2 Books Every Hooper MUST Read Right Now

Foreign welcome to the Visionary Fast Training Podcast. Appreciate every single one of you guys for tuning in today, whether you're an Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, really appreciate that. If you're on YouTube, go ahead and drop a like. And if you're new, make sure you're subscribed. I'm dropping podcasts every single week on Sunday, so be prepared for that if you're an Apple. If you're an Apple podcast, go ahead and scroll down to the bottom of the page right now and go ahead and leave a review for me. Also really appreciate that. Helps to have more people see it. And so without further ado, we'll hop right into it. You know, again, I really appreciate the feedback that I've been getting and the support so far. Just hit a thousand total downloads for the podcast at this point. So shout out to every single one of you guys who are listening. And for those of you who continue to listen week after week, really do appreciate all you guys for doing that. And you know, if you find this stuff helpful, go ahead and share with a friend and, you know, we'll keep on going. But, you know, today we're going to switch it up and go with a little bit of a different topic and definitely a less popular topic. But I got a question about this this past week and honestly, I forget who asked me the question, but it was, it was a, it was a phenomenal question because it was essentially, it's something that I think about and I'm very, very passionate about, but I don't necessarily talk to or I don't necessarily think about all the time because it's just not the popular thing to talk about. So this came from. Oh, this came from E1 on YouTube. You'll have to comment on one of my videos. Again, I always talk about the best way to reach me is through DM because I'll see comments. So sometimes, especially if a video just came out, I'll be scrolling through the comments or whatever, so I might see it then, but there's a better chance of me seeing it and remembering it as well. If you go ahead and DM me. But this is a great comment on YouTube where he asked me, you know, would, you know, I wanted to give you an idea of a video about, you know, books about mindset. Biographies are my favorite books. And that's such a great question. It's such a great topic to talk about. And we're going to go through that today because I'm going to. First, I'm going to explain to you why you should be reading books. And if you aren't reading books, why you're missing out and why you're really selling yourself short as a Hooper, as a person in general, you are. But especially there's a lot of correlations we're going to make to basketball and why you need to be reading books. And there are specific books that I think every single basketball player should read. So if you're listening to this, that includes you. You should be reading these books because they're going to. I'm going to get into this even further. But books are so powerful because, you know, they allow us to really, to gain an incredible amount of knowledge in, you know, without really having to do much for ourselves. You know, a lot of times we rely so heavily on experiences, but we're able to make, you know, we're able to avoid some bad experiences and make other experiences better because of the knowledge we gain from those books that I'm going to share with you guys today. So we're going to hop right into it. But you know, kind of, to start off, I wanted to explain to you, you know, why this is such a, kind of an unpopular topic, right? No one really ever asked me about that. I get a few about it, but I think it's so important. And really what it comes down to is, you know, it's easy to watch YouTube videos. Like, it's easy to sit there and watch me talk about something or watch one of my workout videos or watch one of my film breakdowns or watch anybody in YouTube. It's very easy to do that. It doesn't any sort of effort from you. You just kind of sit there and you watch, right? And it's easy to watch Netflix. You know, you put on a show that you like. It's easy to just kind of binge on that and watch it for, you know, eight, 10 hours straight. You don't really have to put in any sort of effort. It takes very little focus or concentration. You just kind of got to exist, right? It's easy, you know, it's Easy to play PlayStation or Xbox all day. It's all you got to do is just sit there and do it. There's not too much that goes into it. You know, obviously you might have to strategize a little bit with game or whatever, but it's still easier than going out and doing anything in real life, right? It's a lot easier to go play 2k than it is to actually go and make it to the NBA in real life, obviously. So everyone opts to play 2K, right? So that's my point though is it's a lot easier to listen to somebody break things down in short videos for you as it is to sitting down and actually reading a book, which might take you a few hours or even a few days. It's just the quick reward is something that is a plague in the modern world that we live in today. And you know, because of the easy access to those things, it's very easy. All of you guys have YouTube. You probably all found me through YouTube. Okay? All of you guys are, most of you guys probably have Netflix or Hulu or some sort of streaming service, even though you don't really need those these days. I mean, you can find it basically anything online. And most of you guys probably have some sort of PlayStation, Xbox. Those things are so easy for you to use and they're so easy to access. Everybody has them now that our brains have become accustomed to that. They've become accustomed to easy, you know, not having to put out a lot of effort and still getting a reward for it, right? That's what happens when you watch, you know, when you binge on YouTube videos, you binge on Netflix videos. Your brain doesn't have to put in very much work and it still gets that dopamine reward. And I won't get too much into the science here, but essentially it all comes down to is the dopamine is the chemical that's released when, you know, you watch a YouTube video or you watch a show on Netflix or you play Xbox or whatever. That's the reward chemical in your brain that makes you feel good about yourself, right? And it's very easy to get those kind of quick hits from those, those, those superficial means through YouTube and Netflix and all the stuff that I'm talking about. So our brain now, because we've gotten that, you know, we've gotten a little taste of it now, it pushes us to do that as much as possible, okay? So we don't need to have a long attention span. All we gotta do is be able to sit through a four minute YouTube video, right? We don't have to have a long attention span. All we have to do is scroll on Instagram for 30 seconds. That's all it takes for our brain. And because of how easy it is, that's what we gravitate towards. Because here's the thing with your brain, it doesn't necessarily care about doing what's best for you. It really cares about how you feel, how it can make itself feel. It doesn't really care about long term. What's the best thing I should do? Your brain doesn't think like that, okay? It's here for your survival, right? So it's going to take that easy route, especially if there's not a lot of work involved with it, okay? So reading, on the other hand, though, takes more effort, it takes more focus, more concentration, and it also takes longer, okay? But the difference there is that the rewards that you get from reading a book are much greater and much longer lasting than what you get from watching a YouTube video or playing Xbox. Okay? The rewards you get from reading a book are far more significant than you would get from a quick Netflix show or whatever scrolling through Instagram. And that's for a bunch of different reasons, but we'll hop into a couple of them. First of all, reading is shown to increase intelligence and especially in younger people, right? So that's why, you know, it's such a big deal for especially younger kids to be reading at an early age. Because the earlier you start reading, the more you do it younger, that actually there's a correlation between how much you read as a younger person and how intelligent you are later in life. There's a direct correlation between those two things. And, you know, so because of that, the younger you are, the more, the more crucial it is that you're reading books. It's so important, okay? A lot of people think these days that, you know, you can get all the information you need from YouTube and from whatever, right? But that, that maybe the information itself is probably all out there, but in terms of the way you digest it and the way you process it, you don't, you don't, you don't retain the same amount of information through YouTube videos that you would through a book, okay? Because again, you go through so many YouTube videos, so many different things that are just crowding your mind. And when you, once you slow it down, though, and you actually have to go through and read a book yourself, all of a sudden becomes very, very different, okay? Reading also improves your analytical problem solving abilities and that both increases your ability to analytically solve problems and also the efficiency which you do it at. And this is important because as a basketball player, I've talked about it before, but basketball is all about your ability to solve problems repeatedly. Every time down the floor, you want to make a move, your defender does this, how do you beat him? Your defender does that, how do you beat him? Your teammate cuts there. What's your, what's your read? Right? You have a bunch of problems, a bunch of questions you have to figure out on the fly. And that's just repeatedly through and through and throughout the game. That's what basketball is right there. It's repeated problems you need to solve. And the better you are at solving problems and the quicker you are solving problems, the better you're going to be in games. Okay? So improving your ability to do that through reading is another benefit that won't just help you as a person, but it's also going to help you basketball wise as well. Okay. And that's something that you don't get. You don't get that from doing any of these other sort of, you know, easy activities that we talked about. Reading is a major key to increasing your focus and your concentration. And I know firsthand for, for myself, for you guys who sent me DMs, left comments about this specific problem. Focus and concentration throughout workouts and specifically through long periods of time. That is something that is very difficult these days. Very difficult for me. I find it difficult. And for you guys as well, people say, hey, coach, how do I stay focused on my whole workout? How do I, how do I, how am I able to maintain a high level concentration throughout my workout? And that a lot of times comes down to the fact that we are so easily stimulated through Instagram, scrolling through Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube, all these quick things where we're, It'd be interesting. Just think about it next time you're on your phone. How quickly are you switching between apps, switching between texts, switching between all these different things, kind of mindlessly doing it. And you might go 10 minutes and you probably don't even remember what you did in that 10 minutes. You're just switching through apps and all these different things, multitasking. And that's how these companies have, have built their products. That's how, that's how the iPhone designs their, that's how they design their new iOS is that it makes multitasking very, very easy. So you're going to be on your phone for longer amounts of time. Okay? Instagram has made it so that you want to come back, come back, scroll, scroll, send a dm, do all these things. Snapchat is the same exact way. Noted. You get that notification, that yellow notification on your phone, you feel like you have to answer it, right? So you might be in the middle of doing something, but oh, you got a Snapchat, you got to go answer it. Oh, now you got a dm, you got to go answer that. Oh, then you got a text message, you got to answer that, so you're going back and forth. You don't have the ability to focus or concentrate on one thing for any sort of extended amount of time. And that is an absolute pandemic around the world. Okay? We obviously are going through like, you know, a legit pandemic, but I'm talking about social media and our ability to, our inability to focus or concentrate on anything. The, the, the human attention span these days is probably lower than it's ever been in, in the history of humanity, right? Because we have so many things available to us, we can't pick one, okay? So we don't have the ability to, to effectively focus on one thing for a long amount of time. And that can translate to your workouts, right? Which is obviously what we don't want. That can translate to when you're watching film, okay? That can translate to when you want to read a book about something. Things that are going to help you long term, that are going to push you towards your goals. It's harder for you to do, right, because you're so, you know, you can't seem to stay focused on that for any sort of amount of time. And if you've never thought about that before, I encourage you, next time you're scrolling through your phone, think about that for yourself. Do you, do you have a. Is it difficult for you to stay on one thing, to focus on one thing for any sort of, you know, a few minutes at a time? Right? It's probably difficult for you. It's probably difficult for most of you. That's how, that's how this world has become, you know, especially here in America, where that's really, that's celebrated, okay? So understand that that's not just you. That's really the society that we live in at this point. But there are things you can do that are going to help to counteract that. Okay? I'm not saying that social media is a bad thing or YouTube is a bad thing, but I'm saying there needs to be a balance in your life because if you're sucked into those things enough so that you can't even focus on anything for, you know, you can't get off your phone and focus on your workout or focus on watching film or focus on reading a book for any sort of long amount of time, then something's got to change, okay? You've got to make some sort of adjustment so that you're able to do these things that, you know are good for you and you know, are going to help you, but are just really difficult for you to do. Okay, we're going to talk about how you're going to do that. But reading is really the key to counteracting that, because when you read, all that you can do is focus on what's being said to you. Okay? There is no. There is no swiping to get to another app. There is no notifications in the book that you're reading. Right. And I know you know, just to clarify real quick, obviously there's the Kindle app, which you can. You can read books on your phone, too. But the point I'm trying to make is that when you're reading, that's your focus right there, okay? That's what you're focused on. And the reading is a way you can actively combat the multitasking, you know, epidemic that we're facing. And even if it's just for 15 to 20 minutes a day where you're like, you know what? Right now, for this next 15 minutes, I'm going to read and I'm not going to do anything else. If that's what you decide to do, you can do that consistently. You're going to start building up your ability to focus and concentrate, and all of a sudden, it's going to be easier for you to be able to go through your workouts and stay focused, go through your film watching and stay focused, do those things that you know you need to do. It's going to be a lot easier for you when you start to add that. That habit of reading into what you're doing. Okay? So all of those things translate well to improving your life and obviously improving yourself as a basketball player. Okay? And that's why, you know, regardless of anything else, reading is something that every person on earth should do every single day. And not only for those reasons, but it can absolutely have an effect on you as a basketball player and can directly impact your performance and your development as a player. 100%, it can. And, you know, we've all seen the pictures of LeBron and Kobe, who, you know, they're reading books, right? And it's not a coincidence that those guys get caught reading a lot. I mean, you can look up LeBron reading, and you'll find him reading all sorts of different things. You. He'll be reading the Godfather, the Hunger Games. He'll be like. He'll be walking into the locker room. Most guys are, you know, cruising in the locker room on their hoverboard with their AirPods in or their beats on, listening to music. LeBron's walking in to Eastern Conference Finals reading the Godfather, right? That should. That should let you know something, right? We all know about LeBron's zero dark. Was it zero dark? Zero dark 30, I think, or dark 40? I forget what the number is. But for when every year in the playoffs, he goes dark, basically, right where he's off social media, and he's just focused on what he's doing. And he always talks about how he watches through the Godfather movies during that time for the playoffs every year. And he's reading through the books because that inspires him, right? And that's why he's able to walk in and be focused. That's why we see Playoff LeBron, because his focus, his concentration without those distractions, is on a whole new level, okay? And that stems from the reading. Kobe Bryant the same exact way, okay? And we're going to get into Kobe Bryant's reading list soon, because Kobe Bryant was one of those guys who is just a. Just so different when it came to him mentally. You know, it's just so different. You know, it's a guy that will never see anybody like him because of just the way he approached the game. And there's so many things we can take from him that can apply to us. And this is one thing right here, his ability to focus and concentrate. Also understand about Kobe Bryant, avid reader. Okay? So I want you guys to start to see the correlation between those two things, okay? And that kind of goes along with my next point. The most successful people in all areas of life are the ones who read, okay? And reading essentially allows you to take the thoughts and ideas and experiences and stories from another person and download them into your own brain, okay? And some of these ideas or stories might have taken that other person years or maybe even their entire lives to experience, to write down, to publish into a book. And you're able to get that within a few hours or a few days, okay? That's powerful right there when you think about it that way. Okay? So a lot of people think reading is boring, but you're literally taking a piece of somebody else's life and putting that into your own mind, expanding the way that you think about something. That's the power of reading. And to add to that, there are books that you can read that will directly impact your iq, your encore performance, okay? And specifically, we're gonna get into a couple books right here that do that, that have done that for me, for a lot of players that I've worked with, for all my guys who are part of the perimeter score system, you know, we have The Mental Toughness Masterclass and the 20.2K blueprint, where at the end I share books that players need to read. Okay. Actually, I believe I shared four in that with those. With those, with those guys in there. Today I'm going to share two with you guys. I'm going to go through Kobe Bryant's reading list as well. But those guys in the perimeter scores understand, and I've really drilled in the importance of reading and the importance of continued development of yourself mentally. Okay? And the two books I'm going to explain, I'm going to share with you guys today are books that you need to read. If you call yourself a serious basketball player, you need to read them. Okay? Because if you hear what I'm going to tell you today, you still don't read those books. It's a question mark. Okay? It's a red flag right there. These are books that are. They're not optional. You need to do it. And specifically, these books are going to target the mental side of the game. So developing your mentality, your toughness, your ability to be a great teammate, how to approach your training, how to approach your games, all these things are things that most players don't naturally know how to do correctly. Some do, some might do all these things correctly. That's probably one in a thousand. And even still, there are things you can improve in those areas to become the most efficient in how you can improve and how you can perform on the court. And if you want that, if you want to be more efficient in the way you improve and the way that you can actually perform, when the lights turn on, you're actually playing the games. It's important for you to understand these things for yourself. And so you need to learn it from somewhere. It's not just going to come out of thin air. Basketball, and you guys have heard me say this before, basketball is not just about the physical part. It's not just about how good of a shooter are you, how good of a rebounder are you, how good of a ball handler are you? It's not. It's about more than that. There's way more that goes into it. We all know somebody who might be more. Who might be one of the most talented players, but they don't. They don't. They get outperformed by people who aren't as good as. Okay. And that's typically because of a lack of maybe confidence, a lack of experience, a lack of mental toughness a lot of the times. And these are things that you can gain from reading these Books. Okay. So just like in your training, you want to learn the correct way to do things. You don't want to drill in the wrong way to do things. You want to figure out what works, what's worked for other people and how can I take that and how can I apply it to myself? Okay, you cannot, you cannot understate the importance of those things. So, you know, I kind of want to go through these books real quick for you. The first book that you need to read in this book right here is maybe my favorite, one of my favorite books of all time. As in terms of, you know, I have a few books that are non battle related that I'll probably share with you guys at some point, but basketball related. This is my favorite book ever and honestly one of probably one of the best books books for basketball players ever written. Okay. And again, it is a must read and it's called Toughness by Jay Billis. And for those of you who don't know Jay Billis, was he, he currently is a, he's. He works for ESPN as a, as a commentator for college basketball and he played for, he played for Duke. He was a member of, of the winningest Duke team ever throughout his four years there. He was, you know, he was really instrumental in kind of building up the Duke program with Coach K and kind of his, his earlier years. And so he has a very unique perspective on the game. And the book Toughness really goes into what it takes to be mentally tough on the floor. And it really breaks down with his teammates, with himself, his experiences and what he's seen with what separates players who, who are tough, who are good teammates, who are successful consistently and who, and you know, the ones who aren't. And also it has great insight into different coaches. So obviously play for Coach K, one of the greatest coaches ever. So we're able to kind of peek inside and see how does Coach K prepare for things, how does Coach K approach games? And specifically there's a story in that book where, you know, Jay Billis was 18 years old. He was a freshman at Duke. So you know, he had just gotten there obviously high school. He was one of the, he was a very heralded player in California. So you know, he comes into Duke with a great class. You know, his freshman class was very, very loaded and you know, he had to, to kind of get adjusted to that. So their first, you know, not during the early part of the season back, you know, obviously during, during college basketball season. We all know that these big Power 5 teams are going to schedule you know, these kind of mid major schools kind of tune up and get ready for their conference schedule. So that was kind of where they were at. You know, they were, they were playing a team that was, that was significantly worse than them, didn't have any of the big time recruits, was just kind of a lowly mid major team. And so, you know, J. Billis is going into that thinking, like, you know what, I played a lot of big games in high school. Like I've seen, you know, Duke play big games before. Like I know what a big game is. Like I'm cool, right? So, so before that game though, where they're playing that team, Coach K comes in the locker room to, you know, to go over the scouting report essentially for, for that game. And you know, they were playing, it was a team that Duke should be okay. It was, it was a, it was a game that dude could probably play like 60% and still win the game. Okay. So it wasn't a game that the media was really going to cover that much. Probably wouldn't be on, you know, prime time ESPN that night. And it wasn't really a game that as a player you get excited about. I'm sure you've all played in games where like you go into the game knowing the team you're playing is not very good and you already know you're going to win the game. It was one of those sort of games. And Coach K comes in the locker room and he says, this is the most important game on our schedule. And J. Billis is kind of, you know, he's kind of, you know, shaking his head wondering like, well Coach, you know, we play Virginia, who's ranked number one. We play the defending champs North Carolina. And then we have Louisville who played in the Final Four last year. And how is, like, how is this game our most important game on the schedule? And Coach K responds to him and says it's the most game, it's the most important game on our schedule because we are playing it right now and everything that we do is important. Every single step along the way is important. And essentially what Coach K stressed to them is that in order to, if you want to play for championships and, and sub in championships for anything else, you want to play to win awards, you want to play to get a spot on the team, you want to play to make it to the next level, every single step, every single game, every single workout needs to be approached as if it's the most important thing that you're ever going to do. Because if you pick and choose when to bring the effort. You won't consistently make that improvement, okay? And you won't be able to be your best consistently because that's what it's all about. It's about proving that you're the best every single time you step onto the floor. And if you, if you want to compete for a championship, you can't give less than championship effort ever. Right? You can't do it. You have to bring championship level effort every single practice, every single game. Regardless of what's happening, regardless of the circumstances or regardless of who you're playing, your opponent can't determine your standard of excellence that you hold yourself to. If you allow that to be the case, if you allow yourself to say, you know what, I don't have to be excellent today because we were playing with someone who's terrible. I can be average today. That all of a sudden becomes a slippery slope to where there's many times where you're going to fall back into habits, right? When the game is tough and it all comes down to one possession for the championship, have your habits put you in a place to where you're ready, you're prepared to do that. If you consistently are a person who is focused on doing the right things, holding yourself to that, that center of excellence, then you'll be prepared for it. If you allow yourself to be lazy with that and pick and choose when you're gonna try, you're not gonna be prepared for it. Especially if that other team has been approaching things at the championship level mentality, every single game, okay? If we, and this is what Coach K said, if we meet our standard of excellence every single night, winning is going to take care of itself, okay? It's not about going out there and trying to win. It's about going out there and trying to hold ourselves to the standard of excellence in how we execute our stuff, how we prepare for games, okay? And that's what Coach K, what his message was to his guys, that every single game is the most important game we're ever going to play because we need to hold ourselves to that standard of excellence because that's how we're going to win, right? We can't just turn it on. We can't pick and choose when we're going to do that because eventually we're going to find a team who doesn't do that. And at that point it's going to be wrapped for us, okay? So there's a lot of stories like that where you're going to learn these lessons from these just Elite basketball minds throughout this book and how it's really broken down to is. It's broken down in different chapters that break down different, different aspects of being tough as a basketball player. Okay. There's a chapter on trust and being a person who's worthy of trust from your teammates and coaches who can trust the work that you've put in. Okay. How do you actually get to that point? The story I just told you about Coach K comes from the story on the chapter on preparation, where it talks about how do you prepare for your games, how do you prepare for your practices, how do you put yourself in the best position to win, how do you develop that standard of excellence you hold yourself to? Okay? And there's a chapter on courage. So being able to take that last shot, right? Not being afraid to fail, not being afraid to look bad when you're practicing or whatever it might be, which is just such a major key for a lot of players. One of my favorite chapters is called Next Play, where essentially it explains to you the importance of moving on to the next play. You know, once a play happens, once something, you know, you miss a shot, there's nothing you can do to take that shot back. All that you control at that point is your effort moving forward. Okay? That's the only thing that you have control over. He also talks about commitment and the keys to actually being a player who is committed, because a lot of people will say, I'm committed. I do all these things. But what does it mean to actually be a committed player? And specifically, you can tell there's players who are different, right? There are guys who bring a different level of effort and intensity to the games, who practices, guys who might not be as talented, as athletic as other people, yet they're still able to dominate. Right. How are they able to do this? A lot of times it comes down to the commitment. Not just committing to doing your workouts, all these things, but your actual commitment when you get to the gym, right? When you're in practices, in games. And he really breaks all this stuff down. A lot of interviews with other great coaches, Tom Izzo, Tom Crean, a lot of guys who are fantastic basketball minds and other sports, too, where you're going to learn from some of the best. The best minds in sports. Right? So it's a book where, you know, I read it constantly. I read it at least once a year since I was in high school. I've been reading that book, and it's something that every player needs to read. Okay, so after this podcast is done, I want you guys to go get that book. Go find it somewhere and check it out. Go. You know, I don't know if the library is open where you guys are at. Probably not. If it is, though, my library has it. That's where I got it the first time I bought it now, but first time I read it, I got it from the library. So go check that out. And so that's important. And that's book number one. Book number two is another book that's very, very important. I think every player needs to read this book. And it's called Relentless by Tim Grover and a little background. Tim Grover. Tim Grover is the. He was the trainer for Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, and some other guys as well. Well, those are really the three main guys, the three biggest guys that he was the trainer for. And basically the book is all about what's called a cleaner. Okay. And a cleaner would be. All three of those guys are cleaners. Essentially. A cleaner is the highest level you can be when it comes to how you approach things. Okay? The attention to detail you pay to things, the intensity you bring to what you do. And it really explains why Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, why are these guys are so different from everybody else, okay? And specifically, I want to break this down for you guys, because this is a part of the book that he kind of starts off with, to kind of give you guys a good. A better. A better thought of what I'm talking about. There's three different levels of players right there. There's a cooler, that's level one. There's a closer, level two, and then there's a cleaner, which is. Which is level three. Okay? And this is how he breaks it down. You know, he says a cleaner is rarely understood and he likes it that way. Here's what I'm talking about. Coolers can have an amazing game. Closers can have an amazing season. Cleaners have amazing careers. Coolers worry about the competition and how they measure up. Closers study the competition and plan their attack based on the opponent. Cleaners make the competition study them. They don't care who they're facing. They know they can handle anyone. Coolers avoid taking the winning shot. Closers take the shot if they know they have a good chance of making it. Cleaners just trust their gut and shoot. They don't have to think about it. Coolers won't offer to take on a role they're not comfortable with. Closers will take their role if you ask them and do it well. If they have enough time to prepare for and study the situation. Cleaners don't wait to be asked, they just do it. Coolers let others decide whether they're successful. They do the job and wait to see if you approve. Closers feel successful when they get the job done. Cleaners never feel as if they've achieved success because there's always more to do. Coolers don't want to carry the team, but they're the first to slap you in the back when you do a good job. Closers want the credit for getting the job done and love being congratulated for what they did. Cleaners rarely congratulate you for doing your job, they just expect you to do it. Coolers think they want the spotlight, but when they get it, they usually handle it badly. Closers stand in front because they want to show who's in charge. Cleaners don't have to show who's in charge. Everybody already knows. Coolers will eat whatever you feed them. Closers will order what they want and be satisfied with a great meal. It doesn't matter what a cleaner eats, he'll still be hungry again in an hour. The closer can win the game if given the opportunity, but the cleaner creates the opportunity. The closer can be the star, but the cleaner maneuvered him into the job. Cleaners never need to be pushed. Everybody else does. And it ends with good, great, unstoppable. So there's three levels of players, and it explains how to actually embody the. The mindset of a cleaner. Okay. And as you can see, the difference between a cooler, someone who's not consistent, a closer, somebody who's fairly consistent, and a cleaner, someone who's clockwork when it comes to consistency. It's a big difference from each level. And he breaks down not just those three between mj, Kobe, Dwyane Wade, but other guys who are elite, what they do, LeBron, Tiger woods, these guys who have achieved immense levels of success consistently over a long period of time and what that actually takes. Okay, so, you know, you can, you can listen through those, those, those comparisons I gave you and think about which, where would I put myself in that? Right. And. And that kind of gives you an idea of where you're at right now. And if you aspire to get to that cleaner level, I highly recommend you check out this book as well. These two books really, in general need to be read if you're a basketball player. You know, toughness is a book I'm going to read every year, forever, because it's not just basketball stuff. It is it's, it's, it's, it's, it's in the sense like, it's, it's written for basketball players, but it really translates to every area of your life. Okay, there's non basketball stories in there. I'm going to continue to read it. And if you're a Hooper, you need to read that book Relentless as well. A book that you definitely need to read to understand, to have that sort of understanding of just the intensity that it takes to really be the best of something. Okay, so you guys want to develop your mentality and learn more. Really, these books are so important for you. And you know, that's kind of, that's kind of my thing with those, with those books is that you, again, like I said, that stuff that a lot of players don't have naturally, right? You might think, okay, you know, I watch all these videos on how to, you know, get better at shooting and how to get better at ball handling. But how, how, how. What kind of time do you spend developing your mindset, developing your mentality, right? Because if you spend this time training on your physical skills, but not your mental, well, you're leaving a whole part of the game and, and you're just kind of ignoring that. So that's something that you have to take into account. And I wanted to share with you guys real quick just the Kobe Bryant reading list, because like I said, Kobe has a list of books that are some of his favorite books. And I kind of want to go through a few of these. Just you have a few more ideas of stuff you can read. The first one is called the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, which is book I've read a couple times. Great book. LeBron James, another guy you, if you can find, you can find pictures of LeBron reading this book, the Alchemist, it's more like a story. So if you're into like more of like a fiction sort of tale, I'm forgetting the, the an allegory I think is technically what it would be, what it would be captioned under. But really it tells about like the journey of starting off with nothing to going along your journey, getting through all these obstacles and acquiring everything you've ever wanted. Right? That's kind of the, the premise of the book and super important that you guys check that out. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Children of Blood and Bone by Tommy Adeyemi. The Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell. Jonathan Livingston Siegel by Richard Bachelor. Relentless by Tim Grover. Obviously Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. Sonny by Jason Reynolds. Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell Tough Juice by Karam Butler. So like I said, one of the best, one of the best to ever do it is, is a guy who is really obsessed with, with the mental side of the game and that comes hand in hand with reading. So I really hope you guys take what I'm telling you and you run with it. Even again, if it's just for 20 minutes a day you spend reading, that's going to pay off for you guys long term, I promise you that. Okay? So I really hope you guys follow that. That's where we're going to end today. Like I always say, questions for me. Go ahead and send me a DM on Instagram. VisionDrivenBasketball. And again, that's where I got, I get all of my, basically my ideas for podcasts is through either DMs or YouTube comments. And regardless of that, follow me on Instagram even if you don't have a question. I Vision Driven Basketball and all that stuff is gonna be linked down below. And so, you know, I really like talking about kind of these, these different topics. Obviously this is not too much, you know, in terms of the actual basketball part of things, but mentally that's such a crucial piece to it as well. So I hope that you guys don't overlook this. Take it, get better and I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.