3 Mindset Shifts You Need To Make In Your Workouts

Foreign welcome to the Visionary Basketball Trading Podcast. I appreciate you guys for tuning in today. Apple Podcast, Spotify, anywhere else you may be listening from. And of course, everybody's watching YouTube right now. Shout out to you guys if you're on YouTube, make sure you drop a like subscribe if you're new. And if you're Apple podcast, do me a favor, leave a review. Anytime I get new reviews, I read them at the beginning of the show. So I have two new ones today. First one says great stuff. Yo, what's up? Been watching for a minute now. Great videos. Keep it up. I appreciate that. And then second one we have today. Podcast is great. I've just listened to a couple of the episodes and I can already tell improvement just in the couple weeks I've played ball. So again, I really appreciate the reviews and I love hearing that you guys are getting value from what I'm talking about, from whether it's the podcast, the videos, the messages that I get on Instagram, whatever. I really do appreciate all that stuff. So if you are on a podcast, drop a review for me if you have not already. And like I said, YouTube, drop a like subscribe if you are new as well. Today I want to talk about three mindset shifts to make when it comes to your actual training. And I think this is going to apply to more than just training, but specifically when you're in your workouts, three ways that you can get, you can get more value out of them just by changing the way that you approach it from a mental or from a focus standpoint right here. And I think a lot of these are stuff that's not really talked about, but I think can make a really big impact. And there's a lot of, of research behind some of this stuff as well that I think it's important that players have an understanding of that as well. And I'm also going to definitely make some points to trainers, coaches as well, because I think that you can go a long way in facilitating these things as well. So walk into it the first thing and it's really, really elementary, really basic. But again, I think it makes a big difference and there's actually a lot of research behind it too. And that is the impact that smiling and laughing has on you from a performance standpoint. I think most people have, have heard the, the, the concept that smiling, literally just sitting there and smiling makes you feel better. Just sitting there and laughing does the same thing as well. It elevates your mood. So from a mental perspective that there's very clear benefits to that, literally, you can sit there and just try yourself, just try laughing for a couple seconds and you'll probably start to feel better just naturally from that. There's even more to that when it comes to not just the mental. And you can view that as, oh, maybe that's just placebo. But there's actual research that goes into this stuff that proves that there actually is benefits from an athletic performance standpoint when we talk about laughing, smiling in those workouts, especially in those difficult moments. So I think really to start, and I think the reason that I wanted to start with this one, is that I think a lot of times the view is that a workout has to be 100% serious all the time, right? And especially the players who are super committed, a lot of times that's how they feel is like, workouts have to be not enjoyable, they have to be super difficult. There's no room for. For joking around or having any sort of fun or any sort of enjoyment from that perspective. And I think that from my own personal experience, but also the science would disagree with that. There's actually a lot of benefits when it comes to laughter during workouts. So the first benefit of laughter is that it increases your pain and fatigue threshold. So there was a study done by Oxford University where they compared the pain thresholds between a group that watched funny shows and movies and a group that watched documentaries. And they found that there was an increase in the pain threshold of the group watching the funny shows in comparison to the group that was watching the more serious documentaries. So that was one thing that they found. Laughter can increase your body's endorphin level, which makes you less susceptible to the pain and fatigue that come along with the workout and can allow you to push through a little bit more than you may be able to without it. And there's so many other benefits to laughter. It's great for your cardiovascular health. It can improve blood flow, can lower blood pressure as well, and it can help reduce stress and inflammation and. And in terms of just immunity, it helps boost antibody count. And there have even been studies done in older adults that show an increase in athletic performance with laughter involved. And we also see a lot of benefits when it comes to just smiling and workouts as well. There is a study done by the Journal of Psychology of Sport and Exercise, and they investigated the effects of smiling when it came to running. And basically they had three groups. One was a group that was smiling, what was a control group, and then one was a group that was frowning and. And they looked at how that affected the running economy. So basically how well they can use oxygen, how much oxygen do they need, the perceived effort that they were giving, and then just kind of the effective, like emotional state of them as well. And they found that the smiling group had the most improved running economy as compared to that control group and to the frowning group as well, meaning that those runners with better running economy use less oxygen and therefore are more efficient as runners. The perceived effort was higher with the frowning group in comparison to the smiling group or the control group. Using smiling periodically, almost as an intentional cue can be a really good way to affect the state that you're in and potentially increase your performance level as well. So there's proven benefits to smiling, laughing, especially in the context of athletic performance. And there's. There's literal changes that it makes to your body when you have those that elevated state when it comes to smiling and laughing. So we think about ways to do this from a player's perspective. I think the first thing is working out with other people or with your friends, because generally that's going to lead to opportunities for that. Or if you're by yourself, just listening to something that makes you laugh or something that's funny. I think another great way to approach it is just not taking yourself so seriously, being okay with laughing at yourself, understanding the fact that you're not perfect and everything's going to be perfect, and just not being so serious about everything. I think we also can talk about this from a trainer perspective and it's creating the environment that allows for this. Again, not thinking that if I'm going to have a workout, it has to be completely serious the whole entire time. No laughing, no joking, none of that at all. Because we're not going to be productive if we're not serious the entire time. I think again, when you actually look at what the science says, there can be legitimate benefits to taking a little bit of time and just talking, just joking around, laughing about something, even if it means again, you have a couple minutes here and there where it's not completely focused on basketball. If that helps to elevate your athletes the rest of your workout, then it's probably going to be something that's going to be beneficial for you to at least mix in. And again, I think it starts with the environment creating a space where that's okay and we can have a good time. We can, we can laugh, we can joke around. And when you look at it from that perspective, where you don't look at having a good time, competing with being able to focus, and you're able to kind of merge the two, then I think that's where you're going to get the best results when it comes to the actual performance of your athletes in those workouts. So I think from a trainer, coach perspective, it's understanding that, like, actually enjoying yourself, like having your players smiling, laughing more in your workouts is actually a good thing. And that's something that you should strive to do, even if that means that, you know, you're. You're having a conversation that isn't directly related to basketball. Right. In all my workouts, we spend so much time talking about stuff that's not even related to basketball, Joking myself. It's not related at all to basketball. And when you understand the effects of that, not just mentally, but literally from a physical perspective, the benefits of all that, then you'll see that that is not only worth it, worth your time, but is going to be the best thing when it comes to actually making sure you're getting the most out of your workouts and creating the best possible environment for your athletes. The second mindset shift that I want to talk about is understanding that feeling bad isn't always a bad thing. The most difficult thing for your brain is the process of learning something new. Because your brain is plastic, meaning that it literally can reshape itself. So when you're learning, that is your brain reshaping itself. As you do something over and over and over again, your brain makes new connections and it changes its shape. It's plastic. So obviously, if you mold anything, and that could be a rock, right? If you need a rock, you'll have to apply a lot of pressure to that rock to be able to change it. If you have a ball of play. D'oh. You might not have to apply as much pressure to that, but there's still going to be a little bit of pressure you're gonna have to apply to that to mold the shape of it. It's the same thing with your brain. There has to be a little bit of pressure applied in order to make those changes. Right. And when it comes to learning or improving at something, we're after that neuroplasticity. We're after the ability to actually change your brain, meaning that there's going to have to be pressure applied to that, which is the most difficult thing to do when you're literally reshaping your brain. And when that happens, when you're in that process, a lot of times you're going to feel bad because it's such a taxing thing. For your brain. So when learning is the goal, we're after this reshaping of your brain. So understand the fact that feeling bad after a drill, after a workout where that learning is taking place doesn't mean that it actually was bad. Chances are it actually was a really, really good thing. If we take two different situations right here, first situation, you're going through a very challenging drill, very challenging workout, and causes you to miss more, mess up more. Chances are, when that drill, that workout's done, you're probably going to feel worse than if you went through a workout that was a lot easier, where you made every shot, you didn't lose the ball, you didn't mess up very much. You're probably going to feel better after that workout than you would after the first. Does that mean that the second workout was actually better for you? When it comes to our goal, which is learning, which is reshaping your brain, was that that workout where you feel better after, was that actually better for you from a learning perspective? No, it wasn't. So you can't just go by, did I, do I feel good after this workout or after this drill, or do I feel bad? If I feel bad, that means it was bad. If I feel good, that means it was good. Because if you're just chasing after feeling good after every drill, after every workout, you're not going to put yourself in a place to reshape your brain and be in learning mode. And as often as you need to be. Again, if you want to be the best player that you can possibly be. And again, if that's the goal of our training, we want to be chasing after that challenge and almost chasing after that bad feeling sometimes where not everything is going to be easy, where you're. You're going to put yourself in a position to miss more shots. That's. That's really how I look at it. If there's a drill and there's differences in this, but if there's a drill that becomes really easy, where we're making every shot, I'm going to find a way to make it more difficult. And I'll say this to my players. I'm like, listen, here's the thing. I understand that this probably doesn't feel great right now because you're missing or messing it up, whatever. But the fact is, if you were doing this perfectly right now, I would just make it harder so that you would mess up again. I'm trying to keep you at this level. Even when you get it, I'm going to make it harder Again, so there's no escaping that feeling right there. But what that's going to do is it's going to make you better and better and better and it's going to allow your brain to again adapt, change itself. And ultimately that's where the long term progress happens. That's where it stems from is that feeling of struggle, of difficulty, of your brain going through the most difficult process to go through, which is learning. And we have to be able to chase after that and not avoid it because sometimes, usually it's going to feel bad when you're in that challenging zone. Understand if you want to be great, you have to go through that process, right? There's no skipping that. But always keep that long term view in mind. How I feel right now does not determine how effective that workout was or that drill was. A lot of times you have to understand that if we're in a workout and our goal is learning, right? Our goal is not performance. If the goal is performance, then I would make everything as easy as possible and I would just go for as many makes you can as you can get. I make you do things you're already really good at. If the goal is to perform at a high level, right there, that's what games are for. Games are for your performance, right? When we're trying to get better, that's where it's learning mode. That's where we're chasing after difficulty, chasing after struggle, misses, mess ups, all that sort of stuff. So when that's the goal, understand that the good feelings are going to come down the line when you get to those performances that matter. And you're much more capable to perform at a high level because you've gone through that process, the uncomfortable process of learning, right? So understand that feeling bad doesn't necessarily mean that things are bad. A lot of times it might mean that things are good. So I think that's an important shift to have for players when it comes to workouts. And, and the third thing that I want to talk about is having a solution based response when things get frustrating. So one of the hardest things to do in basketball, in anything, is not go down a negative spiral when you get frustrated. So whether that means missing shots, messing up, losing the ball, whatever, a lot of times the default reaction is just to kind of lash out at yourself. And usually that's in a way that's not very productive, right? So it's yelling you suck to yourself or, or I can't shoot today or stop missing or stop losing the ball or whatever it may Be you can fill in the blank with anything else that you may say to yourself in those frustrating moments, right? Generally it's not productive. You're not really giving your brain anything to focus on moving forward, right. If you tell yourself stop missing, what does that do? Because you're not trying to miss, you're probably trying to make it so that gives you no tangible solution in order to fix your problem, which is those misses right there. So in those moments, the shift you want to make is trying to make these statements to yourself process based and actually giving yourself a goal or a solution. And this might take a little bit of work or thought beforehand, right? So we can take a shooting, the shooting example if you have to understand first of all what causes you to miss. So when you miss shots usually, where is it? Do you usually miss short? Is it usually long, Is it usually flat? Is it usually side? And then once you have an idea of that, you have to be able to dissect that and say, okay, well, why is it? Well, is it when I miss short, it's because my feet are too wide, I don't get enough power into my shot, whatever. That's why I leave things short a lot of the time. So when you start to miss shots short in those, those workouts, you're able to remind yourself of that, hey, get your feet a little closer together. And there, now you have a potential solution to a problem, right? That's what we're chasing after. If you miss to the side a lot because sometimes you don't have your guide hand spaced properly and you start to miss to the side, you can remind yourself about that. Hey, check your guide hand right here. And now you have a solution to a problem. And again, insert that for any sort of miss, any sort of mechanic that is important for you, right? Understanding, okay, what matters for my shot and when I miss this way, what's off? And that takes a little bit of practice, it takes a little bit of deliberate thought behind it. But now when you're in those moments, you're able to potentially stop that negative spiral of oh, one miss turns into two. Two misses turns into eight misses because I got to miss number two and I just started going crazy on myself without giving any solutions. And I didn't fix anything. And it just got worse because now I'm getting super uptight and the negativity is just getting overwhelming. We don't want to go down that road. So having a process or having a solution for misses, for mess ups, I think is an important thing for you. To do. And again, it gives you something to focus on that's not negative. Right. It gives your brain something to move forward towards and that's a very difficult thing to do. Right. It's much easier said than done. But again, I think that's why beforehand you have to have these things in your mind so that when inevitably you start to miss, you can refocus yourself. And that ultimately is going to help you to make more shots, right? Being able to overcome that negativity and stay focused on solutions, always having solutions, always looking for solutions. And that's not only going to translate to you performing better in workouts, but that's going to translate to the game. When you build that habit of being solution based, that translates to the game as well. So again, you don't have games where you're spiraling out of control because you're super negative. You give yourself those solutions, but you start by building that habit in those workouts right there. So again, three mindset shifts right there that I think are really, really important. And I think that first part, smiling, laughing, can tie into both of the second part, the last two parts as well. And I think just generally trying to add these in, trying to make these shifts is going to make everything that you do way more effective. Okay, so again, I appreciate you guys who've listened today. If you guys got any value from this, you guys have any questions, you guys have anything to add to this, you guys have any experience with this stuff? For sure, drop a comment, let me know about it, send me a message on Instagram, whatever. And if you guys have suggestions for episodes, again, leave a comment, send me a message on Instagram. I don't know what else you could do to reach me. Send me an email. I don't know, I get a lot of those. But let me know if you guys have anything for me. My Instagram, if you guys do not follow me on there at Vision Driven Basketball. So check that out. If you guys on YouTube, drop a like subscribe if you're new. I appreciate all of you guys for listening. I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.