Every rep is more than a rep. Every drill is more than a drill. The FAST system was built on the belief that mastering the fundamentals of anything creates the foundation for excellence in everything.
Long before the Payton Pritchard Family Foundation had a name, it had a philosophy. And that philosophy had an acronym.
FAST. Fundamentals to Advanced Sport Training.
When Payton was in second grade, his father Terry Pritchard began running basketball skills clinics in Oregon City, Oregon. The FAST clinics were not about scoring or winning games in the short term. They were about building. Teaching young players to master the basics so completely that those basics became the platform for everything that came after. Always FAST. That was the standard from day one.
Where the Philosophy Came From
Terry brought the competitive framework from his years at Oklahoma under Barry Switzer. You do not cut corners. You do not skip steps. You build it right from the ground up or you do not build it at all.
Melissa brought the intellectual foundation. Her academic thesis at Oklahoma explored how fundamental training in any discipline creates the essential building blocks for future performance, not just in sports but in everything. An elite gymnast from the age of eleven, a Big 8 champion, Melissa understood at a cellular level what systematic fundamental training produces when you commit to it over time.
Together, Terry and Melissa built FAST into a system that could take what they had each learned separately and deliver it to young players in a structured, repeatable, and scalable way.
“Talent gets you in the gym. The system keeps you there. What FAST builds is the conviction to keep showing up and trust that the work will show up when it matters.” — Payton Pritchard Family Foundation
Why Every Rep Is a Mental Rep
The core insight of the FAST system is that physical training and mental training are not separate things. They happen together or they do not happen at all.
When a young player runs a basketball drill for the fortieth time in a session, they are not just building muscle memory. They are building the mental architecture to execute under pressure. Real confidence, the kind that does not crack when the moment gets big, only comes from one source. You have to have done the work so many times that your body knows what to do before your mind has time to doubt it.
That is what FAST built in Payton. That is what separated him from players with more natural ability who had never been taught to fully trust a process.
FAST Beyond Basketball
The discipline required to master a crossover dribble is the same discipline required to master a balance sheet. The focus it takes to perfect a shooting motion is the same focus it takes to lead a team in a boardroom. FAST was not a basketball program. It was a life program that happened to use basketball as its language.
Melissa’s thesis made this case academically. The Pritchard family proved it practically. Payton Pritchard and Anthony Mathis are evidence that when you teach someone to work the right way, that quality travels with them everywhere they go.
Foundation camps are built entirely on this philosophy. Young players work through the same basketball drills and fundamental training sequences Payton used. They leave with a winning standard embedded through repetition, competition, and the consistent message that the fundamentals are never beneath you. They are the whole point. And they are the foundation of every leader the program has ever produced.
Visit our website to register for an upcoming camp and learn more about the FAST training system.
Next in the series: how FAST moved from clinics to courts, and the AAU program that turned fundamentals into wins across the West Coast.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does FAST stand for?
FAST stands for Fundamentals to Advanced Sport Training. It is the youth development philosophy built by Terry and Melissa Pritchard that underpins every Payton Pritchard Family Foundation camp and program.
How did the FAST program start?
Terry Pritchard began running FAST clinics in Oregon City, Oregon when Payton was in second grade. The philosophical foundation came from Melissa Pritchard’s academic thesis at the University of Oklahoma, which explored how mastering fundamentals in any discipline creates the building blocks for future excellence in everything.
What makes FAST different from other basketball training programs?
FAST integrates physical and mental development in every session. Every drill is also a mental rep. The program builds confidence through competence and treats competition as evaluation rather than reward. The system has been proven through Payton Pritchard’s development from youth basketball all the way to the NBA.
Can FAST apply outside of sports?
Yes. The discipline and focus developed through FAST training translate directly into academic performance, professional development, and personal character. Teaching a young person to approach any skill with patience, repetition, and honest self-evaluation creates qualities that show up everywhere in their life.
Where are Payton Pritchard Foundation camps?
Camps are running in Massachusetts and Oregon with Spain already completed. Oklahoma and Florida are next. Visit our website for dates and registration.