Basketball is Supposed To Be Fun

Foreign. Welcome to the Visionary Basketball Training Podcast. Appreciate every single one of you guys who's tuned in right now, shout out to everybody who's watching on YouTube. And of course, you guys who are listening on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever else you guys listen to podcasts at. It's funny because the past couple episodes I've gotten comments on my YouTube videos on the YouTube version of the podcast, asking me if I post these episodes on Spotify. And so it's like, literally, I start every single podcast by saying, shout out to every listening on Spotify. So, like, I. I mean, I don't know if people, like, skip the intro or whatever, but it's always funny to me. I'm like, yeah, guys, I literally tell you in the first. In the first place sentence or two that it's on Spotify. And if you guys check, I believe I have it linked in the description too, to Spotify. Maybe wrong on that one, but of course, if you just search it up. Right. That's the other thing, too. We talked about this last week or a couple weeks ago, where it's like, people leave comments and it's like, listen, again, I appreciate everybody's feedback. I always appreciate it. And actually I asked you guys on my Instagram story a couple days ago, as you know, three days ago when you guys are seeing this, just for some podcast topics, and you guys actually left a lot of really, really good topics that I'm definitely going to get to. So shout out to all you guys who gave me topics to talk about questions for the podcast. Today's episode is very heavily influenced by you guys and your questions for me. So again, I'm very appreciative of every question that I get. But there's. There are some questions that I do get where it's like, listen, all you got to do to figure this out is, first of all, I don't want to get to, like, the Google thing. There's a lot of questions that, like, people ask me where I'm like, Google could tell you this much better than I could. Like, I had someone ask me. I forget what it was. Oh, it's like someone asked me, like, what. What the. What the salary is in the G league, like, just ran. I'm like, Google will tell you that way better than I can. I. I can't tell you that. All right, that's one of those things. But also when it comes to stuff like this, like, okay, so is my podcast is Spotify what? Well, if you go, you know, you go check Spotify, right? I think I want to do an episode at some point coming up about, like, being. I don't. I'm trying to figure out how to put this, because I feel like when it comes to stuff like this, like, again, I appreciate questions, but I also want, like, I don't want it to be a thing where you guys feel like you have to rely on me to, to give you everything, to, like, tell you everything. Like, I. I think that, like, they talk about the, the saying, right? Teach a man to fish or, no, give a man a fish and he can eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he can eat for a lifetime. Right? Well, I wanted to. To. To be at a point where, like, you guys are able to not just rely on me to, to give you answers to things or to tell you what this is and what that is. But you guys feel like you're. Of course, you guys take input from people, right? But at the same time, you guys are able to kind of decipher and go through things yourself. And then I think. I think that's really where we're going to get to, like, the most progress. I think a big vision for me this year for my stuff is like, I want us to get beyond, like, the kind of surface of. Of. Of basketball training. I think there's a lot more to it. I know there's a lot more to it, and I think that a lot of players overlook it, and we're so stuck in, like, the, the, you know, beginner first stage that we don't really progress and move forward. And this is kind of a tangent I'm going on. This has nothing to do with really what I was just talking about the questions and all that. All I'm saying with that sort of stuff, guys, is like, again, instead of having to wait for me to tell you stuff, listen, like, I'm. Again, I don't. I don't like you and ask me whatever, but like me personally, I like to know things right away. That's why I hate online shopping. I'd rather just go to the store and buy it because I want it now. Like, I don't have to wait two days for it. Okay? Even Amazon might get it to me the next day. I'd rather just have it right now. So for you guys, too, like, if there's a question, you probably can, like, hey, do you have a video on this? Well, you could figure that out right now if you just go on YouTube and look it up. So I'm just saying, from my perspective, that's What I would do. That's what I, that's how I always approach things. So just a suggestion, but it's just, it's funny that that's a question that I get. It's like every single podcast, I'm like, shout out to Spotify, first sentence every time. Again, appreciate you guys. And I'm kind of, this is, this is kind of me just going on about something that's not a very big deal, but I just think it's funny. So. But today's podcast episode, today's topic is all about, it's about like we're gonna go to a few different directions with this. But a question that I keep on getting. And I got again, when I put that, that post the question sticker on my story, it's just people asking about like people talking about how they're burnt out or how like basketball's not fun anymore and like all this stuff. And so I feel like it would be a good topic to cover because I think it's very, very important that, that I go through this. This is a question that I'll answer with guys, DM me all the time about it. I think it's good to get it out there for, because I know, I know what the amount of DMs I get about it, it's probably going to be helpful for a lot of you, a lot of you watching, listening right now. So really, I'll kind of give you guys an example. So here's One of the DMs that I got about this. Said, can you make, can you make a podcast about finding love for the game again? Since quarantine, it's like I'll go outside and get a great workout in 500 shots and then go out, do the first part. And it's basically saying it's hard to be able to finish stuff because, you know, you go out there, it's like, it's hard to stay locked in and motivated and it's hard to enjoy it sometimes because there's a lot of outside factors that can make it less enjoyable, that can make it more difficult. And for sure that's a, that's, that's a, that's for sure a piece of it. And I definitely get that. And you know, my, my kind of answer is that I think this is multi layer. Like, it's not just a simple, like kind of quick fix, but I think there's a lot of pieces to it we can talk about. So I think like off the bat, when I get questions like this, it's it's, it's good to look back and think to yourself, like, what's, like what's the point of even playing basketball, right? Because I got questions too. And we'll go through some more DMs that I've gotten later on. But like, I get questions, people talking about, like, oh, you know, like, I want to do this and I want to do that and I want to be this and that with basketball. But it's like ultimately you started playing basketball because it was fun. Like, you, you picked up a ball, you watched somebody else pick up a ball and they were playing and then you decided you were going to do the same thing. Really, that's, that's what it comes down to. So I think from that perspective, it's good to recognize that basketball, you didn't start playing basketball because you want it to be, you know, you want it to be, you know, wanted to average 20 points a game, right? You didn't start playing basketball because you wanted to play in the NBA. You started playing basketball because it was fun and you enjoyed doing it. I think that's a thing that a lot of players fall away from. They lose sight of that. And when you lose sight of that, it becomes much easier to not enjoy the game of basketball because you're not doing it because you actually like, you're doing it because you want something from it, right? So point number one, when I get questions like this too, a lot of times it comes back to, you know, the, the definition of what players would consider hard work or working hard or working out or doing all these things or training. I think it's, a lot of times can be counterproductive to actually long term success. The more that I learn, the more that I listen to people who know what they're talking about. The more that I work with players, the more that I recognize that like even a lot of our training should be fun. It should be enjoyable. Obviously the game of basketball is fun. I think that a lot of training should also be fun. Like, there's obviously going to be times where you're going to have to go and do reps and you're not, it's not going to be fun. I'm not saying every single aspect of everything you do has to be enjoyable, but I'm saying that if everything that you do when you're training is terrible and you hate it and you're just bored out of your mind and, and you just, it's like, oh man, I just go out and do 500 shots every day. And I hate it. By the time I get to shot 50, I'm already tired of it. And you go do it by yourself every day, you're obviously going to improve. But is that the most that you could do when it comes to improvement? I don't think that it is. So I think that's the other aspect to look at. And this is one of the things that we're going to get to as a kind of a. Kind of a solution for this is like, you have to look at the way that you're training and understand that it's not just about like, oh, I go out and shoot 500 shots a day. Well, how do we get that to translate, right? How do we make sure that the work you're putting in is the most efficient work you can possibly do? By efficient, I mean, like, the hour that you put in. How can we get the most out of that hour that you do? Because if you do, if you're putting in very, very efficient work, then immediately we can discount the whole, let's work out for five, six hours a day, because this is not necessary if you're putting in efficient work. And on top of that, when you put in that efficient work, you know, you don't have to be on the court for that many hours a day to still see really good results, then you're going to be more inclined to give more in that hour, the hour and a half that you're out there training. Because you already know, like, listen, this is going to be the time that, like, yeah, I might not enjoy the entire process of it, but. But these 60, 90 minutes a day, like, I'm getting a lot better from this. Okay. I think that's going to start a lot of times with a lot of training. Should be fun. So that will come down to playing and finding ways to make things competitive. And like I said, we're going to talk about that. But I think one of the biggest things when it comes to, you know, rediscovering why you actually play the game of basketball and actually learning how to enjoy the game of basketball is the way that you actually approach it mentally. I think a lot of players have such a fixed mindset with how basketball is. Like, listen, I'm here right now. I mean, that. That's where I am. I think that you need to have a growth mindset as opposed to that fixed mindset where you can say to yourself, listen, I might be here right now, but I'm moving forward. Like, I'm not stuck right here. This is not What I am, right, I might be this right now, but I'm not going to be this moving forward. Like I might be something different tomorrow. And that can apply to games as well. So, right, you have a bad game, a player who's, who has a fixed mindset, like that's just, they're stuck there, right? They're, they're stuck with, with that, that bad game, a great game as well. They're stuck with that great game. I think that we need to get to a point where a bad game ultimately you have to have the realization that a bad game really means nothing and a good game really means nothing. It's all about what you do next. That's literally what matters. So if, if you're the same when you have a game, you go out there and you go over 12 and you hit one free throw, you finish with one point as. And you feel the same about yourself as you do if you go out there and you're 12 for 12 and you had 10 free throws and you finish with, you know, 39 points. Well, that's ultimately we want to get to because no matter if you have that one point game or that 39 point game, obviously we want to be closer to that high number, right? But at the end of the day, you're still only as good as your next performance. I get a lot of questions every single day from players who are saying like, hey coach, I want to play in the NBA. I want to do this, I want to do that. And my, my response is usually to those players because a lot of them are younger, is okay, well, where are you right now? Right? Everyone's so focused on this long term, like, oh, I gotta, I gotta make the NBA. I gotta be, I gotta be the best player in my class. I gotta be this and that and all that. And that's cool, right? That's, that's fine. Again, I'm not saying don't have long term goals or anything like that. I'm just saying when you place a goal like that out there and you're nowhere near it, then when you don't go out and average 50 a game, it's gonna be tough for you to be like, oh, wow, like what am I even playing the game basketball for? If you judging the game basketball based on how close am I to making the NBA? Like, here's again, we, I've talked about the numbers before. There is 450 players in the NBA and there's 450 million basketball players on the planet, right? So again, you can be I think it's like the top again, I. My math might be off, right? I don't know. I know there's a lot of decimals to move around here. It's like point zero zero zero zero five percent. The top point zero zero zero zero five percent of players on earth play in the NBA, right? So you can be in the, you know, you can be in that top000006% of players, right? But ultimately you, you're not going to be the NBA because again, you could, you might be player number 452 and you're not on a roster now. So think about it like that, right? If we're just judging based on, okay, where do we match up, where do we stack up? Then it's going to be hard for you because there's so many players out there. So it can't just be based on, like, okay, how do I compare to other people? Right? It the the ultimate, like, gauge for how good you are, how successful your needs to be. How much better am I than I was yesterday or last week or last year? Like, what improvement have I seen? Because everybody who's watching listening has a different ceiling, right? Everybody has different, you know, natural gifts or abilities, and some of you are going to go farther than others will, right? But ultimately, you have to judge yourself based on, like, how. How close am I to, or have I reached my actual potential? Am I working the way that I should be working? Am I working efficiently? Am I putting in quality work every single day? Am I taking, you know, my, my sleep habits, my eating habits? Am I taking my, my stretching, my recovery seriously? Am I reading? Am I watching film? Am I doing those little things that are gonna help me to get ahead? Okay? Especially if you're not naturally gifted at something, right? You're not naturally big or naturally athletic. Are you doing all the other things to make sure that you can get any sort of advantage you can get? Okay? And if that's what you're doing, then you should already feel happy with the effort that you're putting in, regardless of whether or not. Again, a lot of times you, you guys are so focused on the NBA, like, you're not even anywhere close to the how old you need to be to be in the NBA, let alone how good you have to be. So if you can take it step by step and say, okay, listen, this is where I am right now. Right now. We need to focus on being this right now. I'm not a very good shooter, so what can I do to Improve that. I'm not a very good ball handler right now, so what can I do to improve that? And then I know that once I improve myself, like up, the cars will fall where they do, right? If I'm good enough to play at a certain level, then I'll play there. And if I put in that really high quality work every single day for multiple years and I'm not good enough to be there, then I won't be, but I'll know at least that I put that work in. Okay. I think approaching things with less expectations as to where you're going to be in this, that is saying, listen, I'm going to put my head down, I'm going to make sure that I'm working. I'm putting in that quality work every single day. Because a lot of people who aren't doing that, who are saying, okay, where am I at? Where am I better than this guy? I'm better than that guy? Am I better than him? Am I worse than them? Okay, how do I make sure that, that this coach thinks I'm this and that coach thinks I'm. That? Those players are so focused on what everybody else is doing. They're so focused on what their teammates doing. They're so focused on what that, what that guy's doing. They're so focused on what overtime is posting about that guy. And it really has nothing to do with them. They're so focused on all that that they miss out on those opportunities to actually become as good as they can. Meanwhile, that player who's just tunnel vision focused on what they're doing is gonna be able to reach their full potential. And it's obviously, it's a little bit backwards, right? It's a little bit of a. What's the word? When, when, when you think it's like a little bit of a paradox, right? Where you think, okay, if I, if I don't focus on trying to be better than everybody, then I actually end up potentially being better than other people because they're putting their focus and energy on being on you know, beating somebody else instead of just being as good as they can be. Me, me, all I'm doing is just being as good as I can be. And then if I'm good enough to play there, then I'll play there. And if I'm not, I'm not. But at least that I'll know that I gave the best that I, that I had. I think that's really the way that you have to approach things. When we talk about those long term Goals that you have. Okay. Have those long term goals, that's great. But in the immediate future, I would set shorter term goals and I would judge your success not based on, oh, how close am I to making the MBA or getting a scholarship to Duke. Right. How I'm going to judge where I'm at based on, okay, last week, you know, when I was doing this drill, I only made 4 out of 10. And then this week when I did that drill, I made seven out of 10. So there's some progress you can be happy about. You know, maybe in last week's game, I came off that screen and I took a dribble and I missed that layup. And then in today's game, I came off that screen three times. I had to lay up three times in a row in the game. Right. That's something to think about as well. Maybe last year I couldn't really play defense very well. This year I came back and I'm one of our team's best defenders. Right. I worked in the offseason, I could become quicker and stronger, and there's my progress right there. Okay, so start to take into account those little things that you probably overlook that really are a great tell of how much better you've gotten. Okay? Appreciate those things. Because again, end of the day, not everybody's going to be LeBron James, not everybody is going to be Kevin Durant, not everybody's going to be Giannis, not everyone's going to be James Harden. Right? Not everyone's going to be Kyrie Irving. So trying to say, oh, man, when Kyrie Irving was here, he did this. That doesn't matter right now. All that matters is you becoming as good as you can be. Okay? And trust me, that's going to be the best approach for you moving forward. And I definitely approach this differently as a coach now as compared to when I was a player. When I was a player, for sure, I fell into a lot of those same traps of, you know, comparing where I was to where this guy was. I think it's a natural thing to do at times, but ultimately, like, it's also as important as a. And it's, it's nice for me, for me in this perspective, I can look at it now. So when I have players who come to me and tell me things, I can literally, I can give them kind of a bird's eye view. And I don't have really any. Any personal emotional attachment to the situation because obviously that's kind of how it is when you're a player. Right and you know, you have a bad game or you don't feel like you're playing well, it's like you, you put a lot of time into that. Your time is valuable. You put a lot of time into being. Getting better, and you're not seeing things pay off right away, right? So obviously it's a very frustrating thing, and I certainly was. I certainly experienced that all the time, where you put a lot of work in, you still lose, or you put a lot of work and you don't accomplish the goal that you felt like you should have accomplished. But at the end of the day, a lot of times, first for me, I would skip past noticing how much better I'd gotten just because I wasn't as good as that guy or I didn't do everything that I thought I was going to do. That's not to say that I did everything perfectly. Of course I didn't. But I know that making sure that you're able to say, hey, listen, this is something that I did better and I saw improvement here. And then it's just doubling down on that, okay? Doubling down on making sure that I'm doing everything that I can to be the player that I can be. And like, like I said, guys, basketball is supposed to be fun, right? That's. That's ultimately why you started playing the game of basketball, because it's. It's fun and you enjoy doing it. And the goal at the beginning was to become better at a sport that you enjoy. You went outside and you played basketball, and then you realize, hey, man, I really. I know for me personally, like, the first time that I seriously played basketball was in our state in Pennsylvania. The really, like, competitive basketball starts in seventh grade, right? So that's really when schools play like a, Like a piaa, like state. State schedule where you can try for your school team, you play against a bunch of different schools. That starts in seventh grade here. So that was the first year where I really, like, I went and played. Hadn't really ever. I mean, I always played basketball growing up, but I'd never done, like, I had never really put in a lot of work with it. And then that, that, that school year comes trial for the team, made the team. I started on the team, but, like, I wasn't great. And at that point we're practicing every day, we're going to play games against other schools. And it was just. It was so much. A lot of fun. And I decided after that season that I wanted to be. I want, I wanted to get better at it. Like, Listen, I want to be able to shoot. I want to be able to dribble the ball. I couldn't really do either. I could kind of shoot, but I couldn't dribble the ball. I couldn't, I couldn't shoot threes. And, you know, I wanted to get better, all those things. So when I started as A, you know, 12, 13 year old, it really was just about, okay, how can I get better at this game that I enjoy playing? And you know, obviously everyone has bigger goals, but for me, that was really what it was when I started off right there. And then coming back the next year, 8th grade, and all of a sudden I could shoot the ball a little bit better. I could handle the ball. I went from playing the four to now playing guard. Part of that was just due to me not growing anymore also. And so I had to kind of adjust to that. But that was all because of the work that I had put into it. But that's kind of when I look back at it, that's how it started. It was, I like playing basketball. I want to become as good as I can be at it. And I think that's really what it should be as opposed to being, I've got to be, I've got to be a five star and I've got to get drafted number one overall and I've got to do this and do that. And it's like, that's, that's that exterior stuff that you really don't control you even if you're a great player, right? I talk about this all the time when it comes to like shooting. You can shoot the ball perfectly, you can shoot a basketball and, and you feel coming off your hands that it's going in and that ball might go in the rim, might circle around for a little bit, and then it just might, might come out and you might have shot that ball. You're like, oh, that's perfect. That's the best shot I've ever shot in my life. And it might still miss, right? That you don't control the ball going in. Same thing. You don't control anything. You don't control a recruiting service naming you. They might like, you might be the best player and they might be like, ah, no, he's a, he's a, he's a three star. There's no reason that they can't do that, right? You might be the best player in the country and you might get drafted number two overall and there's nothing that you can do to control that situation. So we're also focused on these uncontrollable situations that you have. And when you do that, right, and you base your success on, oh, did I do that? Like, is that what I accomplished? It's going to be hard for you because you ultimately don't have control over that. Especially a situation like that where it's like such a. Like I have to be number one out of the millions. And like, that's. It's a tough situation to be in for sure. So, again, always look back to why you started to play the game of basketball, and then look at the improvement that you've made. I think that's a major key when it comes to actually enjoying what you're doing, because that's what it should be about. I got a question. Actually, I'll talk about this first, so. No, no, no, I'll go with the question first. So I got a question. I got a DM a couple days ago, and it was, you know, he was asking me about the having a why, right? And this is a really interesting topic that I like. There is. There's a guy that I really like. He's a. He's a speaker. He played football at University of Tennessee. Name is Inky Johnson. And I remember watching a speech of his back when I was in high school, and I thought it was really, really good. A lot of it. Like, I still. I'm actually gonna go watch it again, actually. I'm gonna post on my story. Maybe. We'll see. I'll probably post it somewhere where he talked about, you know, just a little background on him. He played at University of Tennessee, and there was a game. I don't remember what year in his career it was, but he basically got hurt. And I think it was a spinal injury. And, you know, I guess he almost died on the field because of that injury. His career was ended, I believe. And at that point, he. He had to go and do a bunch of rehab and stuff, and it was like, basically a miracle that he was even still alive and could move. And so he. But now he's a motivational speaker or. I don't know if that's what his job is, but I've seen him give some speeches. So he talked about in one of his speeches having a why for things, right? He had a why for when he played football. He had a why for, you know, when he was hurt and trying to recover. And he was saying, basically, if your why is bigger than what just you are, it's going to be a lot easier for you to continue on when Things are difficult, or I should say, it's going to be much harder for you to quit because you. You've got more riding on it than just yourself. And I think that this is a great thing. When we talk about, like, a team setting, right? When you're. Why, when you're a part of a team is because you don't want to let your teammate down, right? You might not enjoy running. You're going to say, hey, listen, you guys got to finish this sprint in 30 seconds, okay? And, you know, you might say, listen, I don't, I don't. I don't want to run. Like, I don't have any energy to do this. But you find the energy because you know that your code is going to make all your teammates run if you don't complete this sprint. And you're like, listen, man, I don't care. Like, I don't care. I'll run another sprint, but I don't want my teammates to do the same thing. So now your why becomes the group, the collective group. That. And that becomes why, right? When you're playing the game, you might. Your coach might say, hey, listen, I need you to play this position right here. You might say, ah, coach, I want to play this. But you might not say that. You might think that. You might say, hey, I feel like I could play here and I might be better, but, you know, at the end of the day, you want to win games and maybe you can recognize, hey, listen, if I do this well, we've got a guy who plays here pretty well. So if I do this well, then we'll be able to win games. And then your why becomes I'm gonna win. Like, I want my team to be successful. So it becomes about more than just you, right? And I think you can take this sort of why in a couple different directions. But I think that it's important, especially when you're talking about a team setting, that you have more than just you riding on things. I also think that that can be a thing when it comes to, like, your individual stuff, right? If you have parents or you have friends or you have family members who have helped you when it comes to training or it comes to opportunities like recognizing, hey, like, listen, I have. I owe these people something. I owe these people for what I have, for where I am now. So when I'm working hard, it's about making sure that I honor what they've done for me. So, you know, if you have a friend who's always, you know, rebounding for you, well, you know, you going out and working hard is kind of in honor of them and them taking time to help you with that, right? If you have, you know, I don't know if someone always drives you to your workouts, it's that there's your. A person that, again, is part of your why when things are difficult for you and you want to quit. Well, you have a bunch of people who have put a lot into you, and therefore you have a reason to not do that. I think that's a good thing. I think where this can become kind of dangerous is where we start to, you know, again, you just go crazy with it. Because in this question. I'll just read it. He said, hey, coach, I watched a few videos talking about how the why is important for basketball or just training in general. Like Derrick Rose or Giannis plays, they get their families out of poverty, and Kobe played to be the best player to ever play. But I don't have any of these tips or I don't have any of these. I just play basketball and I feel like there's nothing besides that to maybe do the hard stuff like conditioning or strength work. What do you think? How can I find my own why? I think when it comes to finding your own why, it really, like I said, it comes down to, like, what people have. Have helped you, what people in your life have put you in the spot that you are right now. That being said, my response basically was you don't have to have some sort of crazy, like, oh, you know, we don't have any food on the table. I got it. Like, maybe, maybe that is your why and that's that. So that might be a pretty powerful one to have. But if you don't have that, if that's not your why, if, if you aren't in the situation, you don't have to try and construct some sort of crazy thing again. It's just really taking into account who is a part of your life who has helped you. Are you part of a team? And if you're part of that team, prioritize that success. Prioritize your teammates right when they. You want to see your teammates do well, you want your team to do well. And when that becomes your why, you work hard in the offseason, you come and you work hard in practice, you cheer when your teammates do things well. You. You're willing to make sacrifices for the good of the team. When your why becomes that, it becomes very powerful. And I talk about, you know, your ability to contribute to winning. That's the most important that you can do is how do you help a team win? Having that, that team first mentality or that why being your team, that's a great way to help your team win. And good teams have players like that. So I think that's important. Just having a concept of like, listen, there's been a lot of people more than likely who have put stuff into what you've done. They've put their time in, their money in to helping you get better at something. So there's a person who is part of your. Why. So when things are difficult and you want to quit, you have those people behind you. Really. Okay. That can be in the back of your mind is like, listen, I've got to keep working hard because this person, like, I can't. It would be disrespectful to that person if I didn't do that. If I didn't go work hard today. It'd be disrespectful to that person who's, who's helped me to get here. Right. You want to honor what they, the sacrifices they've made for you as well. So that was a great. Again, that's why I'm saying, like, I get a lot of DMs and I hadn't even thought of that, honestly, until he sent that. So I think it was Matt who sent that to me. So shout out to him. But I want to get back to kind of where we started with this and talk about what you can do to emphasize this whole playing because you actually love the game of basketball as opposed to trying to be something or trying to do something, whatever it might be. I think there's three things I want to talk about, really, that are going to be big when it comes to just rediscovering your enjoyment for the game of basketball. Okay. And I think that when you play with that enjoyment, you're out there because you want to be there, because, hey man, I want to get out there. I want to work, I want to train, I want to be better. I want to be as good as I, I can because I love doing it. You're going to get better results. You're going to see more improvement because just the way that your brain approaches it. I've been doing a lot of reading on the neuroscience behind athletic performance. Actually, the book that I'm reading talks about athletic genius where basically it says, I don't want to go too, because it's not really that applicable right now. But how we have Albert Einstein was a genius or all these people, Elon Musk is a genius. Well, when we talk about athletics, we don't usually refer to great athletes as geniuses, but when you actually look at the relationship between the brain and cognitive performance and motor performance, there actually is a very strong correlation between the cognitive action that goes on and the actual motor action. So your brain has a major impact on you as an athlete. Okay. And. And so we really should be referring to guys who are great athletes as geniuses because of the way that their brain functions to help them be great at their sport. They may have some, you know, great physical abilities as well, but that all is basically carried out because of the cognitive function of their brain. So anyway, that's kind of just one piece of it. But the book talked about motivation, basically, and how you have what's called dopamine in your brain, and it is basically responsible for your motivation. Okay? And so when you have more dopamine or more dopamine receptors, then you feel more motivated, your brain moves, it acts more quickly, so you make better decisions, quicker decisions and all that. So again, I don't want to get too deep into, like, the whole science part of it, but my point with that is being a mo. Like feeling motivated to go out and do something, feeling inspired to go do something is actually going to lead to you doing that thing better, doing that thing more efficiently, because your brain is going to put more into it, because now all of a sudden, you have that desire to go do it. So how can we make it so that we actually enjoy training, we enjoy going out and working and doing things. That's what I want to get to with these three things right here. So I think number one, and this is. This is just like, I probably can. I could probably talk about this topic like every podcast, but number one is play more. So instead of feeling like you have to do drills and more drills and then drills again, then more drills again, instead of feeling like it has to be just drills, you go out and you do your 500 shots a day. Right? Again, drills are important. Like, don't misconstrue what I'm saying. Drills are very important. But I think that as important, probably more important than that, is actually just going out and playing. So one on one, two on two, three on three, four on four, like five on five, doesn't. It really doesn't matter. But you're going and you're playing against a real. A real defender, because aside from the other, like, physical aspects of it, where obviously you have to actually react to a defender now or multiple defenders and you have to actually apply skills to a competitive game situation, which is the best way to get better, right? Because you're actually in situations you're going to be in in a game. We train to get better at games, right? We don't train to get better practice, we train to get better games. That's not even my point right now though. That, that's, that's a whole other topic that I talk about fairly often. I'm going to talk, continue to talk about more. But aside from just that, that's the fun part, right? The fun part is playing. The fun part is going on playing basketball. So the best way for you to enjoy the game is to go out and do the enjoyable part of it, right? Especially if that enjoyable part is actually the most effective way to get better too. So how often are you playing? Do you feel like, oh, I have to go do my workout every day, I can't ever go play because then I won't have time to do my workout. Well, I would reevaluate what's more important. Again, I'm not saying you should not. I'm not saying don't do drills. I'm saying you should work on your shooting. Because ultimately, again, we want to get to a game and be able to make shots, be able to dribble the basketball and be able to do this and do that, and that comes through your drills. But we can't neglect the fun part of it. Okay? So I would recommend, if you have the opportunity to play more, call up one of your teammates and play some one on one, right? Call up a couple of teams, put some two on two. I think that that's really like in my, in my training now, I try and do as much, as much playing as possible. So when I got a group of guys, if I have a group of guys, like we're gonna play at some point in that workout, at this point, I'm. That's basically where I'm at with everything. We might play the majority of the time, we might only play a little bit, but there's gonna be a lot of competition because that's where players, you know, you learn the best and you improve the most and you enjoy it the most, right? So it just, there's. There's so much upside to it. Okay. But that's. Number one is just play more basketball. Number two is have other hobbies or other sports that you can also play that you also enjoy doing. So obviously, like, I understand that ball's life, right? That's, that's probably a Lot of you guys listening, all you do is basketball. That was how I was. And listen, like, this is not for everybody. I'm not saying everybody has to go play, you know, three sports and be in six clubs and do all this stuff. I'm just saying that if there's another thing that you enjoy doing and you like playing football, then play football. If you like running track, then run track. If you like playing volleyball, play volleyball. If you like to, you know, if you like knitting, then. Then go be a part of the knitting club, right? If you like to, you know, if you like to go snowboarding, go snowboarding, like, have some other things that you enjoy doing. Don't feel like, oh, I have to be all basketball all the time. I can never take time to do anything else because I have to go train, I have to go do this, I have to go watch film. I have to go do that and that. Like, again, if that's what you do, if that's. That's all you want to do, then that's fine. But if there are other things that you like to do, like have, like, take time and do those things as well, okay, I'm not saying skip workouts and. And, you know, do be lazy. I'm just saying that, you know, if there's time, especially like in the off season where, you know, you want to go hiking or you want to go play, you know, golf or whatever, like, go do that. Okay? Give yourself not only a physical break. There's. There's. And I could. We'll talk more about this at some point, but there's definitely advantages to playing multiple sports when it comes to just athletic development. When it comes to injury prevention, in. In a sense, there. It's. That's something I need to do more research on too. But just mentally having a break where you're not, like, all focused on basketball all the time, just giving yourself a little bit of a mental break, I think is a very big thing and a great reason to have other things that, again, if you enjoy doing it, then don't feel like basketball has to be the only thing that you put any sort of focus on. And the third way that you can kind of get this love for the game back and you can enjoy playing the game basketball is to take a break from time to time. And this is something that actually just had a. It was a couple weeks ago, but I had this. This DM exchange with. With one. One guy follows me and he, you know, so he. He basically DM me. He was saying, oh, you know, I'm having. I'm having trouble because, like, I just don't enjoy basketball like I used to. He was really struggling with it. So basically my. My response to him was like, listen, man, I think you should just take, you know, four or five days off. Just don't play basketball for four or five days. And that's kind of a general amount of time. You could take it off for one day or two days or a week. Doesn't really matter. But that was what he asked me. How long should I do that? So I said, listen, just go four or five days, see how you feel after that. And then he, He. He came back to me and he. This is probably about five days later, he says, basically, thank you. It feels like you saved my career. And so that was all coming from me telling him to take some time off. Mind you, a week before this, he was talking about how he wasn't sure if you want to play basketball anymore and that he didn't really. He wasn't having fun doing it, and he didn't know how, if he could regain that. And then, you know, five days later, he's talking about his career has been saved. And the biggest thing is, is not. It's. It's, again, the rest is one thing, but it's really the, the, you know, the. What's the saying with this? I keep on throwing around saying this episode, so I'm probably. I probably butchered. At least I think I've said two of them. I'll probably butcher both of them already. But the one with this is like, absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? Where if you go without something for a little bit, you're going to start to miss that thing a little bit. And he also was telling me about some of the new stuff that he was looking to do with his workouts and all this stuff, and he's like, hey, I just. Well, you know, I wasn't playing, but I was kind of getting, you know, this workout plan set up. And like, now I'm going to do this and do that and that. So because you can't do it, like, because you can't play, you start thinking, okay, well, what am I going to do when I get back? Right? So now you're so focused on getting yourself ready to go that by the time you get back, like, you're excited to play again. Okay. Sometimes just taking a little bit of time off and being able to step back and think about what you're going to do moving forward is a really, really good thing, as was the case in this situation right here, where I literally saw firsthand that taking four days off and then coming back to it completely reignites the enjoyment that you had for the game of basketball. Okay? So I know a lot of players are anxious to take breaks because, oh, if I take a break, my shot's going to be off, and then this is that. And like, like that, sir. Again, I certainly, as a player was in that boat a lot, but I think that if you struggle with, like, oh, man, I'm just not enjoying it right now. Like, take some time off and. And do something else for a little bit. And that's kind of going back to my other point. Like, if you have other hobbies or you play another sport, that's kind of an added benefit to it. Again, just the mental break from the game of basketball, you get back to it. It's like, man, we're back to basketball, right? So. So those are kind of my tips when it comes down to that is, number one, play more basketball. Play as much as you can. Just keep on. Because that's the most fun is really what I mean is, like, have fun playing. If there's a drill you like to do because it's fun, then throw that drill into your workouts from time to time, even if it might not be the best, like, oh, the best drill ever, right? Just throw that drill in there because you enjoy doing it. And. And then. And then, like I said, playing is. Is the best way to improve, but it's also the most fun way to do it, too. So number two is have other things that you like to do, and don't be afraid to do those things, other sports, hobbies, whatever it might be. And then number three is take a break from time to time, even if it's like, maybe you're not even in this situation, but maybe, you know, at the, you know, you take a week off when you go on a family vacation, right? Or you take, you know, a week off after the season if, you know, you have time to. Whatever. Like, I'm just spitballing some ideas around here, but you kind of got to figure out what works best for you. So, again, a little bit of a longer episode, but hopefully this was helpful for you guys. Like I said, guys, this. I think I read what, three or four DMS right here, and I've gotten probably 10 more that have been basically the same as what I was talking about today. So your questions are very much appreciated topics that you have, suggestions you have for episodes for the podcast. Shoot me a DM on Instagram @ Vision Driven Basketball. Go ahead and give me a follow as well too. And of course, you know, you guys who are watching on YouTube, if you're new, make sure you drop a like and subscribe as well. If you guys are on Apple podcast right now, you enjoy this episode, you enjoy the podcast. Go and scroll down the page, leave a review for me. Really helps the show be seen by more people, which of course is what we want. And then, you know, shout out to Spotify as well. And I will talk to you guys soon. Like I said, questions. DM me talk to you guys soon. Peace.