FROM AIRBALLS TO ALLEY-HOOPS (January 2024)
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How Basketball Fueled My Passion for High Performance
- Julian Soco, Director & Head of Performance
Basketball has always been a part of me. I still remember my first encounter with the sport when I was about 3 years old. I was with my father at an outdoor basketball court in the Philippines, watching him shoot barefoot. He called me over and told me to shoot the basketball in the hoop even though it felt like it was a planet away. I shot the ball as hard as I could. Air-ball. He laughed. But from there onwards it didn’t matter as he picked me up with his hands and raised me high to bring me closer to the hoop so I could shoot the ball. It went in. The feeling of the ball going in the hoop not only made me smile, but my Dad too. My love for basketball began at that time, all because of the help from my Dad.
As a young Filipino-Australian kid growing in a house where the sport was deeply loved, it was easy to keep basketball in my life. In my teen years I grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney. I was a chubby, slow, and non-athletic teen that dreamt to play either in AND1 streetball or the NBA. I worked on my basketball skills almost every single day, spending countless hours working on my dribbling, shooting, and finishing, all by myself with a lack of direction from any coach. The only help I received was from my Father who came out to give me some of his ‘shooting’ tips. I became a good shooter but there was still a problem; I was still slow, chubby and un-athletic. I had unwavering love and commitment towards the game even after a few years of finishing high school. As a result, I joined the gym with some high school mates to build muscle and focus on my athleticism, where we usually got free tips from the older guys in the gym. Within a year of consistent training in the gym, I felt different. I was leaner, stronger, faster, and more importantly, more confident with my body and self.
Without any proper direction for gymming, I still managed to transform from the slow, chubby and un-athletic kid to my new self. Playing basketball was still in my weekly regime, but my love for the gym grew as I wanted to progress more. A few years later I became an accredited personal trainer where I worked in many fitness clubs in Sydney to help the general population with their health and fitness.
As a young and passionate trainer who’d spend countless hours and money on self-education to become the best trainer I could be, I came to the realisation that I wanted to mix my love and passion of basketball and gym training together. But I didn’t know how and if it was going to work. A few years passed with that thought lingering in my mind for some time and then something big happened. The COVID-19 outbreak, a.k.a. ‘The pandemic’. I used these two years of lockdown to reset my purpose and career.
During these two years, I dedicated most of my time in learning and merging principles of strength and conditioning with basketball performance training. I knew it was time to align my passion for basketball and my knowledge of strength training, not just for myself, but for the athletes that I wanted to help in Sydney.
And one fine day in September 2021, with all the reflection and learning I realised that all of us all have one life and that we won’t truly know something until we try that something. I believed in my vision of helping and inspiring all athletes and people that cross my way. That is how HOOPS Sports Performance was created.
