INTERVIEW WITH RYAN RAZOOKY;
Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down and having a conversation with the well-known personal basketball trainer, Ryan Razooky. Ryan trains players of all ages and is one of the trainers at the Hoop House in San Diego. Over the past few months, Ryan has also gained a lot of popularity when he began training big YouTubers such as FlightReacts and CashNasty. Besides that he also works with major high school stars such as Mikey Williams (#3 nationally-ranked for his class) and the rising sophomore 7-footer, Jahzare Jackson.
When asked about his reaction to the popularity he began gaining recently, he said, “Nothing’s different, man. It’s the same thing. I’m just happy to be able to help more people. That’s always been the end goal.” This type of mentality is what Ryan has stood by for his whole career and hopes to be able to do this for a long time to come as well.
Next, I wanted to understand what pushed him to get this far in life and what made him want to be better and teach others to be better. To this he replied: “Kobe. Kobe. The first thing you see when you walk into my gym is a painting of Kobe.” Among the many paintings of basketball legends on his gym walls, one of the biggest and most vibrant ones is of Kobe.
I also asked Ryan a more lighthearted question as I was curious to learn about some of the big name players and stars he has put in work with. To this he gave examples of Jimmy Butler, CashNasty, FlightReacts, BDot, Mikey Williams, Jahzare Jackson and Brawadis. Though these are only a few of the players he named, he has had workouts with many other players and online personalities.
One of the most important questions I asked him was his advice to people who don’t have access to public hoops and couldn’t get the practice they usually would. He replied with some wise words. “When there’s a will there’s a way. It’s that simple. When you have a want to do something, you will figure out a way to do something about it.” And I agree. If you don’t find the motivation to think outside of the box and try new techniques, that’s valuable time wasted. He also has a ton of different drills he does with his students when they show up for personal sessions. He discusses a lot of them in our interview above.
Finally, Ryan also discussed the Zoom training sessions he holds. He has them once a week and teaches virtually, with only one basketball. He chooses not to add any extra equipment since not everyone has easy access to them. Since his training center has only one branch, this method of training allows people from all over the world to be able to learn from him and acquire knowledge as such.
Overall, I had a great time learning from him and discussing his techniques. Be sure to check him out on Instagram and Twitter, @r2bball and get in touch with him if you want to improve your game.
To watch our full conversation be sure to click on the YouTube video at the top of this page.
Photo: SDVoyager
