GANON BAKER is coming to town. Ganon Baker who?
That’s a question the average Joe would ask about the guy whom every basketball-loving coach or athlete idolizes from afar.
Baker is known worldwide as a super elite basketball trainer, motivational speaker and skills coach. Players, teams, coaches here and abroad want to be trained by him. His body of work includes wonderful results on athletes like LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Amare Stoudemire, Vince Carter, Kevin Durant Chris Paul and Deron Williams. Baker runs a camp in Fort Lauderdale, Florida called Elev8 where he trains athletes and coaches and turns them into super competitors.
The basketball guru—buff and toned, passionate but patient—is coming to Manila and will hold a five-day camp for young athletes at the Ronac Center in San Juan City. The camp is also open for coaches so they can watch, observe, take notes and interact with the coaching staff and Baker himself.
Baker is being brought to Manila by Eric Bañes, a certified skills coach and strength and conditioning specialist, who has himself trained at Ganon Baker’s high-performance sports institute in Fort Lauderdale. Bañes, a San Beda alumnus and also a sought after coach-trainer, works with local pro and collegiate teams so he can develop them into highly skilled and competitive athletes. He is Ganon Baker’s representative in the Philippines.
The camp was originally intended for 12 to 18 year olds, as announced a week ago. Since then, however, it has received inquiries and requests from parents, coaches and players to open up the qualifications for enrollment. Due to the insistent demands,Coach Eric has enlarged the age requirement and accepted the requests of some PBA players to be included in the camp. Denok Miranda of Talk N’ Text and Alex Cabagnot of San Miguel are some of those who are joining the 5-day training and will give the younger participants a feel of how to train and compete alongside seasoned athletes. Coaches like Far Eastern Unversity’s Olsen Racela have also signed up for the sessions.
The Manila camp will be called The Ganon Baker Basketball Camp Manila 2016 and will also feature Coaches Mon Jose and Aris Dimaunahan, who are athletes themselves, as assistant coaches alongside Bañes and Baker. According to Bañes the Baker Camp in Manila is a breakthrough event for local basketball as local players can now avail of the much-acclaimed basketball program here for a much lower price and save on travel and lodging expenses to boot.
The cost of enrolling in the Florida camp is quite steep, but Coach Eric says athletes, parents, coaches and team owners have always considered it a sound investment, basketball-wise. Just to give you an idea of the costs involved, noted sports columnist Quinito Henson, talked turkey about it in an earlier column, quoting Eric Bañes. Read.
“Elev8 has two basic programs, one for high school players and the other for post-graduate players…A nine-month schedule for high school players will cost $21,500 in tuition plus $3,500 for live competition. There’s a fee of $12,000 for room and food but that’s optional. The post-graduate tuition fee is $16,500 plus $2,500 for live competition. Elev8 also has a six-month program. We are able to arrange two to three to four-month programs at about $6,000 to $7,000 a month.”
The Ganon Baker camp in Manila won’t cost that much money. But it’s not going to be cheap either. Still, those who know their basketball and are aware of how training with Ganon Baker can change both the game and the player playing the game are aware they have found a golden opportunity to get better right here, right now.
“This is a rare opportunity for coaches and players to take advantage of because people spend thousands of dollars to go to Florida to learn these basketball lessons from the master himself. Now they can save on travel expenses, board and lodging and other incidentals because he is coming to Manila. Training with Ganon Baker dramatically changes player performance and coaching approaches,” Bañes said.
Besides his Elev8 Camp, Ganon Baker also trains boys and girls for Nike Basketball and directs skills academies all over the world, including the Michael Jordan Brand Classics in Europe. He has also trained NBA and WNBA players such as James Harden, Jarryd Bayless, Tyson Chandler, Harrison Barnes, Grant Hill, Brandon Knight, Cleanthony Early, Johnny O’ Bryant, Scottie Wilbekin, Demya Walker, Angel McCoughtry, Natalie Novosel and many more.