The Swish House Community
What does the word “community” even mean in the modern world?
A Facebook meme group?
A Slack channel with a hundred threads?
A running group that meets on Tuesdays?
In the modern world, a community can have many different ways to connect people.
When we started Swish House as a basketball fitness company, we didn’t truly understand what building a basketball community would show us. But we — the founders and coaches— quickly learned that if you show up for hoopers who want to have fun getting in shape with a ball in their hands, they will show up for us and each other.
According to Harvard professor Robert Waldinger, the secret to a happy life is building warm friendships, connections and enjoying good people.* That’s what Swish House aims to do in a natural and authentic way - create a home for social fitness to happen by offering a fun basketball workout for adults.
3 Things Swish House Believes about Community:
Sustainable communities have to be authentic.
Improving fitness, getting in shape, or staying in game shape can be fun and challenging.
Value-driven communities serve a higher purpose — ours is making hoopers happier and healthier through the game of basketball.
Yeah, we know there are a thousand ways to burn calories. But even if you take out all the fancy basketball drills, skills, injury performance exercises, and things we know about better basketball, at our core, we believe playing hoops is just way more fun than any other fitness solution in the world.
Why I got nicknamed the Godfather of Swish House:
I remember when I left Chicago for a head coaching job in 2019 for one of the top pro leagues in Europe. I routinely got messages from our Swish House community after I got my first technical, got thrown out of my first game (yea, that happened!), or got a big win against a Euroleague team.
I felt supported by my Swish House hooping friends even while I was halfway around the globe.
And that type of support and authentic connection is rare in this world, right?
I reflected on all the friendships I made from teaching classes; how much I laughed sharing hoop stories with members after the classes, or I reminisced on Swish House events, where we’d bang on our chests for the NBA or NCAA March Madness teams we wanted to win.
That’s how our authentic basketball community grew — with real hoopers working out, being themselves and hanging out from the first member to the 2000th.
3 Reasons Why the Swish House Community Keeps Growing:
We lead with a purpose —to build stronger connections with our members and help hoopers have fun running with a basketball in their hands. It’s pretty awesome that you can shoot bricks competing in our basketball fitness community and still build a home.
We connect the dots— Our members and coaches don’t just co-exist in the same space. They interact, learn, and grow together. This is a basic reason why team sports like basketball are so much fun. There’s a unique link between the coach and his team. Team camaraderie usually doesn’t happen without the thrill of competition.
We take a team approach to leadership — all our coaches, our founders, and general managers lead in different ways — whether on the court or in the office, pushing the company and our members forward.
Basketball can help you progress and enjoy your physical and mental health journey. We, hoopers, all know a gym's familiar sounds and smells. The squeak of rubber shoes on wood, the pure swish of a net, the internal joy of helping your team win a shooting competition with a big shot. We give you the space to develop your talent and fitness and teach you new ways to improve your game.
Basketball is life in the Swish House community.
*This study shows why authentic, tightly bonded communities help you feel supported in whatever you do.