in the hoop. For a fee, you can use the gun and have your sessions videotaped, allowing Payne's team to coach you on form.


Accelerate also offers video services to tape players during games for coaching "film" sessions or to create those YouTube highlight videos that parents send to college coaches (or just post on YouTube to brag about their 9-year-old's dribbling ability).

I have visited almost all of the local facilities and I think we are lucky to have these kinds of options locally. I would always consult with my doctor if my young ones were starting this kind of training and to make sure it was offset with other kinds of physical activity and didn't include heavy weights before, say, teenager years. But I do think training makes a difference, and we've got some excellent options, like Accelerate, here.