Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan Johnson.
Hi Jordan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
The story of J&J House of Skills starts in mid-2020 with me wanting to pursue my passion (basketball) in an innovative way. The pandemic, at the time, shut down all schools, and I had just resigned from a charter school in Washington DC. Schools weren’t looking to hire due to the uncertainty and unknowns of the pandemic. Although this was a scary time, I, as a former hooper with some college experience and trainer at Pat the Rock Skills Academy, I decided that this could be an opportunity to truly do something both responsive to the pandemic and innovative. I teamed up with my brother-in-law, Jamal Wilson, who currently is a 2x Olympic High Jumper for The Bahamas, and had the idea of doing virtual workouts specifically geared towards basketball players/track athletes. Although it was a great idea, it was an idea that a lot of people suddenly decided to embark on; which caused us to compete against other “online trainers.” To separate ourselves and live up to our mantra, “train different to be different”, I asked myself what would it look like to bring the “gym” to a client. From there, I thought about what it would look like to bring the “court” to a client. In addition, I thought that it would be amazing for a client to get direct personalized instruction on how to jump higher from one of the best high jumpers in the world. Lastly, I thought about who actually would have access to these services and I decided to make that the major component of our programming; access to high-quality equipment and instruction for all athletes, regardless of your zip code. The rest is history from there!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has been extremely challenging, and I am humbly accepting of it, as I know that this is my calling. The challenges were simple: start a basketball company; start the company in a new city; zero equipment; move your family to the new city; start a new job; build local basketball community connections; self-fund it all.
One day I decided to get a basketball shooting machine. With no house. Or a place to store it. To give you an idea as to how large the machine is, it’s almost 7 feet tall and weighs over 300 pounds. At the time, my family resided in an apartment. That being said, I had to figure out the storage for the machine before it was delivered; which gave me a matter of days.
I was secretly afraid of my wife during this time! (I’m kidding but I was definitely sweating!)
For some reason, I decided to build an enclosure; which I could hook up to my SUV. The problem with that idea was that woodshop was 20 years ago and I wasn’t exactly a DIY guy. That project went as great as you would expect and resulted in me having plywood flying off while doing a test drive on the highway! Although this was a setback, I was able to eventually buy a trailer that met my needs.
Another challenge was community buy-in. I would consider this a challenge being that the company, and its staff, are new to Atlanta. To remedy this, we have provided free events, volunteered our time, I volunteered at a recreational center, and we have been doing everything that we could to garner trust within our community. This was important to our family-run business, as we are raising our families here in Decatur.
Although these were the challenges for my company, I’m appreciative of them all. Because of the challenges, I can proudly say that my company is pioneering mobile basketball training. My company has created the template; which is something that will never be taken away!
We’ve been impressed with J & J House of Skills, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
The mission of J & J House of Skills is to provide access to high-quality training and high-quality equipment to all basketball players and track athletes. I specialize in basketball training for athletes as young as 5 through professional players. My brother-in-law runs the track side of the company and is a 2x Olympic High jumper. Our goal is to help athletes reach their true potential as athletes. Whether it’s making their middle school team next year or competing for a scholarship, we believe we offer the services to allow an athlete to become their best selves.
We are most proud of the fact that we are pioneering an innovative approach to personalized basketball training with our mobile training model. For a small fee, you can have a trainer pull up to you, wherever you are, and train you. If you don’t have a goal, we will bring you one. If you want to put up a lot of shots but don’t want to rebound for yourself, we will bring a shooting machine which will allow you to shoot upwards of 1500 shots in an hour! If you want to learn how to dunk, why not learn from someone who was ranked #1 in the world as a high jumper. We also offer daily, Monday through Friday, summer programming as well.
At J & J House of skills, we train different so that we can be different!
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I don’t believe in luck. I believe in God, skill, and will. There were many moments where I could have given up, however, God told me to press though. I could have given up when the first trailer I created broke. I could have quit when we had two kids on free online workout. I could have quit when my SUV broke down and I had to get rid of it. However, my faith wouldn’t let me simply give up. Call it stubbornness or remaining firm in my faith, I know that God had and has J & J House of Skills on his mind
Pricing:
- Mobile training – $50 for one athlete
- Sunday Small Group- $40 (3-5pm)
- Summer Clinic-$25 per day (3:30-6:00)
Contact Info:
- Email: jjohnson@jjhofhs.com
- Website: jjhouseofskills.com
- Instagram: @jjhouseofskills
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/jjhouseofskills/
- Other: Tiktok: @jjhouseofskills
Image Credits
Breonca Trofort-Wilson Shay Abrams Michelle Alexander
