title: Holger Geschwindner
text: # Holger Geschwindner
  
  Holger Geschwindner (born September 12, 1945 in Bad Nauheim, Hessen) is a German former professional basketball player. He is known as the long-time coach and mentor of ex-Dallas Mavericks player Dirk Nowitzki. Geschwindner first met Nowitzki when the future basketball superstar was 16 years old.
  
  Geschwindner acted as an official coach of the Dallas Mavericks and runs a basketball academy in Würzburg, Germany that he calls "The Institute of Applied Nonsense". In 1995, Geschwindner calculated the optimum angle of a jump shot to be 60 degrees.
  
  ## Early life
  
  A native of Würzburg, Geschwindner is alleged to have learned basketball as a young boy from an American soldier stationed in Germany.
  
  