3 Major Lessons Hoopers Need To Learn From The Global Pandemic

Foreign. Welcome to the Visionary Basketball Training Podcast. Appreciate you guys tuning in today, whether you're an Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, thank you for listening or watching. And if you're on Apple Podcasts, I really would appreciate you guys would scroll down, leave a review for me. If you're on YouTube, make sure you subscribe if you aren't already, and leave a like as well, and we'll hop into it. So, you know, obviously, the past few months have been, you know, crazy for everybody, and it just seems like it keeps on getting even crazier as the months go on. And so I kind of wanted to talk a little bit about, you know, what this whole year has kind of taught me and the lessons I think you guys can take from this as well. And I'm sure you guys would agree. And I've learned similar things to me, but I wanted to kind of put out my experiences, what I've seen from my own players, and kind of have you guys in the right mindset going forward in terms of being able to handle things that might not go the ideal way, that might go a different direction than what you thought that they would. Which for everybody this year, that's been the case for me, for you, for everybody, thought this year would be a lot different than it is. I wanted to take that and look at it and see what we can take from it so that we can become better. And obviously, you know, depending on where you live, this. This whole situation, specifically the whole pandemic, whole global. Global pandemic is, you know, a lot of places, it's still like, that's there. They're still in the midst of that. In terms of the whole lockdown, quarantine thing, you know, where I live, it's a lot more relaxed now. You know, sports are starting to come back. You know, we're able to kind of go out and do whatever, but obviously the effects of those months that we've spent in lockdown are still being felt today. And obviously, you know, where we are now is kind of a direct correlation to what we've done, how we spent our time, what we've decided to do over the past couple of months as individuals. So, yeah, that's something to look at. But specifically, I want to talk about three different things that I've learned over the past few months since March, since this whole global pandemic thing happened and everything went into lockdown. Three things that I've learned that I'm going to take from forward myself and that hopefully you guys can take and learn from as well. And I'm sure you guys are going to be able to relate to it as well. So as, as I'm giving you guys my points, think to yourself, you know, were there situations over these past couple months that you've experienced similar things? Right? Similar experiences, similar situations. You know, that's what I want you guys to think about as you're going through all this. But so, you know, hop right into it. Number one, the. I think maybe the biggest thing that I've learned over the past, whatever, almost three months is that there are positives in every negative situation. Obviously this whole pandemic coronavirus thing, a lot of negative parts to that. It itself is a negative thing. Just a lot of bad stuff that goes along with obviously, people getting sick, which is bad, and then obviously the effects on the economy and people being able to work and be able to. Obviously those things have been majorly affected in a negative way as well. So, you know, I kind of had to. When that all happened and everything's getting shut down and we all have to basically slow down, I had to sit back and kind of evaluate vision driven basketball, right? This was in March, which is. Seems like forever ago at this point. So I had to kind of look at, you know, what am I doing? What can I do better? And it was, it's. It was it that sense, it was kind of a nice thing. I was able to kind of slow down and recognize, you know, really evaluate myself and see what can I. What can I get better at? And I think for a lot of players that correlated well with the end of the season, then being able to sit back and say, okay, what did I do well this season? What do I need to do better next season? And what's going to be my plan going forward so that I can actually get better at those things. I think that was one thing that was very. That was one positive of that whole whole negative situation. It's just everything slowed down. So a lot of times when we don't get a chance to really think about what we can improve on, we don't really get a chance to reflect on what we've done so far and what we want to get going forward. That was a good opportunity for me, and I'm hoping that you guys took advantage of that as well. And if you haven't, it's definitely not too late to do that. You definitely need to take that opportunity to just reflect and think of what you've done so far, what you think you've been good at so far, and, and what you can do to get better, okay, that's very important. It's really the first step of getting where you want to get to is actually having that sort of self realization. And so, you know, for me, back in March, everyone started doing the whole at home workout stuff. So that was what I was doing. I was posting a ton of at home workout stuff, just trying to help people out. I posted all those ball handling workouts, finishing workouts, shooting workouts, and then the at home body weight strength program too, on my YouTube channel. So. So all that stuff people could take to help them during that time where no one can really go anywhere, no gyms are open, everyone's at home all day. So what can we do to make the most out of that? And a lot of players took that and ran with it, and they got better because of that. But that was kind of my thought. It's like, how can I help players right now in this situation that we're in, where we can sort of overcome that sort of adversity that we have right now? And that's something we'll get to soon. And, you know, that, that, that kind of spurred things on. You know, my channel has almost doubled in size since March. Like, it's almost doubled. And a lot of that was just like, I was able to kind of take that time and use it to the best of my ability. So, you know, everything slowed down. I can't go anywhere. No one could really do anything. So, like, what else am I gonna do other than make videos, really? That was what I was spending my time doing. And because the work that I had put in, then those benefits, I started to read the benefits for that. And I think that was something that I was always trying to stress to my players as well. I know right now that the tendency is like, okay, you know what? Everything's slowed down. We can't do anything now. It's time to just sit at home and watch Netflix. And that was when the whole Tiger King wave was big. Right? And obviously there's plenty of stuff like that. And again, I'm not someone who's just, you know, dogging on Netflix or, you know, whatever you want to watch. But I'm just saying that that's a prime opportunity to actually, you know, get better at something, to put time into something when, you know, a lot of other people aren't. A lot of other people are relaxing, say, like, you know, I need this break. I'm just gonna sit around, do nothing. You know, that was an opportunity to, to sort of take advantage of that and be like, okay, what can I do right now? Obviously, it's not ideal, but what can I do to. To still see some positive stuff come out of this period of time? That was my thought then. I think that was a lot of players I talked to who got a lot better over the past couple months, had that same exact approach to it. No matter the negative circumstances surrounding me right now, what can I do that can move me in a positive direction? And a lot of that was, did you work on your ball handling? Obviously, a lot of people didn't have a hoop. No one really had a gym to go to. So it became, what can I do right now to get better at it? And especially for somebody, if your ball handling wasn't your strength before, Right. Do you spend a lot of time focusing on getting better at that? I think this is a great time for people to do that. And I know a lot of players who have really improved their handles over the past three months, and a lot of that work that they put in is really going to pay off for them in the long run. So that's something very, very important to think about as well. You, you know, you gotta ask yourself, what did I do to make myself better? Can you name me one thing that you've gotten significantly better at over the past three months? Can you do that? Because, you know, if not, you gotta evaluate what are you doing? Like, what. What is it? Is. Are you not training enough? Is your training not. Not. Not as effective as you might need it to be? Ask yourself that. Are you focused on something? Right? Will you focus? Okay, I'm gonna get better at ball handling over these next, you know, however long we're in lockdown, I'm going to get out and I'm going to do, you know, I'm going to do 20 minutes of ball handling every single day. I'm going to go through a ball handling workout every single day. That was something that, that a lot of players did, and it really paid off for them. You know, turning the most out of. Out of what you have. You know, that's the thing. There's always positives in negative situations. Every time you lose a game, there's. There's something positive you can take from that. You know, maybe, you know, I had heard a, A someone talk about. I'm trying to think who was talking about this yesterday. I was listening to another podcast, but essentially they were talking about Kobe and, and he was. He had a. He. I believe they were playing the Hawks and he missed a little turnaround fade away on the baseline at the buzzer. That would have won him the game. He missed it. And after that, after that game, all the other players left, the staff left, the fans left. Arena's empty. Kobe had stayed for three and a half more hours after that to just work on that shot. He didn't work on the other side of the floor. He didn't work on anything else. He didn't work on the other shoulder. He worked on the exact same shot he missed over and over and over and over and over again so he wouldn't miss it again. Right? And obviously that's, you know, Kobe. That's an extreme example of that. But what I'm. What I'm getting at with that is you have to be able to take that negative experience, that negative situation, and get something positive out of it. So because of that loss that Kobe took, he got better at that move. So the next time he's in that situation, he's not gonna miss it, right? So now, going forward, yes, he lost the game, but he's better because of it. He made himself better because of the loss that he took. And there's a ton of situations where that might be the case. Maybe you have a whole season where you just don't play well, right? Maybe you start off the season playing well and you just kind of don't play well down the stretch. So you got to ask yourself, you know, what can I do next year to make sure that that doesn't happen? What do I need to improve on? What's going to be better? That in the long run is really going to be helpful for you, because now you know what your weaknesses are. You know, what you need to get better at. And if you go full force after that, you can come back the next season and be way better because you had that bad experience. Okay? So that. That's something you guys need to learn. Not every bad experience is really bad if you take something positive from it. And that was something that I've learned a lot over the past few months, and I think a lot of players have as well. And that's something that I've always tried to explain to you guys. You know, every time you miss a shot, there's something you can learn from that. You know, I always go back to this interview that Kobe had where essentially he was talked about. He. You know, he talked about, was he. Was he, you know, fear of failure? And he was like, basically, he's like, yeah. I mean, failure doesn't exist in my mind. It doesn't because if I. If I go out on Monday and I fail at something, right? But then I go back on Tuesday and I do the same thing again, but I succeed this time, does that make me a failure or does it make me a success? Well, obviously it makes him a success, but he still failed that first day. The difference is that when he failed, he got back, he regrouped, figured out what he needed to change, and he came back the next day and he didn't fail. He succeeded at it. So that. That's the reason why these negative situations can become positive for you. If you can take that. That bad. That bad thing happened, that missed shot, and you can adjust, then the next time you don't miss that shot, well, that's improvement. That's getting better. And that's exactly what Kobe is referring to right there. Right. You know, he was asked do, if I hadn't won a single championship my whole career, would I look at my career as a failure? And he would say, well, I look at it as very disappointing. But I'd have to ask myself, why? Like, why didn't I do that? Was it because I wasn't a good enough leader? Was it because I didn't put my teammates in a situation to win? It was because I wasn't dedicated enough. Then what I need to do is identify that and correct it so that in my next stage of life, where I'm making, I'm writing a book and creating these different projects, I need to make sure I don't repeat that. So now if I go to. Now if I go to do my whole, you know, if I go to make a movie, right, And I fix this, and all of a sudden, people, I'm critically acclaimed for the movies that I create, am I a failure? Of course not. Because I took what I did poorly and I got better at it. Okay? And that, in the long word at the end, is what matters. Okay? The only way you fail is if you just stop. So being able to take those negatives and turn them into positives is massive. So that kind of goes back to being able to self reflect. And what I recommend is you just take out any time that, you know, there's something that doesn't go your way, or it's a bad situation or fail or a failure, you might have write it down and then ask yourself, what do I need to do to not have to experience this again, right? If I had a bad season where I didn't play as well as I should have, I gotta ask myself, what did I do wrong? That I need to do better was, you know, did I not work enough on my ball handling? Was I not a good enough ball handling this year? Was I not a good enough shooter this year? Why? Was I not comfortable enough running the offense? So if that's the case, what do I need to do to change it? Well, maybe next year I need to study those offensive plays more. Okay. Or maybe I need to get. I need to fix my shooting form. Maybe I need to get up more shots. Maybe I need to get up more three pointers specifically. Maybe I need to get better at coming off of ball screens. Maybe I need to get better at controlling the basketball. Okay? So once you identify that, you can write it down, you can actually give yourself a plan of, of what you're going to do to overcome that, okay? What you don't want to do is you don't want to leave things to chance. You don't want to say, you know what, had a bad season. I'm just going to go in the gym every day and, you know, work at it. But, you know, maybe I'll. Maybe I'll fix it, maybe I won't, I don't know. You need to know what specifically you need to improve on. Don't leave it to chance. Because if you leave it to chance, you may or may not correct it, then you might end up doing all this sort of work and it can end up being for nothing. Because at the end of the day, that was not the most crucial thing for you to get better at. Okay? Obviously, there's things that everyone needs to get better at, you know, shooting, ball handling, finishing. But there's always specifics within those things that you can also take. And you can also say, you know what I need to get better at shooting threes. Okay? Shooting threes on the wing, maybe, you know, off driving, kick. You know, my team likes to shoot a lot of threes, so I got to be able to hit them, right? So I'm going to work on. I'm going to make sure that this year I'm going to take a lot of threes from the wing during practices, okay? Make sure I get a lot of reps up from there so that when the time comes next year and I'm in the situation, I can now hit those shots because I've worked on and my form is good. I put in the reps for it. Be specific, be direct with what you want to get better at. Okay? And, you know, I think that that's a very important thing to be able to learn from that, you know, adversity is super important if you want to succeed, because overcoming adversity makes you tougher and it makes you more confident. Because, you know, I've gone through this before, and I've gone through something worse maybe, than this before. That's why, you know, people would say, make practices harder than the games are, right? If your practices are really difficult and you know, you're going through a bunch of different things, then all of a sudden you get into a game and just. It just feels easier for you, right? If you're. If your practices are very, very detailed with the moves that you're doing, you're working on a bunch of different combos, you might have to go to a bunch of different counters to moves you're working on. All of a sudden when the game happens and you've got to, you know, react, you know, it's gonna. It's gonna feel like a second itch. You've done it before because you've gone through tough workouts, right? That's the whole point of, you know, when you're getting ready for the season, making sure you're in shape, right? So that way, when you get to, obviously, running and doing sprints and all that stuff that you need to do to get in shape obviously isn't fun. It's not easy. But. But when you get to your team practices or your tryouts and everyone's got to run, it's going to be easier for you because you've gone through that adversity already, okay? Adversity is a very, very good thing. It's a very good thing. It's a very crucial thing to have in any area, but especially as basketball player, because it's going to give you the confidence and it's going to tell you what you need to do to get better at that thing, okay? So that's something that we've all learned through this, is that adversity is real, and how you respond to it determines how. How successful you're gonna be, okay? If you don't respond well to it, if you quit or you just say whatever, like, who cares? Well, then obviously you should know the results you're gonna get from that, and they're not gonna be ideal, okay? But if you're cool with that, then whatever. But if you can take that adversity and you can ask yourself, how do I overcome this? And you work at that, that's gonna make you better and more confident the next time you have to face that adversity. So, you know, tough practices, bad Games, bad seasons are going to either force you to go one of two ways. You're either going to say at that point, you know what? I just can't do it. You know, I'm not. This is too difficult. I don't want to go through that again. I just. I'm never going to be able to do it. That's one way. You can go to it, or you can say, okay, why did this happen? And what can I do to fix it? What can I do to get better at that thing? And if you do that enough times, you're gonna really start to elevate yourself. So that's important for everyone to understand. And, you know, the players who approach things with that mindset right there are the ones who succeed. Because it's not just about the talent that you bring to the table. It's about how do you react when things don't go your way. That's a major key and a major factor to who ends up succeeding in the long run. So the second thing that I've really learned from this whole global pandemic was the people who adjust quickly are the ones who win in the end. And this kind of correlates directly to basketball. And I've talked about this before on the podcast, but the game of basketball is all about your ability to quickly make reads and quickly react to things. You don't have time to sit around and think things through on the court. You got to just do. You got to be able to see something and react to it. That's basketball right there. And it's your ability to encounter a problem and then overcome that regardless. And again, I think. I mean, I have a whole episode essentially on this, when we talk about how to actually develop skills where you have to actually learn how to make those reads before you even get to the do part. You got to be able to read it, plan, then actually execute. So it's the same thing here. When the people who are going to succeed in basketball, the people who are going to succeed are the ones who. Who can react quickly to things. And really, it's. It's. It's the same thing at a time like this, you know, we've all had to adjust. There's been no team stuff, no aau, no gyms to go to. And, you know, there have been many players who, who took that challenge head on. And those are the kids, those are the players who, who were doing the live workouts, who were, you know, getting. Working on their ball handling, who were saying, okay, you know, what can I do right now to, to get better. You know, those were the people. So for example, the perimeter score system, all my players in there, you know, some of them didn't have access to a gym right away. Some of them were, had access to maybe an outdoor hoop and. But a lot of them were just like, you know what, here's what I'm going to do, Coach. I know when I get the perimeter score system, I'm going to have the 20 points a game blueprint, the, the mental toughness masterclass and the NBA scoring secrets film breakdowns. So I'm just going to go through all of those. So I had players who were just going through that stuff, improving their basketball iq, improving their ability to make reads, to recognize reads and see them actually being executed in games. Players who are improving their mental toughness, players who were improving just their entire mentality, their approach to the game, right through all those videos in those, those courses right there. And that was all before. Even, even without having ideal access to a court, they were getting better because they understood, like, there are other things I can do, I can adjust. Okay, I can say, you know what, I can work on this, right? I'm gonna be able to do this right now, but I can do this. And, and a lot of players were willing to do that. Those are the players who are gonna succeed because they, they are able to adjust to things on the fly, right? Things that come around that aren't ideal, they can adjust to those things. And those are the guys who I really think are, you know, really going to make that sort of progress and have made that progress as well. You know, there's been really, players who have been on both sides of the thing, players who have kind of sit back, sat back and not done, not done in tongues. Like, you know, I can't get in the gym right now, like, what am I supposed to do? And there's guys who've taken that as a challenge and gotten better because of it. And I think that, that in itself, obviously being able to. And that's why I always say to you guys, like, play more basketball, play more one on one, play more five and five. Because it teaches you how to be able to, to read better and to make adjustments and, and I think that in itself we go back to that adversity thing. The more adversity you face, the better you become at adjusting, the better you become at doing that thing. And when you become better at that, you know, again you become more confident and there's less things that you. That, that, that can knock you off your path because you're just. You're more. You're more comfortable, you're more confident in your ability to overcome those things. And, you know, the third thing that I recognized and that I learned from this global pandemic was that you either get better or you get worse. There is not an in between. Okay? So one of the, one of the worst parts of all of this global pandemic is that we couldn't train the way that we want to, the way that we normally do. Okay? We can't go to the gym and play pickup. We can't go to the gym and work out with our teammates or our coaches. We can't get in the weight room. For me, the biggest thing is I had a basketball court, like an indoor court that I had access to, so that wasn't an issue for me. But for me, I didn't have access to a weight room, which sucks for me because I really love. I really love being in the weight room. I love being in there. I know how to get results in there, and I've been doing it for such a long time that it's just a part of what I do, right. So. So I was obviously looking forward to being in there the spring and summer, but obviously things change. And, you know, without that there, it's hard to find motivation to actually go and get stronger. Right? Because especially we can make this relation. But when you, when, when you talk about, you know, specifically weightlifting or getting stronger, if you don't, if you don't work on your, like, if you don't get stronger, if you're not, like, you know, in the weight room or doing bodyweight stuff, like, you're gonna lose that strength, right? And you obviously know that if you just don't touch a weight or do any push ups for, you know, two months, you're gonna get weaker. That's how it is, right? You don't stay the same, you get weaker. And on the, on, conversely, if you continue to do your best to get stronger, you will. You're going to move one or two directions. And so for me, what I did is I decided to challenge myself. And I went with a 300 pushups a day challenge. Couldn't get to a gym. So I decided I'm going to do 300 pushups a day. When I wake up in the morning, I'm going to do 300 pike push ups, which essentially targets your shoulders where you just have your feet a little bit closer to you and you're going at an angle to the Ground. So I did 100 of those. When I would wake up then middle of the day I would do 100 just normal push ups. So just normal flat push ups. And then at the end of the day I would do another hundred incline push ups. So I'd have my hands on a chair or a stool or something And I'd do 100 push ups that way as well. So 300 a day. And I ended up doing that for 20 days. This is about a month ago. And after those 20 days of that 20 straight days, I didn't take a single day off. During that whole 20 day stretch, I'd felt stronger than I had ever, you know, chest wise, you know, I went from being, you know, going from like, you know, for 20, 25 straight to like around 50 straight by the time we got to that end. Because, you know, I just built up that sort of strength right there. So I was able to see that progress coming from just taking that, you know, that challenge and is just going with it, sticking, sticking to it. And so I was able to see improvement because I decided that I was going to stick to that challenge. And now since then I've done other variations of bodyweight workouts, just kind of trying and continue to push myself and get stronger. And since then I've been able to get back in the gym, into the weight room where I live. So that's been great. But literally I've been in the weight room for about two weeks at this point and I hit a bench press pr, the personal record last week after not lifting for months. Right. So like that goes back to my commitment to do those 300 push ups a day. I was able to not only keep my, my strength, but increase it as well. So I came back in the gym and obviously it's different. A bench press and a push up, not the same thing. But that strength carried over to that exercise. So I was in there for a week, got a couple sessions in, and all of a sudden like I felt, I felt stronger than I was before. And that was the whole making the most out of what you're given at the time. So, you know, really what it comes down to is you have to make the decision to act okay, you gotta do something, you gotta move in the right direction because inaction, not doing anything is gonna move you in the wrong direction. So you've gotta make sure that you make that choice as to what you're gonna do. And you know, kind of going along with that, I started my live ball handling workouts on YouTube back in mid April, because again, we were all locked down. No one could go anywhere. So, you know, I said it was like, you know what? I'll go live twice a week on YouTube for just, you know, just quick ball handling workout. And, you know, since then, I've had guys who've been tuning in every workout twice a week for, you know, a couple months at this point. And, you know, since we didn't really have much space to work with, I knew most people didn't. You know, we did the best with what we had. And because of that, a lot of guys who've been tuning into these consistently have seen really massive increases in their ball handling, in their ability to control the basketball, their moves, and just their overall handles in general. And, you know, I still, as we were going along with that, I still felt personally like I could do a better job, like I could bring more to the table as a trainer, as a coach for these live workouts. So, you know, I invested time and money for, you know, learning from other trainers and people who are better than me, right? So that I could learn, improve myself first of all, but also then be able to translate and help you guys with that as well. And, you know, so I was able to get a lot of personal experience and knowledge in terms of what effective drills and workouts to bring to you guys. And, you know, for me personally, it all started with me doing it, right? Like, I got to become better. So I was going through these workouts every day. Aside from what I was doing with any of my training or my live workouts, I was going through my own ball handling stuff and getting better at that, really seeing crazy increases in my ball control. I mean, literally within, like, one or two weeks. I mean, literally within, like, the first couple workouts that I started, I was seeing just, like, my ball control was so much better. The way I could execute moves was so much better. And then when I got into games, when I was playing pickup one on one, my handles just felt so much better. And it was like, unlike anything I'd ever felt before. And that all started with me committing to it. So then I took, you know, and gradually I've been taking those things and implementing them into our live workouts. So, you know, and a lot of guys are seeing those sort of benefits. And that all starts with me, my commitment to do that. So now I know, okay, this is effective for me, right? And because of that, over the past month, like, I've improved my ball handling to the point where it has never felt better in my entire life. Like, this is the best I've ever felt with the ball in my hands, the most confident I've ever felt with it in my hands. And really, it's just such a. Such a freeing thing because I talk about, you know, I talked about last week how shooting is the most important skill in basketball, and it is. But ball handling, I would say, is second to that because it allows you so much freedom on the court, right? It allows you. No one can really bottle you up because you can put the ball on the floor, you can get to where you want to get to. No one can dictate to you where you're gonna go. And if they do try and do that, you have the ability to react, to counter it, and still get to where you want to get to, to still get an ideal look for yourself or your teammate. It's just a very freeing thing to have, especially when you can combine shooting and ball handling. So for me, you know, I was always a shooter, but ball handling was something that I needed to learn more about, to become more knowledgeable about, and I committed to doing that. And because of that, like I said, my ball handling, within the span of a month, it's night and day. Like, it is crazy how much better I am at ball handling now than I was a month ago. And so I'm in the. I'm actually going along with that. I'm in the middle of building a ball handling, ball control, specifically program for you guys that should be out hopefully soon. Still in the process of kind of designing the whole thing, making sure that it's exactly what I want it to be like, because, you know, these results that I've. That I've gotten over the past month have just been crazy. And I know I got a lot of questions from guys. You know, I sent out an email last week asking guys about what their biggest weakness was, and I got a lot of responses that. That went back to ball control. And so I recognized the importance of that. And obviously, you know, especially if you. If you're a point guard or, you know, you have to handle the ball, really any position these days. But if you're a guard, like, you got to be able to handle the ball. So that. That was a big thing, guys. And, you know, coach, you know, I want to be able to handle the ball. I don't be. Handle the ball and gets pressure, do all these things. And, you know, for me, that, that. That sparked me to be like, okay, what can I do to help these guys? Like, what do I need to do? So that that's sort of me, like, what. I'm going to go get better at my ball handling. So now I can tell you guys exactly what you need to do. Okay. Because I had a clue before, but then the stuff that I've been learning over the past month has just kind of, I mean, exponential growth as best I can see. Really, it's been. And I'm not even trying to overhype anything, but it's been the most productive training since, man, I'm trying to think since probably when I was getting prepared to play at the college level, like over a. Over a year ago, like, I was really getting after it then, seeing a lot of improvements then since that point, like this ball handling stuff is easily. I've easily seen those same sort of like, rapid benefits, rapid improvement, and just again, such a freeing feeling because I know I can shoot the ball, but now I know I can also handle it. So if I. So no matter where I'm at, right, someone plays me tough, I'm going to get by them because I know I can handle the ball and put it on the floor. If I'm being pressured, I'm not worried about it. Okay? Being able to handle pressure is such a massive thing. And also it's your ability to control a basketball. So again, like I said that, that I'm in. I'm in the process of building that. I'm really excited to get it, to get it to you guys. It's really going to help a lot of you out, especially you guys who have struggled with ball control, with ball handling before. It's going to be really game changing for you guys. So be on the lookout for that. That'll be. I don't have an exact timeline of when that will be, but just be on the lookout for it. You know, obviously, the. These three, these three realizations, these three things I've learned have come from this global pandemic. And really it all started with me evaluating myself and asking what I can do to become better, to help you guys. Right. You know, because that's kind of what it all comes from, right? If I want to help you guys, I got to help myself. Okay. So when I was even thinking about the topic for this podcast, you know, think about the things that I've learned from it, from this whole globe pandemic. What can we take to get better? Because hopefully, you know, you know, in the long run, there's a lot of lessons that we've learned here that maybe we won't see it on such a crazy, massive scale. That we've seen it over the past few months. But again, if we can learn to find positives out of every negative situation, okay? If you can learn to adjust quickly to things and to be able to quickly read and react on the court and off the court as well, okay. And then if you can also be able to understand that. That you have to make a decision to either get better or get worse. Right? You have to make the decision every day to act, to move in the right direction. Those three things are crucial. Crucial. And those things that. Those are things that we've learned, like, we've had to learn, we've had to recognize and that, you know, I'm sure, again, you guys probably have had thought to yourself, like, yeah, you know, that's something that I've. I've noticed as well. But those are three things that. Those don't just apply to these past couple months. These three things are going to apply for the rest of your career, for the rest of your life, and whatever you do, okay? Your ability to find. To use negative situations in a positive way, that's something that you need to be able to do going forward. So that was something that I thought was very important to kind of share with you guys, because, again, it's not just about, you know, this whole situation we've been in. It's about going forward. What can you take that's going to allow you to become better? Okay? So, you know, I had a. I got a few questions this week that I wanted to answer. And, you know, the first one came from. From Maddox, and he had said. He asked me yesterday, hey, Coach, in your next podcast, could you talk about your opinion on rankings? And this is a good question. I've kind of alluded to this before, and, you know, it's funny because I kind of see it both ways. Look, right? I kind of. I kind of have different perspectives. Obviously, rankings are important. Like, people respect rankings. I don't think the individual number matters at all. But if you're a top 100 player, like, that's a big deal because you're just gonna get that there's a status that comes along with that, right? Your ESPN top 100, that's just. That's. That's. That's something. But in terms of players saying, like, oh, you know, I'm. I'm ranked number 50 in my state. Like, you know, that's cool. But at the end of the day, that doesn't really matter. Like, what really matters is, like, okay, are you playing? Are you. Are you getting offers at the college level, right? Are you, are you able to go and continue your career? That's what matters. Okay? It doesn't matter again what, what your number is because again, that's just, it's, it's. It's a flawed system because who's picking these rankings, right? It's a subjective measurement. The way I might evaluate a player might be different from how somebody else might do that. Okay? So if they evaluate things differently than me, they use different criteria than I do, then they might think that the guy I think is the 50th best player. They might think he's the 21st best player, right? The guy that he thinks is the seventh best player, I might think is the 27th best player. Okay? So again, I don't think rankings really matter, which is why you see guys like, they don't matter because you see at the end of the day, guys who are ranked lower or aren't ranked end up beating these guys who are highly ranked. Because it's just. There's a lot of things go into it. You know, a while ago I had, you know, for those of you who don't know, I actually used to run something called NBA Universal, which was a. Essentially I just talked about the NBA. That was like, how long ago was that? It was like, oh, over a year ago. Probably about a year and a half ago I was doing that where essentially I would just talk about the NBA. So one of the, one of the videos I made though, and actually I think you'll probably find it on my channel if you go back, but I don't know if I still have it up or not. Essentially I went through all of the number one overall ranked high school prospects from like 2000 to 2015 or 16. I think that might be a little bit off, but essentially it was like that, that span of guys and there were so the number one guy in every high school class based on ESPN. And there was like three guys who are NBA All Stars. Out of those 16 or so guys, LeBron was one of them, Dwight Howard was one of them. And then I forget who the third guy was. Maybe there was four, but it was like very, very small. Percentage of those guys went on to be NBA All Stars. The majority of, of guys who, you know, if you go through a top 100, a lot of those guys are not in the NBA. A lot of those guys just, I mean, if you go through a top 10, a lot of those guys won't be in the, in the NBA. So who's in the NBA then? If the top 10 guys in high school aren't going to the NBA, who is? Well, it's guys who are lower. Because here's the other thing with rankings. A lot of times those rankings get started, here's the issue with them people. And actually, I respect ESPN for not doing this. A lot of. A lot of ranking systems do this stuff where they start ranking guys in seventh or eighth grade when it's like, you don't know. Like, if A kid is 611 in sixth grade, yeah, he's going to be really good because he's two feet taller than everybody else he's playing against. Obviously, if a kid can jump 35 inches when he's in seventh grade, okay, yeah, he's gonna be better than everybody else. But what about when all of his classmates catch up to him when they're sophomores in high school? What about in three years when that 611 kid is playing as other 611 kids, okay? And all of a sudden, that 611 kid never had to really try that hard because he was always bigger than everybody else. But now he's not, right? And now that kid, who, you know, was a little undersized when he was in eighth grade, undersized when he was in ninth grade. Then, boom, shot up, and now he's 610. But he had to work. He was always working. He was undersized. Like, okay, I gotta. I can't afford to not work at this. Now all of a sudden he's. He's the same height as that guy, but he's been working at it. He's gonna be better than that guy. Right? Even though the rankings might say, oh, this kid's better. Well, no, he's not. Because you can't start ranking kids when they're that young because you don't know what a kid's gonna look like when he's in, you know, 11th grade compared to when he's in seventh, which is. It's so dumb to me that that rankings, that that age even exist. I think. I think it's literally the dumbest thing ever. I get it. Because people like that stuff. But it's. It's just it. It to me there. It holds no weight. There's no value in it at all. Don't care. Obviously, when I was that age, that. It was always. That was cool. Like when I was in seventh, eighth grade, it was, oh, who's the best in my class? I'm trying to think. I think the one player in my class. So I was 2018, Marvin Bagley. Was in my class for a while, then he reclassed up. So at that point, you know, Marvin Bagley I guess is one who, who we'll see. And he was put in pretty good numbers. I think he was putting up like 20 and 11 in the NBA or maybe it's like 18 and 11 or something like that. 18 and 8, like pretty solid numbers for a second year guy in the NBA for the Kings. So you know, I think he's going to be a good, a very solid NBA player. So there's one guy who pans out okay. But I believe once he reclassed up to 2017, I forget who the number one guy in my class was. I'm not sure but I guess probably an RJ Barrett, right? In 2018. Yeah. RJ Barrett, Zion. So I had a pretty good class. But there's guys in that top 10 now and I still remember there are guys who were in that top 10 when I was in middle school that I would look at. I don't know where those guys are now. They're not in the NBA. I'll tell you that. There are guys who were ranked 2, 3, right behind Marvin Bagley. They are not in the NBA right now. Now maybe they will be because a lot of them are still in college now. A lot of them are just, just finished up their sophomore year but not all of them one and done. So that, that should go to tell you all you need to know. And I've broken down before how you have guys take Duncan Robinson from the heat, right? Do one from a D3 program so obviously not ranked to Michigan to now playing in the NBA, breaking records for the Heat, getting a million dollar guaranteed contract. Who cares about the ranking? What does a high school ranking mean? What does a middle school ranking mean to a guy like that? It's just to me rankings are incredibly overblown and they're not, it's just not very important at all. And I think, I think I get it, but I think players spend too much. I get it. If you look at it, you're like, oh, that's cool. But if you like legit, get upset about it. Like I think you're focused in the wrong spot because at the end of the day, if you can play, you can play. It doesn't matter what your rank. If you go out and you beat the guy who's ranked number 42 and you're not ranked, you're better than him. That's what, that's what, it's what matters. And any coach who Goes to see that, who knows anything basketball will see that and be okay. That kid, who is that? Oh, he's not ranked. Guess I'm not gonna recruit him. That's not how it works. Okay, so forget about rankings. Become the best you can actually become. That's what really matters. Forget about other people. Forget about, you know, what they're doing. Forget, forget about who balls life or, or overtime is posting about because again, that legitimately means nothing. You know, they're, they're. I don't, I won't even get into that because it's not, it's just, I've already done that before. But forget about that sort of stuff, okay? It doesn't matter. What matters is your approach to the game. Your approach to getting better. Like we talked about today, you evaluating yourself and giving yourself a roadmap of what you need to improve on to get to the level you want to get to. That's what matters. At the end of the day, the rankings are what they are. You know, it's entertainment. You know, that's why basketball, that's what's entertainment. So guys are going to find things to talk about, you know, who's the best player in this seventh grade class, who's the best. Like people want things to talk about when it comes to basketball. So that's how it works. But you as a player, that shouldn't, that shouldn't be a big deal to you at all, okay? If the rankings come, they come. If they don't, who cares? Just play. So, but that's a good question. Something that I get kind of often. I haven't answered that question in a while or actually I haven't gotten in a while, but it's the first time I've really answered it directly. But you know, just, just understand that it's not like if I can look at the number one recruit out of all of these, you know, out of all these high school classes and three or four of them are end up being all stars in the NBA. The rest of them either. A lot of them didn't even like pan out in the NBA. A lot of them are just like out of the league or didn't even make it to the league. So like, why does that matter a lot of times because that kid was the best player in eighth grade and by the time he was a junior, he wasn't actually the best player, but he was already number one. So like, oh, may as well leave him there, right? Then he gets to college and it's like, why is this kid not panning out well. It's probably because he wasn't that good in the first place. There were players who were better than him who ranked lower because they were late bloomers or they weren't 6, 10 in eighth grade. It's kind of how it works. So recognize that. So I got another question and it was from Adi Basketball. I can't see your whole name, but he asked. There are tons of drills on the Internet and pretty much every skill on pretty much every skill in basketball. How do I know which drill will actually help me translate those skills to real game situations? And this is another great question. I talk about this all the time in terms of making sure the drills you do are actually effective. Because this is a big thing for me growing up is like I didn't always do drills that were the most effective. You know, I spent a lot of time doing real basic stationary ball handling, two ball drills. All this stuff that is cool, like it'll help you a little bit but like you can't just do it because if you just do that, you're not going to see the amount of game results that you want to see. And I didn't get that until I was probably a junior senior high school. So very important that you guys are not doing the wrong things because you can really end up wasting your time if you do what I told my answer to him in the DM was essentially some of it is trial and error. For me personally, I can look at something and be like, I've done something similar to that before and it worked or it didn't work. I can kind of identify at this point, you know, what, what I think is good and what I think isn't, which is why, like there are a lot of guys who post stuff that like I'm like, this is real good. Like this is really good stuff. You know, I'll give again a shout to a lot of guys who, who I follow who post a lot of really great stuff by any means. Basketball, Coleman. Shout out to him. All his stuff he posts is really, really good. You know, a lot of really detailed stuff that goes into it. You know, I think one of the things that I like about what they do and what a lot of these guys do, you know, I'll even name more of them. You know, you look at Tyler Ralph, another guy who's great at all this stuff, D.J. sackman. What I like about those guys and where I think basketball is heading, basketball training is heading, is getting away from the whole status quo, like do this, do this do this because this is what it's all. This is what we've always done, right? That's kind of been the outlook on basketball training forever, right? Growing up, it was like, okay, we're going to do this drill, because they always have done this drill. But, like, what if there's a drill that was better than that? One that was more effective for what we want to get out of, right? What if you always see these daily ball handling routines where it's just like your kind of basic pounds, taps, crossovers, all these things which are cool. Again, I'm not trying to say those things aren't cool. We do those in our workouts, too. But they can't be the only thing that you do right. If all you do every day is do some taps and some crossovers stationary for 10 minutes, you're never going to be a great ball handler, right? Unless you're just naturally good. Unless you got, you know, Jamal Crawford, you know, the handles like that, where you just, like you look at, you were just born with the basketball in your hands, you aren't going to be as effective as you could be. What I really like about what those guys do is they take a skill like ball handling, right? And they actually dissect how to do it. And it's something that I do with all my players now in our workouts. Like, okay, I'm going to take this skill, right? And I'm going to actually figure out the best way to actually develop it. Okay? So, for example, with ball handling, with ball control, something that I've learned a lot is that you want to be able to go the faster you can move the basketball, the more control you're going to have of it. In addition to that, the more directions you can move the ball in a certain move, the, the, the more times you have to change directions, the better your. Your ball handling is going to become. So, like, we might go into like a V dribble into a. Between the legs, behind the back, where I got to go, v. So there's 1, 2, 3, 4, change directions right there. And I'm trying to go as fast as I possibly can. That right there really will help your ball control because you have to be able to execute these. These. These only change directions while also going as fast as you can where you might lose the ball, which every. All of our workouts, I'm always reminding our guys, guys, lose the ball, please. You should lose the ball. Because if you aren't losing the ball, you probably aren't pushing yourself. And like, I Said if you want to get better at controlling the ball, first of all, you got to be able to change directions. That's point. That's part one. But also you got to be able to go as fast as you can. So if you're not doing that, then you're only getting half of it. You're not going to be getting. As you're not going to be getting better at it. So that was what I really like about the stuff those guys do, is they're not just. They don't just say, okay, you know what? I am going to do this. Like, because that's what everyone always has done. No, it's like we're going to break down and say what exactly works, you know, what's going to be, what's going to put our players in the best position to succeed. And this is something that I've learned a lot. And then I continue to develop with a lot of my guys, and I see it work time and time and time again with my own game and the players I work with too. So that kind of comes to you. You want to find stuff that, that is proven. What have other players said about it? Right. What have trusted sources said about it? So, you know, for example, with the perimeter score system, my big thing is like, I'm always asking my guys, like, okay, how are things going for you? Like, how are the workouts going? What. What results are you seeing? Because if it comes back it. And they're like, oh, coach, this sucks. This is terrible. Like, I've gotten worse. Like, well, then it's like, I gotta, I gotta. I gotta evaluate that. Cause obviously I can't put that out there, right? Cause then, like, what. How's. That's not fair to anybody if what I'm putting out there is not helping anybody. And then obviously, like, no one, no one's gonna. No one should want it, right? If my stuff doesn't work for anybody, you shouldn't want it. So that's how I look at things too. You have to see if you're just going. Doing random stuff, look at who, who, like, look at the reviews for essentially as it works for other people. You know, think about the players, you know, who are really good. Like, what do they do? Like, what drills do they do to get better? Who do they work with? You know, ask them about that. You know, for me, all the stuff that I, that I have on my channel is stuff that I've learned from people from either players who are better than me. So, you know, when I'm working Out with guys who have played professionally, played, you know, in college, and especially when I was younger, when I was working with guys who had that experience, who would teach me things, you know, that. That I would see, okay, this guy is really good at this, and I'm learning this from him, right? And because I can take that, I'm able to understand that, like, this. This stuff's effective. And then I. Then I would actually do it myself. So bringing to that trial and error, and now I see, oh, this is effective. Like, this actually works. So a lot of it comes to, how do you feel? Right? Do you feel like you've gotten better? Right? Do you feel after you've done a workout that you've gotten better at that one thing? Right? If you're going through a ball handling workout, you get to the end of it, you don't feel like your ball handling is any better. Well, ask yourself how effective that is. Now, maybe that could be that you weren't pushing yourself enough. But if you were pushing yourself really hard and you still aren't any better at it, maybe it's not great. Maybe the training itself isn't that effective, okay? So you got to be able to ask yourself that. I'm not saying you should be hopping, you know, hopping ship after one thing. You know, you start a program and you aren't Kyrie Irving after one ball handling workout, so you quit. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying you should see improvement. Okay? If you're not seeing any improvement, then you probably are focusing on the wrong things. So that's what I try and bring to all of my workouts. It's like, I'm not going to put out something that I know I will not put out something that I don't know gets results, right? If I don't know if it's going to get results or not, I'm not going to put it out, right? But if I know that, like, I've seen this work, I know people who can vouch for that, I can vouch for it myself, then that's something that I'm gonna put out that I know will help you guys, okay? Because if I don't do that, then it's like, you know, I lose credibility. And obviously my players don't see results. So, like, no one wins. So I'm putting out stuff. And you want to find guys again who do that, who don't just put things out to put things out. Because a lot of people do that. A lot of people just put out things to Put out videos, but they aren't trying to deliver value in everything that they do. So that, again, that's why shout out to by any means basketball, you know, he's put. He puts out value in everything he does. It's all really, really good. Shout out to DJ Sackman, Tyler Relf, those guys all put out really, really good stuff that's gonna help you. Jordan Lawley as well, another guy I really like. And there's more guys, too, but those are just off top of my head. A few guys who, who I follow who do a lot of great stuff. So, you know, you want to look at guys who can actually deliver results, who have players who have also gotten those results. And also, you know, like me sitting here, you know, obviously I have my own stuff, but I respect those guys and what they do so much. They're like. I'm like, oh, yeah, like, that guy's really, really good. So pay attention to what people say about people, right? Because that's kind of where you're going to get that baseline from. Anyone can talk a big game about this, is going to do this and this and this. But if you don't see results from people, then, you know, what is it exactly? It's talk. So that's something to recognize as well. But it's a good question. You want to make sure that you, you know, you should see results in the training that you're doing. If you aren't seeing results, then you know, question whether or not that that training is actually effective. Okay. Because if I had done that, you know, when I was younger, probably could have seen a bigger difference in my game at an earlier age. But again, I had to learn that the hard way. So that's kind of my goal with all of this, is like, give you guys stuff right now. So whatever age you are now, you can take what I'm doing. And I'm giving you guys something that works, that will help you to get better, and because of that, you'll skip that part of it. So now you're. So now what your focus is, is doing everything the right way, you know, doing the drills the right way, but also going as fast as you can, going. Going as hard as you can, depending on the drill. So that's kind of my outlook on things. But hopefully that answers your question. And obviously, like I said, every video. If you have a question for me, you want me to answer on the podcast, send me a DM on Instagram visiondrivenbasketball. If you leave a comment on YouTube, I get so many comments that sometimes it just gets lost. So just send me a dm. Much more likely that I'll see it and I'll remember to answer it too. So send me a DM Visionary basketball if you want to see that. And if you don't have any questions for me, still follow me on Instagram @visiondrivenbasketball because posting stuff. I just posted stuff about a one on one matchup I had where I was bringing up the punch dribble and why it's so effective and why it's one of my go to's. So you guys want to check that out. The other thing too is so that one on one that you guys, all you guys who subscribed on YouTube have probably seen the one on one video that I posted a couple days ago. And if you guys want to see a full breakdown of my own scoring there, why I broke down, every basket I scored, the footwork, the little minute details, why I did what I did and how you can take that and become better in one on one situations, become better as a scorer and be able to really get your shot off at will. Those little tiny details that you probably don't see that maybe not her, but if you can actually master them and get them down and know what to work on, what to look for, you can become a much, much better scorer. One on one. If you guys want to see that, I just posted it in the 20 points per game blueprint. So all of my guys who are in the perimeter score system have access to this. So essentially what I'm offering right now is if you guys go, I'm going to post a link to it in the description below. So if you're on YouTube, click that description below, you can join the perimeter score system where you're going to get access to the 20 points per game blueprint as well and the Mental thumbnails masterclass and all of my MBA film breakdowns. All those three things come with the perimeter score system. So the perimeter score system, for those of you who don't know, is a year round basketball training system that's going to give you guys workouts for the off season, preseason and in season. So three different phases, you know, for the offseason you're going to have five workouts per week which are going to target your different skills, basically your ability to become an elite scorer in the perimeter. So you're going to get a lot of shots up, a lot of game situation shots up, a lot of game reps up, and it's Stuff that I've done that I've learned from, again, guys who are better than me. You know, when I was preparing to play at the college level, this is the stuff that I was going through with my trainer who played professional basketball, who worked with a lot of elite level guys, and again, really the most productive period of basketball training in my entire life. So I want to share that with you. And obviously if you go to, you know, you look at my Instagram or anything like, you'll see the results that my guys have gotten so far with this, a very new program up to this point. But the results my guys have already seen with this program, it's remarkable. So I want all of you guys to experience that as well. And again, with the perimeter scoricism is going to come the 20 points per game blueprint where I'm going to share with you guys the little scoring secrets, when to attack the basket. You know, the thing with basketball is that the reason why I think it's the best sport in the world and why it's also one of the most difficult is because you have to have the physical skills, okay? You have to have the actual touch, shoot the basketball, handle the basketball. Then you got to have the mental part of it too, the IQ part of it. So, you know, when do I score, when do I attack, when do I shoot, what situation? Do I do this, do I do that, what do I need to look for? And you get that through playing, but also by studying the game, by studying film. So in the 20 points a game blueprint, I'm breaking down for you guys exactly how to score what, when to score, situations where you can, you can create a baseline of scoring. It's called the 20 points a game blueprint because if you take what I'm teaching you in this, in this course and you're able to apply it, you, you're going to build a baseline of scoring where you're going to be able to get points on demand. Every game there's going to be, there's going to be a certain baseline where like if you do these little things, you're able to get points with those. And you adding your skills to that, you hit a couple shots, all of a sudden 20 points per game is, is, is not too far to reach for you. You. Even if it seems like it might be, and that really goes for whatever your schooling goal is. If Your goal is 12, we can get you there. Okay? And it all comes to your approach, your iq, your ability to mix that with the actual skills part of It, Okay. And then there's the Mental Thomas masterclass which also comes free with it, which essentially is going to teach you the mentality required to be an elite player. Okay. The mental toughness you develop to actually become that. And this is something that I think is very, very valuable as well. You know, something you'll see with a lot of guys is they might have the skills, they might have the iq, but they just completely take themselves out of the game because they don't have the confidence and the, or the mental toughness really to be effective. So really if you don't have that, it can ruin you. Okay? So the goal with that, with the mental, with the mental toughness Masterclass is to, is to help you guys develop the mentality, mental toughness, the confidence that you need to be successful. Okay? To get out of your own way and to actually use your mind as a weapon on the court instead of something that might work against you at times. So very, very important. Then I have the last thing with it also for free. My NBA Secrets film breakdowns where I'm breaking down different moves, different scoring situations that for NBA guys and also all the stuff I break down is something we work on in the perimeter scores. And so you're going to see exactly what these NBA guys do to score and then we're going to go work on those on the court, okay? So it's very, very, very, very effective. And I think it's very, very. I don't think there's anything out there like that where you can kind of see things being done and then go do it, right? So you know, okay, I know when to do it, I know how to do it. I've seen this guy do it. Now I'm going to go work on, acquire the skills to do it. You know, this is a whole different level of training. You know, it's a year round thing and I'm constantly adding stuff to it. I just added a, that, that one on one breakdown today actually as I'm filming this on a Friday, you can see this on Sunday, but I just added that to it. So I'm adding stuff to it. Whenever I feel like there's something hopeful I can give you guys, I'm gonna put that into it as well. They also gonna get access to my private Facebook group where I'm gonna give you guys, where essentially you guys can connect, update me in your progress, all that stuff. And again, any updates, anytime I update the program with more stuff, I'll let you guys know in that group as well. So make sure you guys check that out if you're interested in that. There's gonna be a link for it in the description on YouTube and probably on podcast as well. Make sure you scroll down and look for that. And again, I think it's really gonna be game changing for a lot of you guys. So, you know, we're in, you know, as I'm, as you guys are seeing this on a Sunday, June 14, you know, we've got a few months where the season starts. You know, now's the time to really get, to really get, get, get going and you know, buckle down and start to work on those skills that you know you're going to need in the long run. So, you know, if you have any questions again, DM me on Instagram @visiondriverfin basketball. Even if you don't have any questions, give me a follow and looking forward to next weekend questions. Whenever I get questions, that really spurs on topics for the podcast. So don't think there's a question that is dumb because if you're thinking it, there's probably somebody else who also has the same question as you. Okay, so if it's something that I can answer in the podcast, I will. Or I'll just give you an answer to it. But regardless, send me a dm, let me know what's up. Like I said, if you're on Apple podcast, drop a review for me. Scroll down the bottom of the page and do that. Really would appreciate that. And if you're on YouTube, subscribe and leave a like too. I'll see you guys soon.